Archive for April, 2009

We are now accepting applications for the second Zotero trainers workshop, to be held July 30-31st at Emory University in Atlanta. At this info-packed and fun-filled two-day event, participants will acquire a solid understanding of Zotero’s capabilities and how those capabilities can best meet their users’ needs. Beyond acquiring a detailed understanding of the program, participants will learn: best-practices for demo-ing and supporting Zotero at their institution; approaches for developing institution-specific documentation; and steps for migrating user data to and from other research management tools.

The first workshop was held at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA and drew a diverse group of public and university librarians, faculty members, and educational technologists. Participants hailed from institutions as far away as Seattle and backgrounds as diverse as law and the humanities.

“For anyone considering working with Zotero – a game-changer, in my opinion – this workshop is essential. I not only expanded my knowledge of how Zotero works, but now I’m also able to teach our member libraries how, when, and why Zotero is an invaluable research management tool for the communities they serve.”- Jason Kucsma, Emerging Technologies Manager, Metropolitan New York Library Council

Whether or not you can attend the workshop, consider joining the “Zotero evangelist” Google group, which sustains an ongoing conversation between workshop participants and other Zotero trainers.

The cost to attend the workshop is $350, and due to the hands-on nature of these workshops, enrollment is limited. The Zotero team will be accepting applications through May 31st and applications will be considered according to the following criteria:

1. Your current or future role in representing Zotero on your campus

2. Your institution’s plans for, or interest in, adopting Zotero

3. Maximum representation of different campuses: we will most likely only accept one or two individuals from any single institution and are seeking representation from a range of schools.

Application details and forms are located here, and applicants will receive confirmation of their acceptance by June 10th, 2009.

Applicants not accepted to this workshop will be welcome to apply to the next one, planned for fall 2009 at the University of Washington in Seattle. More information regarding this and later workshops will be released as available.

For the past two and half years the Zotero team has carefully listened to user requests for interoperability with Internet Explorer, Opera, and other web browsers, and today the project is excited to announce new compatibility with browsers other than Firefox, starting with the venerable and rock-solid NCSA Mosaic. “Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny,” said Zotero co-director Sean Takats, “and we’re beginning at the beginning.”

Co-Director Dan Cohen stated that the Mosaic release, code-named “Zotero Classic,” was only the first step in toning down the “next-generation research tool” rhetoric that has dogged the project from the beginning. He revealed that the next release, known internally as “Zotero Graphite,” would involve interns, pencils, and possibly a fax machine.

The Zotero team expects performance to improve dramatically with forthcoming support for Netscape Navigator 1.0. “I’m thrilled about replacing Zotero’s sqlite backend with blink-element-powered Morse code,” admitted Lead Developer Dan Stillman. Within ten years the team expects to work its way through every browser ever created. “Of course by then, computers will be so expensive that only the five richest kings of Europe will own them,” suggested Community Lead Trevor Owens.