LibKey Nomad
Bibliographic Management Systems
Handwritten notes are great (as long as they're complete!), but if you want something a little more searchable, re-usable, and less easily lost, here are some options. If these don't meet your needs, come talk to me, or just use handwritten notes. Whatever you do, make sure you keep GOOD notes. There's nothing more frustrating than writing up your paper and realizing you missed the volume number on a journal citation or the publish information on a book citation and having to backtrack. We've all done it, and it's not fun!
- Zotero
Save, organize, share, and cite your sources -- anything from scholarship to YouTube videos. Our guide has Carleton-specific instructions for installing and using Zotero with personal and lab computers, and for getting the most storage space possible. - EndNote
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Available to Carleton people, this is a fully featured bibliographic management system. Import citations from catalogs and databases or type them in by hand, embed PDFs, search, sort, export as a bibliography in any one of hundreds of citation styles, and manage long papers with Cite While You Write. - EndNote Online
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EndNote's online version has the great advantage of being accessible from anywhere that has an internet connection and of allowing you to share folders with collaborators.
NOTE: You'll need to create your own login and password. Be sure to use your Carleton email address.
Saving web sources
- ZoteroSave, organize, share, and cite your sources -- anything from scholarship to YouTube videos. Our guide has Carleton-specific instructions for installing and using Zotero with personal and lab computers, and for getting the most storage space possible.
- Evernote
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Save entire web pages or just pieces of them, type in your own notes, search through everything, create categories, and have access from your computer or your mobile device.
Keeping Useful Notes
You don't have to print everything you read! The tools below can help you accomplish your research far more quickly while at the same time help you to find the really key resources and make key connections between them. If these exact worksheets don't click for you, use them to help you come up with your own method of tracking the sources and terms you find.
- Reading well and taking good research notesA guide with tips on everything from strategies to software.
- Term DiaryKeep track of the terms you find as you search and read. Then use these terms in future searches.
- Source Tracking Google SpreadsheetThis helps you draw connectsions between what you read, the kinds of evidence that can be used to make your arguments, and the kinds of theoretical approaches that can be brought to bear on your question.
- Term Tracking Google SpreadsheetThis helps you learn the vocabularies of the scholars who are engaging in discussion of your topic. Keep track of where you found the terms or phrases as well as the terms or phrases that seem meaningful in this discussion. Then use those terms and phrases to build more searches.
