Management and Sharing of Bibliographies

Managing bibliographic data is a requirement for many researchers, and in the group setting within which the majority of research takes place, the managing and sharing of bibliographic data is an important facet of organizing the research work. Managing and sharing bibliographies has to balance different levels of shared access (public catalogs, closed research group bibliographies, and personal bibliographies), and the sharing platform should integrate as seamlessly as possible into diverse environments in terms of operating systems, document processing, and other information management tools. The ShaRef system presented in this paper has been designed to fill the gap between public libraries and personal bibliographies, and provides an open platform for sharing bibliographic data among user groups. Through its simple and flexible data model and system architecture, ShaRef adapts to many settings and requirements, and can be used to increase collaboration and information flow within groups.