Archival Zotero-fication, or Possibly Vice Versa

I like Zotero a lot. It makes collecting and organizing material from research online much easier than it would be otherwise. Plus they sent me a t-shirt after my column about it appeared, which pretty much amounts for all the non-book-related swag to have arrived in 2007.

Still, I have been somewhat irregular about working with Zotero. Required to give a more or less sensible reason for this, I could say that it is a matter of waiting for the 2.0 version, none too patiently. But the really deciding factor is that I still use Netscape, which is proving less rational or defensible all the time. Shifting over entirely to Firefox (of which Zotero is a plug-in) seems like a good resolution for the new year.

One factor holding up the 2.0 version -- which will, it's said, allow people to share documents -- is the range of intellectual-property issues it would create. But at IHE this morning, Andy Guest reports that the Center for History and New Media is going ahead with the development of a Zotero archive into which scholars can deposit material, as long as it is public-domain.

In partnership with the Internet Archive, and with funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the center is creating a way for scholars to upload existing data files to be optically scanned (to make them text-searchable) and stored in a database available to the public. Since only works in the public domain can be made available in that way, scholars will have to complete an online form with legal assurances.

The vehicle for the new environment will be the Zotero plug-in for the Firebox browser, also developed by the center. The software stores Web pages, collects citations and lets scholars annotate and organize online documents. A new feature of the plug-in will allow people to collaborate and share materials through a dedicated server. Building on that functionality, according to Cohen, the system will allow scholars to drag and drop documents onto an icon in Zotero that essentially sends it to the Internet Archive for storage and free optical character recognition.

This seems like a step forward. I guess the next big development will come when the Zotero people work out something with the 800-pound gorilla in the room, also known as JSTOR.

December 12, 2007 1:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

2 Comments

By joseph duemer on December 13, 2007 8:01 PM

I've been messing around with Zotero too. You should definitely switch to Firefox. The two work beautifully together.

This technology reminds us why we should be seeking to expand the public domain & why we should oppose corporate attempts to extend copyright indefinately.

By Scott McLemee on December 14, 2007 10:49 AM

That's just it, actually -- I do use Firefox, but mainly when I make it a point to do research via Zotero. But it's not my default.

So if I happen across something while browsing online in my regular browser (Netscape) then I have to make a point to switching over. And too often I think, "Oh, let me do that later."

This is not a good thing. And Netscape freezes up on me so much lately that it is giving me added incentive to abandon it entirely for Firefox.