Hello,

Alvin Dantes and I (we both are librarians at Milne) recently gave a presentation concerning such software.  The presentation included some comparison charts, if you are interested in them.  It really depends on what you want the program to do.  Some considerations to think about include:

Is it simply a citation creator that I need?
Is it a managment tool that I need that allows me to organize my citations?
Do I need something that will manage not only citations, but materials such as weblinks and pdfs also?
Where do I need to have access to this data?  From my laptop or desktop only, from anywhere there is internet access?
Do I need filesharing capabilities for collaborative projects?

I myself use Zotero, as the basic level is free and has been sufficient for me.  I really don't believe there is any "best" product.  They all have their difficulties in creating properly formatted citations (only as good as the information entered and the programming done).  I would be willing to show you an overview of Zotero.  Mendeley is also one that Alvin uses.

Pamela Flinton
________________________________
From: Teaching Breakfast List [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Gallagher, Kelly
Sent: Friday, June 08, 2012 10:23 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: favorite bibliographic software

Hello all-
Since the College does not have an EndNote license (which is what I was used to using, once upon a time), I thought I'd ask for suggestions on reference management software. Does anyone have a favorite (preferably free) alternative? There are a lot out there (Zotero, JabRef, Biblioscape, etc.), but I haven't used any of them. Any helpful suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Kelly

==========================
Kelly Ryan Gallagher
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry
SUNY- College at Oneonta
Oneonta, NY 13820
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(607) 436-3180