Zotero

Ok -- so I'm actually going to recommend that anyone that has to write papers or is involved in academic work that requires you to compile bibliographies and references check out this Firefox plug-in that I was just recently linked to. It's called Zotero and it's one of the best free plug-ins that's available.

So far, I've played with it a little and it already does more than I probably need in terms of bibliographic information. What the plug-in does is that it scans webpages with bibliographic information (pages like a library catalog, a journal database and yes, even Amazon.com) and translates that info from the webpage into bibliographic information. So no more messy figuring out how to format according to MLA or APA (or god forbid, Chicago) styles. It's easier to use than a program like Endnote (though I think Endnote is more comprehensive in terms of the kinds of categories and fullness of biblio information). One drawback that I've encountered is that Zotero doesn't automatically differentiate between books and edited books (and indeed between authors and translators). There's an option, however, to provide this information and, yup, I just figured out how to do it two seconds ago.

Anyway, it's pretty amazing that this is an open source Firefox (yes, only Firefox) plug-in and that it makes the oft irritating elements of research much easier. I remember having to run down to NUS in my first year because I forgot to copy bibliographic info for a paper I was working on (it was on the Great Gatsby). Then, there was primitive dial-up (before web-browsers were popular ... or at least before they could be used properly on my ancient computer ...) where one could access text only bibliographic info in lines of black and green. Of course, I haven't constructed a bibliography "manually" for a long time because of such great software like Endnote. But this Zotero plug-in just makes it that much easier for everyone. I'm going to show my students this!