Although you can create as many libraries as you like, we strongly recommend that you keep all of your references together in one main EndNote library. Having all of the references you need in one place avoids unnecessary complexity when you are writing papers, creating bibliographies, or moving files between computers. Instead of making different "specialty" libraries, you will find it more useful to create one library and use Groups to help you organize and categorize your references. You can also use the Keyword and Label fields to assign terms to references, and easily assign them to a smart group or find them with EndNote’s Search and Sort References commands.
To create a library:
From the File menu, select New.
EndNote presents a dialog prompting you to name and save the new library.
Enter a name for your new library. If you include an extension, use the extension "ENL” which stands for EndNote Library." If you do not include an extension, EndNote will add ".ENL automatically.
Using the "Save in" list, folder menu, select the location where you would like to save the library. For simplicity, we suggest that you save your EndNote libraries in the EndNote folder, which is typically located in the Applications folder.
(Optional) You may want to save your library files to a single folder package. See Saving a Packaged Library for more information.
Click Save and the new library appears as an empty EndNote library, "Showing 0 out of 0 references.”
Note: On disk, each EndNote library is made up of both an .ENL file and a .DATA folder.
Now that you have created a new library, you can begin entering references into it. The following topics illustrate the different ways to add references to an EndNote library:
Creating a New Reference discusses how to enter individual references manually.
Quick Overview of Online Database Searching describes how to connect directly to online databases and retrieve references from them.
General Importing Instructions shows you how to import references that you have previously downloaded from online bibliographic databases.
If you have just created a library that will be the main library that you use, you can set it to open automatically every time you start EndNote by setting it to be your "favorite library" (see Setting a Favorite Library).