Basic Explanation of Syncing and Groups

ericgraig
I'm a bit flummoxed with the relationship between Group Libraries and My Library. I am using (I think) the Zotero client. A research assistant is finding materials for me and placing them in a Group Library she has established. I can access them via the client with no problems. It seems better to bring these into My Library since creating an advanced search is easier there (I get nothing returned from an advanced search of the Group Library, there is a post on this which states you have to right click on a Group Library and instead create a saved search which I'd rather not do).

Is it possible to set things up so that changes to the Group Library automatically occur in My Library? IOW, the RA adds an item to the GL and it syncs up to ML? What about vice versa? At present the sync button doesn't seem to effective any data transfer between these libraries.

My guess is I'm missing something fundamental here. I suppose I'm not understand the relationship between the web based My Library, the web based Group Library and the client versions of these libraries.

Can someone enlighten me?

Eric
  • adamsmith
    edited March 23, 2012
    Is it possible to set things up so that changes to the Group Library automatically occur in My Library? IOW, the RA adds an item to the GL and it syncs up to ML? What about vice versa? At present the sync button doesn't seem to effective any data transfer between these libraries.
    The answer is no to all of this.
    Think of a group library like an entirely separate library.
    If you want items from a group library in your personal library you'll have to drag them over as you do now (sorting by "date added" may be helpful for that purpose).
    It's likely that the interaction between the two will be improved in the future, but not any time very soon.

    I'm not sure what your question about the online version of the libraries is - they're online copies of what you see locally.
  • ericgraig
    Thanks much. Hopefully they can fix that little issue with Advanced Search in the Group Library.

    Eric
  • adamsmith
    in the meantime, though - can I ask what the problem with creating a saved search is? It just takes one mouseclick to delete...
  • ericgraig
    There's no problem at all really. I just like things to be as elegant as possible.
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