Your own personal librarian
I've even been told that I bring a whole new level to the idea of procrastination. I have now mixed this love of doing anything but work, but making it look like work, with my desire to have a good reference manager/note organizer/file organizer/tea brewer piece of software. Zotero is a plug-in for Firefox (but not Internet Explorer ... ha!ha!) that comes close to one software desire (it failed the tea test ... it was cold, pixelated and really hard to drink).
Zotero sits at the bottom of your webpage and allows you to pull in web pages and references with the click of the button. It fills in all the necessary referencing information and is compatible with JSTOR, EBSCO Host and Proquest databases. It also has the benefit of working like a reference manager and links into Word or OpenOffice (bonus!) to create bibliographies. This brings me one step closer to cutting through the MicroSoft shackles and migrating to Linux. Now if only Linux could get some descent game support. Then I might get absolutely nothing done.
More later when I get a better feel for it. It's always discombobulating trying out new software. Off into Mirkwood I travel, wish me luck.
I love Zotero... I like to think of this firefox extension as my champion or Zorro of citations.
Mmm... If you're making the switch to linux, you can always just play games on a console. Even better play games on a console attached to a projector that's projecting on the side of your house. Mmm... real life sized gaming. Playing games on a computer screen will pale in comparison.
But: does it integrate with RefWorks? Or: should I care?
That's my question.
It's essentially a replacement for RefWorks. I think there's a comparison between the two on the Zotero website. You can, with relative ease so they say, import RefWorks databases into Zotero. There's a 'cite as write' feature for it too.
MB: I love my Xbox 360, but there's still some games I play on the computer more that they don't have for the Xbox. The console is hooked up to the 32" LCD my roommate won a couple of years ago and every now and then I borrow my Dad's projector every now and then for some RL sized gaming.
I usually keep a dual boot on my computers when I install Linux so really it's not a big deal for PC games. I also need Windows to run my GIS software. I know there's a GIS for Linux (GRASS). I've tried using it but it has a long way to go to be considered user friendly.
Ok, I have another one for you. RefWorks, as you know, is a web-based reference manager, which means that my references are available from anywhere, on any computer. This is good for me since I sometimes do searching on one computer and writing on another.
Isn't Zotero built into just one browser on one computer?
You're correct that Zotero is built into one browser on one computer. I don't like RefWorks for the fact that it is solely web-based (I find locally residing programs run much faster). I've gotten around the multiple computer problem by running FolderShare. It automatically synchronizes my data between my school and home computers (bonus is I always have a current back up). The drawback to this method is that it irks my green side because I have to leave my home computer on while I'm at work (or vica versa). It updates pretty quick and I'm sure I could find a work around where I get things updated and then remotely login and shut down the computer I'm no longer working on ... hmm, maybe I'll try to remember to do that.
I think one of Zotero's solutions was if you were going to work between multiple computers is to run Portable FireFox since the Zotero database is kept in on of the folders for FireFox.
Each system has their trade-offs, pick what you like. I haven't been in a search for article mode yet so I haven't had a chance to fully explore Zotero yet, but hopefully in the coming weeks I'll give it a run through and tell you my thoughts ... because we all know everybody should be honoured to have the privilege of knowing my thoughts
As I thought, then. I'm not sure what advantage doing all the steps and things you're doing has - somehow the trade off of slightly slower web access is countered with complicated technical setups. For all that I use RefWorks (once to twice a month at the best of times) I think the convenience of anywhere access is worth it.
I may use Zotero for snagging references to webpages, however.