getrefs.zip: 29. July 1998 This package contains a BibTeX style file and a LaTeX2e document template to facilitate the retrieval of references from a library. Here is the idea, posted as a question to comp.text.tex in July 1998: When I read a paper I normally find a few references interesting, but can't retrieve them immediately, be it because my desk is not in the library, or because the library doesn't carry the stuff, anyway, and I have to pile up a few references before travelling to another library (or ordering copies). So, I put all these references in my BibTeX data base with a distinctive tag ('get ref'), and once in a while I output only those in a separate file, type set them and go wild in the library. Now, I'd love to have a BibTeX style that allows me to obtain the type set version of this BibTeX input file sorted first according to source (say, 'J. Phys. B' before 'Phys. Rev.' before 'Phys. Rev. B' before 'Zeitschrift f\"ur Physik' etc.), and within each group ordered according to year, and within this according to volume, possibly down to issue and page number. This would make life a lot easier for me or for who ever I ask to retrieve the papers for me, especially when some stuff is on micro film, other journals on display, others in storage etc. Is there anything like this out there, or is it easy to cook up something like this? With the help of Nicolas Holzschuch and the BibTeX author, Oren Patashnik, the problem was easily solved. Nicolas emailed me the suggestion for a modification of an existing BibTeX style file, Oren made a few suggestions to make the sorting and handling of page ranges a bit more robust, and there it was. I don't think I would have been able to cook this up in a reasonable amount of time w/o reading the 'LaTeX companion' again, so the credit really ought to go to those two people. I just want to make the result available to avoid doubling of efforts, since I think I am not the only one who could benefit from such a solution. I have chosen to modify the 'abbrv' style file and rename it to 'getrefs.bst', which together with the included 'getrefs.tex' accomplishes the desired result. Once you have put the BibTeX style file 'getrefs.bst' in a directory searched by (e.g. the one where your other *.bst files reside) and a copy of 'getrefs.tex' in your tex input path, only the following steps are needed: 1. Extract from your BibTeX data base file(s) all entries for which you want to retrieve the papers from the library, and copy them into a separate file, say, getrefs.bib. (I label the title field as 'no idea yet -- get ref!', so it is easy to extract the entries with tools such as bibtool (from CTAN) or even sed.) 2. Run LaTeX and BibTeX on the file getrefs.tex: latex getrefs bibtex getrefs latex getrefs latex getrefs 3. Print the resulting getrefs.dvi file. 4. Find someone to go to the library for you ... Have fun! Stefan A. Deutscher (sad@utk.edu) 05-Nov-1998