EndNote Reference Manager and Apple iWork Pages - Lessons Learned

A student in one of the classes I am teaching is using Pages on the Mac. I encourage all of the students to use a personal reference manager, such as EndNote (our university has a site license for the software).  What I learned is that EndNote has limited menu features in Pages in comparison to those available in Microsoft Word. 

• There is no clear (have not found it yet) way to refresh the citations in a Pages document when changes were made to the citation in EndNote.  
• Even if the citation output style is noted as APA 6th, EndNote names the reference page as Bibliography in bold font face. 
• You cannot use Cite While You Write from within EndNote because it works only with Microsoft Word.  When you insert a citation using the Pages Insert menu, you are able to search multiple EndNote libraries.

When I installed EndNote on my Mac, it installed correctly.  The install did not work on the student's computer.  We did a Google search and found a plug-in to enable the install.  

The bottom line is that it is possible to do Cite While You Write using EndNote and Pages, but the function is within Pages, not EndNote. There are online resources to assist with the use of the install and use of EndNote for Pages.

Zotero Update

One last update!  Zotero citation manager is now a standalone product!  That is really good news for the few people who  do not want to use Firefox or have problem using Firefox with Zotero.

The standalone installs Zotero into the Word menu when it installs on the computer.  That is especially good for my non-techie students who stumble over two different installs.

For more information, go to http://www.zotero.org/support/3.0

When I was demonstrating Zotero during a webinar last week - the menu did not show up in Word :-(
Yes, it had been working previously.  I found that the problem was because I had not downloaded the latest Firefox web browser.  Afterward a download of the most recent web browser - Zotero was there!!!

Now, if Zotero would only release an iPad app!

Mendeley - Another Free (Bibliographic) Reference Manager

Mendeley was suggested as a good alternative to Zotoro by one of this blog's readers.  Read more about it at http://www.mendeley.com/

It is not open source, but it is free.  I cannot wait to explore the app!!

The reader pointed out that the Princeton web site that compared RefWorks with EndNote and Zotero is out of date.

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

Okay - final blog for the day - still behind on the many links that Tracy has shared.
This web site has information comparing RefWorks, EndNote, and Zotero.  If you are a student, faculty, write for publication, or do any kind of writing that requires citation, you SHOULD be using a personal reference manager.  RefWorks, Endnote, and Zotero are all great reference managers.  The site below is worth exploring to visualize the differences. That said, as one reader commented - it was dated in regards to Zotero sharing capability.

http://libguides.princeton.edu/citations

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

Exporting Citations to Zotero from a Digital Library

Had this email request after the Writing for Publication workshop on Thursday -

"hi - I've forgotten a step in saving to ZOTERO.
I downloaded foxfire, ZOTERO, and the WORD plug-in.
I went to GALILEO, found an article , and checked it in folder view.
I see the ZOTERO bar in the lower right of my screen.
I can't remember what to do next.
Thanks!"

(Note: Although this example uses CINAHL with Fulltext from EBSCOHost in the Galileo database, it should work with other digital library databases)
Make sure that you are accessing the digital library using the Firefox web browser.

Open the folder view of the articles that you saved.
Click the Select All box and then click the last icon on the left – Export

On the next window, click the Save button (keep the default – Direct Export to EndNote, ProCite….)

Click on the word Zotero in the bottom-right of the Firefox web browser. You should see all of citations for the articles that you selected in the digital library.

Personal Reference Manager - Exporting Citations from EndNote to Zotero

Two new members of our Web 2.0/Health 2.0 research team will be using Zotero to manage citations.  I needed to share the citations information that our GCSU team members had already collected.  The solution was not obvious at first because the export functions in Zotero differ from Endnote.

I knew that Endnote could import files from Zotero if I had exported them as a RIS file. The screenshot on the left shows the export file formats that are available in Zotero.

The problem  was the export features in Endnote were different (See screenshot above).  RIS was not listed as a file type.   

The solution?  I had to select RefMan (RIS) Export as the Output Style using the drop-down menu by output style first (See screenshot below) and then export the file as a text file(.txt)!  I found the solution counter-intuitive, but it worked! 

This information supplements Chapter 12 (Thede & Sewell) on Digital Libraries and Personal Reference Managers.