In an effort to go "paperless" this academic year (more on this later), I was especially motivated to try the desktop version of Mendeley, which provides highlighter and note tools. Yet, after reading and marking up one PDF file, I could not successfully save or export the file with its annotations. Each time I attempt to do this, the application crashes and closes. Consequently, I cannot see my annotations anywhere except locally on my own laptop within the Mendeley Desktop environment. They do not appear inside the library within the Mendeley "cloud," and the cloud, according to today's webinar presenter, is just what makes Mendeley so special!
Meanwhile, I have not been able to explore the functionality of MendeleyLite because it continually crashes on my iPad.
Frustration!
I suspect the problem with Desktop relates to different versions of PDFs, depending on when and how the file specifications were generated. But I really don't have the time nor the inclination to explore the issue in-depth. At any rate, I have already located a handful of other PDF readers/annotators that upload reliably to Dropbox, enabling me to then download my marked-up pages to the Mendeley library.
Still, out of curiosity, I raised the issue during the Mendeley webinar and was pleased with the timely manner in which the presenter responded. But she didn't tell me anything I didn't already know, except to contact support, which I have done.
The overall purpose of the Mendeley webinar was to provide a broad overview of its features. I learned about some new tricks I can do with my Mendeley reference library, such as:
- Synch with my account in Zotero, another web-based citation manager
- Create "watch" folders on my desktop that synch with Mendeley each time I add new content
- Use the document identifying number (DOI) to fill in missing information on a resource
On a broader scale, I can view and sometimes access what others are reading within the Mendeley community, which numbers in the millions. I can also connect with other researchers in my discipline who share my interests, thanks to a variety of social networking features the Mendeley developers added.
This is what Hensley (2011) was referring to when she described the development of Mendeley as " a clear indication of the future direction for research tools." According to Hensley, developers will continue "to look for ways to embed the organization of research materials, add social collaboration features, and incorporate compatibility with smartphones and tablet technology."
Mendeley, it seems, exemplifies the "potential of digital convergence" that Brown described back in 2002 in his article "Going Digital and Staying Qualitative."
It sounds great. It really does. But for now, all I want is a citation manager that does double-duty as an e-reading utility, or that at least "plays nice" with the other tools in my digital toolbox.
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