Back in April, I did a review of Easybib.com. It is a tool I have used in the past and will continue to direct my students to use in the future. There are some exciting new things going on with Easybib that I wanted to share with everyone as the school year gets underway.
One of the things I had really wanted to see back in April was an app. Well, Easybib has answered with a great app for the iPhone. Here is a video that explains what this great app can do.
I love the scanner option. Students still use books and this is a quick and easy way to get all of the citation information needed from a book. I am also a fan of the search feature. Allowing a user to search by title and ISBN is a fantastic way to allow the most accurate citation possible if the bar code is not available to be scanned.
The app allows the user to switch from MLA, APA and Chicago citation styles, allowing all users to find the correct citation they need. Once the citations have been found, they can easily emailed to yourself for inclusion on the paper the user is writing.
Easybib has also rolled out their Research Engine. What this great tool does is show a user what resources have been cited on a particular topic.
For example, let's say a student is writing an essay on the Death Penalty. After typing in "Death Penalty" into the Research Engine, a list of the most common cited pieces related to the Death Penalty will show up. Follow this link to see for yourself.
I love this feature. It can be tough to help every student find all of the resources they need when they run into roadblocks. Easybib does a great job helping those students find material that others have used. Now, I would still tell my students to use their best judgement when evaluating websites for information, but it is great practice as they learn to sort through the good, the bad and the igly of the internet.
Research Engine is still in Beta, so I look forward to exciting new changes that will appear as time goes by. I highly suggest you check it out and provide them with feedback to make the site better for all users in the future.
Another neat feature is the connection of Google Docs to your Easybib account.
In Easybib, you can create a specific project for the essay/research you are working. Now, you can connect a Google Doc to the project to seamlessly move the citations to the essay. I am a fan that allows the smooth transition of information. Instead of transporting the info to a Word document then cutting and pasting it to a Google Doc, I can cut out the middle man. (Watch out Microsoft) Google tools are finding their way into more and more online sites and this is another example of the positive impact of integration. This is a great edition to the the Easybib family of tools.
Lastly, Easybib has real time citations. The number of citations is staggering and it is kind of cool to see what other people are currently researching.
Overall, I'm very excited about the new editions to Easybib. I love that they are working to improve their site and make citation more of a social event. The sites that stand still get passed by. Easybib is working at making citation better and more accessible for all users. I will continue to be a fan of Easybib and I highly recommend using it with your students.
Hi Nick,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great feedback! We're glad you like the new stuff we're rolling out. Everyone else: stay tuned for even more exciting features in the future.
OMG!!! If you only knew what a GOLD MINE this is for me! I'm just starting my Ed. D and citing works is now going to be a snap.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for sharing this. I'm going to tell everyone in my cohort about it!
I'm a professor whose students often use EasyBib. EasyBib works just fine for most citation tasks However, EasyBib handles one task very, very poorly, and, unfortunately, this is the one task for which my students use it most often: if you use the "Website" option and enter a URL, EasyBib will _never_ given a correct entry for an article in an online newspaper or magazine, and it will only give a correct entry for another webpage if whoever published the website coded it correctly, using the work's actual title as the HTML title (and that doesn't even get into other details, like t he publication date).
ReplyDeleteIn short, though I know it's tempting to do the easy thing and just plug in the web address, it's just not gonna work, and you're better off just doing it by hand.