The Azusa Pacific Blog

Note: this is the final post in an 8-part series of tips designed to make you a better researcher. Click here to read the whole series.

This last tip is one of my favorites. Whenever I show it to students, they always say, “Wow! Why didn’t I know about this earlier?!” :)

Zotero is a free extension for the Firefox internet browser* that allows you to save publication information for books and articles, then automatically generate in-text citations and bibliographies using those sources.

That explanation is a little abstract, so let me rephrase it: Zotero creates your bibliography for you!

I won’t go into the details of downloading and installing Zotero here, since the Zotero web site gives easy-to-follow instructions on how to do that. Make sure that you also download and install the plugin for Microsoft Word/OpenOffice; this is the piece that allows you to generate your bibliography and insert citations into the text of your paper.

Once you’ve got Zotero installed, capturing citation info is a breeze. There are several ways to do this:

• In the library catalog, click on the title of the book you want to save. You can either click the index card icon that appears in your URL bar, or you can click the “Export to EndNote/Zotero” link on the right-hand side of the page. Zotero will scan the page for the book’s publication information, and save it in your Zotero library.
• In an article database, click on the title of the article you want to save. Click the index card icon that appears in your URL bar. Zotero will capture the article’s publication information and save it for you.
• On a web page, click the Zotero icon in the lower right corner of your browser window. Your Zotero library will pop up. Click the button that looks like a piece of paper with a green plus sign next to it (if you hover over the button, it will say, “Create New Item From Current Page”). Zotero will automatically detect the web page information and save it in your library. (You can use this method to save book and article information, too).

If you notice that Zotero isn’t grabbing all the information, you can manually update the record–just open your Zotero panel, click on the record you want to edit, and start typing in information.

Now comes the magical part: using Zotero to add citations to your paper. Open up Microsoft Word (or Open Office) and start typing your paper. If you’ve installed the Zotero plug-in, you should see an icon for it in your tool bar.

• To insert an in-text citation, click the “Zotero Insert Citation” button. A window will pop up, asking you which citation style you’re using and which source you’re citing. Follow the steps–make sure you tell Zotero which page the citation is from–and insert. Voila! Your correctly-formatted citation is inserted.
• To insert your whole bibliography, start a new page at the end of your paper and click the “Zotero Insert Bibliography” button. In the pop-up window, indicate which sources you want to include, and insert. With the click of a button, your bibliography is created. :)
• Even better, the Zotero plug-in syncs your paper with your Zotero library–so if you change something in the library, the bibliography in your paper will be updated automatically. Finally, you can use the “Zotero Edit Bibliography” button to add or remove sources from your bibliography.

Now for the bad news: Zotero is a software product, and nowhere near as smart as a human. The citations it generates are only as good at the information it receives! That means if something is not capitalized correctly in the original database, the citation in your bibliography will not be capitalized correctly, either.

So, before you turn in your paper, you should definitely look over your bibliography to make sure everything is formatted correctly. We have several citation guides on our web site that can help you with this.

The bottom line, though, is that Zotrero can be a HUGE time saver, even if you have to fix some errors in your final bibliography. If you’ve got questions about Zotero, let me know and I can try to help you. The Zotero support web site is also fabulous, and is the best place to go for help.

*If you’re not using Firefox, you should definitely start today! It’s an open-source product, which means people have created all kinds of nifty add-ons to help you do more with your internet browsing. You can learn more about Firefox and download it for free here: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/personal.html.

Note: this is the seventh post in an 8-part series of tips designed to make you a better researcher. Click here to read the whole series.

My previous research tip discussed the RSS feed for new books and videos added to the libraries’ collections. But did you know that many of our article databases also offer RSS feeds?

All EBSCOhost and ProQuest databases allow you to create RSS feeds. You can set up feeds based on a search string, or you can access feeds that will send you a journal’s table of contents each time a new issue is published.

Either way, once you set up and subscribe to the feed, you’ll receive notifications through your feed reader every time a new article matching your criteria is added. It’s like the database is doing your searching for you! These feeds are especially handy if you’re working on a long-term project.

Instructions for setting up and subscribing to database RSS feeds are available in our RSS LibGuide. I’m sure you know this by now, but you can contact us any time if you need help!

Note: this is the sixth post in an 8-part series of tips designed to make you a better researcher. Click here to read the whole series.

Are you working on a long-term research project? Wouldn’t it be great if you could be notified whenever a new book on your topic is added to the libraries?

Actually, it’s possible with preferred searches! “Preferred searches” are saved searches of the library catalog. When you create a preferred search, you’ll get an email every time a new item that matches your search criteria is added to the libraries’ collections.

They’re a snap to set up, too. Just make sure that you’re logged in to your library account, then do a search in the library catalog. On the search results page, you’ll see a button that says, “Save as preferred search.” Click it, then follow the prompts to name and save the search. Be sure to check the “Email” box on your preferred search page.

Your preferred searches will send you email notifications of new items, but they’re also handy since you can log in to your account and re-run the search any time. That means that you can set up your searches on any computer, and re-run them from any computer–no need to write down or remember your search terms!

Interested in learning about new library items regardless of topic? We’ve got a handy-dandy RSS feed right on our home page. It’s updated every night with all of the new books, videos, and journals that were cataloged that day. Keep in mind that it may take a few days for the new books to appear on the library’s shelves–our student workers re-shelve hundreds of books each week, and the new ones may not be at the top of the pile.

The new items feed is displayed on our web site, but you can also subscribe to it through an RSS reader. If you’re new to the concept of RSS, check out our LibGuide on RSS. You’ll be collecting feeds in no time, and wondering how you ever managed without them. :)

Questions about preferred searches or RSS feeds? Let us know.

Note: this is the fifth post in an 8-part series of tips designed to make you a better researcher. Click here to read the whole series.

Did you know that the APU Libraries subscribe to more than 120 online databases? That means we have databases for many different subject areas, in addition to multi-disciplinary and reference databases that contain a little bit of everything. With so many online resources, you may find yourself repeating your search in multiple databases, just to make sure you’ve searched thoroughly.

Enter our new Multi-Database Search tool. It allows you to search up to 30 of our biggest databases at the same time, ensuring that you’re casting your search net as widely as possible.

Once you enter your search terms, you’ll be able to view results from all of those databases on one screen. Results are organized by broad subject category, so you can quickly locate the most relevant results. Click on the article titles to read the full text (if it’s available in the database), or use the “Full Text Finder” links to search our library collections for full text.

The Multi-Database Search does have a few limitations. By searching multiple databases at once, you lose some of the unique search features that are available in the native database–things like the scripture search function in ATLA, the age limiters in PsycINFO, or the ERIC thesaurus.

If you like those features, it’s best to search the databases individually through their native interfaces. But if you just want to find articles on your topic with as little hassle as possible, the Multi-Database Search can be a great time-saver.

As always, if you have questions about Multi-Database Search, contact us. We’re happy to help you!