Tired of trying to keep track of all those sources you checked when you started writing that article? Hate writing your bibliography with a fiery passion? There are a number of tools that can do this for you, including Zotero, RefWorks, and Mendeley, among others. These three tools are supported at the Claremont Colleges and you can receive training in each at the Honnold-Mudd library. Check out the library calendar here to see what workshops are coming up and if you’d like to register. IT-FITS also teaches some of these tools.
Zotero is one program both IT-FITS and the library can train you in. It is an add-on to your web browser (it is designed for Firefox, but can work with other browsers given the proper download), and can function off-line if you need to access existing citations and you don’t have access to internet. The program works best with journal articles and scholarly sources (websites are more problematic), and automatically pulls all the relevant information into a reference. It can even import multiple references at once if you start importing in a search results page. Exporting citations can be as easy as dragging your citations into Word, and Zotero can create a bibliography in over a dozen formats.
The library’s detailed user guide for Zotero is here (http://libguides.libraries.claremont.edu/zoteroworkshop). Use the tabs to navigate.
Download Zotero for use on your personal computer here (http://www.zotero.org/).
By ITA, Hillary Shipps