Comments on: Automatic citations

Automatic citations

ztdavis — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 04:19:23 -0800

Ottobib does what it sets out to do very well: take a list of ISBN numbers, the international standard book number system, and generates citations for you. It's as if it is automatically making bibliographies. (ha! get it!) Currently supporting the MLA, APA, and Chicago Manual of Style citation formats.

By: ztdavis

ztdavis — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 04:20:18 -0800

Saved me so much time on a paper due today that I made this post instead. Or, at least, that's how I'm rationalizing this as not being procrastination.

By: Mr.Encyclopedia

Mr.Encyclopedia — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 04:31:27 -0800

Dammit now I want to go back to college just so I can use this. Fantastic.

By: klarck

klarck — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 04:36:29 -0800

Very nice. Now if someone could do something about citing journal articles...

By: rokusan

rokusan — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 04:46:38 -0800

Nice. Why did this take so long?

By: xthlc

xthlc — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 05:08:36 -0800

No ACM? Weak. I keed, I keed. But it would help immensely if it could also generate EndNote records, since you could then convert the result into any format you want.

By: zsazsa

zsazsa — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 05:38:16 -0800

klarck, Google Scholar and most journal sites can create EndNote or BibTeX citations. Mmm... BibTeX....

By: Faint of Butt

Faint of Butt — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 06:15:03 -0800

This service did not exist at a time when it would have been useful to me. I am grumpy now.

By: meanie

meanie — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 06:18:14 -0800

now that I'm back in graduate school, ottobib has saved me so much time and effort. zsazsa, thanks for the tip about journal article citations

By: MrMoonPie

MrMoonPie — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 06:45:07 -0800

Kids these day. My first semester in grad school, the MLA Bibliography was in print only; it took at least a Saturday in the library to get a list of journal articles I wanted to look at. After that, it came out on CD, and I figured out how to download citations to disk, in plain-test format. Oddly, the citations weren't produced in MLA style, so I created a massive Word Perfect macro to convert them. Since no one else in my program had caught on yet (hell, very few of them even ever used word processors), I had the most kick-ass bibliographies in any of my classes. Like ztdavis, I used the time savings as an excuse to play more Tetris.

By: GuyZero

GuyZero — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 07:03:32 -0800

Actually, I don't get it. I mean, it looks like a fine tool, very clever, but where exactly is the joke in making a bibliography automatically?

By: cog_nate

cog_nate — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 07:10:59 -0800

GuyZero, you're joking, right? auto (otto) bib (bib).

By: grouse

grouse — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 07:13:32 -0800

It doesn't seem to work for books that aren't on Amazon. You can already do this on EndNote using the Library of Congress search provider. I think I'll stick with that since it does my journal articles too and supports way more than three styles. Yeah, I know it costs.

By: cog_nate

cog_nate — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 07:16:46 -0800

klarck, RefWorks -- to which my library has a subscription -- has a related tool called Write-N-Cite that allows a user to access saved references and insert citations in a Word document. Then the user can create the bibliography in whatever style he/she wants, and the citations are formatted automatically. It's pretty handy.

By: roomwithaview

roomwithaview — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 08:14:40 -0800

I just used this yesterday to make my Works Cited page! Well, the entries that were books and had ISBNs, at least. You still have to manually enter everything else. Oh, and it's not that helpful when your book is a compilation of articles by different authors.

By: Bulgaroktonos

Bulgaroktonos — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 09:11:01 -0800

What does it do if the ISBN has been used by two different books? ISBNs are not always 100% unique after all.

By: The corpse in the library

The corpse in the library — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 09:18:48 -0800

ISBNs are not always 100% unique after all. They're supposed to be, as I understand it. Do you know a circumstance when they aren't?

By: Bulgaroktonos

Bulgaroktonos — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 09:23:53 -0800

They're supposed to be, but they frequently aren't. Cheap publishers buy up lots of ISBNs then assign them to one book for the duration of its publication, then to another when they publish a new book. I used to work in a library where we would have problems with this. It's not common, and it's pretty much unknown among American publishers, but it happens quite a bit with Russian/Latin American publishers.

