Dance Education

Zotero is a free, open source citation management software. Citation management software—which includes other tools like EndNote and Mendeley—allows you to: 

• Conveniently and securely store, organize, and track sources based on project, class, theme, etc.
• Quickly generate citations and bibliographies in any style.
• Easily find sources you’ve previously saved.
• Practice active (and collaborative!) reading by digitally highlighting and commenting on PDFs.

Zotero is available to use on any computer in Cook Library! You will still need an account to use it though. Modify these instructions accordingly.

• Make sure Microsoft Word is closed
• Go to Zotero.org
• Install browser extension(s)
• Install the desktop app
• Welcome to the Zotero Setup Wizard: click Next Select Standard, click Next Specify installation location (usually default is fine), click Install Check the Launch Zotero now box and click Finish
• Register aka create Zotero account
• Install word processor plugin for Microsoft Word and Google Docs
• On the desktop app, go to Edit > Preferences > Sync tab;  then, enter user name & password for Zotero account

For additional help with the installation process, view Zotero's own documentation.

To create a collection in Zotero:

• Select File from the topmost menu
• Select New Collection from the dropdown
• Name your Collection

You can now save items to specific Collections!

There are two main ways to save items to your Zotero library.

Add manually by entering all information:

• Go to File menu > Add new item. 
• Choose your item type (book, journal article, artwork, etc.)
• Complete the information for the item (author, title, etc.). You do not necessarily need to fill out all the fields to create a complete citation. See your citation manual for details

Add automatically with the Zotero browser extension:

• Search using your tool of choice, or otherwise navigate to a source you want to save. This can be a website, journal article, library catalog page, etc.
• When you get to the source(s) you want to save, click on the Save to Zotero bookmarklet icon that will appear in the bookmarks bar of your browser (top right of the window).
  • NOTE: the Save to Zotero icon can appear in several different ways, depending upon what type of source(s) Zotero has detected. For instance, if there are multiple sources detected on the page (example: database results page) you have the option to import all the sources on the page by clicking an icon that looks like a folder.
• A gray box will appear showing where Zotero is saving the item. You can select the collection of your choice by clicking the rightmost down arrow, and add any tags that are helpful to you.
• The source(s) are now in your Zotero library, in the collection you chose!
• There can sometimes be missing information or format issues in what Zotero saves, so it's a good idea to check the imported information.