FARQ: EndNote Answers

When I first started this blog in July 2010, I promised to post at least 2-4 times a week.  Last week, I was so busy I was unable to keep up with this, which is both good and bad.  It's good, because that means I was reaching a lot of people through in-person consultations and research discussions; the bad part was that so many of the discussions and consultations centered around EndNote.

While EndNote is definitely difficult to use sometimes, I noticed a few common questions that I'd like to address right here:

1.  What IS EndNote?  
While you can search online databases via EndNote, EndNote is not, itself, a literature database like PubMed or Web of Science.  EndNote is a tool that lets you build "libraries," or groups of references.  You can add references to your library using three different methods (one of which is the online search), and EndNote should connect with Word so that it will create in-text citations and bibliographic references for you.  If you'd like to explore EndNote without downloading it to your own computer just yet, check out our software list to see exactly which public computers in the library have EndNote installed on them:  http://www.lib.vt.edu/about/campus-software.html.

2.  Why can't I see my Cite While You Write toolbar in Word?
This is by FAR the most frequent question asked over the last few weeks.  When installed, EndNote should automatically install the Cite While You Write tools in Word.  However, if you don't see it as a tab or under the "Tools" menu in Word, then you may be experiencing one of several common problems:

If you have Word 2011 for Mac, the you need to download the EndNote X4.0.2 update, available:  http://www.endnote.com/support/ENX401_Win_updater.asp

If you have Word 2008, then you need to make sure you have the Word SP1 (12.1.X) update, available: http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.mspx

If you have tried both of these, and neither seems to work, then follow the steps outlined in this EndNote FAQ:  http://www.endnote.com/support/faqs/CWYW/faq1.asp

3.  I need to create JUST a list of references, but EndNote only adds the bibliography in Word if there's an in-text citation associated with it.  
I created a special tutorial just for this situation.  Watch it for instructions on creating a simple bibliography using EndNote:  http://hnfelibrarian.blogspot.com/2011/07/tutorial-creating-basic-bibliography-in.html

4.  I need help just learning how to use EndNote, in general! 
If you want to take a class in EndNote, schedule a one-on-one tutorial, or just watch some good online tutorials explaining EndNote,  I can help you with all of those.  First of all, University Libraries offers EndNote classes at least once a month.  We always announce these on our website, like here:  http://www.lib.vt.edu/libnews/2011/2011-10-04.html.


Additionally, I am always available for one-on-one consultations; simply send me an email and we'll set something up.

Finally, I can recommend the EndNote tutorials created by the librarians at the UNC Health Sciences Library:  http://www.hsl.unc.edu/Services/Tutorials/ENDNOTE/intro.htm.  While I was in graduate school, I worked at this library, and was first introduced to EndNote by the librarians here.  The tutorials on the link above will help acquaint you with the basic--and some advanced--functions of the software.

FARQ: Lost Books

Hello all!  I'm blogging live from the 4th floor (SciTech) reference desk this afternoon, and have received one question so often over the past 90 minutes that I decided to write another installment of Frequently Asked Reference Questions!  The question of the day seems to be:

Addison (the catalog) says this book is available, but it's not on the shelf...where is it?

Although this question seems straightforward, there are actually several possible answers!

1.  If the book is not on the shelf where it should be, stop by either the 2nd or 4th floor reference desks.  We can double check the shelf, check the book's record to see if it was recently returned, and offer other support!

2.  The librarian may recommend that you check a reshelving room to see if the book is waiting to be reshelved.  Most of the time, books will be shelved on carts, in call number order, while they wait for shelvers to put the books back where they belong.  There are reshelving rooms on every floor of the library (2-5), located not very far from the location of the reference desks!  It's not a bad idea to go ahead and check the reshelving rooms if you cannot find a book on the shelf.

3. If the book isn't in a reshelving room, and hasn't been returned so recently that it is still waiting to be put on a cart, then you will need to request that we search for the item.  You can do this through an online form, which will prompt our staff to search for the book throughout the library.  If/when we find the book, we will send you an email letting you know it's waiting for you!

