This document provides an overview of bibliographic managers and their use. It identifies common problems with managing references, such as incorrect or missing citations. It then discusses solutions like MS Word's bibliography features, EndNote, Zotero, and Mendeley that help organize references and automatically generate in-text citations and bibliographies. The document demonstrates how to use key features of these tools, such as adding references, inserting citations in a paper, and formatting bibliographies. It emphasizes that these tools streamline the citation process but users still need to check citations are correct according to the specified style.

1. I NTRODUCTION TO B IBLIOGRAPHIC
M ANAGERS

2. O VERVIEW OF THIS S ESSION
 Identify common problems with managing references
 Identify solutions to managing references:
 MS Word Bibliography features
 EndNote
 Zotero and Mendeley
 In-depth look at Zotero
 Workshopping with Zotero
 Conclusions & last words

3. W HY ? ( PROBLEMS WITH CITATIONS )
 Why do we cite/attribute information in research
papers?
 What happens when we don’t cite, or when the
citations are incorrect?
 So, why don’t we always cite, and always cite
correctly?

4. H OW ? (G ETTING HELP THROUGH
TECHNOLOGY )
 Bibliographic managers (sometimes known as
reference managers) are here to help!
 Organize your research all in one place
 Easily create in-text citations
 Easily format bibliographies
 Avoid plagiarism and other unpleasant
consequences of incorrect (or no) citations

5. MS W ORD B IBLIOGRAPHY
 Built into Word 2007, 2010
 Easy to use
 Slightly limited in its functionalities
 A great option for short papers/when you don’t
want to learn a whole new program!

6. A LOOK AT MS W ORD
Use the References tab to
access the MS Word
Bibliography functions

7. A DDING R EFERNECES
Click Manage
Sources then
New to add a
reference to
your
collection of
research

8. I NSERTING C ITATIONS
Click Insert Citation, and select your
Style to start creating in-text citations

9. L AST WORD ON MS W ORD
 Beware: downloading EndNote (coming up next)
or the Zotero Word plugin will overwrite the MS
Word bibliography function.
 For more help and information, visit the MS
Word help site. The link below will take you
directly to the part about bibliographic
management:
 http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-
help/create-a-bibliography-HA010067492.aspx

10. E ND N OTE
 Often called the Cadillac of bibliographic managers
 Expensive, but free to you as a VT student (through
network software distribution)
 Link and support available:
http://www.lib.vt.edu/endnote/index.html
 Available cross-platform (Mac or PC)
 Software has a steep learning curve
 Software has the most functionality of all managers
(i.e., the best for large papers like a thesis or
dissertation)

11. A N E ND N OTE L IBRARY
• 3 ways to import references
• Over 4500 reference styles to choose from
• Can remotely search databases to pull in references
• Can create unlimited number of libraries
• Can use the “group” function to organize references

12. C ITE W HILE Y OU W RITE
Use Cite While You Write to
automatically create in-text citations
and bibliographies
When you install EndNote, the
program will install an MS Word
plug-in

13. F REE & E ASY O PTIONS
 Zotero: http://www.zotero.org/
 Open source and open access (free)
 Only compatible with Mozilla Firefox
 Offers a web-based component
 Collaborative
 Mendeley: http://www.mendeley.com/
 Open access (free)
 Also offers a “social network” for researchers
 Offers a web-based component
 Collaborative

14. M ENDELEY
This is a screenshot of the “server” side—the online account that syncs
with a desktop account. Science/research/academic oriented. Includes
social networking functions.

15. Z OTERO
This is the “online account” side of Zotero—we’ll look at the
“downloaded” side in a moment.

16. S TARTING WITH Z OTERO
 When you download Zotero, it will live inside
your browser (Firefox)
 You will also have space on a Zotero server, so
that you can access your research no matter
what computer you may be working at
 The program you’ve downloaded on your
computer will ensure that you have a local copy
of all of your information

17. I N - CLASS D EMONSTRATION
 Downloading Zotero
 Importing references into Zotero (several different ways)
 Editing references
 Sharing Zotero libraries/collections
 Using the Zotero “cite while you write” feature with MS
Word (will NOT overwrite the MS Word bibliography
features)
 Generating bibliographies
 Questions?

18. IN THE B ROWSER
When
downloaded,
Zotero will live
at the bottom
of your
browser
(Mozilla
Firefox)
Three main elements show up
here…
The grouping(s) of The documents The citation
documents themselves information

19. A DDING R EFERENCES
Use these icons to manually add or import citations with the click
of a button. Alternatively, you can use the images that show up in
the browser bar…

20. U SING THE Z OTERO ICONS
Look for these icons in the browser bar when you
are searching online, in databases, or in the library
catalog. Click them to add them to your library.

21. MS W ORD P LUGIN
 To use the “cite while you write” feature in Zotero, you
must download the MS Word plugin:
 http://www.zotero.org/support/word_processor_inte
gration
 When you do, you should see “Add-Ins” appear at the
top of your Word document

22. I N - TEXT CITATIONS &
F ORMATTING BIBLIOGRAPHIES
The first icon is to insert a
citation, which you’ll choose
from Zotero.
The second to last icon is to
format a bibliography from the
citations you’ve added

23. E XAMPLE C ITATION &
B IBLIOGRAPHY
First, insert the in-text citation.
Then, insert the bibliography.
Done!

24. Z OTERO T UTORIALS /H ELP
 The Zotero website offers lots of helpful tutorials
and guides for getting started with and using
Zotero:
 Quick start guide:
http://www.zotero.org/support/
 Zotero support: http://www.zotero.org/support/
 Screencasts: http://www.zotero.org/support/
 Zotero mobile apps:
http://www.zotero.org/blog/zotero-apps-go-
mobile/

25. IN CONCLUSION …
 There are a lot of tools available for managing
your research
 It’s up to you to figure out the tool and workflow
that works best for you
 Librarians are always available to help you with
all aspects of research, including bibliographic
management!

26. O NE LAST WORD …
 Remember, these citation management tools are
just pieces of software
 It’s possible that they could be wrong
 You will still need to be familiar with the style
you are using, to make sure that your citations ar
correct
 Use our citations & style manuals page for more
help:
http://www.lib.vt.edu/find/citation/index.html

27. Q UESTIONS ?
 Contact me!
Rebecca Miller
College Librarian for
Science, Life Sciences, and Engineering
millerrk@vt.edu
Newman 5004