Using RefWorks and Zotero

FOSL Sessions Feb 15, 2010 and Feb 16, 2010

Create a personal database of references online - accessible from any computer/device that has Internet access. Web-based, so no need to download and install software on your computer/device.
Import references automatically from multiple databases - search results from a wide variety of databases can be exported into RefWorks.
Organize and manage references - sort and file references using folders, duplicate detection, and author, keyword, and journal name searches.
Share references - easily collaborate with members of your own institution or work globally with other researchers, faculty members, or students.
Format bibliographies and manuscripts in seconds - save time and decrease the number of errors made when creating bibliographies. Easily make changes to your paper and reformat in seconds!

Student benefits: simplifies the generation of accurate, concise bibliographies, facilitating the research process and guarding against possible plagiarism issues.
Faculty benefits: useful tool for storing a personal database of research, sharing research with colleagues, and creating bibliographies in multiple formats.
Librarian benefits: facilitates the incorporation of information fluency competencies into the curriculum at all levels. In addition, with the rapid expansion of e-resources, and the growing need to integrate these in the works of scholars and students, RefWorks provides an organization wide standard for citation management. Also provides a wide variety of usage stats.

Alumni Program - free!
Attachment feature - can attach files (.doc, .xls, .jpg, etc.) to RefWorks references
RefGrab-It - allows users to capture data from web sites through a simple single click. RefGrab-It captures the bibliographic data on a web site and searches the web for additional information relating to the web page (e.g., ISBN numbers, DOIs, PubMed IDs, etc. RefGrab-It is available as a bookmarklet as well as a plug-in to your browser.
RefMobile - use RefWorks on mobile devices - available at http://www.refworks.com/mobile
RefShare - provides RefWorks users with a quick and easy way to share their research information, further enhancing collaborative research. Users can share their RefWorks references with members of their own institution and globally with any researcher having Internet access.
RefWorks 2.0 coming soon! - previews available at http://www.refworks-cos.com/RefWorks2.0/
Write-n-Cite - this optional plug-in provides the ability to write and format a paper using Microsoft Word and your Zotero references. (to install Write-n-Cite, login to account and look under "Tools")

available as a free download from the Center for History and New Media, George Mason University at http://www.zotero.org
open source, works only with Mozilla Firefox browser
citation manager designed to store, manage, and cite bibliographic references, such as books, articles, web sites, films, etc. In Zotero, each of these references constitutes an item. Every item contains different metadata, depending on what type it is. Items can also have notes, files (any type), and links attached to them. Web pages can be attached to any item as a link or a snapshot - a link simply opens the website online while a snapshot is a locally stored copy of a web page as it existed, so it can be available without an internet connection. Watch the video at How to Clip, Sort, and Cite the Entire Web with Zotero
Zotero allows you to organize your research into collections. The collections are highly flexible and an item can belong to multiple collections simultaneously. Your Zotero library is the master collection of all your research, and from that research you can pull citations, clippings, PDFs and so on, and create a collection representing your current area of interest or research like "19th Century Medieval Literary Criticism" or "Potential Markets for Growth". Collections are easily modified and can be shared.
supports all the major styles (Chicago, MLA, APA, Vancouver, etc.) as well as many journal-specific styles

Zotero's Word and OpenOffice/NeoOffice plugins allow users to insert citations directly from their word processing software. In-text citations, footnotes and endnotes are all supported. Watch the video at Using Zotero with Word from Zotero.org
can use portable Firefox and Zotero on a thumb drive
collaborate - use Zotero at multiple computers with syncing. Library items are synced through the Zotero server, while file syncing uses your own WebDAV service to sync files such as PDFs, images or audio/video
Zotero users can create collaborative or interest groups. Shared group libraries make it possible to collaboratively manage research sources and materials, both online and through the Zotero client. Zotero.org can be the hub of all your project group's research, communication and organization

Laura Neal
Scarborough Library, Room 250
Email: lneal@shepherd.edu
Phone: 304-876-5379