My research habits have changed considerably over the past few years. Due to my job I can’t spend too much time in the library anymore. More and more resources are online these days, which can make it hard to organize them.
I find the Firefox extension Zotero very useful for staying organized and not missing all the bits of information I come across daily. I like the light-weight approach (compared to software solutions such as Endnote), the browser integration and thus platform independence. It’s free, of course. The data is portable and you can export all or some items to RTF in a number of formats, including MLA and Chicago style. There’s even a MS Word plug-in for seamless integration. Besides bibliographic information you can save snapshots, text snippets, and attach files to your entries.
So if you don’t have a good bibliographic tool yet, give Zotero a try. You find good documentation and a screencast tutorial on the web site.
Link: Zotero
Dare I say it? One of the lead developers on this project was the son of one of our profs here…and he was 18 years old.