Public libraries and relevance of group membership settings

kjmaier
I may not be finding the right Zotero documentation, but what I have found leaves me with questions about what group membership is for.
If I’m not logged in to Zotero when accessing my group library (like anyone on the internet), and the library is set to Public Closed membership, I get the notice “Library will be viewable after joining this group”. Yet, by only changing the Library Reading to “anyone on the internet” (still with Public Closed group membership), I can see the library and apparently use it. So what role does group membership have?
My goal is to allow anyone to view and use the sources I have listed in my group library, but not be able to modify the library in any way. I believe this is accomplished by setting Library Reading to “anyone on the internet”, and Library Editing to “only group admins”, but the role of group membership setting in all this is still unclear to me.
Thanks for any input.
  • adamsmith
    Two differences. As opposed to general users, who can view a public library online
    1. Members of groups will sync the group and thus have them appear in their Zotero software, allowing them to quickly move items from the group into their personal and to cite from the group library
    2. Members of _closed_ public groups have access to attachments in the group.
  • kjmaier
    Thank you for clarifying this.
    If my goal is to have the library widely used to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration, does anyone see a down side to setting group membership to Public Open (other than group members not being able to edit/store files/pdfs within a public open group library)?
  • adamsmith
    The problem with open membership and letting everyone edit is the potential for vandalism, typically of the accidental type -- think e.g. of an inexperienced user who joins, then doesn't want to be part of the group anymore and deletes all items, not aware that that will delete them for everyone.

    Just open membership but with a more limited set of admins who can edit has no downsides I'm aware of beyond those you list.
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