By: oncogenesis

oncogenesis — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 09:43:10 -0800

ISBN numbers? ATM machine? FTP protocol? Hot water heater? 6 AM in the morning?

By: Baby_Balrog

Baby_Balrog — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 09:45:00 -0800

Gah! YAY! Good Lord I spend more time puzzling out correct bibs then I do writing the damn papers themselves. I will graduate! I will move on to post-graduate activities! Someday! Thank you ottobib, thank you.

By: Razzle Bathbone

Razzle Bathbone — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 11:11:58 -0800

Sadly, most of the students that I see are using journal articles but this works great (as long as the book has an ISBN). We show them all the different ways to save the citations when they are searching. But of course then never listen and come to the reference desk in a panic as they are trying to write up their bibliography and the paper is due it 20min. I would think by grad school (if not 4th year) most people could write out a simple 1 or 2 author book citation in their sleep, but that is probably because this time of year half of the reference questions I get are about citing. I have been saying for years that library catalogues should be able to give you the citation in the style of your choice at the click of a button.

By: The God Complex

The God Complex — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 13:14:40 -0800

I would think by grad school (if not 4th year) most people could write out a simple 1 or 2 author book citation in their sleep Not me. I have an absolutely horrible memory for such things. The solution? I had/have a document saved with a "basic" example of all the different citation types I occasionally use: book, journal, DVD, online, etc. Then when I need it for my Works Cited I just cut/paste the applicable format and change around the details. It saved me a lot of stress over the years.

By: Razzle Bathbone

Razzle Bathbone — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 14:00:06 -0800

Didn't mean to imply anything about your citing abilities God Complex. I still use pen and paper to keep track of citations when I am working on research. When I have a book or an article I write out the citation in on index card. One side for the full bib and the other for intext citing. I keep them all together and they are easily at hand when I need them.

By: absalom

absalom — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 16:44:43 -0800

Holy shit! Since, in my life I've had to use MLA, Chicago, and APA on a regular basis, this would have been a godsend. Second me as someone who wants to go back just to use it.

By: FelliniBlank

FelliniBlank — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 16:47:00 -0800

I have been saying for years that library catalogues should be able to give you the citation in the style of your choice at the click of a button. Some of the proprietary periodical databases like InfoTrac OneFile are doing that now, at least in MLA or APA, but half the time they foul up the entry.

By: Razzle Bathbone

Razzle Bathbone — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 17:03:07 -0800

FelliniBlank: any database that did not do this now would probably not be used by a university library unless it was an amazing database, it is pretty much not an option anymore. But sadly that is not the case with library catalogues. For a librarian like myself it is fairly easy to import items into a citation manager, but for the average user not so much.

By: Deathalicious

Deathalicious — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 22:32:20 -0800

Um, am I the only one in the entire universe that can do a bibliography without freaking. It's pretty basic, people. Usually something like: Last, First. Title Address: Publisher, Year. Is that really so hard? Now, if it could automatically do journal articles, that'd be useful, or if it could tell you how to do unusual citations -- such as pamphlets published for a conference, or a looseleaf binder of related materials, etc -- then it might be worth using. Looking for the ISBN and typing it in is almost as much trouble as just typing the thing yourself. In any case, I always use this and this when I'm writing anything that requires a citation and bibliography.

By: divabat

divabat — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 00:44:56 -0800

Deathalicious: I don't know about others, but I'm in university now and they can get very particular about how you cite things. A missing full stop or a mis-italization could cost you marks.

By: nevafeva

nevafeva — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 08:41:01 -0800

Oh, this is perfect! Thanks for posting this beauty. Strangely enough, I never had to write bibilographies as an undergraduate but I do now in grad school. Sure, it's not rocket science, but it's a pain and a little time-consuming. I'd much rather cut-n-paste an ISBN, though.