Citation Tools: Shared
libraries

Zotero's Groups feature allows you to share references with other Zotero users online. It's a great way to work on collaborative research projects.

First, set up Zotero sync and synchronize your library.

• To create a shared library, click the Create Groups button near the top left of your Zotero window (small blue/green button with two “people” icons, second from the left).
• To join an existing Zotero library, search for it at zotero.org/groups or be invited by the group’s owner.
• You must log in to the zotero.org website to create or join a group.

You now have two sections in your Zotero collections pane: My Library and Group Libraries.

Personal and group libraries are entirely separate, and changes made to items in one library do not affect the other. You can drag items back and forth libraries to copy items.

Search for existing public groups or create a new group. Groups may be public (searchable, and anyone can join) or private (users can only join if invited).

If you need to have a group folder with shared highlighting and annotations there are a couple of ways this can be accomplished. Basically, any markup on a PDF that is shared within Zotero should show that markup to other group members. One free tool for doing this on your desktop is Foxit. The iPad and Mac app Papership has a pro version that allows for markup as well.