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Mary DeJong, M.L.S. mary.dejong@nau.edu
As you become more involved in research projects, you may find you want to start saving and organizing the sources that you find. You may also want to start using tools that make it easier to cite sources. (I mean, who doesn't want to make citing sources easier?) In other words, you might be ready to learn about reference management tools! Note that these tools are also sometimes called bibliographic management tools.
(Reference management tools are going to make a lot more sense to you if you are already pretty familiar with citations and citing. If you're not, then you might want to first take a look at Lesson 7. Using and citing information sources in the Information Literacy Basics Tutorial.
Reference management tools are THE BEST.
Reference management tools are THE BEST.
Reference management tools like Zotero, Mendeley, RefWorks, EndNote, etc. have tons of useful features. For example, most of these tools allow you to:
easily import and store citations
share your reference lists with others
import full-text PDFs associated with your citations
organize and store citations and their PDFs in different folders
remove duplicate citations in case you accidentally import the same citation twice
interact with word documents so you can easily insert in-text citations
Last but not least, reference management tools can generate bibliographies that are pre-formatted in almost any citation-style you can imagine.
However, when you generate bibliographies with these tools, they make mistakes sometimes. For example, important details that should be included in a citation might be left out, or the citation might not be formatted correctly.
You will ALWAYS have to check over a formatted bibliography to make sure your reference management tool didn't make any mistakes. ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS. Okay?
Still, even though you have to check things over, having a reference manager take the first stab at formatting your references will save you gobs of time.
Get started!
Get started!
First, you'll need to choose a tool. Some are free to use - such as Zotero and Mendeley. Also, Zotero and Mendeley are the two reference management tools that Cline Library can provide troubleshooting and support for. But there are lots of other tools out there.
To choose, seek advice from friends or faculty. Find out what they use and whether they like it – and also ask what they don't like about it.
Don't fret too much about making the perfect choice because you can always move your references to a different tool pretty easily, if you decide you want to switch.
It's super easy to learn to use these tools on your own!
It's super easy to learn to use these tools on your own!
Suppose you choose Zotero or Mendeley. You can easily register to get started with either of these tools using the links on Cline Library's Citation help and reference management page.
That page offers links to quick start guides, but there is also AMPLE help on the internet in the form of websites and YouTube videos. Just try Google searches such as:
getting started Zotero or getting started Mendeley
Zotero beginners or Mendeley beginners
quick start Zotero or quick start Mendeley
FYI, for Zotero, some good video options include:
Get help with specific functions of your reference management tool.
Get help with specific functions of your reference management tool.
Need to know how to import reference, remove duplicates, cite within a word document, or something else? Any function that you didn't learn in a beginners video you can still find help with – again just search Google! Just enter the name of your reference management tool along with what you want to do:
Zotero import references
Zotero remove duplicates
Zotero cite in Word
You can almost always find websites and YouTube videos that provide quick instruction. You can also ask for help from a friend or colleague who uses the same tool. Or, ask for help from a librarian at Cline Library!
You are finished with Lesson 9 What's next?
You are finished with Lesson 9 What's next?
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