Tools for Information Professionals

Comments on software I have used and recommend, "if the shoe fits." Free or demo versions of the software are available at sites linked with each entry.

Z39.50 client Bookwhere Finds and downloads records from hundreds of Z39.50 host libraries in a variety of formats: Marc, ProCite, Inmagic, others. Win 9X/NT/2000/XP. A stripped down version of the Bookwhere Z39.50 engine is included in EndNote, ProCite, and Reference Manager. The main function "stripped" is Marc format export. Adding an Internet accessible library to the Bookwhere file is not difficult. For an example, see Fun with Z3950, my note on adding the New York State Library catalog to the host file.

More recent versions of Bookwhere offers automated, subscription supported updating of the host file. This version, which I have not tested, could be just the thing for people who don't want to have Too Much Fun with Z39.50...

2003: The freeware program MarcEdit (see below) now includes a Z39.50 client along with its other features.

Web-based Integrated Library Management System.LibraryWorld.com is an inexpensive (~$400/year) example of an integrated library system offered as a web-based service. In addition to an online public access catalog, LibraryWorld.net includes a serials module, patron management module and circulation module, and access to a selection of Library of Congress cataloging records. Alternately, one can upload records in Marc format or compose records with the web-based editor. Although school libraries are the ost common LibraryWorld users, a variety of non-profit and for profit libraries have also used Libraryworld software. Free thirty-day trials of the full product are available at www.libraryworld.com

USB 2.0 IDE Adapter. A simple, useful tool for accessing IDE hard disks as USB devices. Great for copying files from the IDE hard disks of computers that will not boot, or exploring that stack of old hard disks.... Set the disk jumper to the "slave" position, power up, and plug into a USB port. The hard drive shows up just like a camera, memory stick reader or USB key... Similar functionality is available in external UB/IDE hard disk enclosures sold for $25 to $50. Widely available from many vendors for prices ranging from $15 to $80 or more. My set was packaged by Cables to Go. Different models are available for working with 2.5 inch hard disks. If this description sound interesting, you should get a USB IDE adapter...

Server log analysis tool. The need to make sense of Ezproxy server logs led me to Webalizer, an easy to learn and use, free program, which has saved me an enormous amount of time. Configuration of the report module is particularly easy. Highly recommended if you have access to your server logs and need to make sense of them.

Secure Shell for telnet, SSH. For those who want to connect to a Unix shell accounts, the free, non-commercial version of SSH would be worth the change from standard Windows telnet even if security of passwords were not one's goal. SSH supports customized terminals and screen colors, multiple profiles, and other features I have not used. It also provides secure FTP, though I prefer Ipswitch's product for that function. For download, see http://ftp.ssh.com/pub/ssh/. SSH is available for Windows, Unix, and Linux. When I posted this note, the Windows install file was SSHSecureShellClient-3.2.9.exe.

Remote authentication server. As library journal collections become collections of ejournals, one of the most popular library services is remote access electronic journals. A remote authentication server is the tool which shows a publisher that a request from the internet comes from someone affiliated the IP address of an institutional subscriber. Requests are authenticated by Ezproxy by coming username and password to those from an authoritative file, such as the institutional e-mail directory.

Ezproxy is easy to set up and inexpensive ($500). Functional demo version available for download. Good support, including discussion list. Hosted version newly available from OCLC.

Remote authentication servers are a special type of proxy server. Some folks refer to Ezproxy under the more general term. I always use the term "remote authentication server" to emphasize the role of the software in limiting access to content to legitimate users.

Marc Record Manipulation. MarcEdit Terry Reese's program, distributed as freeware, has become a must have program for those who work with Marc records: migrating text to Marc, Marc to XML, systematically deleting or changing certain fields, etc. MarcEdit incorporates the functionality of the DOS based Marc Maker and Mark Breaker programs distributed by the Library of Congress.

This is program for anyone who ever wanted to import a file of Marc records from a local system, do field by field find and replace/delete with the ease of a sophisticated text editor. The program offers additional functionality to those who program in Perl and through a facility for incorporating plug-ins. Programming knowledge is not required to use or learn MarcEdit, although the first step is not obvious. I would suggest one start by (1)obtaining a file of records in Marc communications format; (2) start MarcEdit and run the MarcBreaker function on the file obtained in step 1; (3) edit the records; (4) run the field report which identifies, for each Marc field, the number of times the field occurs in the file.

