I am working in archives which involves taking extensive notes on documents and sometimes transcribing them. I want to adapt some software, possibly endnote, to help me manage this information in easily searchable form that allows me to retrieve based on, for example, all document from a certain site, or collection; that mention a certain topic; or are from a certain author. Ideally I’d like to combine this with something that allows me to create citations as I write manuscript. It would be great if I could adapt my EndnoteX5 to do this. Is this reasonable, or should I just bite the bullet and use a different software system.
Just some things to consider and try before looking to another software program:
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EndNote has assorted “Reference Type” templates for storing references (e.g., Journal Article, Book, Edited Book, etc.). Would something like the a pre-existing template such as “Ancient Text” or other be suitable? If not, it might be worthwhile to consider building a custom reference type from the three “Unused” templates. Then you can create fields to fit the citation and bibliographic requirements for your discipline.
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You could save your notes in the EndNote “Research Notes” field and also as an attached file (e.g., MS Word, pdf); which can be searched via EndNote’s “Search” Feature. “Search” can retrieve “hits” based on text within the reference type to locate “information…from a certain site, or collection, that mention a certain topic, from a certain author.” To facilitate narrowing the search focus to a “a certain site, or collection…certain topic” you could: 1) make a list of search terms and enter the specific term for a given reference in EndNote’s “Keywords” field; 2) customize and add new fields to the reference type to enable entering information in a “Site” and “Collection” field that’s specific to the given reference.
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When saving your notes in the EndNote “Research Notes” field and as a attached file it might be helpful to include page numbers so you’ll be able to reference them in the in-text citation or bibliography (if needed).
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Once you have selected or developed the reference type to store the information, the next is to develop or modify the citatation template to generate in-text citations that conform to the style guide for your discipline.
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