Last week I had the pleasure of running the first in Zotero’s triannual (that’s three times a year) workshops for Zotero trainers (looking for a better name for “trainer”). I had a great time, and I think everyone left with a nice balance of practical next-steps for making Zotero work at their own institutions and rabid enthusiasm for the exciting collaborative features just around the corner. I also left with a slate of new ideas for resources I can develop to help them better make the case for Zotero at their institutions. If your interested in joining in on those ongoing conversations join our google group. I am currently hammering out the details for the second workshop, which will most likely take place Emory in Atlanta this July. Stay tuned for more details. Below are some pictures from the workshop.
We started with a somewhat exhaustive run-through of Zotero’s current feature set.
We then spent some time poking around under Zotero’s hood. Getting a feel for where and how Zotero stores data and attached files, how Zotero’s site translators work, and (pictured above) making minor edits to some of the CSL files Zotero uses to create bibliographies.
On day two we spent a bit of time analyzing a few different libraries approaches to developing their own Zotero documentation for their users and hashed out some best practices for connecting efforts to support Zotero at individual institutions with the existing Zotero support networks.