It might be worth checking out some existing solutions to the problem.

Zotero is a pretty good tool for collecting, organizing, and sharing 
citation data - open source, works through a browser plug-in, 
collaboration capabilities (though the server code is a bit harder to 
get one's hands on).

For database, you might also look at noSQL options.  eXist 
(http://exist-db.org) is an open source XML database that's pretty 
extensively used for cataloguing type applications.  CouchDB is also 
kind of interesting, and easy to use.

Miles Fidelman




On 4/15/16 2:22 PM, Ethan Gruber wrote:
> There are countless ways to approach the problem, but I suggest beginning
> with tools that are within the area of expertise of your staff. Mapping
> disparate structured formats into a single Solr instance for fast search
> and retrieval is one possibility.
>
> On Fri, Apr 15, 2016 at 2:18 PM, Matt Sherman <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I am looking to pick the group brain as to what might be the most useful
>> database software for a digital project I am collaborating on.  We are
>> working on converting an annotated bibliography to a searchable database.
>> While I have the data in a few structured formats, we need to figure out
>> now what to actually put it in so that it can be queried.  My default line
>> of thinking is to try a MySQL since it is free and used ubiquitously
>> online, but I wanted to see if there were any other database or software
>> systems that we should also consider before investing a lot of time in one
>> approach.  Any advice and suggestions would be appreciated.
>>
>> Matt Sherman
>>

-- 
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is.  .... Yogi Berra