For longer papers and projects, there are citation management tools can help with your project. Citation management tools do a couple of things. First, they keep track of the resources that you have used on a project. When you perform a search in the catalog or a database, you export the citation information to the management software. The software keeps that information for you until you need to create notes or bibliographies. This leads to the second thing the software does. It automatically creates notes and bibliographies with a click of a button.
- Endnote Basic: Endnote Basic is a scaled down (but free) product from Endnote. It does have more limitations than the full version, but you probably won't have more than 50,000 citations anyway. You will have to create an account and it is a web based product. One thing to be aware of is that the free version has limited support, so you have to figure things out on your own.
- Zotero: Unlike Endnote, Zotero is an open source program. This means that the program's full functionality is free, unlike Endnote where you have to pay for additional functionality. That said, you'll have to rely on its documentation to get it up and running.
If you do decide to use a Citation Management Tool, you also need to know where to go to export your citation information to the management tool. Here are some instructions for EBSCO and the catalog:
EBSCO
- Click on the title of the article or resource that you want
- Click on EBSCO's Export button:
- You'll then see a list of Citation Management Tools. Choose the tool you want, then click save:
- Then open your Citation Management Tool and import your results to it
Catalog
- Search for the book or other resource that you want
- Click on the Cite button:
- Select the tool that you want, and follow it's instructions:
- Then open your Citation Management Tool and import your results to it