Books can be missing for any number of reasons:  someone might be using a book (definitely possible if the book is for an assignment due soon!), someone may have mis-shelved a book, or someone may have stolen a book!  Although it's frustrating when you can't find the book you need, rest assured that we'll do everything we can to help you find the book.

FARQ: Understanding a Journal Record

Over the past several weeks, we've had lots of marvelous guest contributors on this blog.  A huge thanks to both the VT Dietetic Interns and the Communicating with Foods (HNFE 3224) class--your book reviews and Eat Right With Color posts have been wonderful!  Today, we return to library/research material issues with a long over due Frequently Asked Reference Questions post....  Looking over the emails I've received in the past few weeks, one particular reference question stands out to me:

I'm looking at a journal record in Addison, but can't understand it.  What do we actually have access to?

Journal subscriptions through the library can be a confusing and complex issue, especially when you're trying to figure out whether we do or do not have access to a specific article that you need right away.  We've tried to consolidate information in Addison, our library catalog, but you have to know where to look for the information, and then understand what it means when you find it!

Searching for journal information.  If you have basic information about an article (say, the citation), and decide that you'd like to see the full text of the article, the first thing that you'll want to do is figure out when/if University Libraries subscribed to the journal that the article is from.  Within the citation, the journal will generally be the italicized title, followed by volume or page information.  The citation may only include the abbreviation of the journal title; if this is the case, you'll want to figure out the full title of the journal.  Contact a librarian (or me!) if you have trouble doing this.

Next, use Addison to find the journal's record in our catalog.  This will tell you if we have access to it, and the extent of that access:

Understanding the journal's record.  Once you search for the journal title, and find the record for it, you'll want to look for a few specific things in the record to determine how, or if, we have access to the article you're looking for.  If you do not even find a record for the journal, then you should immediately turn to Interlibrary Loan and request the article that way!  But, if you do find the record, you'll want to examine the record to see if:  we receive the journal in print, online, or BOTH; which years we subscribe(d) to the journal; whether or not your article is available through University Libraries.  

For this journal, Evolutionary Biology, we have information about a print subscription AND an electronic subscription.  The print subscription, which you can see under the "Holdings" category, was discontinued with Volume 33, which is why it says "1-33" in the area next to "Holdings."  Above that, we see a link to "Springer" under "Connect to" that indicates we have 2007-present online.  

So, if you were looking for an article from Volume 15, you would want to visit the shelves in Newman Library, go to the call number area (QH, which would be on the 4th floor) and then pull Volume 15 off the shelf.  If you were looking for an article from 2009, then you would be able to simply click the "Springer" link, and navigate to the article online.

Years and Volumes.  You'll notice here that our "holdings" are listed by volumes, but our electronic access is listed by "years."  In order to see where a gap in access may occur, we'll need to figure out what YEAR Volume 33 was published, or what VOLUME was published in 2007.  This information may be not be found in the Addison record, so we'll need to find the publisher's information about this journal.  To do this, I Googled the ISSN (0071-3260, found in the Addison record), and came up with the publisher's page:  http://www.springer.com/life+sciences/evolutionary+%26+developmental+biology/journal/11692.  

Here, I learned that Vol. 1-33 ran from 1967-2003, and that Vol. 34 was not published until 2007, meaning that University Libraries has no gap in access.  Although it took a little digging, the record for this journal now makes complete sense!  If you need an article from 2003 or older, then you'll need to get it in print, from the library building itself.  If you need something 2007 or newer, then you can access it online.

Other details.  If you are off campus, you will, of course, need to log in through Off Campus Sign In in order to access electronic journals.  If you are an "extended campus user" then you can access PRINT articles through our Interlibrary Loan service, having them delivered to you wherever you are.  Again, if University Libraries does not have access to the article you want (i.e., our subscription doesn't cover the particular year(s) you need), then you can ALWAYS use Interlibrary Loan to request the item.

More questions?  Just let me know!  I'd be more than happy to talk with you about understanding our journals, and how to get the article(s) you need!  View my contact information here.  

FARQ: Using Impact Factors?

