Personal Bibliographic Manager Software: Endnote? Zotero? or Both?

I was reading an article this morning that provided an analogy that the use of technology is like learning to ride a bicycle with no training wheels.  How true, especially for those who are uncomfortable using technology.  Switching from using hand-written notecards to store reference information to a software solution can be an adjustment.  I have been teaching students how to use EndNote (http://www.endnote.com/) for several years now.  I began teaching undergraduate students to use Zotero (http://www.zotero.org/)just a couple of years ago.  My colleague, Karen, said that she attempted to use Zotero with graduate students and had all sorts of problems.  She has decided to switch back to requiring EndNote, but accept Zotero for students who cannot affort to purchase EndNote.

One of my students is writing a paper about the use of Zotero and inadvertently nudged me to learn something new :)!  She had downloaded the beta version of Zotero that allows for sharing of references and synching the reference library with the Zotero server.  Wow, did that get my attention!!  Why?   I now will begin to use the sharing aspect of the references with students in courses that I teach.  I really like the way that I can grab info from web sites in Zotero and attach any associated PDF file with a click of the mouse.  I  also like the way that I can use EndNote to search for articles in PubMed and also search for PDF copies of the references.  Because the two software packages have different strengths, I have decided to use a combination of the two.  I can export references from EndNote into Zotero so that the file can be synched and shared.  To learn more about the beta version of Zotero, go to http://www.zotero.org/support/2.0_beta