Automating reading with Zotero, Zotfile and the Google Scholar extension

Tuesday, 14 November, 2017 - 12:30

Wiser Seminar Room, 6th Floor Richard Ward Building

All welcome, but please RSVP to Najibha.Deshmukh@wits.ac.za

This workshop will provide a brief basic introduction to installing Zotero, but it will also focus on the invaluable automation tools provided by two extensions:  Zotfile and Google Scholar Citation count.  In combination these tools can dramatically improve digital humanities research, and support new forms of cumulative reading for researchers and students.

 

The workshop will assume that you have successfully installed Zotero (https://www.zotero.org/download/), that you have been through the Quick Start Guide, and registered for a sync account on http://zotero.org.


Zotero is an Open Source digital research platform developed by the Centre for History and New Media at George Mason University. The software and documentation, including video tutorials, are available at http://www.zotero.org. Zotero is a powerful tool for gathering, analysing and sharing materials of all kinds, and it has been specifically developed to help scholars keep control of digital materials that can be found online.  But Zotero also provides invaluable scaffolding and annotation support for the cumulative reading that all students need to learn to undertake successful research.
 
The key features of Zotero include:

  • The ability to automatically harvest references from libraries, newspapers and online catalogues (including Google Scholar, the Wits Library, and South African National Archives repository)
  • Full text downloading and indexing of pdf files
  • Document types (like video, letter, manuscript) that match the research materials of humanities researchers
  • Tagging and infinite rich text annotation
  • Automated synchronisation and backup of data in the Internet Cloud
  • Powerful sharing and collaboration tools

The workshop will be hosted in the WISER seminar room.