Using other referencing apps to connect to Zotero

kevinwilson

Hi all,

There are a number of apps nowadays that allow you to scan book barcodes and send references to you, such as Quick Cite or Ref Me.

Is there any way of linking these apps up with Zotero, or would there be plans for Zotero to have a similar app?

With Ref Me, all I can see is using the app to scan a barcode, then going to the web version to export that reference as a BibTex file, then import into Zotero.

Is there any easier way of using these apps to connect to Zotero, do you think?

Many thanks for your help, as ever.

Kevin

adamsmith

I don't think it'd be easy to connect RefMe or similar apps to Zotero, no. I haven't looked at their APIs in depth, but a quick look doesn't suggest there is a way to link them with Zotero (or other apps), so even if someone wanted to do it, it wouldn't be easy.

That said, Zandy for Android has a barcode scanner for books included and bibup for iOS provides that functionality for iOS. There used to be a very nice Scanner for Zotero app for Android, but the developer isn't maintaining that anymore and it'd require an update to fix it. It's open if someone wants to do that: github.com/jmschanck/Scanner-For-Zotero

kevinwilson

Hi Adam,

Thanks for your help. I thought as much.

A scanner for Zotero would be wonderful if someone was able to work on this. I haven't really investigated the use of scanning books for references so not sure how common it is.