Since you mention the requirement to publish and maintain it on the web,
another (NoSQL) option for your data storage would be a SPARQL graph store
(such as Apache Fuseki). Loading the data would involve transforming each
citation into an RDF graph and storing it as a named graph with an HTTP
PUT, or transforming each volume to a SPARQL update query to insert your
1250 graphs in one query. Maintenance of data can be achieved simply with
GET and PUT to read and write individual graphs (records) which is dead
easy to connect to an HTML form, and you can use the SPARQL query language
for all your search needs. Because the SPARQL family of protocols are
already web protocols it can be a very simple architecture. It would also
be trivially easy to publish the RDF as linked data by installing Pubby or
similar in front of the SPARQL query service.

Of course it may be that the RDF skillset is a step too far (it's not as
widely known as RDBMS), but if you do have someone in your team with basic
RDF skills it's worth considering as it could be a very simple solution if
so.
On 17 Apr 2016 00:15, "Matt Sherman" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Thanks for all the advice folks, this gives me a lot to look into.  You all
> have certainly made me table MySQL, so now to look into PostgreSQL, Solr,
> XTF, and some of these other technologies to see what would be the best
> fit.  It is always so helpful pinging this group as you all have so many
> helpful suggestions.
>
> On Sat, Apr 16, 2016 at 6:09 AM, Jean-Claude Dauphin <[log in to unmask]
> >
> wrote:
>
> > Hi Matt,
> >
> > You may wish to give a try to J-ISIS
> >
> > https://kenai.com/projects/j-isis/downloads
> >
> > With J-ISIS, you can create a searchable database with a couple of
> clicks.
> > It uses Berkeley Database as persistence manager and Lucene for indexing
> > and searching.
> > The user can concentrate on the domain and to what he want to achieve. No
> > need to be an expert in relational dabases and SQL. Furthermore, you get
> > suggestions of term indexed when making a particular query.
> >
> > Web-JISIS is a web application prototype that allows to browse and search
> > J-ISIS databases.
> >
> > I can help if you need.
> >
> > Best wishes,
> >
> > Jean-Claude
> >
> >
> > On Sat, Apr 16, 2016 at 2:07 AM, Matt Sherman <[log in to unmask]>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Well, we've got one volume done, with about 1,250 bibliographies, but
> > there
> > > are 3 other volumes to convert. So at the end of the day probably about
> > > 5,000 entries.  Though the how is to make it intractable via the web
> and
> > > hopefully letting scholars in the field continue to add to the database
> > > once it is online.
> > >
> > > On Fri, Apr 15, 2016 at 7:38 PM, Kyle Banerjee <
> [log in to unmask]>
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > On Fri, Apr 15, 2016 at 11:53 AM, Roy Tennant <[log in to unmask]>
> > > > wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > In my experience, for a number of use cases, including possibly
> this
> > > one,
> > > > > a database is overkill. Often, flat files in a directory system
> > indexed
> > > > by
> > > > > something like Solr is plenty and you avoid the inevitable
> headaches
> > of
> > > > > being a database administrator. Backup, for example, is a snap and
> > > easily
> > > > > automated.
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > > I'm with Roy -- no need to use a chain saw to cut butter.
> > > >
> > > > Out of curiosity, since the use case is an annotated bibliography,
> how
> > > much
> > > > stuff do you have? If you have only a few thousand entries in
> delimited
> > > > text, flat files could be easier and more effective than other
> options.
> > > >
> > > > kyle
> > > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Jean-Claude Dauphin
> >
> > [log in to unmask]
> >
> >
> > http://kenai.com/projects/j-isis/
> > http://www.unesco.org/isis/
> > http://www.unesco.org/idams/
> > http://www.greenstone.org
> >
>