Unique ID #s

[noumenal]

I was just wondering what other Bookends users actually do with Unique ID #s on references in the database.

I have briefly entertained the idea of going through my files of paper articles and annotating them with these ID #s.

Would there be any benefit to this? If I lost my entire Bookends database, for instance, would it be a pointless task to attempt to reconstruct the references with the same unique ID #s? It doesn't seem possible now to enter such numbers deliberately into new references.

Or, if I were to move to a different reference manager in the future, would there be any point in carrying these #s forward?

Are they just completely arbitrary numbers, or are there significant uses for them beyond providing an anchor for the data in the database?

I'd be intrigued to know what, if anything, other users have to think about this .....

[mxd]

I use unique IDs for cross-referencing. And yes, you can enter your own IDs to new references. I change the ID number for every reference that I create so that the IDs are sequential (ie. If my previous reference was 3082, I chang the ID of my new reference to 3083).

It's worked well thus far, but I'm also worried as to what would happen if I decided to move to a different software in the future. So Jon, do you know how well the Unique IDs transfer to other programs? When I moved from Refworks to Bookends, my Refworks IDs moved into the notes field. Is this what would happen if I move my Bookends references to other programs?

[Jon]

It really depends on the other program. EN, for example, only accepts sequential unique id's. I don't know what others do.

I strongly advise against sequential unique id's for reasons I've elaborated before (for example, you can't keep them if you merge databases, or send a reference to another Bookends user, and there will definitely be problems if you collaborate on a paper in Mellel).

Jon
Sonny Software

[mxd]

Wow, I hadn't thought about the problem of merging databases. Thanks for pointing this out, Jon! In the future, I'll let Bookends generate random unique IDs and create a custom field for my own sequential IDs.

[noumenal]

for example, you can't keep them if you merge databases

So when you merge a database, the numbers actually change?

No point using these numbers to tie with paper copies then, I guess.... thanks for the useful responses.

[Jon]

Not if you use the unique id's Bookends gives you -- that's actually my point.

With sequential unique id's the numbers *must* change when you merge databases -- you can't have two references with a "unique id" of 1.

But Bookends randomizes the unique id's, so you can merge two databases and, in the vast majority of cases, the unique id's will be kept. In the rare case where there us a collision (two refs with ID 345213, for example), Bookends will increase the conflicting id by 1 until there is no collision, so even then it's not difficult to find the original reference.

Jon
Sonny Software

[noumenal]

Thanks Jon!