How to connect a Public Library from the Zotero Website to the Zotero App?

nicolaslainez

I am just starting with Zotero and have not fully figured out how to connect a Group Library from the Zotero website (https://www.zotero.org/groups/479046/vsg_public/items/) to my Zotero App. I just want to add the references from this library to Word documents using my Zotero App. This library is supposed to be public, yet I am unable to add it to my Group Libraries in the App. Does the person in charge of this group need to grant me a permission? Is there another way to use or download the references? Thanks for any advice or assistance.

bwiernik

You need to join (or request to join if it’s a public closed group) the group on Zotero.org. Once you’ve joined, sync in the Zotero app and the group library will appear.

adamsmith

This specific group is closed, so you need to request to join here: https://www.zotero.org/groups/479046/vsg_public? and will only be able to sync the group to Zotero if your request to join gets accepted.

nicolaslainez

thanks for your comments. I will send a request to join the group. Best wishes

mmoole

Pardon for pushing up that topic, but it seems something has changed since then:
When I click the 'Group Library' link of a library that is
Group Type Public, Closed Membership
Group Library Anyone can view, only members can edit
then I get to an UI where can drag and drop items from that group to my own library for example.
How can I get to this in the Zotero app? That would be very very useful!

dstillman

Nothing has really changed, other than that the new web interface supports cross-library dragging.

If you want to join the group, it's the same answer as above — you just need to join the group and then sync the desktop app.

If you don't want to join and just want to add some items to your personal library, you can either do it in the web library (after which the changes will sync to your local Zotero) or view each item in the web library and use the Save to Zotero button as you would on any other website to save the item to your local Zotero.

The one catch with the latter is that the Save to Zotero button doesn't yet work on the new version of the web library, so if you want to save items that way you'll temporarily need to click on your username at the top of the page and choose "Use Old Web Library", and then save items from the old interface. We'll fix this for the new version soon.