Bookends

For a long time, I managed refernces on a per project basis. This made writing difficult and I would often loss papers. Over time, I discovered reference managers. I tried several and settled on Papers. It worked well but was eventually sold and it became a mess.

I started looking for a new manager. I tried several including Mendeley, Sente, Zotero, and Endnotes. None of these fit what I was looking for. I then discovered Bookends by Sonny Software

When I initially looked into Bookends, I thought their website looked like a throwback to the 90’s. Before moving on, I decided to check frequency of software updates and to look up software reviews. I found that Bookends is updated regularly and it’s various features are evolving. I also discovered that Bookends is available for iOS which was a huge plus. Doing a quick search, I was also able to find that Bookends has numerous positive reviews. Overall, users were extremely positive. I decided to dive in and give Bookends a try.

I had sent initial issues figuring out the Bookends workflow but quickly found my way. I decided to go all in and buy the iOS apps. It should be noted that Bookends is now subscription based. For me it is a no brainer.

I have now owned Bookends for several years and I used it regularly. Bookends on both Mac and iOS were key to the completion of my dissertation. I can rest assured that all of the key references are stored and cataloged in Bookends.