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Searching Online Databases with EndNote

EndNote will allow you to search many databases, primarily library catalogs, directly from EndNote using a connection file. You can then easily move your references into your library. For security reasons (password protections, etc), most of the library's subscription databases cannot be searched using a connection file; for those databases, you will need to import references or enter them manually.

When you open a library, there are some search options on the left. As a default, there are links to WorldCat and the Library of Congress. Click either of those options to connect to the database with the EndNote search interface. Enter titles, authors, keywords, etc., and click to "Search." Results will appear in your EndNote library. If you already have citations in your library, only the results from your current search will display; that gives you a chance to review them and alter or delete if appropriate before they get lost in the shuffle of your hundreds of other citations. To check or edit the information for a source, double click on the title.

WorldCat (a combined listing of books, sound and video recordings, journals, and other titles held in thousands of libraries including Wesleyan) is a particularly useful database for adding records for books and similar items (videos, sound recordings, etc.) to your EndNote library. When you click to connect, it will ask for a username and password, but if you are on the Wesleyan campus network or logged into the proxy server you can leave 'username' and 'password' blank and click "OK" to connect. (Note: to log into the proxy server from off campus, go to the library's Indexes & Databases page and click to connect to any of the databases. You will be prompted for your email username and password. Enter those and you will be logged into the proxy server which will allow you to access the library's subscription databases from off campus). 

Library of Congress is another very good database for books. It is likely to have just about anything you are looking for, and less likely to have multiple records for the same item as WorldCat often does.

To add a searchable database to the default list, click the "more..." option and select from the long list of library catalogs available. To add Wesleyan, and also Trinity and Conn Colleges, to that long list of catalogs, click the links to the right and save the files to the "Connections" subfolder in the EndNote folder.

Connection files for CTW Catalog: Wesleyan Trinity Conn College PC: save file to C > Programs > EndNote > Connections Mac: save file to Finder > Places > Applications > EndNote > Connections