Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] is a free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share your research sources. Zotero is a reference manager. It is designed to store, manage, and cite bibliographic references, such as books and articles. Zotero is a powerful tool for collecting and organizing research information and sources.

Zotero has excellent online documentation.

If you want more details and videos, check out their online documentation including the Quick Start Guide below.

Get a (free) Zotero account.

Signing up with your Carleton email address will get you unlimited free storage.
Signing up with a personal email address will get you 300MB of free storage.

Install BOTH the Zotero program and the Browser "Connector."

 HINT: In some browsers, you may have to "Pin" the Zotero Browser Connector in order to make it visible in your toolbar. Here's a screenshot of where to find that pin.

Configure Zotero's Preferences

Open Settings

1. Windows users, click Edit > Settings
2. Mac users, click Zotero > Settings

Sync to your Zotero Account

1. In Settings, click the "Sync" tab.

2. Enter your Zotero username and password.

3. This will sync your Zotero account and all your citation information to the cloud so you can access it anywhere.

Set up the "Library Lookup" option

1. In Settings, click the "General" tab.

2. In the "Locate" section, click on the menu to the right of "Resolver." In that menu, hover over North America, and in the next menu that opens, find and select Carleton College. Close this window.
3. This will set up Zotero to find resources using Gould Library's catalog.

Optional, depending on your circumstances

Keeping Zotero from interfering with EndNote

(only necessary if you use both and want EndNote to be your default for database exports)

1. In your web browser, find the Zotero extension preferences
   1. In Chrome: click "Window > Extensions > Zotero Options
   2. In Firefox: click Tools > Add-ons > Zotero Preferences
   3. In Safari: Safari does not offer extension preferences that you can configure
2. Under "Automatic File Importing," uncheck the box next to "Import BibTeX/RIS/Refer files into Zotero."

Keeping Zotero from blocking access to your Catalyst account

Sometimes (but not always) the Zotero connector in your browser will need some configuring. This is especially true if you click "accept" when Zotero asks you whether to configure proxy information. While configuring a proxy can make your saved URLs work from off campus, they also seem to interfere with some Catalyst functionality. If you find yourself running into difficulties logging into your library account through Catalyst, here's how to fix that.

1. In your web browser, find the Zotero extension preferences
   1. In Chrome: click "Window > Extensions > Zotero Options
   2. In Firefox: click Tools > Add-ons > Zotero Preferences
   3. In Safari: Safari does not offer extension preferences that you can configure
2. Open the extension click "Proxies"
3. Under "Configured Proxies" delete default proxy. That box should be blank.