Wednesday, August 4, 2010

EndNote: The New, New Evil

A selection of tweets from my (now protected) account. In the box of "be careful what you wish for dread":

But I don't FEEL like teaching a three hour EndNote class! #tantrum

I have 18 students enrolled in EndNote & I'm not sure I'm competent. #crisisoffaith #hyperventilating

@Suelibrarian @rockchicklib @haikugirlOz thx. yes. Breathe. I do know more than they do. I am smarter than endnote.

@fionawb I *hate* endnote. Passionately. Why oh Why did I say I would teach this class?

@andvanessa nope. it's a 3 hour special class coz they asked me to.

@andvanessa it's my first one flying solo is all. I usually have a safety net. But I organised this one at short notice & no backup

Well, that #endnote class wasn't nearly as evil as expected. It was so much more evil you couldn't have dreamed up a more evil situation.


#EndNote #Evil Part 1: Overhead Projector of Computer Screen goes kerfluey, have to do first hour without visuals.
#EndNote #Evil Part 2: Half the class have brought their own (Mac) laptops which don't download export files the same way as windows

#EndNote #Evil Part 3: 1/2 class w Mac laptops don't follow along when I show them how to download filters so when we export they're lost

#EndNote #Evil Part 4: While I'm teaching with no visuals I have an IT guy failing to fix comp asking inane qs like "where's the remote?"

#EndNote #Evil Part 5: A couple of random undergrad science students decide to join the specialised database session I'm doing for PGs

#EndNote #Evil Part 6: Those random UG science students don't know how to search databases or reference. EndNote is kinda about those things


#EndNote #Evil Part 7: Did I mention the computer went kerfluey because my colleague tried to make it better? #trainingroomfail

#EndNote #Evil Part 8: Students are told to use EndNote. EndNote is not intuitive, nor usable. So we have to teach it.


#EndNote #Evil Part 9: EndNote classes normally go for 3 hours. This was an additional class for students who had 2 hours. Over lunchtime.


#EndNote #Evil Part 10: Due to rush, we had fifteen minutes to cover using word for referencing and in-text citations. #sigh

@malbooth I know. was in a mtg last week & future of libraries discussed. Someone said "if our future is teaching endnote we have no future"

2 comments:

  1. I'm feeling your pain....

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  2. Endnote is evil. Far better to use BibTeX with JabRef. Of course, this requires using LaTeX but that's not such a bad thing.

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