OttoBib.com was a website with a free tool to generate an alphabetized bibliography of books from a list of

International Standard Book Number The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a numeric commercial book identifier that is intended to be unique. Publishers purchase ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency. An ISBN is assigned to each separate edition a ...

s (ISBN) with output in MLA, APA,

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Turabian ''A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations'' is a style guide for writing and formatting research papers, theses, and dissertations and is published by the University of Chicago Press. The work is often referred to as ...

BibTeX BibTeX is reference management software for formatting lists of references. The BibTeX tool is typically used together with the LaTeX document preparation system. Within the typesetting system, its name is styled as . The name is a portmanteau ...

and Wikipedia format. Each query also generated a "temporary"

permalink A permalink or permanent link is a URL that is intended to remain unchanged for many years into the future, yielding a hyperlink that is less susceptible to link rot. Permalinks are often rendered simply, that is, as clean URLs, to be easier to ...

(self-destructs in about one month) which could be used to recall the bibliography without reentering the ISBN data. The site was a metasearch engine, integrating data from several sources, including the U.S.

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

API, the

Amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential econo ...

database of books, and ISBNdb.com. OttoBib accepted ISBNs with either 10 or 13 digits.

Background

OttoBib.com was started as a hobby project in 2006 by Jonathan Otto, a then 4th year undergraduate at the

University of Wisconsin–La Crosse The University of Wisconsin–La Crosse (UWL or UW Lax) is a public university in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Established in 1909, it is part of the University of Wisconsin System and offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees. With 9,600 un ...

, USA. It was originally called "That's Crazy Hot!" but the name was quickly changed to OttoBib because the original title was "not suitable for the academic environment and consequently won't take off." The original inspiration for the site came from

Seth Godin Seth W. Godin is an American author and former dot com business executive. Background After leaving Spinnaker in 1986, he used $20,000 in savings to found Seth Godin Productions, primarily a book packaging business, out of a studio apartment i ...

's January 3, 2006 blog post on "Stuck Systems", where he wrote:

A quick online search didn't turn up what seemed obvious to me: a free service that would allow a writer to type in all the ISBNs used in creating a paper and then generate two things: # a bibliography based on looking up the data online and # a web page that would allow the reader/teacher to see the books, their covers... etc.

Functionality

OttoBib.com performed the two basic functions outlined. Marcus P. Zillman, an Internet information retrieval consultant and speaker said "this website is the start of a new paradigm of citing sources."

Jason Clarke Jason Clarke (born 17 July 1969) is an Australian actor. He has appeared in many TV series, and is known for playing Tommy Caffee on the television series '' Brotherhood''. He has also appeared in many films, often as an antagonist. His film r ...

, a writer and web developer, said OttoBib is a "tool that solves a simple problem in a simple manner."Downloadsquad review
posted Sep 20, 2006 by

Developments

In January 2007, OttoBib introduced a

REST Rest or REST may refer to: Relief from activity * Sleep ** Bed rest * Kneeling * Lying (position) * Sitting * Squatting position Structural support * Structural support ** Rest (cue sports) ** Armrest ** Headrest ** Footrest Arts and enter ...

interface to allow a citation to be generated from a URL that contains the ISBN. For example, could be used in the URL: http://ottobib.com/isbn/0195117972/apa to display Patterson, J., (1997). '' Grand Expectations''. Oxford Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press. In February 2007, OttoBib introduced the ability to request citations in

and Wikipedia formats. As of April 2022, OttoBib is no longer operational.

References

External links

*{{official website, http://www.ottobib.com/ Reference management software Bibliography American book websites Free-content websites Library 2.0

Background

Functionality

Developments

See also

References

External links