More than one-click bibliographies!

by Kevin E. Simons,Instruction Coordinator, University Libraries

GMU now has a site license for EndNote, the powerful knowledge management software that allows students (yes faculty too) to organize research in their own personalized database of resources. The “hook” for students is EndNote’s ability to format papers and bibliographies easily through MS Word or Word- Perfect with a few clicks of the mouse. What should inspire faculty is EndNote’s ability to help teach discipline-specific critical thinking in the writing intensive classroom. One example is teaching the criteria used in a discipline to evaluate information. After classroom discussions, students can include keywords in their EndNote database, called a library, that identify evaluative criteria—e.g. “professor at Northwestern” (for the author’s authority), “respected publisher” (for the quality of a source), and “methodology questionable” (for the quality of research). These keywords may be searched in the student’s library to retrieve appropriate records for a specific disciplinary need. Library catalogs from across the country, including Mason’s University Libraries, may be searched using the EndNote software so references can be imported directly into one’s EndNote library. Also, many online databases work with EndNote to export references directly into an EndNote library.

EndNote is available through download at http://cas.gmu.edu/tac/endnote/endnote.html (broadband connection recommended) or on disc from Patriot Computers for a nominal media fee.

For readers who would like some tips for using library research tools more effectively, here is a brief overview of a few tools and techniques that might be useful. For more information about any of these resources, visit the Libraries’ website or ask a librarian.