Bibliographic information is descriptive information about a piece of work, such as author, title, date of publication, etc.

Storing this information will help you to cite the sources you have used, thereby avoiding a last minute panic when you write up your work.

Take advantage of reference management software to keep a record of the information sources you use. This will allow you to:

• Record reference information so you don’t lose information or sources
• Make notes about where you found a particular item
• Directly import reference information from Library Search and many databases
• Directly import reference information from Google Scholar
• Store full-text documents
• Record links, so you have immediate access to full-text articles (where available via the library)
• Share your references with your classmates, lecturers, project group, etc.
• Search for items in your reference database
• Insert in-text citations, and produce a fully-formatted reference list and/or bibliography

You can use software packages that have to be installed on your PC or laptop, but we would advise using RefWorks whilst you’re studying. It’s web-based, and you can access your personal database of references whether you’re on- or offline. There are tutorials available on the library website, and further help is available from RefWorks.