iterativelearning

A quick post on a little idiosyncrasy with Zotero.

Normally, when I click the icon in the address bar, Zotero automatically downloads the cite to whichever folder I have highlighted (e.g., Instructional Design), but when using Gale this doesn’t seem to happen. Not a big deal in the grand scheme, … so I’d do a quick global library search, then find, select and drag it to the desired library.

Still curious, though, and looking for an opportunity to procrastinate, I did a little investigation. It turns out that the Gale cites are downloaded as a top-level item to the main, “My Library” folder. While it still requires a drag-and-drop, I’m spared the extra step of entering a title search.

Maybe there’s a work-around or something obvious I’m missing. If not, I hope this little tidbit is helpful.

Caveat: I’m a big Zotero fan. I mean if you’re a serious, geeky academic researcher how could you not be?

But for those who had left Firefox for Chrome, or dedicated Mac users who love the aesthetics of Safari (and the engine power of Webkit), they were perhaps a little reluctant to venture outside the cozy confines of their browser homes.

But now today, Zotero announced that it will soon be releasing plugins for Chrome, Safari, and IE. So no more excuses. According to the post, this new version of Zotero will include a radically expanded API and mobile access. I’m very glad to see the addition of the mobile option, which is nearly a requirement for any new software rollout these days.

On the promotional end of things, they’re calling this Zotero Everywhere. I like it. Will there be a t-shirt?

The CHE Tech Blog recently wrote about a lawsuit against Zotero. Apparently, Thomson Reuters has claimed that the folks behind Zotero have simply reverse engineered its EndNote tool and integrated it with their own free tool. As a fan of Zotero, this was disappointing to read. Even though I don’t use EndNote, this seems to have echoes of RIAA. Similar to the outcry against the RIAA, Zotero’s supporters have been quick to speak out against the suit. So is this RIAA all over again? Perhaps, not; some other pretty significant voices in the ed-tech world think Thomson Reuters might have a legitimate claim (e.g., Michael Feldstein). Even if Thomson Reuters has a legitimate claim, the lawsuit seems a little heavy-handed as a first move. Why not first just call and talk and see what happens? Probably naive on my part.

Matthew Ingram has a good, thought-provoking post on the relevance of social bookmarking. Because these tools make bookmarking so easy, it’s equally easy to accumulate a pile of urls that make it difficult to locate that site you’re looking for when you’re scrambling to meet a deadline. Yet, as an academic, I still find social bookmarking tools pretty useful. I like being able to locate a resource that I’ve bookmarked regardless of where I’m at or which computer I’m on.

Although, I think technically speaking it’s not a social bookmarking tool, Zotero, seems to be moving in that kind of direction with its upcoming sync tool.

I also like the potential for social bookmarking tools as a teaching tool; especially when I teach in online environments, the option of creating resource-sharing networks or groups can help build community. One relatively new player in the social bookmarking scene, at least to me, is Diigo. Among many of the standard features, it allows you to create private groups, which some faculty and/or students prefer when it comes to resource-sharing.

Zotero is a great tool for academics (and anyone else) who want an easy way to store, annotate, and enter notes on various web-based resources. Since I’ve been using it for about six months now, one feature that I’ve been hoping for (as well as a lot of other folks) is the ability to sync across computers. Thanks to the hard work of many dedicated programmers, this is becoming a reality. They now have a beta preview of this sync feature.