newbie questions

Hey

I'm helping a friend of mine do a project. He's got a Surf Bibliography (at http://home.earthlink.net/~davedm/), which I'm going to help him modify.

First, we would like to convert it from its present form into a database. The database design is taking shape in my mind and I don't think I need much help with that (famous last words), but I'd be interested to know if there has been anything written on the subject of data modelling for bibliographies.

Second: how to get the data from its present form (HTML or text) into the tables of a database. We could, of course, type type type, but I wonder if it would be worthwhile writing a script that could parse the text, looking for clues as to which part of each entry belongs in which field. I'm not asking anyone to write such a script for me, just to give me an idea of how complex a task it would be, and (if it is worth doing, timewise) to point me toward a resource to help me get started.

And is there any reason I shouldn't use MS Access?

And it occurs to me now that there might be a better forum for my questions than this newsgroup. It so, I apologize and what is it? :) Is there a FAQ for this NG?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Ernie Bornheimer Received on Sat Feb 17 2001 - 02:37:27 CST