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Zotero reference database

Screen grab of Zotero in Firefox with some annotations

I work with return to learn students, itself almost an underground activity these days, and one of the universal messages we as a teaching team have to reinforce is the idea of attribution and referencing. For better or worse, the Harvard referencing scheme has become widely accepted in the world of Access courses.

Below is an extract from a bibliography compiled using Zotero, an open source bibliographic plug in for the Firefox Web browser, with references for some of my favourite books downloaded from COPAC.

Clarke, L. & Winch, C., 2007. Vocational education international approaches, developments and systems, London: Routledge.

Claxton, G., 1998. Hare brain, tortoise mind, London: Fourth Estate.

Csikszentmihalyi, M., 1991. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience 1st ed., Chicago: Harper Perennial.

Curzon, L., 2004. Teaching in Further Education. An outline of Principles and Practice 6th ed., London: Continuum.

Hattie, J., 2008. Visible learning a synthesis of meta-analyses relating to achievement, London, New York: Routledge.

Winbourne, P., 1994. Learning about Mathematical Modelling: A Case Study using Model Builder. In H. Mellar et al., eds. Learning with Artificial Worlds: Computer Based Modelling in the Curriculum. London: Falmer.

Some step by step instructions...

You need to download and install the Firefox Web browser for your computer. Zotero is only available as a plug-in within the Firefox browser
Within Firefox, click on Tools | Add Ons and then
Click on Get Add Ons in the upper right of the small dialog box that appears
Type 'Zotero' within the search box that is revealed (a text box one with a broom at the right end)
When Zotero is listed, click on Add to Firefox

Firefox add on dialog for Zotero

The plug in will install in a few seconds on a reasonable Internet connection
You will be invited to create an account on the Zotero server. I would recommend this as it means that you can synchronise your citations over any number of computers
If you create an account on the server, you will need to have an e-mail address. As usual, the server will send an e-mail to this address with a link. You load your e-mail account and click on the link to 'validate' your account

When you restart Firefox, you will notice a small Zotero button on the bottom right of the Firefox status bar. When you click on this, you will see the three column layout. The middle column is where you can add references. Cick on the green button to add a resource...

Zotero pane three column layout

Zotero organises references into a Library. Within the Library, you can set up one or more collections. References for a given piece of writing can be dragged into a collection in temporal order.

To add (say) a book, you

Click on the little green New Item icon and select the type of reference you want to add
A pane on the right of the Zotero pallete opens with fields to type into
Populate the fields by typing or (see below) finding your reference in COPAC
I chose to enable Last, First names in the Author field
On the right of the author field is a drop down arrow: from this you can select Editor if needed

Author fields: you need to cite the editors of a collection of chapters to differentiate the chapter author from the editor of the volume

In the case of books that are collections of chapters by individual authors with one or more editors (see the last reference in the sample above) you need to add a Book Section and fill out the fields with the chapter author's name and the names of the editors

Example of chapter from an edited book

Note that you will need to create a different Zotero reference for each chapter from a book of chapters with different authors that you want to reference. I have yet to find an online bibliographic database that will list all the chapters and authors in a collective volume (alas)

Zotero can pull bibliographic information from a range of formats automatically. If the 'filing cabinet' icon appears at the right of a Web address in Firefox, click on the icon to enter the data.

In the UK, we have the COPAC database of books held in UK University libraries. Students in FE Colleges can gain access to obscure references by using their local libraries' inter-library loan facilities. In Birmingham for Birmingham residents, an inter-library loan request costs £2.50. You collect the book from the Central Reference Library and can usually have the book for a two week period. Turn around on requests is typically 3 weeks so forward planning is needed.

The COPAC database can detect the presence of the Zotero plug in and will export data in the approprate format by clicking on a button in the COPAC results. Don't use the file cabinet icon, as author and place fields will acquire extra colons if you do...

Exporting a bibliography is simply a case of selecting references in the central colum, right clicking and choosing the format. You want to select Harvard Reference Format 1 (author, Date).

Export Harvard style bibliography

This page is just scratching the surface of Zotero. I especially appreciate the synchronisation feature available if you register an online account.

I'm creating a full tutorial for students in a bit...

last modified by keith on Fri May 07 2010