Business Instructors Donate Program to Help Students Navigate Bibliography Software Endnote

Compiling a bibliography for a research paper could get much easier for graduate students and faculty at Colorado State and universities throughout the world thanks to a donation from alumni Michael and Susan Gould.

The Goulds have created a detailed set of audio/video modules called Margo Help Desk to accompany EndNote bibliographic software the university licenses for graduate students and faculty. EndNote enables users to search remote libraries and databases, store reference information and generate a bibliographic reference list in Microsoft Word.

Through active demonstrations, the Margo Help Desk software program shows students everything from using the EndNote toolbar in Microsoft Word to searching for books or journal articles. More than 85 percent of the 100 modules last less than two minutes.

The Goulds donated use of the Margo Help Desk software to Colorado State through the College of Business, but anyone can use the modules through the Morgan Library. The couple estimates their donation is valued at $250,000.

The Goulds have conducted EndNote bibliographic software training sessions for a number of Colorado State colleges and departments.

Jim Banning, a professor in the School of Education, said he spent an hour creating a 25-page annotated bibliography using the Margo Help Desk modules and EndNote software – a process that normally would have taken more than 40 hours.

"Faculty and students now can develop bibliographic support for their work in significantly less time with increased flexibility," Banning said. "While it is difficult to calculate the financial impact of this support, the increased ‘time savings’ for faculty and students could easily be in the millions of dollars."

Many universities around the world license EndNote software, said Lindsey Wess, manager of the Electronic Information Center computer lab at the library.

"If we’re going to enter the 21st century as a serious research institution, we really need to have the tools to do it," Wess said. "The Goulds have been very generous with their donation."

"We’re trying to change the whole writing process to make it less cumbersome," said Mike Gould, who teaches a research course with his wife in the School of Education.

They used bibliographic software during their graduate programs at Colorado State. Mike completed an M.B.A. and a doctoral degree in interdisciplinary education. Sue obtained her master’s and doctoral degrees in food science and human nutrition.

"Sue and I just wanted to do this because we know research and academic writing is time-consuming," Gould said. "We hope students and other university constituents use Margo Help Desk to experience the wonderful benefits of EndNote bibliographic software."

The Goulds also are authors of "Using Bibliographic Software for Research: A Learning Guide." Colorado State recognized them last year as members of the 1870 Club and The Morgan Society.

The help desk modules are accessible to all Colorado State affiliates and national and international researchers via the Morgan Library at  http://vulture.library.colostate.edu/endnote/ or the Colorado State Writing Center at http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/sources/endnote. They are linked to the EndNote software library-support Web page at http://www.endnote.com/support/enlibraries.asp.

All Colorado State colleges and departments are invited to make the Margo Help Desk modules available on university computers via the Morgan Library hyperlink.

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