Zotero workshop outline

If this class outline is useful to you, please let me know by leaving a comment below. I’d be glad to have comments and feedback from Zotero users and instructors.

Objectives

Participants will be able to:

• Install Zotero and the word processor plugin.
• Collect citations from the Emory library catalog and databases, from a search results page and an individual item view.
• Add notes and attachments to a collected citation.
• Add citations and a bibliography to a Word document using the Zotero toolbar.

Instructor Prep

Handouts

Instructor computer: uninstall Zotero so we can demo installing it in class.

Confirm that Word toolbar is pre-installed.

My Zotero web guide for more info: http://web.library.emory.edu/r_guides/how_guides/zotero.html

Introduction

Zotero is a free, open source citation manager developed by the Center for History and New Media at the George Mason University.

It is a plugin for the Firefox web browser - obviously that means that it requires Firefox, but it works on any operating system. Citation plugins are available for Microsoft Word (Mac or Windows) and OpenOffice (Mac, Windows, Linux).

Features:

• Zotero can automatically detect citation information from library catalogs and most databases. This makes it incredibly easy to use.
• It is available in the browser, where we do most of our research.
• It works with sites like amazon, flickr and youtube.
• It can take “snapshots” of potentially transitory web material.
• Since it’s a Firefox plugin, it updates itself automatically.
• Also, free!

Installing Zotero

Go to Zotero.org and click the big red “Download” button. Follow the instructions on the page. If you see the message “Firefox prevented this site from asking you to install software on your computer,” click “Edit Options,” then “Allow” and “Close.” 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.

You’ll probably also want to install the Word plugin (click “Integration with Microsoft Word and OpenOffice” on the zotero.org home page).

Notice the Zotero button on the bottom bar of the browser window. Zotero stays active in the background as you search.

Click the bottom Zotero button to display the Zotero window. The left column shows your “library” of references, including any collection folders you’ve created. The middle column shows all items in the collection you’re working with at the moment. The right column shows the details of any individual item you select. If you hide the Zotero window, Zotero is still enabled and you can still save references to your library.

Collecting references

When you view a web page with items like books or articles, it adds a new button to the browser’s address bar allowing you to save the citation.

Hands-on activity: go to EUCLID (http://www.library.emory.edu/) and do a search. Select any single item. Show book icon in location bar. Open Zotero window, click icon to see reference added to library.

Go back: show folder icon in location bar. Click icon, select multiple items and save again.

This will work with many library catalogs and databases.

Show list: http://www.zotero.org/index.php/translators/

It also works with sites like Amazon.com, New York Times, LibraryThing, and others.

Ask students: What databases do you use regularly? Any you want to see demo’d in Zotero? Any databases not supported might be able to export to RIS format, which Zotero can import. Demonstrate this if students are interested.

Taking snapshots of web pages

Zotero can capture not only links to web pages, but an actual copy of the web page called a “snapshot.” The difference is that a snapshot saves all the text of the page, plus layout and images - this is useful for web content that may change. It also gives you a local copy of the page that you can use if you’re on a laptop without internet access.

Use the camera button to take snapshots. When viewing a snapshot page, you can use the buttons at the top of the page to add annotations and highlighting.

Attaching PDFs or images

Select an item and click the “Attachments” tab on its description in the right pane. Click the Add button. “Link to File” creates a pointer to a file on your hard drive. “Store Copy of File” makes an actual copy of the file in your Zotero library that can be exported along with your library. You can also attach a web link or snapshot.

You can set Zotero’s preferences to automatically attach an article’s full-text PDF when available. This works well on JSTOR, for example.

Taking notes

Right-click an item and choose “Add note.” This allows you to attach your own text notes to items in your library. Your notes won’t appear in your bibliography.

Managing references

Creating collections: a collection is a group of references. Click the folder icon at the top left of the Zotero window to create a new collection.

It’s like a folder on your computer, except that an item can appear in more than one collection. A single book could appear in your “Georgia History,” “Civil War,” and “Hist 210 Term Paper Items” collections, for example.

You can also tag items: add descriptive terms to an item to make it more easily searchable. To tag, select the Tags tab in the right pane and click Add. You can search for tags or click a tag in the left column to see all items with that tag. Items you save from library catalogs and databases often come pre-tagged with library subject headings.

Importing: Zotero can import citations from other citation software like EndNote. Most bibliography software (including Zotero and EndNote) can read/write a text file format called RIS. Most online research databases can save citations in this format. To import a RIS file, click the gear button and choose Import, then browse to the file.

Exporting: To save your library or part of it, right-click on whatever items you want to export and choose “Export (library, collection or selected item).” Save as Zotero RDF if you want to share with another Zotero user, or RIS to share with someone using EndNote or other bibliography software.

Writing with Zotero

Show where to download Word plugin: http://www.zotero.org/documentation/microsoft_word_integration

Installing this plugin adds a toolbar to Word. On Word 2007, it’s under “Add-Ins.” On Word 2003, it’s just another regular toolbar.

Demo writing paper. Where a citation is desired, click the first button, “Zotero Insert Citation.” The first time Zotero will prompt you to choose a bibliographic style. Then select the citation you want and click OK to insert it into the document. (Try Chicago footnote styles. It’s easier to use footnoted styles with Zotero than EndNote, since Zotero creates the footnote for you!)

Place your cursor at the end of the document and press the third toolbar button to insert the bibliography.

Press the sixth/last button on the toolbar, Document Prefs, to reformat the document in a different bibliographic style.

You can also drag Zotero references in to a Google Document (or any text field in a web page) to create a formatted bibliography entry. Google Docs doesn’t offer a way to automatically insert citations, though.

Zotero has 20-30 styles. EndNote has about 3000. Fortunately, it’s easy to export Zotero collections to EndNote and use EndNote to write with if you need a style Zotero doesn’t offer.

After class

Instructor workstation: Uninstall Zotero, or at least uncheck Zotero prefs “use Zotero for downloaded RIS/Refer files” so as not to screw up workshops for EndNote instructors (including self)!