Reviewed by John G. Norman
Department of English
The Ohio State University

What's New?

The big news for the new version of this general-purpose bibliographical database software is the addition of a Z39.50 client and the ability to save web URLs in one's personal reference library--and send the URL information to a favorite browser for immediate reading. The Z39.50 client allows for the direct browsing of remote library catalogs (the Library of Congress, UC MELVYL, perhaps your own university library) and research databases (Ovid, Eric, etc.). The remote database looks exactly like an EndNote reference library, so there's little new to learn; the data is already converted, so it can be dragged or copied to your local database. While I was using the beta version under a non-disclosure agreement, I itched to show the Z39.50 client to my colleagues; now that the product is out, I've shown it to a variety of folks, and all have agreed that this seems the simplest way to aggregate a formidable research database. There's more below on the Z39.50 client.

General Aspects

EndNote 3.0 by Niles Software, Inc., is a full-featured bibliographical database program for Windows and for the Macintosh. EndNote boasts a long list of attributes that recommend it to scholars and researchers in the Humanities. Above all, its databases may be opened on either the PC or the Mac with no data conversion. I have, for example, FTP'd my large EndNote database (in binary form) from a Windows system to a Macintosh, and have then opened it there (tip: since the Mac will not know the file type for the binary, hold down the shift key when you select File / Open so that EndNote will show you all of the files in a folder, not just the ones that are explicitly EndNote databases). My office PC is also on a Novell network; my Macintosh-using colleagues can connect via AppleTalk and open, read-only, my database stored on the server.

Furthermore, the interfaces are practically identical. Niles has done an excellent job of striking a balance between Mac and Windows ways of doing things. Generally, the Windows version is somewhat Mac-like, since this product originated on a a Mac; but where it counts, as in file/open dialogues, EndNote is pure Windows, or pure Mac, depending on your platform.

Very generally, to add bibliographical information to a chapter or paper you mark up your document with "temporary citations," which are later replaced by EndNote with citations formatted according to the publishing style you use. If you use recent versions of Word or WordPerfect, this is facilitated with add-in software that puts the EndNote commands on your word processor menu.

System Requirements:
PC: Windows 3.1+, 95, or NT; 8 MB RAM; 5.5 MB free disk space; mouse; CDROM drive (diskettes available on request).
Macintosh: System 7 or higher; hard drive; 770K free RAM. Note: PowerMac compatible.

Version:
Latest: 3.0
Reviewed: 3.0

Availability:
Commercial software available at retailers and from the publisher. Directly from Niles: $299 (non-student), $99.95 (students with I.D.). Via the web: $99. Volume discounts are available.

Demo:
Demos are available via FTP for Windows and for the Mac.

Screen Capture:
(Click for larger image)

View 1: Two Databases Open; Searching One

View 2: Display of Formatted Reference