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Earlier this summer, ZSR’s favorite citation management software, Zotero, received a number of exciting updates with the release of Zotero 5.0. Read on for a list of the biggest updates and register for one of our upcoming lunchtime workshops to get your questions answered.

The Big Updates

Journal Feeds

This is a big one, folks. If you’ve always dreamed of a way to follow all of your journals and easily add selected articles to your Zotero library, the Journal Feeds feature is an answered prayer. Zotero now allows you to easily add your journals’ RSS feeds, so you can know when new articles have been published. When something new catches your eye, you can easily add that article to your library. For more on Feeds, check out our updated help guide.

My Publications

If you’re the kind of scholar who wants to share their work as broadly as possible (and let’s be honest–who isn’t?), you might find the new My Publications feature to be an interesting new addition. Adding your articles, books, chapters, presentations, etc. to your My Publications feed within your Zotero Library will push these citations to your public profile page on zotero.org. If you retain the copyright to your work, you can even allow others to download a PDF right from your profile page. This is a great way to make your work more discoverable to researchers who might be searching for you or your work on Google or other search engines.

Smoother Saving with Chrome & Safari

This update brings with it updates to Zotero’s various browser connectors. For Chrome, there’s now automatic institutional proxy detection for those that do a lot of work from off-campus, and an even easier way to install citation styles from the Zotero Style Repository. In Safari, you’ll never again get that useless inactive save button when Zotero couldn’t identify high-quality metadata, and you can now save PDFs directly to Zotero from within Safari. See more about these updates on the Zotero blog.

A Unified Zotero Experience

This is another big one. Those who’ve been using Zotero since its early days probably remember Zotero as an add-on that lived exclusively within the Firefox browser. There was no separate application–it was just Zotero and Firefox, living together harmoniously. Well, time and change have brought with them new browsers, new browser architecture, and, inevitably, Zotero Standalone, which was compatible with most browsers, not just Firefox. For reasons outside of Zotero’s control, Zotero for Firefox is being discontinued and all Zotero for Firefox users will be prompted to install Zotero 5.0, which is identical in almost every way to Zotero Standalone (4.0). Read more about these changes on the Zotero blog.

It’s understandable that this shift might be somewhat scary for Zotero for Firefox users. But don’t worry–Zotero still works just fine with Firefox through its browser connector, and the Zotero team has been working diligently to ensure that you will not experience any data loss as you transition. We here at ZSR are happy to help you make the switch, too. Read on for ways you can get help.

Need Help?

If you are new to Zotero, if you need help making the transition to 5.0, or if you’re an experienced user looking for ways to enhance your research workflow, ZSR has you covered. We offer training, support materials, and one-on-one Zotero assistance.

Workshops and Webinars

We offer lots of Zotero workshops throughout the year. Here are a few you might be interested in:

• What’s New in Zotero 5.0? These lunchtime sessions will go over all of the changes in Zotero 5.0, with plenty of time for questions. If you’re on campus, bring your lunch over to the library and join us in person. Can’t make it to campus? We’re offering it as a lunchtime webinar, too.
• Intro to Zotero workshops in ZSR. Our bread-and-butter workshop goes over all of the basics, from installing the software to saving sources and inserting citations and bibliographies. It’s equally useful for faculty new to citation management, grad students embarking on large writing projects, and undergrads looking for a powerful alternative to EasyBib.
• In-Class or Department Workshops. It’s no secret that ZSR subject librarians will visit your classes for an overview of library research in your discipline or for more in-depth information literacy instruction, but you might be pleasantly surprised to know that we’ll also come to your class or to a department meeting to get your students or colleagues up and running with everyone’s favorite citation manager. Request a Zotero session here!

Online Support Materials

If you’re more the type to learn things on your own, you might find our extensive Zotero Guide to be helpful. It’s been painstakingly updated to reflect the changes to Zotero 5.0. Be sure to check out the self-guided tutorial, which will walk you through most of what’s usually covered in our Intro workshop, but at your own pace.

One-on-One Support

We’re also happy to sit down with you and your research team if you have specific needs. We can help you get set up with a shared group library, develop custom PDF management solutions, or with any other advanced need you might have. Book a time with one of our resident Zotero experts here.

We hope you enjoy Zotero 5.0. Research well, friends!