Cambridge University (UK) computing service provides this information:

http://www.cam.ac.uk/cs/docs/leaflets/m310/zotero.pdf

This is a) quite hidden b) out of date (no mention of syncing at all - they recommend the portable firefox solution). Edit: Although, thinking about it, they may be just nervous about recommending beta software.

It raises issue 1 from asamsmith's post as well as a couple of others which I don't believe are still current, namely:

• They are "slightly dubious" about the stability of a very large library - this was the case a few years ago and may still be technically true if you have 70,000 or so references, but for most practical purposes would I be correct in saying that it is now a non-issue?
  
  
• They say that saving references is "quite slow" - this certainly hasn't been my experience over the past year, and the forums haven't had any complaints about this for quite some time now (excepting individual problems, unique to specific users).
  

In terms of getting the word out I say writing to libraries individually is probably the only way forward (in my opinion mass mailing libraries with emails explaining the benefits of Zotero is likely to hit spam filters, both computer and human).

What might be useful is a page, written for libraries, that explains the benefits of Zotero for their students and researchers and can be referenced in individual emails. The best way to go about the emailing would probably be for users to email their own institutions where possible (carries more weight). I'll try and get onto an email for Cambridge in the near future.

I'm having a go with Sydney Uni library at the moment, but it seems they are very much committed to Endnote - having paid $100,000+ for a 5 year licence. The librarians also give Endnote training courses more than once a week. I've offered to demo Zotero to them - show them all the cool stuff you can do in less time than it takes to even install Endnote, but getting over the neophobia is a hurdle so far.

As the largest library in the Southern Hemisphere, and with almost 60,000 students, I'd love to get them to at least mention it as an option, with the hope of eventually supporting it more widely.

The 10 reasons is pretty good (PDF version), and with the new features there are probably yet more good reasons we could dream up too.

2.0 coming out of beta would be an ideal opportunity to get some extra library publicity going. Maybe something more on the website to encourage users to contact their librarians with positive experiences?

Maybe the Zotero Evangelists group could also advise?

I know we're small (2K-3K students) but at our private college I'm working with the librarian (who told me about Zotero) to evaluate Zotero for campus-wide use. We're both pretty excited by it and I suppose he'll put in a formal submission to the executive at some point to recommend it after we get WEBDAV sorted out (waiting on the Zotero announcement) and talk to IT about the implications (eg. bandwidth requirements of file syncing, IE is the default browser at present). We're small enough to make failry swift decisions. In addtion we're private so cost effectiveness is encouraged by all.

Thanks for the '10 reasons' link, CB.

I don't think they can do these types of things in contracts. It's more likely to be some type of institutional resistance - both Bruce and Dan(?) have written on their respective blogs about this.
See it from the librarians point of view: Now they are supporting one (or two) products. Academics usually don't want to change things - so they'll probably be stuck with those two - or have to face grumbling powerful professors. If they add Zotero, that's just more work.

It would be interesting to hear more about the reactions to GMU's end of Endnote support for that purpose.

Endnote does try to pressure libraries though.
After the citefest competition at Northwestern, which Zotero won,
http://citefest.pbworks.com/
Endnote reps called the library to protest, claiming the contest wasn't fair. Really, I'm not making this up - I was on the Zotero team, so this is first hand information.
Partly as a result of that, the library did not publish extended results on the webpage.
Unfortunately, Endnote continues to be the main citation manager supported by the library. sigh.

komrade: typically evasive and autocratic manager-spiv crap, don't you think? No reasons, just "go away and play with your cheapo software, little man. We'll drink to Endnote and Microsoft. Nice little drop, this".

Re: the blog posts mentioned above, you can go here if you want to read them (check the trackbacks and comments).

The short version of my position is that, despite some implicit myths to the contrary, the political-economy of technology adoption on campus isn't really significantly different than it is off-campus, even if the logics work a little differently (seems to me site licenses are often about sucking in users who will pay off after they leave campus). You can imagine that for administrators, once they make a decision to invest substantial money in a license, their natural impulse is going to be to avoid undermining the wisdom of that decision. Supporting Zotero as a superior free alternative would seem to do just that.

That said, it's not too much to ask any library to include a link to Zotero (here's my library's), along with some factually correct information about it.

I also think if you find resistance of this sort higher up the food chain, you might try talking to people farther down it, who may more be open-minded.

Slightly unrelated, but made me happy! :-)

Here's the Journal Oryx highly recommending Zotero!
Is this a first directly from a journal?

I'll be writing a style for Oryx when CSL 1.0 is ready (it's my field) - hopefully they'll want to be involved, endorse it and host the style on their site! Another first?