Zotero, the Web-Wrangler
February 7, 2008
Zotero may sound like a futuristic adventure series starring, say, a precocious eleven year old who deftly maneuvers spam filters to keep suspicious supplement offers corralled in the bulk mail folders of upstanding citizens everywhere, but this free Firefox extension is very much a hero of the present.
Ideal for research assignments, Zotero is a tool that helps you keep track of your online sources. It seeks out and automatically collects citation information from an extensive list of web pages commonly used for research (many university, library, and periodical sites, JSTOR, Amazon, etc.)
Not having to worry about forgetting to note the copyright date is nice enough, but Zotero’s not a one trick pony. You can also use it to take notes on the sources you’re viewing, store PDFs, images, or web pages, and export your citations to Word.
This tool is ever-evolving. In 2008 Zotero plans to get on the bandwagon of web collaboration, so familiarize yourself with it now, and soon you’ll be able to exchange research advice with your e-colleagues (and browse off into the sunset). -MARIELLE PRINCE
