Thing 14: Mendeley, Ranting about Reference Software, & Ignoring CiteUlike

So I tried out Mendeley last week. If Evernote & Zotero were to combine, I feel that Mendeley would've been the outcome. Like Evernote, Mendeley allows you to save, organize, and take notes on articles. Like Zotero, Mendeley pulls the bibliographic information from your articles and allows you make citations. The nice thing about Mendeley is that it syncs with your other devices...so you can use it on other computers, laptops, and  tablets (provided you've downloaded the software and logged in).

With all that being said, a word to the wise about Zotero and other Bibliographic Citation programs; I know when you encounter it for the first time...it seems magical. Your eyes sparkle with all the possibilities of the things you can do with the extra time you'll save on your paper. You shake your fists thinking of all the precious moments you've wasted doing things the hard way. Be cautious my eager friends! The citations made be the programs are not always correct...make sure you double check your work.

It's not Zotero's fault that it could not pull all the information from your downloaded article and left out information it's yours! To be fair, most of the time it's the fault of the information contained in the PDF file. Some PDF files....especially older ones aren't able to be properly "read" by Biblio Cite Software.

It was in with this issue I found Mendeley to be more helpful. Mendeley asks you to VERIFY the bibliographic information and gives you the option of using Google Scholar to find and fill in any missing information. CLICK THE IMAGES BELOW TO ENLARGE

some of the info is missing? (vol? issue?)

yay! Mendeley found it using Google Scholar!

Another suggestion...often academic databases and journal archives will often have a spot that will provide the correct citation for you works cited...on their page. Yes, I know it doesn't help with in text citations but it's useful. For example here is a screen shot from EBSCO.
CLICK THE IMAGES BELOW TO ENLARGE

Thing 8,9, & Presenting StudyBlue!

 I am a goggle fanatic. I use it daily sometimes hourly. I have two email accounts, a blog, and Goggle+ account. However, I can not get used to Google Calendar. I grew up using computers in some form from the age of  8 but there are still somethings I have to do the "old fashioned way". While Google Calender can go anywhere on any device. I like being able to physically change and add things. That's why I've also using been the wipe-off calendar above my desk since high school and why I buy a paper planner every year. There is something satisfying to the ritual of keep a physical calendar. I like that I can flip through the pages of my event book and see where I am going and where I've been.  I get a sense of accomplishment to wiping of everything off of my desk calendar and updating it every two weeks or so. It keeps me focused on what is ahead. Now that I have an I pad I may try to use Google Calender when school starts...but if I do I know I'll still keep up with my wipeoff board.

 A few weeks ago cdp23 introduced us to Pushnote. While an interesting application, I found it to be more of a hindrance than a help. Another account to keep track of, check, and update. As I have mentioned before it also didn't seem to provide information on sites I wanted.  This weeks suggestions of Evernote led me to roll my eyes figuring this would be more of the same. Not so. Evernote is what I have always wanted from delicious  it lets you clip and organize websites, keeps notes, and sync this record to call devices...kind of like a combination between Delicious, Pushnote, and Dropbox. I beyond anal retentive about organizing my bookmarks...especially the ones I visit often..Evernote allows me to "clip" the website and add notes to it. The only thing that disappointed me is that it there is currently no web clipper for the Ipad.


  One of the other great features of Evernote is that besides the fact that I can sync my library from my laptop and my Ipad ....is that I can also sync it with other applications. Evernote Trunk  is an part of the Evernote site that lists all the applications you can use with Evernote. I can sync PDFs from my Dropbox to Evernote and make notes on them, I can sync emails and add notes, etc.


One cool application I found through trunk is called:

    Like Flashcard Machine....Study Blue allows you to  create flash cards, and search share or upload flashcards made by others. However, StudyBlue also allows you to store, share, create, and download notes. Click the image below to see a screen shot of StudyBlue flash card creator.

 Unfortunately for NOW you can only create flash cards on computers however the Study Blue Ipad app does allow you to view the notes and flash cards already existent in your account. I DO NOT recommend using StudyBlue on the Ipad for anything but flashcards.

There is a way to sync your StudyBlue notes to Evernote so you can edit them in there....but I honestly think I will only be using StudyBlue for flashcards.

Here is a little video I made of me using the StudyBlue App to view a flashcard I created. This also the first video I've ever created and uploaded so I hope it works!