[Tex/LaTex] Are there tools for importing from CSV to BibTeX

bibtexcsvtools

I'm seeking a way to get my books database, stored on Goodreads, into BibTeX form. As near as I can tell, Goodreads provides no support for this directly, but does provide for CSV export (on the right). Are there tools I could used to import from the CSV file into BibTeX?

FWIW, the fields exported by goodreads are

Book Id,Title,Author,Author l-f,Additional Authors,ISBN,ISBN13,My Rating,Average Rating,Publisher,Binding,Number of Pages,Year Published,Original Publication Year,Date Read,Date Added,Bookshelves,Bookshelves with positions,Exclusive Shelf,My Review,Spoiler,Private Notes,Read Count,Recommended For,Recommended By,Owned Copies,Original Purchase Date,Original Purchase Location,Condition,Condition Description,BCID

and I can, of course, easily rearrange their order or convert to other delimiters.

Best Answer

I won't give complete answer, but some suggestions (it would have to be really worked on to make it complete).

There are tools:

The problem is that xml2bib needs a very special format called Metadata Object Description Schema: MODS.

Below, I give example file of my thesis .bib bibliography, converted to the correct .xml MODS format by bib2xml and coverted back to a .bib file by xml2bib. It illustrates how complicated the XML format is:

I apologize for the long file listings but I don't have a reliable online file storage.

@book{beardon,
    AUTHOR = {Beardon, Alan F.},
     TITLE = {The geometry of discrete groups},
    SERIES = {Graduate Texts in Mathematics},
    VOLUME = {91},
      NOTE = {Corrected reprint of the 1983 original},
 PUBLISHER = {Springer-Verlag},
   ADDRESS = {New York},
      YEAR = {1995},
     PAGES = {xii+337},
      ISBN = {0-387-90788-2},
 XXMRCLASS = {22E40 (11F06 20H15 30F35 57N10)},
XXMRNUMBER = {1393195 (97d:22011)},
}

@article{ford,
    AUTHOR = {Ford, Lester R.},
     TITLE = {The fundamental region for a {F}uchsian group},
   JOURNAL = {Bull. Amer. Math. Soc.},
  FJOURNAL = {Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society},
    VOLUME = {31},
      YEAR = {1925},
    NUMBER = {9-10},
     PAGES = {531--539},
      ISSN = {0002-9904},
 XXMRCLASS = {Contributed Item},
XXMRNUMBER = {1561111},
       DOI = {10.1090/S0002-9904-1925-04104-X},
       URL = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1090/S0002-9904-1925-04104-X},
}

@article{k:sr_rmg,
    AUTHOR = {K{\r{u}}rka, Petr},
     TITLE = {A symbolic representation of the real {M}\"obius group},
   JOURNAL = {Nonlinearity},
  FJOURNAL = {Nonlinearity},
    VOLUME = {21},
      YEAR = {2008},
    NUMBER = {3},
     PAGES = {613--623},
      ISSN = {0951-7715},
     CODEN = {NONLE5},
 XXMRCLASS = {37F30 (37B10)},
XXMRNUMBER = {2396619 (2009j:37073)},
MRREVIEWER = {Jiri Fiser},
       DOI = {10.1088/0951-7715/21/3/012},
       URL = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0951-7715/21/3/012},
}

