Rolling Out Zotero Across Campus as a Part of a Science Librarian's Outreach Efforts

Abstract

As more information proliferates online, researchers often struggle to find an efficient way of managing their bibliographic data. Zotero presents an attractive alternative to proprietary citation tools as it is free, user-friendly, Web 2.0-compatible, and can be easily integrated with websites, online databases, catalogs, and repositories. Besides a brief review and comparative analysis of Zotero, the article highlights the science librarian's efforts to promote Zotero to students and faculty members in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. While his initial outreach attempt was to target the scientific community on campus, the author found other library advocates within other campus units. Training writing tutors at the Learning Assistance Center turned out to be a very effective means of creating more library advocates and Zotero evangelists across campus.