Now that it allows synchronization with their server and working with multiple installations, Zotero is officially the best thing since sliced bread. When I synchronized my collection with my work PC at the hbz this morning, I realized that a new collection had popped up in the Linguistics group that I joined a few days ago.
The Oxford Ecyclopedia of Language & Linguistics in Zotero
I’m assuming it was Mark Dingemanse, the group founder, who put the OELL into Zotero. No matter who did it, it’s immensely useful and I can see a ton of specialized bibliographies popping up in the topical groups in no time. We have a sizable bibliography on CMC at my department in Düsseldorf – I’d love to put that on Zotero.
Another itch that Zotero helps to effectively scratch is the question of where to point hyperlinks in a research article. Citing in the traditional way, i.e. without providing a clickable link and forcing the reader to scroll to the bibliography, is medieval in my opinion. Reproducing long URLs (or DOIs) either in parenthesis or footnotes is unacceptable and even in a bibliography long URLs look ugly and are prone to break across lines.
I think I’ve found the solution for me, both from a practical and a philosophical viewpoint.
I’ll just link to the cited item in my Zotero Library. Like this: “balabla (Herring 1999)”.
The practical advantage is obvious. Zotero URLs are relatively short (though, guys, can you perhaps make them even shorter?) and can be assumed not to change over time*.
The ‘philosophical’ upside is even more important. I am not linking to the item itself, which may have moved, been taken off the Web, live behind a paywall or not even be a digital resource. I am linking to the metadata for the citation and I’m pointing to that metadata in my collection, not in some library catalog. Why would that be an advantage? Because you’re seeing exactly what sources I worked with. You’re seeing what I’m seeing and the record on Zotero is my record so I’m responsible for it. And since I’m keeping a bibliography on Zotero for each paper I write anyway (since I manage my full texts through it) it’s not even extra work. Neato.
I’m already putting the idea to use here by posting quotes that I might use at a later point, complete with tags for authors and years. We’ll see whether I’ll keep it up, but I already like it better than having to do that with paper and a marker.
Ah, free software.
* I am aware that they can still break, but my main argument here is that they are less likely to do so than those of the many small ejournals out there that we cite. The idea DOI = permanent, URL = changing is simplistic and silly in my opinion. URLs can plausibly used as persistent and unique identifiers, if we choose to use them in that way. It all depends on the intention and reliability of the service provider.
