[Eril-l] Citation Managers - RefWorks

Mon May 6 08:16:16 PDT 2019

We used to have RefWorks, but about 2 years ago the functionality to import
a citation started failing. The original code that supported this
internally had been written by someone no longer at the college. Despite
working with local ITS and ProQuest support, we could not get things
working again. Considering the the price and frankly the lack of actual
support we got from PQ Support, we decided to cancel rather than move to
new RefWorks and cross our fingers that would make the problem go away.

We now support Zotero, both because it's open source and because it seemed
the easiest to set up/most intuitive. We're a small campus (~2,600 FTE),
but in the entire migration process I heard from only one disgruntled
faculty member. He understood why we were moving from RefWorks, but because
of the size of his citation library (>1,200 citations) and the associated
PDFs and notes he kept, it was easier for him to move to EndNote. Beyond
that outlier, the transition has been smooth and students and faculty alike
seem extremely satisfied with and excited about Zotero -- far more so than
they ever were with RefWorks. Similar to Steve's experience, every single
time I teach Zotero there is an "aha" moment.

I'm happy to talk in more detail about the collapse of RefWorks and/or how
we approached the migration period -- feel free to contact me off-list.

Be well,
Ben
----
Ben Jahre
Head of Electronic Resources
124 Skillman Library
Lafayette College
610-330-5631

On Thu, May 2, 2019 at 6:08 PM Kathleen M Utschig <utschigk at mtmary.edu>
wrote:

> I personally love my Mendeley. I started using it in grad school because I
> knew I could "take it with me" into my professional life. I also love that
> it feeds me citations that match my interests. I hope to develop an
> instruction session for upper level undergrads and introduce them to both
> Zotero and Mendeley. Not only will it help them develop better research
> management skills for their undergraduate research projects, but also give
> them a head start if they go on to graduate work.
>
> Katie Utschig
> Mount Mary University
> Milwaukee, WI
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Eril-l <eril-l-bounces at lists.eril-l.org> on behalf of Steve Oberg
> <steve.oberg at wheaton.edu>
> *Sent:* Thursday, May 2, 2019 4:50 PM
> *To:* eril-l
> *Subject:* Re: [Eril-l] Citation Managers - RefWorks
>
>
> [EXTERNAL] - This email was sent from an external address. Please exercise
> caution when opening links or attachments.
>
> I’m a little surprised that no one has mentioned Zotero yet (unless I’ve
> just overlooked that). Zotero is free (open source and developed by an
> independent, non-profit org) and very full featured; in fact, I think it
> functions better than RefWorks.
>
>
>
> We (meaning, the library) ended our subscription to RefWorks about three
> years ago in favor of supporting Zotero, mainly, but also Mendeley (this
> tool is somewhat more popular in some science departments). We’ve never
> looked back, and the money spent on it has been redistributed to obtain
> more research content for our users. In every instruction session or 1:1
> meeting where I introduce faculty and students to Zotero, there is an aha,
> why-didn’t-I-know-about-this-before reaction.
>
>
>
> Steve
>
>
>
> Steve Oberg
>
> Assistant Professor and Group Leader for Resource Description and Digital
> Initiatives
>
> Buswell Library | Wheaton College (IL) | +1 (630) 752-5852
>
>
>
> On Thu, May 2, 2019 at 10:33 AM Wardzala, Susan <Swardza at luc.edu> wrote:
>
> Good Morning ERIL-L,
>
>
>
> We currently have a subscription to RefWorks and are looking at whether to
> continue it.  With all the free citation mangers out there, we think our
> researchers are using a wide variety of them.  Has anyone else subscribed
> to RefWorks and either decided to continue their subscriptions or canceled
> it?  Would you be willing to talk about your experience?
>
>
>
> If you do not have RefWorks, do you supply a citation manager for your
> researchers?  Which one?  Do you supply support for any other citation
> managers?
>
>
>
> Thanks –
>
> Susan
>
>
>
> Susan Wardzala
>
> Assistant Head, Lewis Library
>
> Subject Specialist and Liaison for Social Work, Criminal Justice and
> Library Science
>
> Loyola University, Chicago
>
> 25 E Pearson #616
>
> Chicago, IL
>
> 60611
>
> swardza at luc.edu
>
> 312-915-6635
>
> Promouns: She/Her/Hers
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Eril-l mailing list
> Eril-l at lists.eril-l.org
> http://lists.eril-l.org/listinfo.cgi/eril-l-eril-l.org
>
> _______________________________________________
> Eril-l mailing list
> Eril-l at lists.eril-l.org
> http://lists.eril-l.org/listinfo.cgi/eril-l-eril-l.org
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.eril-l.org/pipermail/eril-l-eril-l.org/attachments/20190506/524e4aca/attachment-0001.html>