You Tube Video Intro: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pq94aBrc0pY
Zotero: Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] is a free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share your research sources.
Although Zotero can be useful for collecting personal information (collecting recipes, planning a trip, or researching the purchase of a car or electronic device, it is primarily intended to help students with writing a research paper.
NOTE: To use Zotero at Calvin Christian, students will need to open Mozilla Firefox and click the word ‘Zotero’ found at the bottom, right of every page.
ASLO: To use Zotero at home, students will need to download and install Zotero from www.zotero.org. This is completely free and easy to do.
COLLECT
To collect a web page, right click on the icon located next to the URL of the page (top of the page) and drag it down to your research folder.
To collect an image, right click on that image and drag it to your research folder.
To collect a document of file from your computer, click on the green and white plus sign found at the top, center of the Zotero window and select ‘store copy of file.’ Locate the document by browsing for it and selecting the file you want to save.
ORGANIZE
There are two primary ways to organize your research.
FOLDERS Create a research folder by right-clicking on ‘my library’ at the bottom left of the Zotero page and selecting ‘New Collection.’ Create additional sub-folders for different topics of your research paper by right-clicking on the research folder and selecting ‘new sub collection.’
TAGS Add tags to research that you find so that you can use the Zotero search feature to locate items later. For example, say you find a great story that you would like to use in the introduction of your paper. First, add the story to your research folder. Next, select the ‘tag’ tab found in the box at the right of your Zotero screen. Click the ‘Add’ button, and type in the tag (in this case introduction).
To search your tags, enter the word to search in the Zotero search box found at the top, center of the Zotero screen.
CITE
Zotero is a powerful tool for citing your research.
Immediately after you add an article to your Zotero research folder, students should add citation information to the ‘info’ box found at the right of the Zotero screen. Fill in the items that are blank such as author, date, and Website title. In some cases, this information will be filled in for you, but often you will need to add it.
CREATE BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Zotero can create a bibliography for you in MLA format which you can use to create your Works Cited page. To create the bibliography, make sure all of your sources are in the ‘research collection’ folder. Right click on that folder, and select ‘Create bibliography from collection.’ Next, choose the style (MLA), and the format (I would choose ‘copy to clipboard’ and then paste this on your Works Cited Page.
*Obviously, for this to work correctly, students must make sure they have correctly added all of the citation information to their sources.
CREATE NOTES AND NOTE CARDS
To create note cards, follow these steps:
1. Select the article or source from which you plan to make a note card.
2. Click on the 'notes' tab (right window of the Zotero screen.
3. Add your note in the notes box. Be sure to include card #, topic, source, and any other information your teacher requires.
To Create a document with ALL of your note cards (to turn into your teacher) follow these steps:
1. Select your 'research' folder or your research selection where ALL of your note cards are stored. You should see all of your articles listed in the center window of the Zotero screen, and if you click on the plus signs, you should be able to see all of your note cards.
2. Select ALL of your note cards by holding down the shift key and clicking on each note card. Obviously you will have to first click on the '+' sign next to each article so that all note cards are visible.
3. Right click on a selected note card and then select, 'Generate report from selected items.'
4. A report will be generated in your browser. Copy and paste into word. You may need to re-arrange the order of the note cards depending on the instructions issued by your teacher.
SYNC:
Students must save all of their information on the Zotero servers, or files and articles will be lost once students use a different computer. Below are the steps for storing files 'syncing' Zotero accounts.
1) Create a Zotero account. Go to the Zotero website (www.zotero.org) and click on 'register' at the top, right of the page. Follow the directions by entering a username, email address, and password.
2) Log-on to Zotero.
3) Click the 'sync' button which at the green, circular arrow at the top, right of the Zotero screen.
4) When you first begin a session with Zotero, you will need to log-on, and a log-in screen will pop-up allowing you to do so. Once you are logged on, your files will be stored in the Zotero servers, and you will be able to access them from any computer that is connected to the Internet.