I just realized that I haven't done a Frequently Asked Reference Questions post since last December!  It's high time that I highlight a reference question that I've received a lot lately:

What are impact factors?  How do I locate them?  How do I use them?  

Definition:  Impact factors.  The name seems explanatory, but the entire concept and definition remains mysterious and vague to a lot of researchers.  Essentially, the impact factor represents a metric that measures the relative influence and significance of a journal within its particular discipline.  

How they are calculated:  Impact factors are calculated through a very specific formula:  Cites to recent items (previous two years of a journal's publications) divided by the Number of recent items (past two years)

Where they are located:  Not all journals receive impact factors, since only journals indexed in Journal Citation Reports receive an impact factor.  Journal Citation Reports is published by Thomson Reuters, which also owns and publishes ISI Web of Science, where you can also connect to information about a journal and its impact factor.  

I've created two short (each about a minute), silent screencasts to show you each of these two methods.  To enlarge the screencast, click on the little square icon with the circle in the middle.  If you're reading this in any sort of blog reader, you'll need to click through to see the screencasts.

Using JCR to locate impact factors

Using Web of Science to locate impact factors

How and why to use them:  Impact factors are used to determine the most influential journals in a particular field.  You may want to locate these journals for a number of reasons:  1) to find research from the most authoritative journals and 2) to submit your research for publication to the most influential/widely read journals.

Many researchers also use the impact factor as a metric for promotion and tenure assessment.  Although impact factors may not be a good sole indicator of a researcher's impact (see criticisms below), this metric can still provide helpful information during the tenure and review process.

Criticisms:  Many researchers feel that the impact factor is an inadequate or inappropriate method for assessing a journal's significance or impact.  Criticism of the impact factor usually revolves around several different reasons:  1) that IF represents an arithmetic mean, rather than a normal distribution; 2) that different disciplines may have different representation in JCR, or exhibit different readership and research patterns, which could affect the rate of citations; 3) that journals can manipulate their editorial policies to include more review articles (more highly cited) or fewer citable items (a better ratio); 4) that impact factor still includes an author's self-cites.

Regardless of the criticisms, impact factor remains the most widely used assessment metric for journals.  Other, alternative assessment metrics include:  H-Index (more author based), Eigenfactor, or the Google Scholar Citation Counter.

Further reading:

• Thomson (ISI) products useful in promotion and tenure, from Virginia Tech Libraries
• The Thomson Reuters Impact Factor, from Thomson Reuters
• The Agony and the Ecstasy—The History and Meaning of the Journal Impact Factor, by Eugene Garfield
• The Number that’s Devouring Science, from The Chronicle of Higher Education

FARQ: Corporate Author Endnote Problems?

It's been awhile since I've done a FARQ (Frequently-Asked-Reference-Question), but I've been getting one, in particular, so often lately that I felt the need to share it.  Not surprisingly, it relates to EndNote; moreover, it relates to EndNote, and that frustrating habit that EndNote has of trying to abbreviate corporate authors.  You know what I'm talking about--when you have an paper produced by, for example, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and EndNote places that in your paper as:  Services DoHHUS or something odd like that.  So, the question I've been getting most often lately:

How can I make EndNote display correctly formated corporate authors?


The answer is actually pretty simple.  For that, you'll need to go into your EndNote library and select the entries that have corporate authors (and that EndNote is formatting oddly in your paper).  When you have an entry selected that you'd like to edit, make sure you're in editing mode (double click the entry to open up the entire record), and then go to the "author" line.  Instead of simply entering "U.S. Department of Health and Human Services," enter it with a comma at the end, and then a space, so that it looks like:

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,

Save the entry after you've edited it, and that SHOULD work!  As always, simply let me know if you have any questions about this, or anything else related to EndNote, libraries, research, etc.  Happy paper writing!

FARQ: Recalled Books (& Office Hours update)

I am going to make a last minute decision about office hours this afternoon (Thursday, November 4):  after reading all of the information about tonight's evening game, I have decided to cancel office hours in Wallace 342-A from 3-5 p.m.  If you'd like to talk with me, I invite you to make an appointment; I can come to you or you can come to me, here in Newman Library.  I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.


