Thing 14 Web 2.0 tools: Mendeley, Zotero & Citeulike

So, in investigating web 2.0 tools such as Mendeley for organising and referencing, my obvious response is : make sure you have a backup of everything you save! Mendeley looks good, and could be useful to students in particular. There seem to be so many choices of different tools in this area, I would say see what suits you best. Mendeley doesn't seem to do much more than Dropbox and Neil's toolbox put together in one place, although I may be underestimating it's power having not fully explored all its capabilities. I do like the fact that you can attach articles, which will prove useful for Extended Essay & IB students. It has a fancy 'dashboard' but I didn't find it intuitive to use and had a very American 'look'. In my view simple is good. For our 6th form students, Studyvibe from Autrialia seems better presented and a one stop shop for research tools. As ever, time is an issue with finding out more. Zotero and Citeulike have slightly different perspectives. Citeulike could be very good for collaborative learning again with IB students in particular. I have shown 6th formers these kinds of tools in IL lessons. You can only take a horse to water! I do however think that just showing the Library staff know about these things does change the perception of us as just the 'caretakers of books'. It has meant over the past year that individual students are happier to approach us with questions about sourcing articles, websites and referencing. If only teaching staff would do the same! All good stuff though. I do like the first part of  Thing 14 which succinctly describes what students need whether they are 6th formers, IB students or undergraduates.