Zotero and wordpress – battle of the bibliographic utilities. February 23, 2007
Posted by organicresearcher in Organic.trackback
As you may have guessed I’m totally taken by Zotero, yep sure at the moment it is limited and doesn’t match the power of Endnote but it has a lot of promise and it needs to gain users.
Some people will be unfamiliar with what the fuss is all about, I mean what difference does it make. Well if you are in the business of transmitting knowledge to others it is massive.
As I’m sure most people who have been to college or uni have discovered the academic world takes referencing very seriously – it is the original hyperlinking – and academics can take a lot of time getting the references in their publications just right. A range of commercial databases that make these easier are available – the market leader is Endnote. I have spent literally weeks of my life sorting out my Endnote files and that investment is well worth while – you can then change the format of your references with the click of your mouse and sort easily a vast range of reference material (my personal library stands at around 4000 entries).
So what is the problem with Endnote – well it is expensive circa $250 for an individual and the parent company keeps pumping out updates and upgrades. Also it is for my money (and I have paid for endnote) it is bloatware – new widgets and features are constantly added, most of which do not add to the core utility of the programme.
And then came Zotero, which has only basic features but in using Firefox it is a revolution in how to approach collecting references and even more importantly it is free. This means that more people that ever before can access these essential tools and in the long run information will flow more freely and accurately between people. So although I can’t throw my Endnote away yet, I’m beginning to imagine a time that I can.
In allowing Zotero to join up with blogging tools, there is the fascinating possibility that as blogging begins to mature and become a more important tool in academic communication that it will become properly referenced.
technorati tags:software, Zotero, publishing, open-source, news
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