Category Archive

I use Endnote as my referencing software because UNE provides it free to postgrads and the wonderful library staff run an excellent training course on using it as well as providing very useful notes on their website and being willing to answer questions when you get stuck. I can even take my laptop up to the library and one of the librarians will show me what I am doing wrong.  I will therefore continue to use it - that and I have about 600 records in my Endnote library.

However, not everyone is in such a fortunate position and Tim Bulkeley over at Sansblogue has two posts on Zotero, a free bibliographic software program available on the web.  The first gives an overview of how it works on the web and the second has two animated film-thingies (aka instructional videos) that show you how to use it and how to integrate it into your word processor.  This sounds like an excellent resource for researchers on a tight budget and/or attached to an institution with different priorities for their spending.

I just did something very stupid and not at all like me - I installed a piece of free software without checking it out, despite my reservations. I got an e-newsletter from Brian McLaren which said that someone had loaded one of his early records onto the net and I was fascinated, because I didn’t realise that he had made records, so I followed the link. It said I needed to install this software and I did.

It is spyware. It also highjacks your browser and tries to route it through their site, which means that you can no longer access any of the subscription journals through your library’s catalogue. And I couldn’t work out how to get the download to work.

I quickly decided to uninstall it. It seemed to uninstall quite well from Internet Explorer, but not from Firefox. Although I also needed to uninstall the Yahoo toolbar that it also installed, and the Yahoo installation software. I googled a solution and found a very complex techie one that involved installing Hijack This and looking at log files. I didn’t have any of the files, but I did have a directory called Megaupload Toolbar, which I deleted. I wasn’t able to do several of the other techie things because I couldn’t get Hijack this to work in Safe Mode.

I then found another site that told me that I needed to uninstall it from Firefox directly. This worked like a charm - I think. So, it seems that what you need to do is uninstall it and the two Yahoo files using the Control Panel, then uninstall the plugin directly from Firefox by clicking on tools Tools and then Addons, and then remove the folder in Program Files that is called Megaupload. You may or may not need to clear your cache in any browsers you have installed - I did this early on. You do need to run your anti-spyware software and remove anything that shouldn’t be on your computer, however.

It appears that contrary to techie advice, you do not need to turn off your system restore before you reboot after this.

Of course, a more sensible route is not to install the rotten software in the first place!!!

Well, I think it’s handy, anyway.

If your favourite library catalogue doesn’t export references directly to Endnote and you find the whole “email to yourself as text and fiddle” technique tedious and painful, you can use WorldCat to import it into Endnote for you. Just find the book or article you want, click on the link that provides the details and then click on the “Export to Endnote” link and there you are. There is also an “Export to RefWorks” link, for those who use that.

Simple, as long as you’re familiar with WordCat.

For the benefit of anyone who’s asking “What is WorldCat?”, here are a few details. The WorldCat website informs me that it is “the world’s largest network of library content and services. WorldCat libraries are dedicated to providing access to their resources on the Web, where most people start their search for information.” You can enter a title, subject or person and WorldCat searches over 1 billion items in more than 10,000 libraries worldwide to find it for you. Once you’ve found the item you want, as well as being able to download the reference into your bibliography software, you can also find out whether it is in stock in a library near you, or one for which you have borrowing rights, or whether you’re going to get a bit more practice at filling in interlibrary loan forms. Or maybe giving up all hope of getting hold of a copy, since the only three copies in the world are in places where even interlibrary loan librarians will not venture without large amounts of money and it doesn’t look that good.

One way of getting to WorldCat is to click on the link above, which takes you direct to the search window. It is, however, highly likely that you can set your browser so that World Cat is one of the search engines you can choose to use whenever you do a search. You can certainly do it on Firefox and Internet Explorer. If you want to add it to Firefox or to your Google or Yahoo toolbar, go here and follow the prompts. [Please note that I am not recommending Google or Yahoo toolbars, just passing on the info.] To add it to Internet Explorer, click on the little arrow beside the magnifying glass icon in the top right-hand corner, click on “Find more providers” and the follow the instructions in “Create your own”. Note that I use IE 7 and these instructions may not work in earlier versions. WorldCat assures me that their instructions work on all versions of Firefox.