The button in the upper right-hand corner of the information tab (the right column) uses a technology called OpenURL to try to find a Zotero item in your local library (either in its physical collection or in one of the full-text databases it subscribes to). The link from citation to resource resolves differently for different users: using OpenURL, a scholar affiliated with George Mason University, for example, clicks through to a copy of the resource available through her institution; a scholar affiliated with University of Michigan clicks through to a copy available through his.

You can configure Zotero to find full-text resources through your local institution by clicking the gear icon above the left pane of your Zotero window, selecting Preferences, and manually substituting your library’s link resolver for the default George Mason resolver under OpenURL.

Although CHNM will eventually offer a startup wizard that will help you find your local OpenURL server, you can also check to see if Zotero can locate other (non-GMU) OpenURL servers by opening the Preferences panel and clicking on “Search for resolvers.” If an entry other than Custom appears, Zotero has found another possible OpenURL server (i.e., your computer lies within a range of IP addresses that are able to use another institution’s OpenURL server).

Having configured your link resolver, either manually or automatically, you can then select a reference in your Zotero library and go directly to a copy of it by clicking on the Locate button in the right pane of your Zotero window (make sure the Info tab is active). Assuming your library has a subscription to a database service that provides full-text access to that resource, you can then automatically retrieve it via OpenURL.

Stanford University and the University of Michigan have both published online instructions for configuring Zotero to use their respective link servers. For directories of other OpenURL resolvers, visit the OpenURL Resolver Table, OpenURL Router, and the OCLC OpenURL Resolver Registry. If you’re a librarian or information technologist who has published an OpenURL address for your institution and explained how to use it in conjunction with Zotero, please let us know in this thread.

In conjunction with the release of Zotero 1.0 Beta 4, we have launched a new series of screencasts. Along with our textual documentation, these short screencasts offer a quick way for you to see how Zotero can streamline your research process. Take a few moments to check them out, and learn a bit more about how Zotero can work for you.

We’re pleased to announce that a new release of Zotero, 1.0 Beta 4, is now available. Existing users who downloaded from zotero.org can update manually via Tools->Add-ons from within Firefox. We recommend that all others, including new users as well as those who originally downloaded the extension from the Mozilla website, use the Download button on our home page or to the right of this blog post. It is highly recommended that you back up your Zotero data directory before upgrading to the latest version.

Beta 4 includes many new or improved site translators, in-page annotation and highlighting features, five additional language localizations, and many bug fixes. We are also excited to announce a new alpha version of our Microsoft Word plug-in. If you have Alpha 1 you will need to download and install the new version (Mac, Windows). See the documentation for installation instructions.

We have also added a better method for taking snapshots of web pages, which on some platforms has a conflict with the Flash plugin. To avoid problems, please adjust your Flash Security Settings.

For a comprehensive overview of changes in this release, see the changelog. Over the next week we will highlight many of the new features in this blog.

Thanks to the efforts of the University of Manchester Computing department, the new XML trial version of the online public access catalog Copac is now Zotero-compatible. Containing over 30 million records, this tremendous resource provides free access to the merged online catalogs of major UK and Irish university research libraries, plus the British Library and the National Library of Scotland.

Copac offers an excellent model for other data providers, self-publishers, and bloggers who wish to make their content available to Zotero. By embedding COinS tags in their library records, the Copac developers have made it possible for Zotero to automatically capture the bibliographic information contained in them. The Copac XML database can be accessed via the Copac v3 experimental interface, which is scheduled to go live on March 28.