I think we’ve all had the ‘BSO’ experience; you know, when you are searching for the dad’s great-grandma in the death records and stumble across your mother’s uncle, so you get distracted by the Bright Shiny Object and search his surname. You get 20 hits! You are afraid you won’t find them when you need them, so you start downloading like crazy, only to find yourself with a mishmash of documents you will forget you have when you need them. You will repeat the search at a later time!
Today I want to talk about organizing those ‘finds’. Janine Adams has recommended that when you come across these BSO’s, you make a note so that you can go back and get them when you need them, then continue with your intended search. But how do you make your notes? Until recently, I used Evernote. Just save my link, make a quick note and tag it, and be on my way. However, I’ve learned I’m not really an Evernote kind of person. My saved links and notes in Evernote have become just as big a convoluted mishmash as if i just saved everything to one folder on my hard drive. Evernote just wasn’t working for me, so I began exploring other options. Today I want to tell you about one of them, Zotero.
I first read about Zotero on Janine’s blog earlier this year. Zotero is software that was designed by university researchers to help them track their sources and format their citations. With Zotero you enter some basic information, depending on the type of source. Even better, if the source is online, you can capture much of this information with a simple click using a browser add-on for Zotero. You can add notes, tags (color-coded!), and links to the file on your hard drive. You can even save the document right to Zotero! This is a nice feature, because allows you to access your file from any browser on any device. The downside is that if you save your documents to Zotero, you will run out of free space quickly and need to purchase extra storage. My solution has been to keep my genealogy documents in a folder i sync to my Google drive, making them available where I have an internet connection. It’s not quite as convenient as a simple click in Zotero, but it’s not terribly inconvenient either, and it’s free!
I have to be honest, when I started using Zotero, my initial reaction was ’NO WAY!’. It didn’t do two of the main things I’d hoped for. First, I couldn’t save my documents into Zotero to access anywhere without buying extra space. That obstacle was easy to overcome, as i mentioned above. The second issue for me is that I’d expected I could save a link and get instant, perfect, Evidence Explained style citation formats. Nope—doesn’t do that. I was spending a LOT of time struggling to enter the right info to get perfect formatting; something I spend a lot of time trying to do in my Reunion software database on my computer. It seemed like a terrible duplication of effort and I was ready to throw in the towel 3 days after I started. But I’d made a commitment, to myself, to give it 30 days, because it often takes that long or longer for me to discover the ins and outs of new software.
When I thought about it, while perfectly formatted citations would have been a nice feature, it wasn’t really the problem I’d set out to solve. I was looing for a way to track my sources and BSOs. So I contined my trial I knew I’d give it up after the 30 days, but I’d made a commitment! And to my surprise, I love Zotero! I’m feeling much more organized, and as I slowly add documents to it, I’m finding things in my collection I didn’t realize I had. I’ve broken through two brick walls since I started using it, simply because I’m taking time to analyze my documents as I move them to Zotero!
If you think Zotero might fill a need you have, I have a couple of recommendations. First, Donna Cox Baker has written an excellent ‘how-to’ book for Zotero users, Zotero for Genealogy. I recommend you get your hands on a copy of it, either through your local library or personal purchase, (Sidenote: my library is WONDERFUL about acting on purchase suggestions. Yours might be, too. You won’t know unless you ask!) Once you have your copy, before you even download Zotero, read her book cover to cover! Then go back and read it slowly, completing each exercise, including downloading and installing Zotero. After you complete the exercises you are ready to go off on your own, but keep the book handy to refer back to. Also visit Donna’s Zotero for Genealogy discussion forum. There is a lot of helpful info there, and she is quick to respond to questions!
My other suggestion is that you not give up on it without giving it a fair trial. My 30-day commitment was perfect for me. It gave me the time I needed to learn what the software can do for me. With any luck, you will find it just as helpful as i have! If you decide to give it a try, i’d love to know what you think of it!
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