Welcome to ALPS LINKs' Site of the Month for November, 2010!

We've selected an innovative topic this month. Richard Baer of Camosun College demonstrates Zotero, a free bibliographic reference manager, in three tutorials: Introduction to Zotero, Using Groups, and Word Processor Integration. As a free Web 2.0 tool, the subject of this tutorial immediately caught our attention.  Used with Firefox, students have a Zotero icon right on the browser, to capture and cite anything on the web that they wish. As these free tools become more and more prevalent, we feel there will be a greater interest in adapting this type of tutorial for your own purposes. Richard has been a strong supporter of ALPS Link, and a frequent contributor.

What was the impetus or motivation for the Zotero Tutorials and who was the intended audience?

Perceived need was the impetus. Our library did not have RefWorks or any other reference management software but faculty and students have always had a need for a reference manager. I had researched Zotero 1.0 but it only stored references on a local machine making it unsuitable for students or faculty using campus computers. When Zotero 2.0 came out allowing groups and server storage, I realized that this was a tool that could be used at school and home. My primary audience was faculty because they were the only ones who could get Firefox installed on their work machines. Our student labs up until recently have been IE only.

Please compare and contrast Zotero with a more traditional citation manager such as RefWorks – what are the main advantages of Zotero? What are the disadvantages?

Zotero’s principle advantages are cost (FREE) and efficiency or “many fewer clicks” which it achieves through being a Firefox extension.  Camosun has recently acquired RefWorks and I find it much less intuitive to learn than Zotero. To store a resource in your Zotero library takes at most two clicks.  The disadvantage is that it only works on Firefox and IE still is the most used browser.

Do you know if the tutorials have increased the awareness of Zotero at your institution? How are these tutorials primarily being used at your institution?

Zotero is not well known outside the community of Firefox users.  Camosun is a IE institution and most faculty use IE and are reluctant to adopt Firefox. Now that RefWorks is available, they are learning that. 

The narration for these tutorials is very accessible, almost as if the speaker is having an informal discussion with the student. Was this intentional?

Yes. I try to script tutorials to sound like conversational language. I think it makes the tutorial more likely to be viewed to the end.

It is an interesting choice to host the video on Blip.tv. Why did you choose this platform?

 The Animated Tutorial Sharing (ANTS) group hosts tutorials on Blip.tv under the LION channel. It seemed economical to host Camosun tutorials there as well. Blip offers easy playlist creation which is an efficient way to distribute several tutorials on a topic. A playlist has the advantage of sequencing tutorials allowing you to assume learning for the second and succeeding tutorials.

How have you publicized the tutorial?  Do you offer the tutorials on the same page as more traditional citation managers such as RefWorks?

I don’t publicize it much at the college. Publicity is mainly through our Libguides platform. Our Social Media libguide has a Zotero tab  http://camosun.ca.libguides.com/SocialMedia which shows Zotero as well as other useful tools. The College bought Refworks and that is what it promotes because it works on IE. Zotero is developing a standalone version, Zotero Everywhere, which will remove the browser problem so  it may become more widely used here.

Reference librarian Richard Baer contemplates old technology at the Tower of London.