I would like to talk about the open source program Zotero which I use to organize my personal bibliography for my PhD research and for the collaborative bibliography for the International Network for the Theory of History. Since discovering Zoterto, I have been able to organize myself in new ways that were impossible in the days of pen and paper. I save time because its much easier to add new books to my list with a click of the button instead of copying out the reference information like I used to do. I used to have to copy out the library reference number each time I wanted to check out a book but now its saved on my zotero.
But what I especially like about the system is the way it lets me classify references with as many labels as I like. This gives me a lot more flexibility organizing the books I need for different topics and issues. I’ve been working on my PhD for two years now and every organization system I have used has become obsolete as my project and interests develop. I’m hoping that zotero’s flexibility will mean that I can use it for the long term. Hopefully other zotero users will come to the discussion and share some tips on the program or superior ones that I may not know about.

posted by Kenan