ZoteroBib: A First Look

Everyone knows, and most people love, Zotero, the reference management software developed by George Mason’s Center for History and New Media. We certainly are great admirers of it here at ProfHacker. Zotero is an excellent way to build complex collections of citations, maintain them, and turn them into publishable bibliographies. But what if you want to just quickly make a one-off bibliography for a side project? Or what if you’re a high school student or undergrad just looking for a Works Cited page for that one essay, and you’re not ready to commit to a particular citation management system for life?

Well.

Enter ZoteroBib, an entirely web-based bibliography generator that lives in your browser, works without installing any software, and can be used by anyone who can copy-and-paste.

ZoteroBib couldn’t be any easier to use: As you collect citations, you paste them into its website, and simply select what citation system you want. (Out of over 9,000!) Here’s a quick video:

ZoteroBib even allows you to build a multi-item bibliography in your browser’s local storage. And it’s free, with no ads! As the FAQ explains, for long-term, sustained research, especially with collaborators, it’s worth learning how to use original Zotero. But for a lot of purposes, ZoteroBib looks like a painless way to manage citations.

Have you tried ZoteroBib yet? What are your first impressions? Let us know in comments!