Zotero 1

12-Dec-08

Online Reference Management

Zotero

For academics, some of the more interesting new online applications are “online reference

management services” that allow users to save and organize references they have found online.

Zotero is an online reference management application produced by the Center for History and

New Media at George Mason University.

Connotea and Zotero: A Comparison

We have prepared instructions for two reference management applications – Connotea and

Zotero. I have used both and have outlined their strengths and weaknesses below:

• Connotea o Strength: online database

� Can easily be used on multiple computers

o Strength: social networking

� References are shared with other members of the Connotea community

� Users can take advantage of what others with similar interests have found

o Strength: collaboration

� Groups of people can share references with each other

o Weakness: bibliography creation

� Stores only limited bibliographic information

o Weakness: organizing information

� Only uses tags

• Zotero o Strength: bibliography creation

� Stores detailed bibliographic information

� Creates bibliographies in a variety of styles

o Strength: works well with the Library catalog and research databases

� Extracts bibliographic information from JSTOR and others

o Strength: organizing information

� Uses both collections and tags

o Weakness: database on local computer

� Makes online collaboration difficult

� If you use multiple computers your references will be stored on more than

one computer

� Potential

• Can use a portable browser on a USB drive

• Next version will allow sharing among computers

Zotero 2

12-Dec-08

Installing Zotero on Firefox

You will need to download Zotero and install it on your Firefox browser. Instructions for this are

in Appendix A to this lesson

Viewing the Zotero Window

To see what is in your Zotero Library, click on the Zotero icon in the lower

right corner of Firefox. (If you have installed Zotero, but do not see the

Zotero icon, make sure that “Status bar” is checked on the Firefox “View”

menu.)

The Zotero window has three columns:

• Library: the left column shows folders corresponding to the collections you have set up

in your Library

• Items: the middle column shows the items in the collection you have selected

• Citation: the right column shows the information in the citation for the item you have

selected.

Note: The Zotero window does not need to be open for you to save citations.

Zotero 3

12-Dec-08

Saving a Citation for a Single Item

Suppose you are doing research on Emmy Hennings, the wife of Hugo Ball and one of the first

Dadaists. You have found a good article in JSTOR and want to save a citation.

To save the citation in

Zotero, click on the

article icon, , on the

right side of the text box

where the URL of the

article appears.

You should see a small rectangle in the lower right corner of the

Firefox window informing you that the item is being saved.

Saving Citations for Multiple Items

Suppose that you have gone to the Wofford Library

catalog and searched for books with “Dada” in their

title.

Zotero 4

12-Dec-08

Click on the folder icon in

the URL text box.

This will display a window listing the items displayed

in the Wofford Library catalog. Select the items for

which you want to save citation information and click

on OK.

Note: The Zotero list will only include those displayed

on the screen. If the Wofford Catalog displays only ten

items at a time, then Zotero will do the same.

Adding a Citation Manually

This is useful if you want to reference a book you have or a

PDF file that is saved on your hard drive. To manually add a

citation, click on the green icon with a plus sign in the center.

You will be asked to select the type of item you are going to enter

When you have chosen the type of

item, you will see a blank entry in

the Items column and blank spaces in

the Citation column.

Enter the bibliographic information

(Title, Author, etc.) in the Citation

column.

Zotero 5

12-Dec-08

For example, suppose you want to cite an article stored as a PDF file on

your hard drive. Click on the green icon and select Journal Article.

Fill in the bibliographic information.

When you have filled in the bibliographic information, click on

the Attachments tab. Then click on the Add button and Link to

File.

Browse to the file on your hard drive.

You should see the article you have entered in the list

of citations in your Library. The article will have a

PDF file grouped under it in the list. If you click on

the PDF file name, you will see a View File button in

the Citations column. Clicking on this button will

display the file.

Zotero 6

12-Dec-08

Saving a Citation to a Web Page

Suppose you have found a web page that

you would like to add to your list of

citations. When you are viewing the web

page, click on the “Take a snapshot” icon

in the Zotero window.

This will add the web page to

your list of references. If you

select the web page citation and

click on View Snapshot in the

right column, the web page will

be displayed

Adding a Collections Folder

You can create folders in your Library to hold collections of items

related to each other. To create an Emmy Hennings collection, select

My Library and click on the New Collection icon.

In the “New Collection” window that appears, enter a name for

the collection. Click on OK.

You should see the new folder added to the list of your collections.

Zotero 7

12-Dec-08

Adding a Subcollection

If a collection is large, it probably is a good thing to subdivide it into different categories to help

keep things organized. For example, Emmy Hennings was one of the founders of the Cabaret

Voltaire in Zurich. You might want to create as “Cabaret Voltaire” subcollection under her

name.

Right-click (Control-click on a Mac) on the collections folder

“Emmy Hennings,” which will pop up a menu window. Click on

New Subcollection in this menu.

Name the subcollection.

You should see new collection added under “Emmy Hennings.”

You also can create a collection in My Library and then drag and drop it into another collection

to make it a subcollection. For example, you might create a folder for Hugo Ball as a new

collection.

You then can drag and drop the Hugo Ball collection into the Emmy

Henning collection.

“Hugo Ball” now becomes a subcollection under “Emmy Hennings.”

You may notice a small triangle next to the top folder in the collection. You

can click on this triangle to show or hide its subcollections.

Zotero 8

12-Dec-08

Storing an Item in a Collection

To add an item to a collection, drag

and drop the item into the collection

you want.

You should see that the item has

been added to the collection.

An item can be stored in more than

one collection.

