My first exposure to EndNote came not as a user, but as an Academic Computing Support Specialist for humanities faculty at a small liberal arts college. I quickly learned that publishing faculty are extremely busy and anything that saves them time is a blessing. Meanwhile, I'd been hearing rumors about bibliographic software. It seemed like a possible solution to one faculty problem.

With over twenty years of computer background, I'm very fussy about software. I did my research and found EndNote was highly recommended. The college purchased a copy, I test drove it, and I was so impressed I started recommending it to faculty immediately.

Then I became a heavy user myself...
When I decided to pursue my Ph.D. in Educational Technology, I knew I would be facing years of no optional purchases. The one piece of software I bought before starting school was EndNote. From my first month at school, I entered every article I was given or had photocopied, every book I used as a reference, and information about the most important books in my areas of interest. Within one semester, I had an enviable bank of personal resources at my fingertips. I'm in my third year now, and you should see my reference databases! Since I can create my own keywords, I track articles by topic as well as note where I filed the photocopy (I have many jealous friends on that one). If I need an article I read two years ago, I can find it in minutes. All that, and I only have to enter the citation once!

Automatic entry...
ERIC is one of the main databases of books and articles in my field. Imagine my delight when I learned that the interface our library uses allows me to download citation information (and abstracts) directly into EndNote. This is a huge time saver, and means there are no more late night typos in my bibliographies! I then learned that our library's own interface allowed me to download citation information from its possessions directly into EndNote. This is close to grad student heaven. Later, when I found myself using Dissertation Abstracts heavily, I wrote my own filter to download that citation information directly into EndNote. It took about twenty minutes, even though I had no idea what I was doing when I started.

Reuse your own resources!
Like many grad students, I take courses and do research in several related areas. Between keywords and being able to download the abstract field into EndNote, I can do a quick search of my own resources-the articles and books in my own files and on my own shelves-when I begin working in a new topic area. I invariably find that I already have some resources on that topic. I start new classes and research projects with a working bibliography!

It's portable and it's easy!
I also use more than one word processor-sometimes WordPerfect, sometimes Word. I love the fact that EndNote works seamlessly with both programs, and that I was able to put its functions right on my toolbar, just a click away. I have the same easy-to-use tool at my fingertips whichever word processor I'm in, and my bibliography is properly formatted. No more ulcers about moving between word processors.

Words of wisdom...
I tell every incoming Ph.D. student I meet here the same thing: "Get EndNote now!" I've recommended it to Ph.D. students through mailing lists I belong to and have had several come back to say it's exactly what they were looking for. Every Ph.D. student I know who uses this product considers it a life saver.

But the best is yet to come!
Still, I think the best is yet to come. When I began thinking about dissertation topics, I had dozens of relevant articles right in my own files. If I did not have EndNote, I would still have had the articles but I would never have been able to figure out which I had, which were relevant to the topic at hand, or where to find them. I don't even want to think about how much work I would have had to redo. I'm now working on my literature review and seeing that every resource I find makes it into EndNote. Literature reviews are a lot of work-even when I don't have to manually enter the citations-and I find it very comforting to know that the work I'm doing now will last throughout my professional career. I'll finish school with my Ph.D., and will hit the ground running with a bank of resources I would not have had any other way.