Review: Software for References and Bibliographies
EndNote Version X
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EndNote, Version X, Thomson ResearchSoft, 2006
ResearchSoft, 2141 Palomar Airport Road, Suite 350, Carlsbad, CA 92009, USA.
Student edition $109.95
Normal edition $299.95
EndNote is software designed to quicken the process of compiling and using footnotes, endnotes and bibliographies. It is of particular use to lecturers and researchers who have large databases of references to handle, but also is very helpful for students writing their thesis or short papers. It is the best known program of its type.
The “Cite While You Write” facility allows the quick insertion of a bibliographic reference while word processing.. Bibliographical information can be obtained via the program from the main sources of public and subscription databases. Although the interface is in English, there is a Spanish language option when sorting references and a Spanish dictionary for spell checking.
Bibliographical information can be entered either manually by typing in each individual reference or it can be downloaded from other databases which use the EndNote Export Citation option. This is particularly useful as increasingly seminary libraries are obtaining access to online databases. In building the bibliography EndNote provides 39 different options for the type of material being cited i.e. whether it be an extract from a dictionary, a conference paper or a web page.
From within the program it is possible to connect to more than 1000 library databases, including Princeton Theological Seminary, the National Library of Spain, the Vatican Library or the Library of Congress. Or the references can be obtained from online databases such as ATLA or Google Scholar. For instance, if looking for references to Johannine literature the following results were obtained: Manchester University (226 titles), Princeton Theological Seminary (139 titles) and Oxford University (126 titles).
It is easy to swap between different styles of citations (e.g. Harvard, Chicago or Oxford), and the required styles for about 2300 publications are available. This list is divided into the main categories of religion, medicine, history, and so on. For those writing articles for journals about 170 different page templates are provided for different publishing houses. It is easy to add PDF files or images to the bibliographical information.
As with all quality software, there is a cost and a learning curve. Some users complain about the program being excessively complex. If students were preparing a few short bibliographies it is doubtful if the time spent in learning how to use the program, let alone the cost, would justify purchasing it.
EndNote is a significant program for Seminary students, lecturers and authors. For such writers the collecting and citing of bibliographic material is important and this program makes a thorough and quick job of it.
Software requirements: Windows 2000, XP or Mac OS X, (not for Linux).
Minimum hardware requirements:
Processor: Pentium 450MHz
Memory: 256 MB
Hard drive: 180 MB free
David E. C. Ford,
Professor of New Testament, Fundación Universitaria Seminario Bíblico de Colombia, Medellín, Colombia.