Zotero: Organizing Zotero

Items in Zotero libraries can be organized with collections and tags.  For more information and advanced options, please visit the Zotero Collections & Tags webpage.

Collections are a great way to organize your Zotero library into smaller, more manageable components. You can create and use collections however it makes most sense to you: by topic, by project, or by class. For larger projects, you can also create subcollections.  A resource can also be in more than one collection at a time.

To Create a Collection:

1. Open Zotero 
2. At the top left is a folder button with a green plus sign. Click the button that looks like a folder with a green plus to create a new collection. 
3. Enter a name for the collection and click OK
4. Drag and drop references to the collection name in the left sidebar
5. Once you've create a collection, you can save resources directly to the collection using the Zotero connector.

Tags are keywords you can assign to items. They can be anything you like—most often they're used to describe the topics an item is about, but some users have also used them to mark the status of an item (e.g., read or unread), assign responsibility (e.g., in a shared group library), or even just to color-code it.

To tag an item:

1. Select the "Tags" tab in the item detail pane on the right. 
2. Click on the "Add" button. 
3. Type the tag that you want to apply in the box and hit enter. 
   Note: If a tag already exists that starts with the same combination of letters, it will pop up, and you can select the one you want by clicking on it. 
4. Add as many tags as necessary. 
5. All tags you added to the item should now also appear, in alphabetical order in the tag pane on the bottom left of your Zotero window.

Bibliographic information, like author, journal title, page number, etc. can be found in the 'Info' tab on the right. This includes the title, author, and publication year. By clicking on any field you can change the information or add to it. The only fields you cannot edit under 'Info' are 'Date Added' and 'Modified'.

• Notes - use the notes field to attach notes to your record, such as quotes, summaries, or why you chose to cite it.
• Tags - tagging items with keywords makes it easier for you to search your citations. Tags are often automatically downloaded from databases and catalogs, but you can also create your own. 
• Related - link to other items in your collection. This can be useful for managing which sources refer to a certain item.