Next, it's time for another installment of Frequently Asked Reference Questions!  

We've gotten to the point in the semester where certain books are in high demand.  Some of these books are textbooks (like An Introduction to Statistical Methods and Data Analysis, which currently has 4 patrons waiting for it) and some are pleasure-reading books (like Eat, Pray, Love with 6 patrons waiting for it).  Regardless of the type of book, everyone wants to know:


If I request a book (place a hold on it), how long will it take before I actually receive it?

There are actually a wide variety of answers to this question.  Most of all, it just depends on various factors.  Eat, Pray, Love, for example, won't be available for some time, for that sixth person on the list, simply because all five people before the sixth person must get their allotted 21 days, which is the minimum amount of time anyone gets to keep a book he/she has checked out.  Generally, though, the basic rules are as follows:

The patron who currently has the booked checked out gets to keep it for a minimum of 21 days. A patron who recently checked out the book will have the due date changed to 21 days from the initial check out date. A patron who checked out a book more than 21 days ago has their due date changed immediately.

In either case, the patron has a few grace days to return the book. This allows time for the recall notice to go out and for books checked out to distance education patrons time to be mailed back.

After this grace period, the patron is fines $1/day for each day the item is not returned. Patrons have been known to accept these fines and keep the book well over the new due date; we have no ability beyond fines and notices to the patron to return the book in question.

As soon as the item is returned and checked in, you will receive an email noting the book is now ready for you to check out. If you login to My Library Account, you will see the status of all your requests. Look for a status of ON HOLDSHELF; that indicates a book is waiting at the Circulation Desk to be checked out. If there are no further HOLDS indicated; it should be waiting for you.

If additional holds are indicated, you may need to wait your turn before checking out this book as other people have also requested it ahead of you. Questions?  As always, just let me know!

FARQ: EndNote Styles

It seems like several upper-level HNFE classes are using EndNote pretty heavily, and there's one question in particular that I have seen a lot of lately:

What if the journal that I need isn't showing up in EndNote when I go to select my style?

There's actually several things going on with this question.  First of all, going to the journal's website and checking the "information for authors" section should let you know what style the journal that you're interested in submtting to uses.  The journal may simply use the JAMA style, or another style that is already in EndNote.  If, however, you check and see that the style used by the journal uses a style slightly different from any style already in EndNote, then you will need to do a bit of extra work. 

A good example of this sort of situation is JADA:  Journal of the American Dietetic Association.  On this journal's "Information for Authors" page, we discover that JADA uses a slight permutation of the AMA Manual of Style.  Because of this slight permutation, you would be unable to use the JAMA style to cite information for a paper that you intend to submit to this journal.  So, what do you do now?

Basically, the EndNote website offers "output style" files for all kinds of journals that do not use the "basic" citation styles.  This database of output style files is available:  http://www.endnote.com/support/enstyles.asp.  Here, you can search for any particular journal (EndNote offers more than 4500 distinct bibliographic styles at no extra cost--essentially free for you) that you may be interested in submitting to.  

A brief look at the EndNote output styles database

Once you find the output style file for your journal, you'll need to download it (the file will be a .ens file), and then make sure that the file is placed in the "Styles" folder of the EndNote program files.  The EndNote program files are usually housed in your main hard disk drive.  On my computer, I can find my EndNote style folder in the following location:  C:\Program Files\EndNote X4\Styles.  

This may look different on a Mac,
but the idea is essentially the same

Once you move the newly downloaded EndNote output style file to this location, you should see the style in the style drop-down menu the next time you go to EndNote.  If you already had EndNote open, you shouldn't even need to close and reopen in order to see the new output style file.

Voila!  You should now be able to write a paper using whatever completely obscure style your journal demands.  

Of course, you can always contact me if you have any questions!  

FARQ: Textbooks?

This is another beginning-of-the-semester frequently asked reference question.  Frugal students always want to know:

Where is the library's textbook section?

Image from Educated Nation | Higher Education blog:
http://www.educatednation.com/2009/07/29/free-money-for-textbooks

This FARQ is loaded with several issues that can complicate the search for a textbook that is used in a particular class, and that a student wants to check out.

