Zotero for Genealogy: Harnessing the Power of Your Research

by Donna Cox Baker

Zotero offers genealogists a powerful and versatile citation manager, an endless file cabinet, go-anywhere access to research, a flexible organizational structure, and the ability to file one thing in many places. Developed by George Mason University and used by scholars worldwide, this robust product serves research in phenomenal ways. Best of all, for all its value, Zotero is free to download.

An avid Zotero user since graduate school, author Donna Cox Baker proves it to be the perfect complement to genealogical research. Not only does it eliminate file cabinets, binders, and stacks of unfiled papers, it brings your voluminous research anywhere you have Internet access. Zotero for Genealogy teaches Zotero from installation to advance add-ons, using exercises and illustrations to enhance the learning experience. Baker teaches readers how to get the most out of Zotero and shares the various methods she has developed to maximize its value to genealogy.

What Zotero can do for a genealogist

◆ Eliminate paper and physical filing, replacing every file cabinet, box, and paper stack you used to think you had to have.

◆ Eliminate thousands of keystrokes as Zotero creates citations for you with the click of a button.

◆ Access your citations and notes virtually anywhere you have Wi-Fi and a computing device.

◆ Extract the comments you have made and the passages you have highlighted in a PDF, drawing them into Zotero without retyping.

◆ Find anything you have stored, with lightning-fast smart searching--even things you stored away years ago and remember only vaguely if at all.

◆ Replace the standard genealogy research log with something much better and more powerful.

◆ Build a smart to-do list that eliminates repetitive data entry and is there whenever you need it.

PRAISE FOR ZOTERO FOR GENEALOGY

"I'm really enjoying using Zotero, and it's a great fit for what I do, which involves a lot of essay- and book-length biographical and historical narrative. Figuring out the hacks for the more complex EE-level citations is cumbersome, but once I have a template I'm good to go. I wanted to say again that your book, Zotero for Genealogy, and its accompanying exercises were invaluable learning tools for me. I was able to begin using Zotero confidently and correctly right after completing them. Thank you!"

----Margaret Hodges, PLCGS, Portsmouth, New Hampshire

"I’ve tried most of the organizing software for researchers and I must say after only a few hours of playing around with Zotero and Zotero for Genealogy  I am already quite impressed.  I’m starting 2 new projects this morning and I see almost a beautifully seamless transition to collecting evidence this way.  ‘Z for G’ even addresses our need to create the perfect EE citation."

----M. Kathryn Kelly, Genealogist, Beach Swans Genealogy (

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART ZOTERO GENERAL OVERVIEW

Getting started with Zotero

Documenting your research

Organizing research collections

Managing your attachments

Searching, sorting and finding your research

PART ZOTERO ADD-ONS

Genres: Reference, Nonfiction

191 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 13, 2019

Reviews

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

Donna Cox Baker offers genealogists a glimpse into the ways she uses Zotero to manage her research logs, research notes, to do lists, and digital files. She explains her simple filing system. While my system is broken out just a little more, I probably will not change the system to align with her method, and she suggests using what works for you and to use the same system for print as digital. While Zotero creates Chicago Manual of Style 17th edition citations, they do not align perfectly with genealogy's Evidence Explained style. She offers tweaks she uses to get similar data in her citations, but the order bugs me. For this reason, I probably won't use Zotero for creating more than simple book or article citations. However, I do like the power it offers in searching and indexing data on the hard drive and in linking to files on the computer and online. I feel she needed to explain the ZotFile extension a little better as I found myself still asking questions about how it worked. Baker's book offers a good introduction for genealogists, and it should help me in working with university students who wish to use it. (3.5 stars)

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very good introduction to Zotero and its use in genealogy research. The book provides very good explanations of the concepts as well as useful exercises that can be easily followed by the reader. I have been using Evernote and while it is an excellent tool in many ways, it doesn't work well for recording/searching my family history entries and logs. Zotero does make a much better job as a research tool.

[kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a quick, informative read that walks one through the process of setting up and using Zotero. There are plenty of screen shots and illustrations, and several step-by-step exercises. The initial half of the book is applicable for any new Zotero user, whether or not it will ever be used for genealogy. For an experienced computer user, much of the set up is basic and can be skipped, but for those who are less confident in their computer skills, the walk-through will be helpful.

For me, that major weakness was the genealogy citations section. It would have been very helpful to have more examples of genealogy sources, particularly images from the online databases at the 'big G sites' (Ancestry, Family Search, etc) and how to enter important information for these, since Zotero does a less than stellar job of capturing the information from these sources.

Overall, this book is worth reading through if you are new to Zotero, or even just considering whether or not you want to use it.

[Wyatt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent primer on the general use of Zotero, and many concrete concepts to apply it to genealogy work. At the least, it offers the author’s suggested methods which will jumpstart you into finding what will work for you. At most, it offers exact guidelines to follow to reproduce the author’s methodology.

To echo some other reviewers, yes much of the book can be skipped/skimmed if you are an experienced computer user. But I appreciate that the author did not dumb it down to zero, as some guides do. She expects some familiarity with computer functions and does not repeat what basic computer guides will teach. This book appeals to novice and experienced alike.

Also, this book does not replace a citation guide such as Evidence Explained, though some reviewers had been looking for it to do so. This book is about translating from citation guides into Zotero and getting the most benefit from the software.

[Jennifer Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zortero belongs in your genealogist toolbox

Donna Cox Baker has provided the serious family historian with a well-written guide to a powerful citation and organizational tool. Zotero for Genealogy is shown to be a workhorse beyond its original design and at long last provides one of the best and incredibly flexible filing systems amenable to all sorts of records encountered by today's professional and serious genealogists. Easy to read with easy-to-follow instructions. As a former user of EndNote and Reference Manager, Zotero is the clear choice for my genealogy research--wish I had used it for my own dissertation.

[Kathy KS · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first decided to read this book because I felt it may help with creating bibliographic citations for my genealogical research. It does have some good ideas for how to best use the program for that purpose. I found the general instructions on using Zotero pretty clear. Now I just need to fiddle around with it before I decide if it's a good fit for me. I like the features for searching and the fact that you can save one "note" to various folders, instead of having to save if over and over again, as you would have to using a paper-based organizational system. I believe researchers of all types would get plenty of information from this short volume, not just genealogists.

[Just · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had never thought to use Zotero for my Genealogy - I had totally forgotten that Zotero even existed. This book clearly explained Zotero, how to use it, and what ways it benefits genealogical research. A must for any genealogist who is wanting to ensure their citations meet the strict criteria needed for publication.

[Eric Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good Intro to a Great Program

I bought this book to get a jump start on using Zotero for genealogy and this book provides just that. Zortera is an amazing—and free—research and citation tool. I didn’t give this book five stars because I was hoping for more detail, but as a quick start it is excellent.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I use this for reference. So, technically, I never 'finish' it.

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book purports to discuss using Zotero,  citation management software, to manage genealogy research.  Since it begins with a description of how to use Zotero in general, I found it very useful.

[Sue Law · Rating 4 out of 5]

Useful.