Having watched the screencast you sent me, I'm sure now that the issue is that you aren't quite understanding how Zotero works with the web. You should review http://www.zotero.org/support/screencast_tutorials/intro and other basic Zotero intro materials. You should now find that the icons you need to use Zotero with ERIC are now in place. You no longer need to do exports to work with ERIC. I doubt you'll miss those extra steps, once you try the Zotero workflow.
The information that you suggest I view is very elementary. I have been using Zotero for all type of general websites with rtf-encoded icons for over two years. In fact I authored a help file for Zotero which users have found useful.
In conveying to you my impressions of the difficulties that professional educators and students will have when they use the ERIC interface, I was attempting to help give you evidence that could could help you to find a solution that would allow Zotero users import .ris files from ERIC.
Now that you claim that the difficulties with .ris importing are entirely on the ERIC side, my next step should be to contact them and have them address the difficulty with their .ris files.
I've posted a crude screencast of Zotero-style ERIC usage on Vimeo -- it's queued, but should be available at http://vimeo.com/14401996 in an hour or so.
I am having trouble understanding why professional educators and their students would ever need to use ERIC's apparently buggy RIS export, at least not while using Zotero. The whole point of using Zotero is to avoid the crude and often hard to understand ways that non-browser-based bibliographic tools connect to bibliographic data.
If they have RIS data from other programs (EndNote, Refman) and it won't import into Zotero, then that is a use case that I understand, and much effort has gone into making that as smooth as possible.
ProjGeekette -
where I think you're mistaken is the view that Eric is somehow special in how it works.
Most databases, including JSTOR, Worldcat, EBSCO etc., work in similar ways.
They all have something like saved folders or clipboards and they all have an export to citation manager option.
They also have (or in EBSCO's case - usually have) Zotero translators that make working with these functions largely obsolete. The Zotero icons are not limited to simple webpages. They work especially well for larger databases and catalgues.
Having advised users on this forum for about 2 years now, I can tell you with some confidence that these latter are what Zotero users use and are aware of. Broken RIS import from a site with a working translator affects a tiny, tiny fraction of Zotero users.
ajlyon's fixed ERIC translator is now available. Your copy of Zotero should auto-update within 24 hours, or you can update manually by clicking Update Now in the General pane of the Zotero prefs.
Upgrade Storage
The information that you suggest I view is very elementary. I have been using Zotero for all type of general websites with rtf-encoded icons for over two years. In fact I authored a help file for Zotero which users have found useful.
In conveying to you my impressions of the difficulties that professional educators and students will have when they use the ERIC interface, I was attempting to help give you evidence that could could help you to find a solution that would allow Zotero users import .ris files from ERIC.
Now that you claim that the difficulties with .ris importing are entirely on the ERIC side, my next step should be to contact them and have them address the difficulty with their .ris files.
Thank you for your work with this issue.
If they have RIS data from other programs (EndNote, Refman) and it won't import into Zotero, then that is a use case that I understand, and much effort has gone into making that as smooth as possible.
where I think you're mistaken is the view that Eric is somehow special in how it works.
Most databases, including JSTOR, Worldcat, EBSCO etc., work in similar ways.
They all have something like saved folders or clipboards and they all have an export to citation manager option.
They also have (or in EBSCO's case - usually have) Zotero translators that make working with these functions largely obsolete. The Zotero icons are not limited to simple webpages. They work especially well for larger databases and catalgues.
Having advised users on this forum for about 2 years now, I can tell you with some confidence that these latter are what Zotero users use and are aware of. Broken RIS import from a site with a working translator affects a tiny, tiny fraction of Zotero users.
Edit: Well, apparently Dan is faster at pushing than I am at posting.