Filing
Taking good notes is just the start. Once you've collected all of these wonderful pages, what should you do with them? Answer the following poll and see what your peers are doing as well.
As you've just seen, people have many different systems for storing notes, but the key considerations in any filing system should be:
- how easy is it to retrieve notes when you need them? and
- are your notes classified in a way that similar topics or authors are grouped together?
EndNote
EndNote is a software package designed to help you organize your references into a searchable bibliography. The University of Melbourne has a site licence that allows students and staff to download a free copy of the software onto their own computers. The main functions of EndNote are:
- Storing and managing references in files called libraries. References often describe documents like journal articles, books, conference papers, theses, etc. You might also keep libraries of your CD collection, wine collection, recipes, etc.
- Importing references into your library from many remote journal databases and library catalogues.
- Formatting references and bibliographies in the citation style of your choice, in conjunction with MS Word.
For more information about how to use EndNote, including where to obtain a copy, go to the Library website.
BibTeX
If you are a user of Unix, chances are you've already heard of BibTeX, the invaluable bibliography management tool that is specifically for Unix. Wikipedia has a good explanation and links to more sites.
