Zotero

"Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] is a free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share your research sources. It lives right where you do your work—in the web browser itself."

It's only week one of my module in Digital Histories and I've already downloaded, Zotero, Firefox (So I can use Zotero), Drop Box, I've started a blog and made a new Twitter account. Getting so carried away I haven't started any prep work for my other modules. Why would I bury my head in a book about the Suez Crisis when I can sit with my laptop and blog and tweet about history.

This blog is dedicated to Zotero, something which I spent the evening downloading and working out how to use, whilst watching Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy with my housemates. After some confusion I had a go at adding books to Zotero which was really quite easy. It sits at the bottom of the web browser and can be opened up just by clicking on the icon. To find out how it works I found one of the most important books I am using for my dissertation, Daniel Hallin's, The Uncensored War: The Media and Vietnam. after opening this book up on Google books, I simply clicked on the little icon and the book was saved in a file on Zotero. When I opened up a word document I clicked on the book title which had saved in Zotero at the bottom of the browser and I dragged it into word. Zotero automatically pastes the whole citation as should be used in an essay - Simples.

Daniel C. Hallin, The uncensored war: the media and Vietnam (University of California Press, 1989).

It's a shame I hadn't found this 2 years ago as the process of referencing and creating a bibliography is one that seems to take me longer than actually writing the essay. I'm hoping to use Zotero more, especially in the writing of my dissertation and am looking forward to what else I can find during the course of my Digital Histories module.

Photo: EdTechNet

Blog #1

As part of my Digital History module I have decided (been forced) to start a blog, something which I have always thought about doing, but never really thought i had anything of interest to say! We shall see how it goes!

...Perhaps I should start with a quick introduction.
My name is abi *waves* and I'm currently in my final year of study at the University of Hertfordshire, studying history. This blog will mostly be used for me to write about my dissertation topic and a new module I am studying called Digital History.

My dissertation revolves around television journalism, looking at the effect it had on public opinion during the conflict in Vietnam. It also focuses upon the impact this had on subsequent conflicts, particularly, the invasion of Grenada and the Persian Gulf War in 1991. My research primarily revolves around looking at the historical debate that has risen as a result of the media during the Vietnam War. This does have its merits, it does mean I don't have to sit in the local archives. Instead, I get to sit in the comfort of my own home and use a lot of resources that are available online. These resources include, Jstor, Google, Google Books, Google Scholar and Youtube. Through these resources I can access books, journals, historical websites and videos of news footage that was shown at the time of the conflicts.

Due to me spending (wasting) a lot of time online I decided to undertake the Digital History module this semester. In the workshop today we discussed the use of history online. For me, one of the most interesting questions that arose from this workshop was whether or not a book holds more authority on a subject than a website does. This module will hopefully give me a more open mind about the use of history on the Internet and the idea of public sharing.

I think I've written enough now. I'm also on twitter and facebook, feel free to take a look!

Twitter - @AbiWilson33

Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/abi.wilson3




Photo: http://vnafmamn.com/fighting/VIETNAM_Dickey.jpg