(thing) by leighton Mon May 21 2001 at 18:40:03
  1. An annotation, comment, or other note on a section of text; unlike footnotes, which are placed at the bottom of the page, endnotes are placed at the very end of the text. This form of organization simplifies page layouts and makes the text read more smoothly; however, it forces the reader to flip to the back of the book every few seconds to make sure s/he's not missing anything important. Odds are that the reader won't keep this up for long; therefore, endnotes should not contain information that is vital to the comprehension or flow of the text.
  2. A useful computer program that essentially allows you to create your own library catalog for the articles, books, and other documents in your personal library. Endnote users can either enter citations manually or download them by connecting to an online database like Medline or the Web of Science. Each record contains the usual information (author, title, year and place of publication, ISBN, etc.) along with keywords and an abstract. You can then search the database you create for a specific title, author, keyword, year of publication, or parts and combinations thereof. In short, it's a great way to keep track of a set of documents that's grown too big to organize in your head.
I like it!