Zotero Groups Clarification

corptoxbio

Hello,

We have deployed Zotero for a small group within our organization. We are considering of deploying to other groups; however, the Zotero Groups is not understood. Before we test out Zotero Groups, we would appreciate feedback on whether the following about Zotero Grops are accurate.

- Zotero Group is a separate collection of items from My Library

- Any group member can add an item to the Zotero Group library by drag-n-drop from My Library to the the Zotero Group.

- Only citation/meta data (no attachments) are transfered from My Library to the Zotero Group library.

-- If attachments are included in the transfer process from My Library to the Group library, attached files are not stored on WebDAV server.

- An item shared by other Group member may be added to the My Library collection via drag-n-drop (attachments are not transferred).

- Files attached to a Zotero Group item and storage server is WebDAV, attachments are not sync'd with other Zotero Group members.

- Files attached to a Zotero Group item via the 'Attach link to File' and storage directory is a shared network drive accessible to Zotero Group members, attached file is sync'd between group members.

Thanks in advance for any comments on the above.

With kind regards,

aurimas

- Zotero Group is a separate collection of items from My Library

Correct (sort of). Each Zotero group is a separate library (not a collection).

- Any group member can add an item to the Zotero Group library by drag-n-drop from My Library to the the Zotero Group.

Whether members can add/edit items is controlled by group permission settings, which can be found on zotero.org

- Only citation/meta data (no attachments) are transfered from My Library to the Zotero Group library.

Closed membership groups can have file attachments added to the library. Whether attachments transfer to the group when dragged-and-dropped also depends on your Zotero settings under Preferences -> General (also, see below)

-- If attachments are included in the transfer process from My Library to the Group library, attached files are not stored on WebDAV server.

Technically, correct, but you seem to be misunderstanding something. Zotero offers two official ways to sync files (there are other ways, but they're not relevant to this discussion): via zotero.org or a WebDAV server of your choosing. zotero.org works seamlessly with personal (My Library) and group libraries. WebDAV can only be used with personal libraries at this point. You can choose this under Preferences -> Sync. You could use WebDAV for personal library and then use zotero.org for groups. Or you could use WebDAV for personal library and turn off group library file syncing altogether (or some other combination).

- An item shared by other Group member may be added to the My Library collection via drag-n-drop (attachments are not transferred).

Yes (but attachments should be transferred given above conditions)

- Files attached to a Zotero Group item and storage server is WebDAV, attachments are not sync'd with other Zotero Group members.

Not entirely sure how the first part of this statement can be true. Please rephrase if I'm missing something. If we ignore the WebDAV bit, then file attachments should be synced to group members, unless they choose not to sync group attachments in their Zotero client (Preferences -> Sync).

- Files attached to a Zotero Group item via the 'Attach link to File' and storage directory is a shared network drive accessible to Zotero Group members, attached file is sync'd between group members.

Currently, Zotero does not allow attaching links to files in a group library, because the links would almost certainly break when syncing to other computers. This feature is likely to be added in the (somewhat) near future.

corptoxbio

Thank you so much aurimas! That helps tremendously.