LaTeX and BiBTeX experts: multiple bibliographies?

Factual Questions
1

I have a rather large bibliography file that I use for all of my work. I like to keep the file in alphabetical order within document categories (so all articles are alphabetically ordered, for instance). However, due to the size of the file, it’s starting to become a hassle inserting new entries into the correct place.

What I’d like to do is split this file into several distinct .bib files, each dedicated to a particular topic. I have seen that there are ways to do this with various style files on the Internet, but crucially, using these style files results in several distinct bibliographies being inserted into the document. That is, I haven’t found a way to create a single bibliography in a document, correctly ordered, from multiple .bib files.

Does anybody know if this is possible?

2

If I understood your question correctly, all you have to do is list multiple files in the \bibliography command separated by commas. E.g.

\bibliography{books,articles}
\bibliographystyle{abbrev}

will create one bibliography list using the abbrev style, using entries from books.bib and articles.bib.

By the way, do you bother to alphabetize their .bib files? It doesn’t matter what order the file is.

3

AFAIK, scr4 has it right. At least, that’s what I’ve done in the past (although for slightly different reasons).

Managing bibtex flat files was always a chore to me. I have to put in a recommendation for JabRef to manage large biliography files.

4

Ah, thanks. I didn’t realise you could do that.

I know. It’s more for me being able to quickly find an entry for modifying/updating etc. Now I’ve started, I’m loathe to stop.