Sarah Elichko
Social Sciences & Data Librarian
September 23, 2016
Books
Articles
Chapters
Images
Audio
Video
Websites
Notes
Annotations
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References / metadata
Files / full-text
- Links (online or local)
- Stored copies
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Keep all of your research materials together in one place
- Attach references, documents, files, notes, etc.
Organize your materials by project, topic, purpose, course, etc.
- Multiple options: collections, sub-collections, tags, sort fields
Easily find what you've already found
- Search and browse your collected research materials
- Access your library from anywhere with an internet connection
Generate citations, bibliographies, and reports
- Add formatted citations to your writing
- Use reports and groups to share references and collaborate
What is most fixed about your research habits and preferences?
- Device / OS / platform - e.g. must run on Mac or PC
- Workflow - e.g. frequently adding new sources from browser
Are you working with collaborators who already have an established research management platform?
How important is long-term consistency?
- Business models
- Ease of exporting your data
Some initial set-up time
Some time spent figuring out your workflow
Consistency - it only works if you actually add your research materials to your Zotero library
Some time correcting metadata and fixing citations
Option 1: Use Zotero’s notes feature
Option 2: Link to your notes (online)
Take your notes in Google Docs, Simplenote, etc.
Anything that generates a reliable URL
Attach link to notes to the item (book, article, etc.)
Be aware of privacy / sharing settings
Option 3: Extract annotations + notes from PDFs using Zotfile
Highlight and annotate your PDF (using Adobe Reader)
In Zotero, right-click and select Extract Annotations
Your annotations will be stored as notes attached to the item
Option 4: Attach a file (store a copy or link to a file)
Could be a PDF or photograph
Quickly share a few references (+ notes, if you'd like)
---> reports
Create formatted citations
---> Microsoft Word and Open Office connectors
---> Export citation (Google Docs)
"A huge sticking point I have tends to be keeping track of what I saw, where I saw it, and what I thought it was worth remembering for. It feels like stopping to notate is a big speedbump when I'm in chase mode, and not thinking about what a pain it will be weeks later when I don't remember where things came from; I need to be better about saving, tagging, and notating things in Zotero, actually."
"A huge sticking point I have tends to be keeping track of what I saw, where I saw it, and what I thought it was worth remembering for. It feels like stopping to notate is a big speedbump when I'm in chase mode, and not thinking about what a pain it will be weeks later when I don't remember where things came from; I need to be better about saving, tagging, and notating things in Zotero, actually."
Review of Zotero's main features
https://www.zotero.org/support/quick_start_guide
Installing Zotero
http://bit.ly/zotero-setup
Configuring Zotero
http://bit.ly/zotero-settings
PDFindex
Zotfile
Add columns to sort by (e.g. date added)
Chrome users
Authorize browser extension to add
references while Zotero Standalone is closed
Firefox users
Try full-tab view