A Zotero collection is similar to an iTunes playlist. Adding a citation to a collection classifies it,

but does not remove it from the main Library. All items remain in your Library.

Removing an Item from a Collection

To remove an item from a collection,

select the collection and then right-click

(Control-click on a Mac) on the item you

want to remove.

In the menu that appears, click on

Remove Selected Item.

This will remove an item from a collection, but leave it in your Library.

Zotero 9

12-Dec-08

Deleting an Item from the Library

If you want to remove an item from the entire Library, do the same as above, except select

Delete Selected Item from Library on the menu

Putting Tags on an Item

“Tags” are keywords associated with a particular item. Associating tags with items is another

way of organizing them in a way that facilitates searching.

To add tags to an item, select the item and click on the Tags tab.

Click on Add and then enter the tag in the text box that appears.

Some items come with tags already attached. If Zotero detects

classification information as part of a catalog record, in some

cases it will extract this information as a tag.

For example, we have entered only the tag, “zurich,” but if we

look at the list of tags in the tag window in the lower part of the

Library column, we see eleven other tags on the list. These tags

were automatically attached to one or more of the items when

Zotero saved the citation.

Zotero 10

12-Dec-08

Sorting

You can select the information categories visible on the

screen, Click on the small icon in the

upper right corner of the Items column.

A menu will appear that will allow you to choose what

categories you can use for sorting.

Clicking on the category names will sort by this

category. As usual, the order of the sort toggles when

you click on the category name more than once.

Searching

To start a search, click within the

Search box and enter a word or

words for which you want to

search.

For example, a search for

“Surrealism” retrieves the items

shown in the list at the right.

A search looks everywhere in a

citation. In the example at the right,

the article on “Dada” is found

because it is taken from a book with

“Surrealism” in its title.

Zotero 11

12-Dec-08

Searching Using Tags

Tags are an excellent way to search for

information. For example, if we select the

entire Library as the collection and click on the

“Surrealism” tag, the list is narrowed to only

two items.

If we add the tag “Electronic Books,” the list

shrinks to only one item.

Note that clicking on a tag adds it to the

selected tags. You can deselect a tag by

clicking on it a second time. You can deselect

all the tags by clicking on the Deselect all

button.

Taking Notes

As we read through sources, we frequently want to take notes. Zotero allows you to do this in

two ways.

A. Stand-alone Notes

If you have a thought you would like to record while you are working, click on the

Stand-alone note icon.

You can enter the note

in the right column. It

will be saved among

your list of items.

Zotero 12

12-Dec-08

B. Associating a Note with an Article

If you want to connect a note with a

particular article, select the article from

the Items column, click on the Notes tab,

and then the Add button.

Enter the note in the “Add Note” window

that pops up.

The note will be displayed under the Note tab for this article.

You also can copy text out of an article and paste it into a note if you want to quote it later.

Zotero 13

12-Dec-08

Creating a Report

You can create a report on an item, a set of items, or an entire collection. Right-click (Control-

click on a Mac) on the item (or items or collection) you want. Click on Generate Report from

Selected Item in the menu that appears. The report will appear as a separate browser window, as

shown below. Because the report is a web page, it can be printed or emailed.

Reports could be used as a teaching tool1.

The report feature can also be used as a way for teachers to track and assess students

during the writing process. With only a few clicks, a student can create a full report of

their Zotero Library that includes information about when items were collected and how

students are associating their items with notes and tags. These reports can show the

ways that students are relating their research items, and students can turn in these

reports as documentation of their research process. Teachers have found these

comprehensive reports to be a useful way to peer into and encourage the composition

process.

1 http://www.zotero.org/documentation/reports

Zotero 14

12-Dec-08

Creating a Bibliography

To create a bibliography, select one or more references or an entire collection. For example,

suppose we want to create a bibliography in MLA style for all the references in the Emmy

Hennings collection. Right-click (Control-click on a Mac) on this collection and select

Create Bibliography From Collection from the menu that appears.

Choose the style of the bibliography and whether

you want to save it, copy it to the clipboard, or

print it.

Click on OK when ready.

The bibliography I generated for this example is

shown below.

Hopkins, David, and NetLibrary, Inc. Dada and Surrealism a Very Short Introduction. Oxford:

Oxford University Press, 2004.

Prevots, Naima. “Zurich Dada and Dance.” Dance Research Journal 17.1 (1985).

Rugh, Thomas F. “Emmy Hennings and the Emergence of Zurich Dada.” Woman's Art Journal

2.1 (1981): 1-6.

Sandqvist, Tom, and NetLibrary, Inc. Dada East the Romanians of Cabaret Voltaire. Cambridge,

Mass: MIT Press, 2006.

There also is a Microsoft Word plug-in that will add Zotero bibliographies to a Word

document. I have not tried this, but it might be worthwhile.

Zotero 15

12-Dec-08

Appendix A: Downloading and Installing Zotero

You must use the Zotero with the Firefox web browser. If you do not have Firefox installed on

your computer, download it first (http://www.mozilla.com/Firefox). If you frequently will use

Zotero on multiple computers, you might install a portable version of Firefox on a USB drive.

Using your Firefox browser go to http://Zotero.org. Click on Download.

Depending on the security settings of your browser, you may see a message saying that Firefox

prevented the installation. If so, click on Allow.

In the next window that appears, click on Install Now.

When the installation nearly is

completed, you will be asked to

Restart Firefox. Do so.

Zotero 16

12-Dec-08

After restarting Firefox, you will see a

message that Zotero has been installed.

Firefox will show a quick start guide screen.

Part of this handout is derived from the quick start

guide.

You now have the Zotero add-on installed.