CPD23 Thing 14

Social Bibliography

As I work in a public library we don't tend to have a huge need for bibliographic software, although I wish I had these options when I was in grad school!

I found all 3 products interesting -- they each have different features and offer different things to the user. However, I am not sure that anyone would use all 3 products -- maybe two but not all three. I found it particularly interesting that all 3 include a social aspect. That is not something I would have expected to be desired or included with bibliographic citation software.

I guess it shows how social media has really influence all aspects of our lives and work that it is even in our bibliographies and scholarly references. The level of social media seems to really vary with each product. Zotero has groups and forums which are a bit more old school discussion groups although it does allow you to create a profile which is definitely a more common social media aspect these days.

On the other hand, Mendeley, clear was created with contemporary social media in mind. The collaborative aspects of Mendeley are emphasized in its introductory video and a selling point for how it is different than Zotero (which is refers to as being a source of your information). The bibliographic generation aspects are not highlighted.

CiteULike seems the simplest of all of the software/apps under consideration and that also seems to have been the intent of the designer. It definitely has appropriate social aspects and ease of pulling your articles together although it is not so clear how easy it is to put together a bibliography.

Of the 3 Zotero appeals most to me -- but that probably has to do with how I am most familiar with using this type of app, creating bibliographies for papers. I also want to get my professor spouse to take a look at these, I'd be interested to hear his take and what he'd prefer.