The New Bibliography

Remember those days when we would shuffle through library shelves trying to find valid resources… it wasn’t too long ago. It wasn’t fun but there was no other way. not only that but no one even thought of a potential alternative. For decades the library was known as the center for information, books, articles and all literary resources. There was no escaping the library, if you wanted valid information. With the advancements of the Internet however, this situation began to change. Library searches became easier. Instead of pacing through the library, now we could get that information with a few clicks of a button. Newer and newer programs developed and continue to develop that make accessing and annotating information more accessible and easier. Recently, I was introduced to a few applications such as Zotero, Diigo and Del.icio.us, that allow you to make notes on articles and save them in a personal folder as your own resources. These resources can then be accessed by all users of this application.

I find these tools especially effective and useful. Once I started using the applications I realized how much easier my work load for researching became. I also noted that my research was more organized and easily accessible. If I am doing research on women’s role in the media and on a marketing project, I can separate the research I do in separate folders. Besides ease and organization, these programs also assist in the safe sharing of information. Anyone signed up to Diigo can have access to my annotated bibliography as I would to anyone else’s. This brings a whole new point to the concept of Sharing is Caring. Overall, I am very happy to have distanced myself from the library clutter and have transferred myself to a safe, organized and useful arena for research.