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<modsCollection xmlns="http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3">
<mods ID="beardon">
    <titleInfo>
        <title>The geometry of discrete groups</title>
    </titleInfo>
    <name type="personal">
        <namePart type="given">Alan</namePart>
        <namePart type="given">F</namePart>
        <namePart type="family">Beardon</namePart>
        <role>
            <roleTerm authority="marcrelator" type="text">author</roleTerm>
        </role>
    </name>
    <originInfo>
        <issuance>monographic</issuance>
        <dateIssued>1995</dateIssued>
        <publisher>Springer-Verlag</publisher>
        <place>
            <placeTerm type="text">New York</placeTerm>
        </place>
    </originInfo>
    <typeOfResource>text</typeOfResource>
    <genre authority="marcgt">book</genre>
    <relatedItem type="host">
        <titleInfo>
            <title>Graduate Texts in Mathematics</title>
        </titleInfo>
    </relatedItem>
    <note>Corrected reprint of the 1983 original</note>
    <identifier type="isbn">0-387-90788-2</identifier>
    <identifier type="citekey">beardon</identifier>
    <part>
        <detail type="volume"><number>91</number></detail>
    </part>
</mods>
<mods ID="ford">
    <titleInfo>
        <title>The fundamental region for a Fuchsian group</title>
    </titleInfo>
    <name type="personal">
        <namePart type="given">Lester</namePart>
        <namePart type="given">R</namePart>
        <namePart type="family">Ford</namePart>
        <role>
            <roleTerm authority="marcrelator" type="text">author</roleTerm>
        </role>
    </name>
    <originInfo>
        <dateIssued>1925</dateIssued>
    </originInfo>
    <typeOfResource>text</typeOfResource>
    <relatedItem type="host">
        <titleInfo>
            <title>Bull. Amer. Math. Soc.</title>
        </titleInfo>
        <originInfo>
            <issuance>continuing</issuance>
        </originInfo>
        <genre authority="marcgt">periodical</genre>
        <genre>academic journal</genre>
        <identifier type="issn">0002-9904</identifier>
    </relatedItem>
    <identifier type="citekey">ford</identifier>
    <identifier type="doi">10.1090/S0002-9904-1925-04104-X</identifier>
    <location>
        <url>http://dx.doi.org/10.1090/S0002-9904-1925-04104-X</url>
    </location>
    <part>
        <date>1925</date>
        <detail type="volume"><number>31</number></detail>
        <detail type="number"><number>9-10</number></detail>
        <extent unit="page">
            <start>531</start>
            <end>539</end>
        </extent>
    </part>
</mods>
<mods ID="k:sr_rmg">
    <titleInfo>
        <title>A symbolic representation of the real Möbius group</title>
    </titleInfo>
    <name type="personal">
        <namePart type="given">Petr</namePart>
        <namePart type="family">K\rurka</namePart>
        <role>
            <roleTerm authority="marcrelator" type="text">author</roleTerm>
        </role>
    </name>
    <originInfo>
        <dateIssued>2008</dateIssued>
    </originInfo>
    <typeOfResource>text</typeOfResource>
    <relatedItem type="host">
        <titleInfo>
            <title>Nonlinearity</title>
        </titleInfo>
        <originInfo>
            <issuance>continuing</issuance>
        </originInfo>
        <genre authority="marcgt">periodical</genre>
        <genre>academic journal</genre>
        <identifier type="issn">0951-7715</identifier>
    </relatedItem>
    <identifier type="citekey">k:sr_rmg</identifier>
    <identifier type="doi">10.1088/0951-7715/21/3/012</identifier>
    <location>
        <url>http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0951-7715/21/3/012</url>
    </location>
    <part>
        <date>2008</date>
        <detail type="volume"><number>21</number></detail>
        <detail type="number"><number>3</number></detail>
        <extent unit="page">
            <start>613</start>
            <end>623</end>
        </extent>
    </part>
</mods>
</modsCollection>

@Book{beardon,
author="Beardon, Alan F.",
title="The geometry of discrete groups",
series="Graduate Texts in Mathematics",
year="1995",
publisher="Springer-Verlag",
address="New York",
volume="91",
note="Corrected reprint of the 1983 original",
isbn="0-387-90788-2"
}

@Article{ford,
author="Ford, Lester R.",
title="The fundamental region for a Fuchsian group",
journal="Bull. Amer. Math. Soc.",
year="1925",
volume="31",
number="9-10",
pages="531--539",
issn="0002-9904",
doi="10.1090/S0002-9904-1925-04104-X",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1090/S0002-9904-1925-04104-X"
}

@Article{k:sr_rmg,
author="K{\backslash}rurka, Petr",
title="A symbolic representation of the real M{\"o}bius group",
journal="Nonlinearity",
year="2008",
volume="21",
number="3",
pages="613--623",
issn="0951-7715",
doi="10.1088/0951-7715/21/3/012",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0951-7715/21/3/012"
}

Now: The following is an input file with header and one bibliography item (containing for each field the filed name with abc...xyz dummy text). I believe that the output XML file could be converted into the MODS format, but I'm not sure how and it will be a lot of work. The why that I thought of is replacing each string of the form <Title> to the string of XML markups that stands before the Title in the correct format.