• First of all, there is no "textbook section" of the library.  If we own a book that your course happens to be using as a textbook, then it will be shelved by its call number within the library. You can use the bookstore's textbook list to discover books that are required for your course, if you don't have your syllabus handy.  

• The best way to search Addison (the library catalog) may be by using a book's ISBN.  You can find that through the textbook list, and then use Addison's Number Search to see if University Libraries owns the book.

• Sometimes, instructors place books on Reserve.  This means that a book will only circulate briefly (2 hours, or 2 days), giving everyone in the class an opportunity to access it.  You an search for reserve books here.  

• If you are an instructor and would like to place items on reserve, you can use the online reserve request form to begin this procedure.  

A more complete description of how University Libraries can help you track down textbooks is available on our website, published as a piece of Library News on August 13.  

Questions?  As always, just let me know!

Tutorial: Renewing Books Online

In (fewer than) 90 seconds, you'll be able to renew books online through My Library Account!


This tutorial is more like a combined tutorial and Frequently-Asked-Reference-Question.  Everyone wants to be able to renew their library items with as little hassle as possible.  Although renewing books online is pretty simple, there are a few restrictions, in general, about library renewals.  For example, DVDs can never be renewed, nor can journals.  A full list of borrowing privileges and restrictions for undergraduates, graduate students, faculty members, and other library users can be found here:  http://www.lib.vt.edu/circ-reserve/borrowing.html

The following tutorials demonstrates the ease with which you can view your library record and renew your books online.

Hint:  for best viewing, enlarge the tutorial to full screen.  On the far right of the toolbar (which pops up after you've hit "play"), there is a square icon that will make the tutorial full screen.  Hitting "Esc" will minimize the tutorial after you've finished watching it.

FARQ: Off Campus Problems

Look for this button on the
University Libraries homepage

It's time for another installment of Frequently Asked Reference Questions!


Since it's the beginning of the semester, the reference desk has been abuzz with problems related to accessing library resources from off campus.  So, today's FARQ is

Why can't I access [enter resource here] from off campus?


Well, many of the library's databases, electronic journals, electronic books, and other resources are restricted to staff, faculty, and students of Virginia Tech.  This restriction is facilitated by the VT network, meaning that all of the restricted resources use IP addresses to determine whether or not you are affiliated with Virginia Tech.  When you're on campus, you will (usually) automatically receive access to VT resources.  However, when you're off campus--away from the IP ranges--you need another way to identify yourself as a VT affiliate.  This is where "Off Campus Sign In" comes in.

When you use the "Off Campus Sign In" option (which should be available on all library web pages), you are authenticating yourself with EZProxy, which essentially makes your computer think that it's on the VT network, even when it's not.  This will allow you to access the "restricted" resources.  When you click the "Off Campus Sign In" button, you will be prompted for your PID and password:

If you do this, and still cannot access what you need, then you may need to clear your browser's history/cache/cookies, and start over.  Usually, this will clear up any issues with off campus sign in.  If you continue to experience problems from off campus, do not hesitate to contact me, or any other library staff members.  You can even IM us through our Ask a Librarian service for immediate help:  http://www.lib.vt.edu/help/ask.html

Happy off-campus researching!

FARQ: Special Delivery?

Another regular feature of this blog will be the Frequently Asked Reference Question (FARQ)--all of your burning library questions answered, systematically.  The first question that I am answering here is part reference question, because it deals with accessing library materials, and part library "service" question.

If an article is only in print at Newman Library, can I get it mailed or emailed to me, saving a trip to the library?  


The answer is, it depends:  if you live in Blacksburg, and take classes at the Blacksburg campus, then the answer is no--you must come into the library to access your articles.

However, if you take distance classes, or reside outside of the New River Valley, then you can request any item from the library, and it will be mailed or emailed to your home address.  The following statement is from the University Libraries website:

The "extended campus user" policy

If you're interested in finding out more information about this and other services for "extended campus users," check out the page (available here:  http://www.lib.vt.edu/help/extended/), and just let me know how I can help!