Check to see who uses Macs, what browser people use, if people have heard of Zotero/RefWorks/EndNote.
Keep your research in one place Cite sources easily Reformat articles easily for different publications Collaborate with classmates, other people in your field Save time Can take your library of citations with you when you leave Emily Carr—useful for if you go on to do a PhD, or teach somewhere else.
Recount reference desk horror stories about thesis students who can’t remember where a key citation came from.
Add citations for books directly from the library’s catalog, or Amazon.com. Demo : adding a single book (click book icon), adding a set of search results (click folder icon).
Journal article databases Great integration with Academic Search Premier, ACM Digital Library, CBCA Reference. To add an article click on article icon. Review scholarly research and peer review. Point out thesaurus/subject terms in each database. Doesn’t work with Art Full Text (Wilson Web) Saving and attaching PDFs Saving a copy of a PDF in Zotero makes it easy to find later. If you View File that the address bar shows that the PDF is saved locally. Syncing your account only syncs the citations, it does not sync copies of the PDFs. Installing an extra plug-in allows you to creates your own searchable digital library (in Zotero in FF, Preferences > Search, click the giant “Check for update” button.) http://www.zotero.org/support/pdf_fulltext_indexing Demo : Academic Search Premier, Art Full Text.
Works extremely well with Flickr, and other web sites. Click on image icon. For other images on the web, right click, select Save Image as Zotero Item. If you View Snapshot that the address bar shows that the image file is saved locally. Syncing your account only syncs the citations, it does not sync copies of image files. Poor integration with ARTstor, but possible to cut/paste metadata and then attach image file. Demo : Flickr, and MOMA (http://www.moma.org/explore/collection/index)
Click on the Create New Item From Current Page icon to archive a snapshot of a website. Saves a snapshot of the day you viewed the site, useful as most sites change over time. Especially useful for grabbing newspaper articles that you read on the web, which are often moved to an area you need to pay to access. (can also access newspaper articles through Canadian Newsstand Major Dailies) If you View Snapshot that the address bar shows that the web file is saved locally. Syncing your account only syncs the citations, it does not sync copies of web files. Demo : Snapshots (http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/contemporary_art), Highlight, annotate text
For books and journal articles subject headings are automatically added as tags. You can also add your own tags to organize your citations for specific assignments, classes, or themes that are important to you.
Quickly add PDFs that you currently have. Looks at Google Scholar for citation information Must double check what is returned, often correct, sometimes there’s some problems Demo : dragging in pdfs, right click, Retrieve Metadata for PDF.
Ask if students back up their computers regularly. Syncing your account allows you to access your citations from other computers. Does not allow you to access PDFs or images that you’ve saved and attached to citation In addition, back up your Zotero library regularly, ideally as part of your regular backup schedule: http://www.zotero.org/support/zotero_data
Useful way of looking at your citations if you’re a visual person A way to find that great article that you found 4 months ago but don’t remember the title/author/journal name. Demo : select items, Create Timeline, show Date Published, Date Added, Date Modified.
Demo : searching (are librarians the only ones who get excited about saved searches?)
Demo : insert one citation, preview citations (Show Editor button), multiple sources, insert bibliography, change citation style (Zotero Set Doc Prefs button). Also show how to generate bibliography from within FF. (Select items, right click, Create Bibliography from Selected Items).
Zotero groups (can be public or private) Create a profile, search other people in your discipline, or with similar research interests and see what they’re citing.