Juris-m/Large library management - split? Zotero 5.0?

ejzejz
I have a very large library I'm trying to manage.

I see that Zotero 5.0 will involve changing data directories. Right now I use the default storage setup with downloading documents "as needed." I've considered creating two separate libraries or using a different program to store the actual pdfs as a way to cut down on the size of the library. I'm looking for a relatively simple solution.

I'd appreciate advice on how other people manage theirs and whether this is something I should attempt before or after installing the beta version.
  • bwiernik
    Zotero 5.0 moves the default location for its data directory to your User folder, rather than in the Firefox profile or in the hidden application settings. This is much more stable and resolves a lot of little issues. This happens automatically and you don't have to touch it at all.

    I really don't see any reason to store your PDFs elsewhere or change your setup at all. Zotero is designed to organize metadata and store files. I would recommend just letting it do it.

    However, I don't believe that Juris-M currently has a 5.0 beta ready. You should not switch from Juris-M 4 to Zotero 5.0 beta, but should wait for the Juris-M 5.0 beta to be released.
  • ejzejz
    Hi, thanks for the advice. I will need to do something either about the number of items I have in my library or the size of the documents attached to them - the app is running painfully slow.

    Any suggestions?
  • bwiernik
    How many items are you talking about (size of attachments doesn't matter)?
  • ejzejz
    13K. I can cull some of the older ones out, but have basically been using Zotero as my main way to store references and interesting readings for many years. If people have other, non-Zotero ideas for handling some of that, I'm open to those too.
  • bwiernik
    Okay, I have upwards of 50k items in my library. Initial startup can take a few minutes, but other operations are quite fast. Are you only talking about opening Juris-M, or also other actions? If the latter, can you submit a debug log (in the Advanced preferences pane) for slow action and report here?
  • ejzejz
    It's sometimes slow when I search for items using the pane in the app, even when limited to just the title and creator - I think that's to be expected.

    It's very slow, though, when I try to add citations to word documents. I often have multiple citations in the same footnote. Searching for those is also sometimes slow (also perhaps to be expected). But it takes a very long time to process the citation and put it into the paper once I've entered the right information and hit return.
  • adamsmith
    As far as I know, the size of the library has almost no impact on the speed in documents. That's determined by the number of citations in the document (in combination with the total size of the document and the citation style). There is code that will dramatically speed this up (by allowing you to turn off auto-reformatting of all citations in the document until you click refresh) that I think has a good chance of making it into Zotero 5.0 (and if not, shortly thereafter).
  • ejzejz
    That makes sense. I have many, many citations. I'd love the option to turn of the automated reformatting - the sooner the better. Thanks for all your hard work.
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