New Library

bioshaena
Hello everyone...

Quick question. Can I have 2 different libraries in zotero???? and If yes how can I do that? I don't find anything about this in the forum.

Thanks
  • adamsmith
    edited February 5, 2009
    afaik not easily - what you can do is work with two different FF user profiles, which means two different Zoteros and thus two different libraries.
    There's an official guide which I can't find atm, but here's one:
    http://lifehacker.com/software/firefox/geek-to-live--manage-multiple-firefox-profiles-231646.php

    edit: if you explain why you want to have two libraries that may be useful in providing a helpful answer.
  • Cassandra2323
    HI

    I personally am considering 2 libraries for a couple of reasons

    (1) The sheer volume of my stuff is making Zotero run SLOOOWWWLY.

    (2) I use academic and case law research. The Tags I want for these are totally different and I love tags and have a lot. So with both libraries together I have such a long list of tags that they are hard to use.

    But of course I see the problems in two libraries, and would love another solution

    Thanks
    \
    Isis
  • adamsmith
    How large of a library are we talking? It seems like people work with around 4000 entries just fine. Have you upgraded to 1.5 (which is faster)? If not, I'd strongly recommend that - except for the sync 1.5b is as stable as the 1.09 version.

    Collections and subcollections can help you work with tags - e.g. if you select a collection, and then click on the tags logo, only the tags in that collection and its sub-collection get displayed. If this is helpful depends, of course, on where exactly the total number of tags is a problem.
  • Cassandra2323
    Great idea about collections- I had abandoned them in favor of tags but you are right-they work well together

    I only have about 1300 items . The slowness is most noticeable when I go to insert a new cite. I wonder if part of the problem is the Word document size (80 pages, MANY fns per pages ) or the style (bluebook) which is still under development.
    I had not upgraded to 1.5 because of all the warnings. If I understand you, the problmes have been address other than the syncis that right?
  • mark
    edited May 6, 2009
    There is no danger in upgrading to 1.5 right now. I've been using it for the last few months with a library of 2000+ items. Do note though that 1.5 requires a new version of the Word plugin, and that this involves upgrading the citations in your document irrevocably. See here. Make sure you have a backup of your document before upgrading it, so that you can go back to 1.09 in case it chokes on the size of the document or something.

    On the multiple libraries issue: it is possible to switch libraries within one Firefox profile just by going to the Zotero preferences and selecting another location on the 'Advanced' tab. The downside is that switching to the other library always involves restarting Zotero.

    Making good use of collections usually is a better solution than having physically separate libraries.
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