Zotero Might be my Hero

Anyone who has done complex research knows that keeping track of your sources is a necessary, and time consuming, process.  Zotero, a relatively new Firefox add-on, could revolutionize the way students, scholars, and other professionals keep track of their online references.

Zotero's mission, as stated on it's website, is to: "help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources".  A couple clicks of the mouse and your online search is easily captured, cited, and stored for later use.  Here is a nice highlight video of Zotero's functionality.





As you can see there is great potential for students and scholars, but I immediately began to think of its application to a public library professional, who does not do the same intensive research of an academic or specialty librarian. Therefore I decided to see if Zotero could help with my daily environmental scanning.

I am currently researching--casually--different management ideas, concepts, and styles.  I decided to use Zotero to capture the online artifacts that I find. 

With only a couple of days of testing as anecdotal evidence, so far my experience has been positive.  Zotero has:

• Eliminated keeping track of websites via a Bookmarks folder (my old method)
• Captured PDF and other articles for later reading (no more printing and stuffing in folders)
• Allowed me to make notes for each item as to why I found it interesting
  --this is a particularly subtly, but wonderful feature

I'll keep everyone updated as I continue to experiment, but I can already tell that Zotero has application beyond large-scale research projects.

Anyone tried Zotero?  What do you use it for, besides research?