Book Id,Title,Author,Author l-f,Additional Authors,ISBN,ISBN13,My Rating,Average Rating,Publisher,Binding,Number of Pages,Year Published,Original Publication Year,Date Read,Date Added,Bookshelves,Bookshelves with positions,Exclusive Shelf,My Review,Spoiler,Private Notes,Read Count,Recommended For,Recommended By,Owned Copies,Original Purchase Date,Original Purchase Location,Condition,Condition Description,BCID
abcBook Idxyz,abcTitlexyz,abcAuthorxyz,abcAuthor l-fxyz,abcAdditional Authorsxyz,abcISBNxyz,abcISBN13xyz,abcMy Ratingxyz,abcAverage Ratingxyz,abcPublisherxyz,abcBindingxyz,abcNumber of Pagesxyz,abcYear Publishedxyz,abcOriginal Publication Yearxyz,abcDate Readxyz,abcDate Addedxyz,abcBookshelvesxyz,abcBookshelves with positionsxyz,abcExclusive Shelfxyz,abcMy Reviewxyz,abcSpoilerxyz,abcPrivate Notesxyz,abcRead Countxyz,abcRecommended 

<row>
  <Book_Id>abcBook Idxyz</Book_Id>
  <Title>abcTitlexyz</Title>
  <Author>abcAuthorxyz</Author>
  <Author_l_f>abcAuthor l-fxyz</Author_l_f>
  <Additional_Authors>abcAdditional Authorsxyz</Additional_Authors>
  <ISBN>abcISBNxyz</ISBN>
  <ISBN13>abcISBN13xyz</ISBN13>
  <My_Rating>abcMy Ratingxyz</My_Rating>
  <Average_Rating>abcAverage Ratingxyz</Average_Rating>
  <Publisher>abcPublisherxyz</Publisher>
  <Binding>abcBindingxyz</Binding>
  <Number_of_Pages>abcNumber of Pagesxyz</Number_of_Pages>
  <Year_Published>abcYear Publishedxyz</Year_Published>
  <Original_Publication_Year>abcOriginal Publication Yearxyz</Original_Publication_Year>
  <Date_Read>abcDate Readxyz</Date_Read>
  <Date_Added>abcDate Addedxyz</Date_Added>
  <Bookshelves>abcBookshelvesxyz</Bookshelves>
  <Bookshelves_with_positions>abcBookshelves with positionsxyz</Bookshelves_with_positions>
  <Exclusive_Shelf>abcExclusive Shelfxyz</Exclusive_Shelf>
  <My_Review>abcMy Reviewxyz</My_Review>
  <Spoiler>abcSpoilerxyz</Spoiler>
  <Private_Notes>abcPrivate Notesxyz</Private_Notes>
  <Read_Count>abcRead Countxyz</Read_Count>
  <Recommended_For>abcRecommended Forxyz</Recommended_For>
  <Recommended_By>abcRecommended Byxyz</Recommended_By>
  <Owned_Copies>abcOwned Copiesxyz</Owned_Copies>
  <Original_Purchase_Date>abcOriginal Purchase Datexyz</Original_Purchase_Date>
  <Original_Purchase_Location>abcOriginal Purchase Locationxyz</Original_Purchase_Location>
  <Condition>abcConditionxyz</Condition>
  <Condition_Description>abcCondition Descriptionxyz</Condition_Description>
  <BCID>abcBCIDxyz</BCID>
</row>
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