Should I use a main library?

EndNote EndNote How To
1

I refer to a Windows XP computer running Word 2003 and Endnote X5.

“Creating a New Library

"Although you can create as many libraries as you like, we strongly recommend that you keep all of your references together in one main EndNote library. Having all of the references you need in one place avoids unnecessary complexity when you are writing papers, creating bibliographies, or moving files between computers. Instead of making different “specialty” libraries, you will find it more useful to create one library and use Groups to help you organize and categorize your references.”

 

I prefer to prepare a “specialty” library for each project that I am working on, such as a manuscript that has reference lists. One reason is that I have separate Word folders for the different projects that I work on. I want the “specialty” library for that manuscript to be limited to references for that manuscript and to be in the Word 2003 folder for that manuscript. Furthermore, I am concerned that I could feel overwhelmed by putting references into one main EndNote library. I like to “compartmentalize.”

Do you suggest keeping all the references in one main EndNote library? If so, is using Groups easy and convenient to organize the references that I want for a specific manuscript?

Thank you.

2

If you are asking for opinions, I do prefer one library, but once you format a paper, you can always create a group from it and even export it (without the pdfs) to retain it as a specialty library for that paper.  But I think it is really a waste of storage, but I guess these days, storage is cheap.  You probably wouldn’t want to keep more and more “groups” to represent your “history” of what was used in which manuscript in your library, so I don’t think groups help much for that?