Reference and PDF-Manager Software: Complexities,Support and Workflow

In the past, librarians taught reference management by training library users to use established software programs such as RefWorks or EndNote. In today's environment, there is a proliferation of Web-based programs that are being used by library clientele that offer a new twist on the well-known reference management programs. Basically, these new programs are PDF-manager software (e.g., Mendeley or Papers). Librarians are faced with new questions, issues, and concerns, given the new workflows and pathways that these PDF-manager programs present. This article takes a look at some of those.     

Comparison of Select Reference Management Tools

Bibliographic management tools have been widely used by researchers to store, organize, and manage their references for research papers, theses, dissertations, journal articles, and other publications. There are a number of reference management tools available. In order for users to decide which tool is best for their needs, it is important to know each tool's strengths and weaknesses. This article compares four reference management tools, one of which is licensed by University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey libraries and the other three are open source and freely available. They were chosen based on their functionality, ease of use, availability to library users, and popularity. These four tools are EndNote/EndNote Web, Zotero, Connotea, and Mendeley Desktop/Mendeley Web. Each tool is analyzed in terms of the following features: accessing, collecting, organizing, collaborating, and citing/formatting. A comparison table is included to summarize the key features of these tools.     

Bibliographic Management Software: A Focus Group Study of the Preferences and Practices of Undergraduate Students

With the growing population of undergraduate students on our campus and an increased focus on their success, librarians at a large midwestern university were interested in the citation management styles of this university cohort. Our university library spends considerable resources each year to maintain and promote access to the robust bibliographic management tool RefWorks. A team of librarians wondered whether RefWorks might be used by undergraduate students with the same perceived enthusiasm that we have sensed in graduate students and faculty. More generally, we explored how undergraduate students were managing their citations, if and what kinds of tools they were using to ease the process of creating bibliographies, and their general workflow in incorporating citations into their academic work.     

Graduate Student Use and Non-use of Reference and PDF Management Software: An Exploratory Study

Graduate students at the University of Manitoba were surveyed to find out if they used reference management software (RMS), features used, challenges and barriers to using RMS. Interest in different types of PDF management features and training options were also investigated. Both users and non-users of reference management software were invited to participate. Non-users managed their citations and references with a variety of other tools. The principal reasons for non-use were that students were not aware of options that were available, and the amount of time needed to learn the program. RMS users also mentioned the steep learning curve, problems with extracting metadata from PDFs, technical issues, and problems with inaccurate citation styles. Most of the students saved PDF documents to their computer. Students were most interested in full-text searching of PDFs, automatic renaming of PDFs, and automatically extracting citation metadata from a PDF. PDF annotation and reading tools were also of some interest. Mobile features were of the least interest. There were no statistically significant differences in the interest of PDF management features between the user and non-user groups but there were statistically significant differences in the interest of some of the training options between the groups.