Zotero for Genealogy: Harnessing the Power of Your Research

IMPORTANT NOTE: This book was completed in 2019, when Zotero was in Release 5. While many of its applications to research remain valuable, Zotero 7's user interface is substantially altered and some plugins have been discontinued. This book is now priced for the application portions that remain useful. If you want a quick-start introduction to Zotero 7, please see my 2024 book A Quick Guide to Zotero 7: Knowledge Management in Genealogy, History, and Other Fields.
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Zotero offers genealogists a powerful and versatile citation manager, an endless file cabinet, go-anywhere access to research, a flexible organizational structure, and the ability to file one thing in many places. Developed by George Mason University and used by scholars worldwide, this robust product serves research in phenomenal ways. Best of all, for all its value, Zotero is free to download.

An avid Zotero user since graduate school, author Donna Cox Baker proves it to be the perfect complement to genealogical research. Not only does it eliminate file cabinets, binders, and stacks of unfiled papers, it brings your voluminous research anywhere you have Internet access. Zotero for Genealogy teaches Zotero from installation to advance add-ons, using exercises and illustrations to enhance the learning experience. Baker teaches readers how to get the most out of Zotero and shares the various methods she has developed to maximize its value to genealogy.

What Zotero can do for a genealogist

◆ Eliminate paper and physical filing, replacing every file cabinet, box, and paper stack you used to think you had to have.

◆ Eliminate thousands of keystrokes as Zotero creates citations for you with the click of a button.

◆ Access your citations and notes virtually anywhere you have Wi-Fi and a computing device.

◆ Extract the comments you have made and the passages you have highlighted in a PDF, drawing them into Zotero without retyping.

◆ Find anything you have stored, with lightning-fast smart searching-even things you stored away years ago and remember only vaguely if at all.

◆ Replace the standard genealogy research log with something much better and more powerful.

◆ Build a smart to-do list that eliminates repetitive data entry and is there whenever you need it.

PRAISE FOR ZOTERO FOR GENEALOGY

"I'm really enjoying using Zotero, and it's a great fit for what I do, which involves a lot of essay- and book-length biographical and historical narrative. Figuring out the hacks for the more complex EE-level citations is cumbersome, but once I have a template I'm good to go. I wanted to say again that your book, Zotero for Genealogy, and its accompanying exercises were invaluable learning tools for me. I was able to begin using Zotero confidently and correctly right after completing them. Thank you!"

----Margaret Hodges, PLCGS, Portsmouth, New Hampshire

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I: ZOTERO GENERAL OVERVIEW

"I've tried most of the organizing software for researchers and I must say after only a few hours of playing around with Zotero and Zotero for Genealogy I am already quite impressed. I'm starting 2 new projects this morning and I see almost a beautifully seamless transition to collecting evidence this way. 'Z for G' even addresses our need to create the perfect EE citation."

----M. Kathryn Kelly, Genealogist, Beach Swans Genealogy (http: //www.mkathrynkelly.com/)