When updating biblio.odb be aware that biblio.odb *does not* embed the data of the database inside the .odb, instead it is configured to store its data in the per-user database/biblio/biblio.dbf and database/biblio/biblio.dbt files. i.e. the contents of the ~/.libreoffice/3/user/database/biblio dir. If you edit biblio.odb in "base" you will really just be changing your local data store. So, to really change the bibliography the easiest thing to do is to launch writer and use tools->bibliography database and edit your local one through that UI. Then *copy* ~/.libreoffice/3/user/database/biblio/biblio.db* to extras/source/database/ in order to overwrite biblio.dbf and biblio.dbt and copy ~/.libreoffice/3/user/database/biblio.odb to extras/source/database/biblio.odb NOTE: base doesn't seem to "PACK" the dbase III files after editing, so deleted records still take up space in the file, possibly a bug worth fixing ?