Can I convert "my library" into a "group library" without creating a separate folder?

Enzo Nussio

Hi everybody,
Zotero is the best. Every day I discover new helpful functions - my life is good thanks to Zotero...
However: I have a question regarding groups. In fact, I saw quite a bit of discussions about related topics in the forums but not exactly about the question I have. After finishing my PhD, I have quite a big library. Now, I am occasionally working with people on papers and stuff and my library would be a good basis for all of us. So, I would like to share my whole library with them and let them also make new entries into my library.
Yet, if I create a group library, I can just copy the entries of my library into the group library. This is kind of a static process since after they make new entries into the group library, I have to recopy them to my library because they are two different folders (right?).
My question therefore: Can I just convert "my library" into a group library without creating a new folder?
A possible answer may be: Just give your collaborators your access keys to your account. However, I would like to have a little more control as administrator.
Is there a solution to this? Maybe there is one in the existing forums and I dont know it...
I am a beginner with the group libraries. A more experienced Zotero-group-user might help me. I would appreciate it!
Best

jlovell

Hi, I had the same question!

I had been working on a word document by myself that will become a collaborative one. The library was not a shared one. Is there a way to make the word document link to a new shared library without copying the library sub-collection into a shared group folder re-entering each reference manually in the word document?

Thanks
Jon

adamsmith

Since the last post on this, Zotero introduced the "Store References in Document" feature in the Word plugin. This is checked by default, but check under "Set Document Preferences" in the Word plugin.
With this enable, other people will be able to work with the document, even if they do not have the references in their library. They will not, however, be able to edit the item data - since it's not in their Zotero library. Try it out.

If that doesn't work for your purposes, then, no, there is no alternative to dragging the library folder(s) into a group and re-entering each item.

jlovell

Yes - that is a great feature! Thanks! It is almost perfect.

If multiple people are adding references to the same word document, and those references are in unshared libraries, it may tricky to get the right journal abbreviations into the document. This can come up if the journal abbreviation style needs changing (ie switching the intended journal) or also if some of the journal abbreviations were entered incorrectly in the word file and then cannot be changed by other users. But I just noticed that Zotero 4 has journal abbreviation support so hopefully this issue will eventually be bypassed entirely.

In the future, I will create a new shared library for any word document I start working on. Since I am understanding that otherwise, it is not feasible smoothly to share the document with others if they are going to be adding references to it.

Many thanks!
Jon

adamsmith

cool. The one thing you want to pay attention to is that if you insert a citation that's already in the document to always select the one listed under "Cited" (only available in the quick format citation dialog). Otherwise you may get duplicate listings in the bibliography (i.e. the same work gets cited from two different libraries).

I've tested the new journal abbreviations feature quite a bit and for most circumstances that should just remove the need to worry about abbreviations at all.