Using Zotero: An open source bibliographic management tool

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1 Handout objectives: 1. Learn how to install Zotero - an add-on to Firefox. Guide to Using Zotero: Belk Library Appalachian State University note/zotero.pdf 2. Collect citations from the library catalog, library databases, and web pages. 3. Add notes, keywords, and attachments to a collected citation. 4. Create a bibliography from your collection of citations. Using Zotero: An open source bibliographic management tool What is Zotero? Zotero is a citation manager, a free and easy-to-use Firefox extension to help you collect, manage, and cite your references. It's easy to use and sits in the corner of the Firefox browser. Zotero allows you to attach PDFs, notes and images to your citations, organize them into collections for different projects, and create bibliographies. Since it's a Firefox plug-in, it automatically updates itself periodically to work with new online sources and new bibliographic styles. Zotero Quick Start Guide There is a great guide published by the Zotero developers themselves: Getting and installing Zotero: Zotero runs on any operating system. It requires Mozilla Firefox. Installation only takes a few seconds. Open and click the red "Download" button. Click "Install Now" and follow the instructions. If you see the message Firefox prevented this site from asking you to install software on your computer," click "Allow. Download Zotero again and it should work. Restart Firefox and you're all set! You'll see a small Zotero button at the bottom of your Firefox window:

2 The folder button on the upper left allows you to add more subject collections. You may want to have a collection for every topic you are researching. All of your references will also be in your My Library, which is a depository for every reference you add to Zotero. Click on the down arrow by the gear icon to enter preferences. Preferences on the General Tab: Be sure to check the boxes to automatically take snapshots of web pages, automatically attach PDFs and other files, and automatically tag items with keywords. Any kind of file may be attached to an item. Attached files appear in the middle column under their parent item and can be shown or hidden by clicking on the arrow or plus sign.

3 You may also add your own keywords, or tags. Tags may be added or removed with the tag selector at the bottom of the left column or with the Tags tab of any reference in the right column. Collecting books and articles: Zotero allows you to save references from most library catalogs and databases, and even some regular web pages, with one click. If Zotero detects that you're looking at a book or article on a catalog, database, or a site like Amazon.com, you'll see a blue capture icon appear in the address bar of your browser. Clicking it can automatically create an item of the appropriate type, including pdf files, and add it to the record. If you're on a page of search results with many items, you'll see a folder icon instead. Click this to get a list of all the items on the page, and select the ones you want to save.

4 Quick searches show items that have the same content or tags as the search terms. Clicking the spyglass to the left of the search box opens the Advanced Search option. Advanced searches can be saved and will appear in the left column and will be updated automatically, adding matching items to the folder. Locating the full text of an article: You've probably seen the button in some article databases that allows you to locate the full text of an article if our library has access to it in a different database. Zotero allows you to use the same feature.

5 To set up Zotero to access the server, click the gear button on the Zotero toolbar and choose Preferences, then Advanced Search at the top of the box. At the bottom of the window, paste this url into the "Resolver" box: Then click OK. Once you've set this up, you can click the green arrow with the dropdown menu above the Info Tab. Select Library Lookup, choose the item and Zotero will try to locate the item in our library catalog. Collecting web sites: Zotero doesn t capture all of the citation info from some web pages, but you can still add them to your Zotero library. Click the blue page icon to save a record of the page and a link. Creating a bibliography: It's easy to create a bibliography from your Zotero library. Hold down the CTRL key and select the references or collections you want to include. Right-click one of the selected items and choose Create Bibliography from selected items.

6 Choose the bibliographic style you want, and select the output format: Save as RTF or HTML, then copy or print the list into your document. (The RTF file format is compatible with all word processors.) Or you can just drag and drop references from Zotero into your document. They'll turn into fully formatted citations. This works with any word processor including Google Documents. Creating your bibliography while you write:

7 Zotero offers word processing plugins for Word and OpenOffice. The plugin adds a Zotero toolbar to your word processor under the Add-Ins tab that allows you to add citations to your document while you write. To add a citation, click the first button ("Insert Citation") on the toolbar. Select the reference you want to cite and click OK. Zotero will add the citation at your cursor. At the end of your paper, click the third button ("Insert Bibliography"). Your bibliography will appear at your cursor and new citations will be added automatically. Change bibliographic styles with the last button on the toolbar: Set Doc Preferences. Exporting & Saving Zotero files: It is easy to transport Zotero libraries. Most word processing programs and EndNote can read and write a standard citation file format called RIS, which means references can be converted back and forth with a few clicks. To save your files to another computer with Zotero, click the Zotero gear button and choose "Export Library." Choose RIS as the file type, pick a filename, and save it to a disk or USB drive and import the copy of Zotero that you are currently using. Zotero to EndNote: To save your Zotero library for importing into EndNote, click the Zotero gear button and choose "Export Library." Choose RIS as the file type and pick a filename. In EndNote, click "File" and then "Import." Click the "Choose File" button and select the file you just exported from Zotero. Set Import Option to "Reference Manager (RIS)" and click Import. EndNote to Zotero: To export your EndNote library for use in Zotero, click "File" and then "Export." Set the output style to "RefMan (RIS) Export" and save it as a text file. In Zotero, click the gear button and choose "Import." Just double-click the file you exported from EndNote. The new references will be added to a collection named "Imported" followed by the date and time. Zotero 2.0

8 Consider using Zotero 2.0 if you would like convenience of web-based storage of your citation library. This is useful if you use both office and home computer. You ll have to set up an account at zotero.org. Then on your Firefox Zotero screen, click the Gear icon, choose Preferences, then choose Sync, and enter your Zotero username and password. You can set Zotero to sync automatically and/or you can hit the curly green arrow icon on the right. You will then see the citations in your My Library in your Zotero account and you can sync those to another computer. Adapted from the Emory Library Zotero Guide created by Erin Mooney: