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Zotero

Getting Set Up

1. Sign up for a Zotero account using the link below. We strongly recommend signing up with your St. Olaf email address, as this will grant you unlimited online storage.

 

2. Install the Zotero Connector for Chrome

Adding Resources to Your Library

 
The icon for the Zotero add-on will change to look like an article, book, a web page (blue-ish page), or other publication types depending on what Zotero can figure out about what you're looking at in your browser. Just click the icon and Zotero will automatically save the citation. Here's more information on how to do that.

If you're on a page of search results with many items, you'll see a folder icon instead. Click this to get a list of all the items on the page, and check off the ones you want to save.

 

Saving an Item

  1. Click on the Zotero Connector plugin icon
  2. Click "Enable Saving to Online Library"
  3. Accept the default permissions they present in the next screen.

 

You can also manually add items to your Zotero library.

  1. Go to Zotero.org
  2. Log in, then click the "My Library" tab.
  3. Click the green "plus" sign to "Create Item."

 

Saving PDFs and other files

Zotero will try to collect a PDF when you first save the item, but if it's unable to do so:

  1. Download the file
  2. Go to Zotero.org
  3. Log in and then the "My Library" tab.
  4. Click into the item you have saved (not the "edit" view, though)
  5. Click "Upload Attachment"
  6. In the Upload Attachment box, click "Choose Files"
  7. In the file navigation window, find the file(s) you want to attach and click "Open"
  8. In the Upload Attachment box, click "Upload"

Organizing Your Items

Create Collections (folders)

  1. Go to Zotero.org
  2. Hover over the "My Library" heading near the top left of your screen, then click the plus sign that displays to create a new collection

Writing Your Paper

Inserting Citations

It is often simpler to type your in-text citations or footnotes by hand (see our citation guide), but if you wish to have Zotero generate these citations for you:

  1. Log in at Zotero.org
  2. Click on the records you wish to include in your in-text citation; if you want to cite multiple items, hold down the Control (PC) or Command (Mac) button on your computer while you click each record.
  3. Click the "Create Citations" icon (it looks like a few lines of text and is located in the top center of your screen)
  4. When prompted, select your citation style
  5. Copy and paste the resulting in-text citation into your paper
  6. Citation generators often make small errors, so make sure to review and edit your citations to ensure they are properly formatted in your chosen citation style.

 

Creating your Bibliography

  1. Log in at Zotero.org
  2. Click on the records you wish to include in your bibliography; if you want to cite multiple items, hold down the Control (PC) or Command (Mac) button on your computer while you click on each record.
  3. Click the "Create Bibliography" icon (it looks like a stack of books and is located in the top center of your screen)
  4. When prompted, select your citation style
  5. Copy and paste the resulting bibliography into your paper.
  6. Citation generators often make small errors, so make sure to review and edit your bibliography to ensure your citations are properly formatted in your chosen citation style.

Acknowledgements

The information on this page was copied and slightly modified from Carleton College's "Zotero and Chromebook" guide.