Thing 14 - Mendeley

This is probably the 'thing' that I have so far spent the least amount of time investigating. Although I recognised the name I wasn't sure where I had heard about it and what it was exactly. It soon became clear  that it was in fact bibliographic software, and therefore not one of my favourite things. In the past I have used both Endnote and Zotero (finding the latter much easier to get to grips with). I developed a bit of a love-hate relationship with Endnote, recognising it's usefulness but wanting to tear my hair out after another failed attempt to get the bibliography to format properly in Office for Mac. 

Mendeley however (like Zotero) has the added benefit that it is free, and ultimately, just looks much more user-friendly than Endnote (which appears quite dated in comparison). I did set up an account, added a few references including journal articles, films and web pages, then imported them into Word and created a bibliography. I was satisfied that I (sort of) knew what I was doing, but I left it at that. If I ever have cause to use bibliographic software though I will probably start with Mendeley this time, rather than wasting my time with Endnote.

If you are interested in comparing the various reference managers available then MIT libraries have produced the following helpful page. I personally have no real call to use bibliographic software at the moment, but simply being aware of its purpose and how it is used, I think is quite valuable to anyone working in an academic library. At least now if someone drops Mendeley into a conversation (why would they?!) I will know what they are talking about.....

Thing 14: Delicious

I first heard of Delicious when as a postgraduate student it was recommended to me by a lovely Liaison Librarian from WSA. After discovering what it had to offer I did try and factor it into my research 'toolkit,' however, I never really got to grips with it and just eventually stopped logging in. Returning to it now, I don't initially see any major improvements, and certainly logging in proved to be challenging (although I think this was down to a browser compatibility issue). As I have no academic project on the go, and couldn't get into my old account I decided to just pick a topic and see what I could find. It may not be any surprise to know that this ended up being Scandinavian related! Below is a screen shot of my home page which does look nice and organised with a three column layout featuring my tags, links and comments from other Delicious users. 

What surprised me was that as I got into the process of adding links, creating tags and building tag bundles, I became increasingly taken with Delicious. It was easy to find what I was looking for and and although I currently use Bloglovin to follow my favourite blogs, which works well for me, I have to use bookmarks to save other sites I want to revisit. With Delicious I can save everything in one place. It is not the most aesthetically pleasing site, but at least it is easy to navigate and looks 'clean,' (unlike Netvibes).

So from initial annoyance (logging in), to feeling unispired and unsure as to what Delicious could offer me, I know find myself wanting to explore it further. My conclusion then? A (tentative) thumbs up for Delicious!