Thought I'd share this with anyone who hasn't come across it yet. I just
discovered it a few days ago. It's an open source research tool developed by
George Mason University that plugs into Firefox. There are also adds-on that
integrate it into Word and Open Office. Here's the link:
http://www.zotero.org/. And here's their description:
"Zotero is an easy-to-use yet powerful research tool that helps you gather,
organize, and analyze sources (citations, full texts, web pages, images, and
other objects), and lets you share the results of your research in a variety
of ways. An extension to the popular open-source web browser Firefox, Zotero
includes the best parts of older reference manager software (like
EndNote)—the ability to store author, title, and publication fields and to
export that information as formatted references—and the best parts of modern
software and web applications (like iTunes and del.icio.us), such as the
ability to interact, tag, and search in advanced ways. Zotero integrates
tightly with online resources; it can sense when users are viewing a book,
article, or other object on the web, and—on many major research and library
sites—find and automatically save the full reference information for the
item in the correct fields. Since it lives in the web browser, it can
effortlessly transmit information to, and receive information from, other
web services and applications; since it runs on one’s personal computer, it
can also communicate with software running there (such as Microsoft Word).
And it can be used offline as well (e.g., on a plane, in an archive without
WiFi).
The 1.0 release of Zotero already provides advanced functionality for
gathering, organizing, and scanning one’s research, as well as significant
import/export capabilities (including integration with Word and an API for
communication with any program or service on the web). In 2008, Zotero users
will gain the ability to share and collaborate on their collections with
other users through an exchange server, and receive recommendations and
feeds of new resources that might be of interest to them. In short, over the
next year Zotero will expand from an already helpful browser extension into
a full-fledged tool for digital research and collaboration."
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