My Library

When you open Zotero for the first time, you will see a panel on the left hand side. On the top you can see "My Library". This is where all the references you have collected via Zotero will be stored.

My Library Zotero

Add references from an online search tool or database

The Zotero Connector plugin will make it easy for you to automatically add references from your browser.

1. Open your browser and notice the Zotero Connector icon in your browser toolbar. It either looks like a Z, or a picture of a generic document, something like this: Zotero Connector icon toolbar

If you can't see it, you may have to pin the plugin to the toolbar (Chrome):

Pin plugin chrome browser

2. Go to your search tool of choice. We recommend LUBsearch, Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus or Google Scholar.

3. Perform any search. Now the Zotero icon that is available is a yellow folder (). The yellow folder indicates that Zotero detects a “list” of items, such as the Search result list you just created. Click the yellow folder icon to see a Zotero list of the search results on the page:

Zotero Item selector dialogue box

4. Check the boxes of the ones you want to keep and click OK. The references will be saved to My Library, or whichever collection you have open in the Zotero app.

5. If you click on one specific result from your search result list, or if you are viewing a single publication in your browser, the Zotero icon will look like a document instead of a folder (). Clicking this icon will immediately save this specific source to Zotero:

Save one reference to Zotero library

If Zotero can recognize a PDF associated with the reference, it will automatically be saved as an attachment in Zotero.

View added references

To see your entire Zotero Library, open the Zotero app and click on "My Library". To quickly access the full text of a reference, double-click the attached PDF, or double-click the reference in Zotero to follow the URL. The URL may or may not lead to the full text. If not, you should still be able to find the LU Full Text Finder link.

If the Zotero Connector does not recognize data on the page, you can still click the Zotero icon in the browser toolbar to save the page as a Web Page with an attached snapshot. While this will save basic information (title, URL, access date), you may need to fill in additional information from the page by hand.