Zotero

Creating Collections and Organizing Resources

Zotero has two main methods of organizing your library: Collections and Tags

Notes may be used to provide summaries of important information contained with a resource.

Collections

Zotero enables you to separate your sources into different collections (folders). You may create as many collections and sub-collections as you wish.

To add a collection, click the folder icon in the upper-left corner of your Zotero library.

This will create an empty folder. You can then drag and drop items from your "My Library" folder to your new folder, or you can save references directly to your folder by having it selected when you are saving into Zotero.

Tags

Along with basic info like title and author, Zotero will often save additional information, like the subject terms used in a database. 

  

You can also add your own tags, and can even color code them for quick, visual organization!

Notes

Notes give you the ability to give yourself little reminders as to why a particular resource is useful or important for your research. If, for example, you find a journal article that makes a point that you want to refer to in your paper, you can write yourself a quick reminder in the notes section.