Upgrade StorageEstablishing a "Master Library" for a company
Hello!
I work for a small cancer non-profit and it doesn't have a reference managment software or an easy way to share science article pdfs. I would like to set up a paid account for my foundation, build a group library, and allow employees with zotero accounts to access the company's group library.
I currently have free account, a personal library, and built and shared access to a couple groups libraries with colleagues to test the waters.
I need your help so I don't make mistakes during this set up. I'd really appreciate any "how to"s, tips and tricks, and common pitfalls to avoid. Messing up could be very embarrassing, so your help would be really appreciated. Thanks so much!
I work for a small cancer non-profit and it doesn't have a reference managment software or an easy way to share science article pdfs. I would like to set up a paid account for my foundation, build a group library, and allow employees with zotero accounts to access the company's group library.
I currently have free account, a personal library, and built and shared access to a couple groups libraries with colleagues to test the waters.
I need your help so I don't make mistakes during this set up. I'd really appreciate any "how to"s, tips and tricks, and common pitfalls to avoid. Messing up could be very embarrassing, so your help would be really appreciated. Thanks so much!
The most common things I tell people setting up groups are
a) Don't tie a foundation account to a particular person. Set this up for the foundation and give 2-3 people the password, so the library owner can't leave
b) Consider how many people have edit access to the group. If you have 10 people in the non-profit, you're probably fine, but with, say, 30, you'll get folks messing up. For that scenario, I'd recommend assigning 3-5 admins who enter and edit items and set up a mechanism for others to request additions (we have a Slack channel for this, e.g.)
There are semi-regular reports here of Group members deleting collections that they "don't need" (which in v7 can now at least be retrieved from the Trash if caught in time). And one recent case of someone (presumably the Group owner) who left an organization and a year or so later mistakenly deleted the organizations's entire Group (which had not been properly backed up by said organization) ... thinking that only affected what was on their own computer.
Group use should ideally involve a formal instruction document to users - who is the owner(s), who knows the password (where is it stored), who are the administrators, how to add/remove users, how to get local support, where to find documentation, how a Zotero Group works (local data storage required, syncing, etc), what they should and shouldn't do (but you'll never avoid the person who only uses Zotero irregularly and forgets the "rules", or doesn't read them ... who will do something wrong if they have the edit privileges to do so).
Have very robust auto-scheduled *incremental* backups, so you can jump back to any date. Just because your Group is stored on Zotero servers does not mean that Zotero can restore what you've lost. Test and document your own recovery procedures to ensure that they work. One of the strengths - and weaknesses - of Zotero databases is that you don't need professional IT support to administer them. That means that the owner/adminstrators may not be aware of best practices for database administration. Imagine the consequences of losing the in-use version of the Group database, and have processes to mitigate that.
Have an exit procedure to remove people from the Group when they leave the organization (or at least review group membership regularly).