Ask a roomful of researchers to
name the most tedious aspect of their work and managing bibliographies
will be at the top of the list. Researchers from the Center
for History and New Media of George Mason University, funded
in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS),
have all but solved this problem with Zotero software. The
easy-to-use and powerful research tool helps researchers,
librarians, and others gather, organize, and analyze sources
(citations, full texts, web pages, images, and other objects),
and share results with others in a variety of ways.
Trevor Owens, Zotero’s self-described technology evangelist,
described why library and museum professionals should be excited
about the new software.
Q: How are libraries and museums using Zotero right
now?
A: The most obvious use of Zotero for libraries is as a tool
for researchers, students, and educators to make better use
of their collections. At this point on nearly a weekly basis,
libraries seek us out, asking for help to tweak their OPAC
(Online Public Access Catalog) to work a little more seamlessly
with Zotero. Some libraries like the Copac Academic &
National Library Catalogue have added additional metadata
to their records to make their collections compatible. So,
first and foremost, libraries are recognizing the value of
this tool to make their content more accessible for their
users.
Aside from this use, some librarians are using Zotero to
grab metadata for acquisitions. Instead of reentering information
it is possible to just grab and edit information already available
through other services and export it in a host of metadata
formats allowing librarians to take the information to other
tools and systems they use for cataloging.
I know of a few individuals in museums and libraries who
are working on cataloging smaller collections who intend to
use Zotero as their catalog system. When we move into Zotero's
2.0 stage, other users will be able to share bibliographic
information through our server, and join groups around their
interests. These individuals are planning on using these groups
as archives for these smaller collections.
Q: You mentioned EndNote and RefWorks and some other
software programs used by researchers. How did Zotero take
what was already possible and improve upon it?
A: There are a few things about Zotero that make it unique
in the world of reference management tools. Unlike previous
projects, Zotero has been built by practicing researchers
and teachers. The historians in charge of Zotero developed
it in response to many of their frustrations with previous
tools. Because of their position as engaged researchers and
teachers, they were able to build a tool that fits much more
organically into the research process.
Aside from this, Zotero is an attempt to make reference management
easier. While the proliferation of research tools and bibliographic
management systems has changed how many scholars work, the
majority of scholars in many fields still use hand written
note-cards. Ease of use was a central feature for our developers
from the first day and by borrowing the iTunes style interface
and drag and drop functionality, our tool becomes very intuitive.
Another unique feature for Zotero is its location. Because
Zotero 'lives' in your browser it is already where you are
online. Previous software require you move into other tools
to do your research. This also allows us to do a series of
unique functions for web research. By creating Zotero items
from Web pages researchers and students can archive and annotate
things unique to the web (blogs, forum discussions etc.) and
then cite those web resources in reliable ways.
Q: Do you have any comments regarding the implications
of Zotero? For example, will it make collaborations easier?
A: Zotero already relieves libraries and museums of the need
to build personal collection tools for their users and greatly
leverages the substantial investment they have already made
in digitizing collection materials. Zotero will make collaboration
easier.
Researchers will be able to collaborate on individual projects
and they will also be able to benefit from the publicly available
research of other individuals. This will have major ramifications
for those at the long tail of scholarship. Through groups,
these scholars will be able to keep abreast of developments
in both the macro fields and disciplines they work in and
their micro fields.
Q: Other than being an open source browser, why was
Firefox the right choice for Zotero?
A: First and foremost Firefox was the way to go because they
allow extensions to access much more of the program than any
other browser. Firefox’s extensibility (implementation
that allows for future growth) is in fact one of the catalysts
for the project. Aside from this, Firefox is more secure and
is on the rise, rapidly gaining ground on Internet Explorer.
It is also much easier to localize the tool in different languages
(We currently support 14 different languages)
Q: What are "off-brand" uses of Zotero?
I know you mentioned its use by cooks who use Epicurious.com
for compiling recipes.
A: You can grab recipes, organize them through your folders,
tag them, search them etc. It is really a lot of fun. Aside
from Zotero's ability to archive pages, it works great for
keeping track of web receipts for everything from books to
plane tickets. (I can't tell you how many times it has saved
me by archiving all my confirmation numbers when I need to
sort something out with an airline)
While I wouldn't call some of these other examples ‘off
brand’ we have also gotten a lot of traction in other
professions where research is crucial. Several law bloggers
have jumped on Zotero as a great way to keep track of legal
information and a few weeks ago one of our users contributed
several translators for patent material, Supreme Court decisions,
and other legal records. A month or two ago a home business
blogger raved about using Zotero to keep track of all sorts
of web information related to her business. You might consider
checking out some of our rave reviews archived at http://www.zotero.org/documentation/what_are_people_saying_about_zotero.
Q: How many Zotero users do you have and is its popularity
growing?
A: It is hard to track our user-base in absolute terms but
every indicator we can track shows that we have had very rapid
growth. Every time a user starts up Firefox, Zotero checks
back to see if there are any new translators, last month we
had 146,753 unique IP addresses check in for new translators.
That gives a rough sketch of how many users we have.
Q: How many people worked on the extension?
A: Zotero has been in the works for several years
now. I believe it goes back to at least 2004. The project
directors Dan Cohen, Josh Greenberg and Sean Takats have worked
with our development team Dan Stillman, Simon Kornblith and
David Norton to build the tool. The six of them represent
the primary development team. This summer we have 3 interns
and another developer working on the project as well.
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