Creating cost-effective and time efficient methods to complete tasks is necessary to maintain speedy and quality services expected by library patrons. Charles C. Sherrod Library at East Tennessee State University uses Zotero (a free, online reference management software) as a tool to expedite the process of entering faculty scholarship metadata into the institutional repository (IR), Digital Commons@ETSU (https://dc.etsu.edu). Additionally, Sherrod Library integrated Zotero with SHERPA/RoMEO (a database of publishers’ policies) to automate the process of determining which full-text materials can be included in the IR.

Sherrod Library evaluated the usefulness of Zotero by examining the records entered into the software within a year. Complete and incomplete records were calculated in terms of disciplines and document types. Based on the results of the study, Sherrod Library now primarily uses Zotero for journal articles, books, and book contributions by STEM faculty. The disciplines of education and arts/humanities and the document types of newsletters/magazine articles and conference proceedings had too many incomplete records to justify using Zotero.

This poster will visually represent the workflow of using Zotero through a chart and the results of the study through graphs. The workflow chart may be beneficial to an audience trying to automate their data entry. The results of the study may be of interest to anyone who uses or recommends reference management software in their position.