Best Way To Use Collections? Suggestions?

chrisalbon
I have used Zotero for more than a year now. But I still cannot think of the best way to use "Collections".

I use tags to organize articles by topic (keywords), status (read/unread), and project. The only thing I end up using collections for is a temporary folder to dump in articles I dont want to keep in the long term.

I would love to hear what people had to say about:

1. What is the best use of the collections?
2. What do YOU use collections for?

Thanks!
  • bdarcus
    I use collections for projects. For example, if I start an article manuscript, then I'll typically create a collection to have quick access to the things I'd like to cite.
  • mryckman
    I'd second what bdarcus said... I generally use them for projects and papers... my dissertation has a collection, as do specific papers I'm working on... it's nice to see things all in one place like that and have easy access to the reporting and notes functions.
  • SimonCropper
    I have been using Zotero for several months now and have found collections very useful in grouping references I tend to cite together. I am an ecologist. Consequently, I have my standard references for taxonomy, nomenclature and conservation status. Another collection lists all the references I have published. Another lists papers on taxonomic groups and those references I am proposing to use for some up and coming papers. If I am researching a topic I also tend to make a collection populated using the advanced search facility. This allows me to avoid adding references I already have on the system. Then I add all new references found to this collection. I have also created an advanced search collection showing all my recent additions as described here. I find this very useful in locating recent additions to my database.
  • Tjowens
    Like everyone else here I use collections to separate specific projects.

    At the top level I have collections for coursework, working papers, finished papers, blog posts, and work related materials. I also have a saved advanced search containing all my notes called "Notebook", and a saved search containing all of the books in my collection with the "I own it" tag, called "My bookshelf".

    Inside the coursework collection I have a subcollection for each of the classes I am currently taking and a subcollection containing all of my previous course collections. When I get the course syllabus I go grab all the books from the LOC and articles from some database where I can get a full text PDF. When I get to class I just open up the class collection where I have access to all my notes about each individual book, the full text pdfs, I can then take notes in class inside the individual class folder.

    The working papers and finished papers each have subcollections separated out by project. Inside each of those project specific folders I set up subcollections around sections of the paper. Things like Introduction, Lit review, etc. Then I take notes in those subcollections as a starting point to draft text for those individual sections.

    The blog folder has subcollections for different blogs I write in. At any given time each of those blog specific subsections has a several specific post subcollections inside it. Once I publish a post I move that post subcollection to a "old posts" subcollection in each blog specific subcollection. (I hope that made sense, it gets a bit confusing when one starts talking about nested subcollections)

    As far as I'm concerned the folders value is its temporariness. I like to think of them as something akin to a to-do list for reading and writing.
  • bdarcus
    Re: Simon's point:
    Another collection lists all the references I have published.
    Yup; I do this too. Would be nice at some point to be able to auto-generate my CV from this.
  • rdhyee
    I've started using Zotero collections to store my purchased e-books. Before that, my books would be all over the place, unintegrated into the rest of my bibliographic world.
  • lmullen
    I have collections for types of projects, and subcollections for each project. So I have a collections "Classes," "Projects," "Archived Projects," and "Future Projects," with all the subcollections that you might expect.
  • archiwicz
    This is really interesting. Right now I am only using collections for my papers for library school. I use this naming convention [course number]_[assignment number], in the expectation that I'll eventually have lots of collections. Are naming conventions useful when you have a lot of collections, or do you just rely on tags?
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