NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #20/NN_1992_20.iso/spool/bit/listserv/notabene/938

Text File | 1992-09-12 | 1.7 KB | 30 lines

Comments: Gated by [e-mail]
Path: sparky!uunet!paladin.american.edu!auvm!VMD.CSO.UIUC.EDU!RBETTS
Message-ID: <NOTABENE%92091221162414@TAUNIVM>
Date:         Sat, 12 Sep 92 14:04:58 CDT
Sender:       Nota Bene List <NOTABENE@TAUNIVM>
From:         "Richard J. Betts" <[e-mail]>
Subject:      Usefullness of Ibid.
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.notabene
Lines: 19

I, too, would like to say that those who found Ibid. frustrating should give
it another try.  I have never been able to understand why people who gave up
on it did not like it.  Its only deficiency is that it does not drop references
into a footnote completely formatted, but I consider it a small matter to
simply re-arrange the data and punctuation of a reference.  Before Ibid. my
bibliography files were usually chaotic, not up to date, and difficult of
access, and every time I cited something I had to type the damned reference
once more.  Never again!  I enter things as they come to me, I can determine
literally in a few seconds what I should consider citing in a particular
instance, and I can cite it with a keystroke.  I particularly appreciate the
fact that the data files are in ASCII.  I had created a sizeable bibliography
of 750 items in Text Base and found that I could reasonably transfer it by
entering the codes, which are mnemonic and not hard to remember.  Two years ago
I used Ibid. to consolidate a bibliography compiled by participants in an
NEH Summer Institute and quickly generate copies for all of them.  Nobody on
this list has described anything that comes close to Ibid.  I wish I had it
when I began graduate studies and I can't imagine living without it now.
Richard J. Betts
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign