Conversion from other bibliography formats

Appendix E)  

Tools are available to convert UNIX troff/nroff bib/refer data
bases to BibTeX form, so if you only have the latter, then we can
undertake the conversion to BibTeX form at our end.

James Alexander's TIB format is similar enough to bib/refer that we
can automate conversion of TIB files as well.

We are willing to consider other formats as candidates for automated
conversion if
(a) the other format consists of PARSEABLE fields,
(c) the conversion software will be usable for other bibliographies,
(d) the bibliography is large, and
(e) updates subsequently are contributed in BibTeX form.

Files that look something like this

\bibitem{Lamport:LDP85}
Leslie Lamport.
\newblock {\em {\LaTeX}\emdash A Document Preparation System\emdash User's
  Guide and Reference Manual}.
\newblock Ad{\-d}i{\-s}on-Wes{\-l}ey, Reading, MA, USA, 1985.
\newblock ISBN 0-201-15790-X.

are the input to LaTeX for a bibliography, possibly prepared by
BibTeX.  This form is NOT useful for a bibliographic database,
because the fields are not readily identifiable and parseable by a
computer program.  It is essential to have visible markup that
identifies fields like author, title, volume, journal, publisher,
year, etc.

The same problem exists in typical library catalog entries, such as
this one from the Library of Congress catalog

Lamport, Leslie.
  LATEX : a document preparation system : user's guide and reference manual /
Leslie Lamport ; illustrations by Duane Bibby.  2nd ed.  Reading, Mass. :
Addison-Wesley Pub. Co., c1994.  xvi, 272 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.

LC CALL NUMBER: Z253.4.L38 L35 1994

SUBJECTS:
  LaTeX (Computer file)
  Computerized typesetting.

DEWEY DEC:  682.2/2544536 dc20

NOTES:
  Includes bibliographical references (p. 235) and index.

ISBN:  0201529831
LCCN:  93-39691