Zotero has long been my favorite tool for citation management. Sitting within my Firefox browser, this free tool made it dead simple to add citations from databases and selected websites as I surfed and searched. Now, Zotero has a desktop client that lets you access your citations from an interface independent of Firefox. Even better, there are now plugins for a few other browsers (Google Chrome and Safari) that let you save citations and send them to the desktop client. Zotero also offers connectors for Microsoft Word and OpenOffice so you can cite while you write.
- Details on the new standalone Zotero software
- Download page for the new Zotero
- The best guide to getting started with Zotero (a LibGuide from Georgia State University librarian Jason Puckett)
If anyone really wants to get serious about Zotero, feel free to borrow my copy of Jason Puckett’s brand new book from ALA, Zotero: A Guide for Librarians, Researchers, and Educators.