Hey, I taught my first class on Zotero tonight! It was a learning experience.
Tip #1: When you are teaching a class that involves downloading a Firefox plugin, have the class begin their work in Firefox. Why is it always the simplest things that elude me?
Tip #2: Do not expect Zotero to behave the same way across databases. Not an easy thing to manage and troubleshoot when nearly everyone in the class is in a different database, but I tried my best. So far, I think Zotero works best in ProQuest. It's not bad in Ebsco too. Taylor & Francis' Informaworld? Not so much. In some databases, you can download the entire results list at once (always a showstopper), in other databases, you can only download to Zotero from the article view. Oh well.
Tip #3: Do not underestimate graduate students' enthusiasm for bibliographic management software. They will enthusiastically try anything that you show them, particularly if it is free.
Tip #4: If you email the Zotero developers with questions or perhaps the URL to your link resolver, they will send you a free Zotero t-shirt! Hooray!
How do you like using Zotero? I loaded it ages ago and have forgotten about it. - H