Reference managers (also called citation managers or bibliographic management software) offer a way to save, organize and manage references. Many work with word processing software to format in-text citations and bibliographies for papers and theses, allow you to share references, and enable you to attach or link PDFs to a citation record.
Citation management tools help you manage your research, collect and cite sources, and create bibliographies in a variety of citation styles. Zotero is free software that you can install on your computer -- it helps organize your research, and then connects to Word to makes it much easier to create in-text citations and bibliographies.
The library has created this handy guide to using Zotero -- including unlimited storage while a UCB student, staff or faculty -- by syncing your files to Box! The great thing about Zotero (and why we focus on it here at the library) is that it's free and open to all, so whatever you end up doing at the end of your time at Berkeley, you can take your account and all its information and files with you, at no charge.
Also, it's always good to double check the formatting after creating a bibliography-- none of the software is always perfect!
Go to http://www.zotero.org
Pro-tip: Use Zotero Standalone which means you have to download the software to your computer.
Pro-tip: If you're writing in a Google doc, drag and drop citation from Zotero into the document.