how do I make my school library site a proxy / amazon question

vanessajdiaz
Hi--I am new to this and I admit that I am not the most tech savvy person out there. However, at least for starters, I am not finding Zotero helpful. The intro video shows that amazon and library sites can provide info that is automatically pulled into zotero when you add it as a new source. I am not having such luck. I have figured out how to pull info from jstor, but that is because a drop down came up right away and asked if I wanted to make it a proxy. I want to make my university library web site a proxy also, but I'm not sure how to do that. So far, upon trying to add book listings from my library web site, it will only pull up the actual link, not any of the bibliographic info. The only postings I saw about university library sites through Zotero seems to indicate that there are problems setting them up as proxies (http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/4322/?Focus=18488#Comment_18488). Does anyone have any other advice? How can I get my library site to work with Zotero and what about amazon? The one posting in the forum I saw about Amazon says that there is a Zotero icon at the top of the amazon page. I didn't see that. Can anyone help?! I am feeling like giving up on Zotero!
  • vanessajdiaz
    now i tried my best to add it as a proxy. removed it. and i'm still having the same problems other had when trying to make their school library web site work as proxy.
    http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/4322/?Focus=18488#Comment_18488
    PLEASE HELP!
  • dstillman
    I suggest spending some time reading the documentation, starting with the Quick Start Guide and pages linked from there.

    You don't "make [your] scholar library site a proxy". A proxy server is (generally speaking) a computer your institution provides to give you off-campus access to protected resources. Zotero has automatic support for many standard proxies without your needing to configure anything. Furthermore, a library catalog is rarely a protected resource. Read the proxy documentation for more info.

    After reading through the documentation, if you still have questions, post specific questions, including, if applicable, example URLs that don't work for you.
  • ves
    I have noticed when using Amazon that the pages take a long time to load fully -- my browser displays the names of one script after another that are being loaded--I think most of them are involved with delivering advertising to the page or tracking statistics. The little blue book icon for Zotero is the LAST thing to appear on Amazon page. On my slow computer it can take almost a minute -- but waiting for that minute is still an improvement over typing an entry by hand.

    I suggest trying again and waiting for the icon for a minute or two...see if it shows up.

    However, I wouldn't expect this to be much a problem with your library, unless their server or the computer you are using is very slow.
  • dstillman
    ves: If the page itself has been loaded and only advertising or unnecessary images appear to be left, just hit Esc or press Firefox's stop button to cancel loading, and the Zotero icon should appear immediately. This applies to any site.
  • ves
    Wow, that was a quick response! Thanks, I'll try it next time.

    Also, vanessajdiaz -- don't be offended -- I know to ask this because I did this myself. Are you actually clicking the icon that Zotero places in the address bar? It looks like a little book for book articles, a newspaper for newspaper articles, a folder for lists. I had the same problem you are having until I figure out that I have to click right on that icon -- if I click the "Create New Item from Current Page" icon in the Zotero panel I still get a web page item with a title and URL instead of the book data I am after.

    The documentation and videos are very helpful on these details, but I don't always remember what I need once I get busy on the web.
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