>   For each document in the URLib collection there is a reference file written in BibTeX format (see [2] for the BibTeX format definition).

The reference file is named a.bib : 

It is stored under a host directory whose name is the citation key of the document.

>   The citation key is a string consisting of three parts separated by a colon (:).

Part 1 is the last name of the (first) author (beginning with a capital letter) concatenated with the last name first four letters of each other author(s), if any, (beginning with a capital letter).

Part 2 is the year, if any, (with no abreviation).

Part 3 is the concatenation of three capital letters, each one beeing the first letter of the first three essential words in the title; for shorter titles fewer letters are used. If needed, more capital letters or mumbers may be added.

For example, the citation key for this document is currently Banon::URD since the last author name is Banon and the title is Uniform Repository for a Digital ... .

The citation key for the document of reference [2] is currently BanonPess::BFF since the last author names are Banon and Pessoa, and the title is BibTeX File Format.

The citation key is used exclusively to sort out the entries in the index or in any search display in alphabetic order.