Sonny Software

I'm new to Bookends, so apologies if I'm missing something obvious.

I often have references (plus attachments) with incomplete or inaccurate information. The online search function turns up correct information for these references (e.g. I can search for the reference by title, and add it to my library). However, as far as I can tell, I cannot invoke online search to modify the information for an existing reference; the closest substitute is "Autofill from Internet", which relies on an existing and accurate DOI. Would it be possible to add an "Online Search for Existing Reference" function, that uses the existing "Online Search" functionality to search for for existing references in online repositories, then replace existing information about that reference using accurate information from the repository?

Bookends needs to know that the reference you have found online is the same as in the database. Since the one you have is incomplete, it can't know it's the same (even if the author and title are the same, for example, it could be two different edited versions, or with different translators, and you'd want to keep both). That's why there's a special function that relies on a unique identifier which cannot, by definition, refer to two different references. Bookends has a function to try to fetch a reference's DOI if it wasn't downloaded. I'd try that and then Autofill. If you can't get a unique identifier, then perform a Remove Duplicates after downloading the same (but updated) reference to remove the older one.

Jon
Sonny Software