Zotero is easy enough to use without much assistance, although they do have a demo and other documentation online that is useful for those just getting started. To get started, first you need to have Firefox 2.0 installed, then download Zotero and install it which involves a single click. You'll need to restart Firefox after installation, but then it's ready to go. To start using it, simply click on the Zotero icon in the bottom right corner of your browser. This will split your screen into half zotero/half browser. You can make Zotero full screen by clicking the little screen icon in the upper right corner of the Zotero window.
To add an item, you have a couple of options. You can manually add items by clicking on the green circle with a plus sign. You then can add information on the right side in the appropriate fields. The best option is to add things automatically. You can actually do this from the library site. Let's use Tripod first (and those of you that aren't local, this works with most library sites; try it with the Library of Congress). Find the book that you want in Tripod and then you'll see that an icon appears in the address bar indicating that you can add it to Z
otero (see image upper left). Clicking on that icon automatically populates the fields on the left. Notice that the icon is a book in this case. For journals, you get a magazine page-looking icon like the one you see to the right. Clicking on this item, which I found through ProQuest, not only populated the fields, but also saved a pdf version and the abstract for me. There's also a link to the file, so if I need to find it again online, I can. Here's what that record looks like.
In the bottom half of the window, you can see all the sources. I have highlighted the abstract for the source depicted in the top half of the window. On the bottom left, you can see the link to the abstract. Not every database seems to work with Zotero. I had success with Proquest, but not with JSTOR or MLA. Here is the full information on adding citations to Zotero. Here's a list of all the sites Zotero works with. Supposedly, JSTOR works, but it didn't work for me.
Zotero also allows you to add notes, attachments, tags, and related sources. When searching your library, you search across your notes, tags, titles, etc. You can also create folders for each project you're working on and add sources to individual folders. Simply drag and drop them in the right folder. It simply copies it over to that folder. There's more, but that's a good start. Just start playing!
Zotero is planning on adding lots of functionality over the next year, including integration with Word, the ability to share and collaborate on research projects with others as well as adding compatibility with more sites. I think this is an exciting new tool and I look forward to new releases. Click on the tag below to see what others are saying about Zotero.
