Zotero: Collecting Sources

Before you begin collecting sources, you'll want to configure your Zotero Preferences:

• Click on the Zotero Icon and login using your Zotero username and password.
• Click on the Edit tab to configure your settings. This will determine how Zotero will appear each time it's used.
• Under the 'Advanced' heading, be sure that 'Automatically check for updated translators' is selected.
• You may also want to have Zotero 'automatically attach associated PDFs and other files when saving items.' This options is selected by default but you should be sure to make certain it is selected on the 'General' tab. Click the OK button in order to save any updated preferences.

Books and Articles

Zotero senses when you are looking at an article in a subscription database, the New York Times, a book in the library catalog or at Amazon.com and allows you to add it to your library with just one click.

To save references to your library, open your Zotero pane (lower right side of the web browser) and look in the address bar for the item's "Save to Zotero" icon in the upper right. The icon image will change from a book, newspaper, article page, or folder depending on the type of resource you are viewing.

Books:
Since Zotero has written meta-data translators for sites like Amazon.com, you can look for the book icon at the upper right side of the address bar and click the icon to save the reference to your library.

Books in the Library's catalog:

Articles:
Search results in databases such as Academic Search Complete or JSTOR will include a folder icon in the upper right side of the address bar. Click on the folder in order to choose the search result item(s) (in this case articles) that you would like to save.

 


The citations and any additional meta-data from the items you are selecting will automatically be brought into your Zotero library, where you can edit all of the attributes, add tags, notes, child items, and create relationships between your resources.