What is Zotero?
Zotero is a citation management tool built into your web browser -- Firefox or Chrome -- that helps you collect, organize, and share citations. Zotero also helps you create and format bibliographies and footnotes in a wide variety of citation styles (Chicago, MLA, APA, etc.) for your papers and research projects. Zotero works on PCs, Macs, and Linux systems, and is compatible with MS Office, Google Docs, and Open Office.
Zotero is freely available for download from www.zotero.org.
Library Catalog and Zotero
In January, the Library completed a major system migration for the Library Catalog. As a result, the Zotero connector no longer works (the records imported are incomplete). This problem has been reported and our IT staff are working on it. The Library hopes that the issue is resolved soon, but there is a work around in the meantime:
- In the Library Catalog, mark the records you would like to export.
- Click on the option for "Export" selecting "EndNote"
- Download the file (vufind.enw)
- Open Zotero. Go to File/Import and select "A file (BibTex, RIS, Zotero RDF, etc.). and "Continue"
- Pick the file you just downloaded (vufind.enw).
- I'd recommend selecting then to import the items into a new collection. File Handling can remain the same. Click Continue and Done.
- Your records will be added to a new collection in my Library in Zotero called "VuFind".
The records imported should be complete and have all the necessary information for your bibliographies.
Compatibility with Library Resources
Zotero automatically captures citations from library catalogs, databases and web sites.
View a complete list of compatible sites at Zotero.
Zotero should recognize items within the Library Catalog and give you the option to import to your library.
Using FindIt! with Zotero
You can setup Zotero to use the Library's FindIt! service to locate full text of articles.
Step by step:
- Go to Zotero Preferences
- Select Advanced
- Under OpenURL, select Custom. Paste this URL into the box:
http://sfx.lib.uchicago.edu/sfx_local - You can now use the Library Lookup tool to locate full text articles. This should automatically include the proxy server.
