The following memo to the 91ÑÇÉ« community has been issued by the 91ÑÇÉ« Libraries.
91ÑÇÉ« Libraries would like to assure the 91ÑÇÉ« community that all 91ÑÇÉ« RefWorks accounts and all data associated with those accounts are safely stored on the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) server, which is located on the University of Toronto campus.
In an item aired on the CBC Radio "National News" on Nov. 7, there were interviews with researchers who were concerned about the storage of RefWorks user accounts and citation data. Some universities in Canada have their RefWorks users' accounts and data stored on the RefWorks server in the United States and this information may be subject to application of the US Patriot Act. This is not the case with 91ÑÇÉ« RefWorks accounts.
No personal or demographic data is required from individuals when setting up a RefWorks account; users need only supply an e-mail address.
91ÑÇÉ« Libraries endorse the use of RefWorks as a tool for the collection, storage and manipulation of bibliographic citation data. A Web-based citation management application such as RefWorks allows access to and use of a researcher's citation data from any computer with Internet access. It facilitates sharing of citation data and frees users of the need to back-up data and install software updates.
For further information on RefWorks and how to obtain a RefWorks account at no charge to individuals, see the Libraries' webpages. On the Libraries' home page , simply click on the "Footnotes, Bibliographies, RefWorks" heading.