Easy Footnotes

October 7, 2007 3:06 PM

Is there an application/website that will automatically generate MLA style footnotes if I feed it the relevant information?

I know this might sound lazy, but I've searched for a while an couldn't come up with anything.

Ideally the application would allow me to enter a sort of catalog of of books that I use for reference, storing all the relevant information such as Author, Publisher, Location, Date, Name etc, and when I am ready to create a footnote, all I have to do is select which book I'm using, enter a page number, and it would automatically generate the footnote, all I have to do is copy and paste it.

Also the application/website would cater for not only books, but journals, websites, etc.

I certainly can't be the first person to want something like this can I? Or am I just really lazy?

posted by althanis to education (9 comments total)

Son of a Citation Machine.
posted by frobozz at 3:10 PM on October 7, 2007

Easybib will do this online. Lots of services and programs do this.
posted by null terminated at 3:11 PM on October 7, 2007

Or no - I don't suppose you can enter a catalog with that. Read your question too quickly; sorry.
posted by frobozz at 3:11 PM on October 7, 2007

If I understand what you want, I think EndNote will do it, although you will have to copy and paste a new record for each footnote.
posted by grouse at 3:16 PM on October 7, 2007

RefWorks does what you're looking for, and many online library catalogs have an "export to refworks" feature so that you don't even have to feed it the initial citation. Many online journals have that feature as well, as do several print-journal-online providers (like EBSCO).
If you're in academics, your school might provide RefWorks for free. It can be used to catalog your sources and then will spit out the source in nearly any format you choose -- MLA being one of those formats. It can also work in tandem with Microsoft Word to insert footnotes and create bibliographies with minimal effort.
And by the way: you're not lazy. Laziness would be not writing the paper in the first place! There are many programs out there for this purpose, and they're created to ease the burden of proper citation format and aid in standardization. So don't feel bad about wanting something like this!
posted by k8lin at 3:31 PM on October 7, 2007

There are two main categories of product for building reference lists. One is desktop software for building reference lists and bibliographies, which are focused on for academic papers and other things with tons of references. Off the top of my head, one example is EndNote. This seems to be what you want, and while they tend to cost money, I bet there's an open-source product out there somewhere.

The other main kind, just for completeness, are online services which let you punch in the info and get a short list, but which don't tend to have any other nice stuff like remembering citations for future use. Son of Citation Machine seems to be the most popular (which is probably more a matter of momentum than any difference in quality, since it's pretty basic on features). For books, there are also a few services like OttoBib that let you just put in an ISBN and get a full cite, which is handy if you don't plan on getting a desktop app (those can usually do that).
posted by abcde at 4:32 PM on October 7, 2007

2nding RefWorks. It also inserts in-text citations for you, based on your "references" page.
Awesome.
posted by Rykey at 7:30 PM on October 7, 2007

If you want a bibtex solution, check out my previous question. Specifically this site which has the best mla styling I've found so far.
posted by chndrcks at 6:56 AM on October 8, 2007

I'll check out Endnote, but $100 is to much for me to pay for RefWorks.

In the meantime I'll use Citation machine, thanks guys.
posted by althanis at 2:37 PM on October 8, 2007