What is the "Url resolver" for?

Davidal

I'm sorry but I am confused about what this can do for me. I read the documentation and searched Youtube but don't know.

I have access to my college libraries. Is this resolver if I obtain it from my library beneficial for me in any way? what can I do with it?

Thanks.

adamsmith

If you have an item saved, setting the resolver you your library can get you to a full text version of an article or the catalog record of a book in your local library clicking the Locate button. If that's useful for you depends on your preferences. I never use it personally, but I know people who love it.

bwiernik

I for example use it daily to look up items in my university library system (I have many items with no downloaded PDF).

Davidal

Thanks guys.

Bwiernik, so it will connect with all the books and articles in the library? Will it index everything and I'll be able to browse through titles?

Davidal

Adamsmith, if it's just that then I don't know if I'll have much use for it really

adamsmith

Not quite no. To search your library's holdings, you should keep using your library's discovery interface. The locate button is for items that you already have in Zotero but now want to find locally.

Davidal

Aha, but if I have access to the library, Zotero will download the pdf anyway at the time of making the metadata. So what is the point having the resolver..

adamsmith

As I say -- whether this is useful or not for you depends a lot on how you use Zotero. If you mainly import articles from sites with PDFs, it's of very little use. That's almost all my work.
bwiernik does a lot of large search&import from literature databases that don't inlude PDFs like Pubmed and Web of Science. In that situation, being able to quickly get to PDFs for some of those papers is very useful.

Davidal

Right. I think by using it in different situations over time, I will understand better. I have asked my college for the resolver. I will add it in and see what it can do..

Davidal

Thanks for the help guys.