Connect to Open Source Bibliographic Management Software: A Reflection on Five Free Citation Management Programs, MLA’ 10
The Medical Library Association, Inc. (MLA), held its 112th Annual Meeting in Washington, DC, May 21–26, 2010 at the Hilton Washington. The meeting theme was Reflect & Connect.
Poster Presentation: Session II | Date: Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Presentation Title: Connect to Open Source Bibliographic Management Software: A Reflection on Five Free Citation Management Programs (#5) | View abstract on MLAnet.org
Authors: Alan T. Williams, Education Services Librarian; Shannon D. Jones, Head, Outreach Services; Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA
Objective: This poster will compare and contrast several open source citation management programs as an alternative to proprietary bibliographic management software.
Methods: With the increasing popularity of commercial bibliographic management programs at academic medical libraries, librarians became interested in investigating free, open source citation management programs and their similarities and differences to popular proprietary programs subscribed to by academic medical libraries. An intense Internet search was conducted, and from this search, the top five free programs were identified. These programs were BibMe, JabRef, CiteULike, Carmun, and Zotero. It is hoped that a comparison of the similarities and differences of these free programs will allow more choices for students, faculty, and staff, as well as alumni who may want to transfer their bibliographic citations from a commercial product to an open-source program upon graduation from the university.
