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Personal bibliographic systems (PBS) manage the input, storage, retrieval and output of bibliographic references, allowing for a number of different document types to accommodate for journal articles, books, book chapters, dissertations, reports, unpublished documents, etc. Unlike general purpose database management packages they are made to measure for bibliographic information, featuring amongst other things a variety of import profiles for records downloaded from the major commercial databases and automatic generation of dozens of different output styles, including those used by the most popular journals. This paper concentrates on low‐cost mainstream bibliographic software for personal use or smaller libraries. Full‐scale integrated library automation systems and online public access catalogue (OPAC) software, which specialise in finding a specific title within a vast amount of book‐type references, are not discussed. This paper does not review or compare individual products but focuses on the various characteristics which, when available, make a PBS attractive. Special attention is paid to structural flexibility, retrieval options, input, display and output formats, and interface‐ and management‐related issues. A product‐independent table of desirable features is included as an appendix.

ExtraMED is an electronic full‐text library distributed on CDROM, incorporating over 200 biomedical and health‐related journals. Unlike Adonis, for example, ExtraMED does not specialise in high‐impact journals, but focuses on local or regional biomedical journals from developing countries, most of which are not indexed by the major indexing services. Especially for specialties such as tropical or traditional medicine, this constitutes a valuable source of additional information. Also, as a bibliographic database ExtraMED is a worthwhile supplement to MEDLINE, but obviously not an equivalent alternative. The annual subscription fee is £2000 and includes 12 monthly CDROMs. Each disc contains about 8000 pages, so ExtraMED provides an estimated 100 000 pages a year. The practical advantages of this type of electronic document delivery are discussed, as well as the actual coverage and relevance. Though ExtraMED is certainly a laudable initiative, there are ample indications that the producers may have underestimated the problems of its practical realisation. The project suffers considerable delay, and as only six CDROMs were published in over 20 months, the contents still present a somewhat chaotic picture with lots of gaps. Fortunately things are getting gradually better. The retrieval software is generally adequate and includes a few remarkable features such as powerful truncation, proximity searching and automatic synonym look‐up. Display and printing capabilities are good though somewhat cumbersome in the latter case.

Now that the World Wide Web has changed previously arcane electronic publishing into a popular everyday phenomenon, fulfilling the exciting promises of many years, a global electronic resource for the health sciences becomes technically feasible. Though recent evolutions have inspired prophecies on the imminent death of printed biomedical journals, the latter have now themselves joined the electronic platform. Since 1995, a respectable portion of the traditional top journals have started offering new channels of access that do not differ essentially from their paper formats. These electronic versions feature attractive additional value such as extra (multimedia) contents and improved retrieval and (hyper)linking capabilities. While many were originally partial versions, mainly figuring as eye‐catchers, increasingly more full‐text editions are appearing on the Worldwide Web. Compared to exclusively electronic journals or reprint archives, traditional journals migrating to the Internet have certain strategic advantages such as an aura of intellectual trust‐worthiness (based on peer review) and considerable social acclaim (based on citation records, amongst other things). As such, their impact is now increasingly being extended into cyberspace and the rumours of the death of the biomedical journal appear to be greatly exaggerated— or at least premature.

The following bibliography focuses mainly on programs which can run on IBM microcomputers and compatibles under the operating system PC DOS/MS DOS, and which can be used in online information and documentation work. They fall into the following categories: