Friday, September 22, 2006

ZOTERO, the next-generation research tool


A replacement for EndNotes and a lot more, ZOTERO works with most library catalogs, some popular dot-coms such as Amazon, and many gated databases. Among its features, ZOTERO:

* captures citation information you want from a web page automatically, without typing or cutting and pasting on your part, and saves this information directly into the correct fields (e.g., author, title, etc.) of your Zotero library

* lets you store—beyond citations—PDFs, files, images, links, and whole web pages

* allows you to easily take notes on the research materials you capture

* makes it easy to organize your research materials in multiple ways, such as folders, saved searches (smart folders), and tags

* offers fast, as-you-type search through your materials so that you can quickly find that source that you only vaguely remember

* lets you export formatted citations to your paper, article, book, or website

* has an easy-to-use, modern interface that simplifies all of your research tasks, with "where has that been?" features such as autosaving your notes as you type

* runs right in your web browser and is a platform for new forms of digital research that can be extended with other web tools and services

* is free and open source

* has a name that is loosely based on the Albanian (yes, Albanian) word zotëroj, meaning "to acquire, to master," as in learning

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