In the first few weeks after learning MarcEdit, I used it to do real work on two Marc record editing projects I might have accomplished in the past with Data Magician. MarcEdit has earned a place on this page. The program looks as though it can also be configured to migrate records between Marc format and ProCite format, a function much needed in certain parts of library land.

November 2003: MarcEdit now incorporates a Z39.50 client. The Z39.50 hosts file is populated with data for hundreds of libraries. It seems to work fine. I will leave detailed comments for those more involved with Z39.50 technology.

DOS program fixer DOS versions of some programs, such as Procite 2.2, will not run under Windows 98 on fast computers. Instead these programs terminate with the informative message: "Runtime error 200 at 0677:0091."

Matthias Heinrichs identified two solutions for the problem: (1) Open the program file with a hex editor and search for HEX F7 D0 F7 D2 B9 37. Replace 37 with 7E or (for very fast computers) FF. (2) A much easier alternative: patch the program using mpatch2.exe, which is available free of charge from the program's author, Matthias Heinrichs http://www.muenster.de/~matthias/aladin/error.htm .

For those who even occasionally use DOS software produced using the Borland compiler, mpatch is most useful. Mpatch also reminds me of how helpful search engines can be in solving software problems. I found mpatch several years ago by searching the net for "run time error 200." A recent search showed many more fixes, mostly oriented toward programmers who continue to use the Borland Pascal compiler to produce new programs. Mpatch still works fine for me.

Buckling spring, clicky keyboards. In recent months I have purchased three buckling spirng keyboards from Pckeyboard, the Kentucky company which owns the former IBM patents for keyboards. The buckling spring keyboards are full travel keyboards that click. (Most modern computers come with cheaply built, silent keyboards using rubber dome technology.) PCKeyboards has keyboard styles for computers running Windows, Linux, and Mac operating systems, and for more specialized devices as well. These full travel, clicky keyboards are just the ticket for touch typists or anyone who loved the old IBM computer or Selectric keyboards. PCKeyboards are available with USB and PS/2 type interfaces.

How do I use three keyboards? One at the office, attached to a late model computer running Windows; one at home, attached to a Dell Vostro netbook running Ubuntu, in the living room; and another at home, attached to my wife's Windows computer. The computer in my study, running PCLinuxOS, has an old HP keyboard, also with full travel, clicky keys.

Browser based web bibliography program, Zotero. Describing this open source Firefox extension as a browser based bibliography program is probably inadequate. Although Zotero is intended to function as a replacement for client type bibliography progarms such as Procite, Endnote, and Reference Manager, I have found it most useful as a working tool when doing research and needing quickly records web addresses, possibly with descriptions, and snapshots of screens. Although Zotero will import and export records in the Endnote/RIS format, Zotero shines immediately in creating and managing collections of web-based research.

One tip: Change the default location of the Zotero storage location from the Zotero profile location to one more easily copied/backed up than the default, which is obscure--at least on Windows based systems.

Zotero is available from Zotero.org.

Bibliographic Utilities, BibUtils, command line bibliographic utilities: BibTex to MODS XML, Refer to MODS XML, MODS XML to RIS, etc. Available for Linux, Cygwin, Windows, Mac. Downloads, including source code, available at www.scripps.edu/~cdputnam/software/bibutils/bibutils.html.

AVI file editor, Virtual Dub When I first encountered the need to slice larger AVI files so that I could copy them to multiple DVDs, Virtual Dub is the tool that I found. The many functions of VirtualDub including synchronizing the audio and video tracks of AVI files on which the audio and video were mismatched during copying or conversion. I highly recommend virtual dub, and wish it were available for Linux in additions to Windows.

Virtual Dub is available from VirtualDub.org.

Updated: 2011 March 15. Added PCKeyboards. 2011 Jan 25. Added BibUtils, deleted Data Magician. 2010 November 27. Added Virtual Dub. 2007 March 26. Added Zotero. 2007 Aug 6. Added comments on LibraryWorld.net. 2007 Feb 21. Revised closing comments on Data Magician. 2006 March 1. Removed references to db/Textworks... still in use at work, but comments increasingly out of date. 2005 August 25. Added USB 2.0 IDE adapter. 2005 June 14. Comments on Caspr and MarcEdit. 2005 Jan 13, added SSH Secure Shell. 2004 April 14, added Webalizer, Ezproxy, and update on db/Textworks.