Zotero on university public access PCs

kevinwilson

Hello,

I work at a university library and have been a long time Zotero user. Based on a request from faculty, our IT department at looking at the possibility of including Zotero on the university's PC build and remote desktop (every public access computer). They've sought my advice. From what they've told me, this would just be the software, not the browser extension (which presumably would limit its use). We have Mendeley and Endnote on the PC build already.

Is anyone aware of Zotero being available on their university's PCs? Are there likely issues if Mendeley and Endnote are also available - would it cause a clash of some kind?

The faculty should be able to install Zotero on their work PC anyway (as I have) - so I'm unsure why they would need, say library PCs, to be included?

Can anyone foresee any pros and cons of having Zotero accessible on all public access computers? Is it even feasible?

Thanks, Kevin

emilianoeheyns

They won't clash, but the Zotero client is really only useful if you have a personal (unshared) profile. Whether installation on public PCs makes sense thus depends on whether everyone logs in with the same guest profile, or a personal profile that follows the user between these public PCs (roaming profiles).

kevinwilson

Thanks - so it's only any use for someone with an account, who logs into each PC they go onto?

emilianoeheyns

I'd say so, yes. Installing the browser plugin could still be useful since it can save to the web library.

dstillman

I mean it's not really any different from installing Mendeley or EndNote in that sense. If you're already installing those, there's no reason not to install Zotero (and a lot of good reasons to do so, like encouraging use of open-source software that people can always keep using when they leave the university). While roaming profiles are helpful, even on a public computer it's trivial in the Zotero preferences to set up syncing and unlink the account when done to delete all local data. And someone without a Zotero account could still use it to save some items and generate a bibliography while working on a project (though for small one-off projects, ZoteroBib may be a better option).

But it would make sense to include the Zotero Connector as well.

emilianoeheyns

Good point - if installing mendeley or endnote does anything useful, installing zotero will too.

WRT mendeley, I think it's use should actively be discouraged, given https://twitter.com/search?q=Mendeley GDPR