BACKGROUND
Keeping organized notes and managing information effectively are vital for staying productive in today’s fast-moving academic setting. The sheer volume of literature required for any research project makes reference management a daunting task. Without a structured approach, keeping track of sources, annotations, and citations can become overwhelming.
Obsidian offers a powerful, flexible solution to organize your thoughts, connect ideas, and streamline your research workflow, ultimately enhancing your academic output and creativity.
By connecting Obsidian with
Zotero , an open-source reference management tool, you can efficiently manage your literature without being tied to proprietary software. This connection allows you to access and incorporate your Zotero notes within Obsidian, enriching your knowledge management system while maintaining flexibility and control over your research materials. Together, these tools provide a dynamic and adaptable approach to organizing your references and ideas in a way that suits your research needs.
WORKSHOP GOAL
At the end of this workshop, participants will have an Obsidian Vault that they can immediately start using for their Personal Knowledge System. They will also be able to use Zotero integration to link and organize knowledge from literature in Obsidian.
This course will introduce Obsidian starting from the fundamentals, ensuring a solid foundation for all participants. A brief introduction to Zotero will also be provided – focusing solely on the essential aspects required for seamless integration with Obsidian. However, this will not be an advanced Zotero course. The approach introduced in this workshop is inspired by the Zettelkasten method, developed by Niklas Luhmann, which promotes efficient knowledge structuring, idea development, and long-term knowledge retention.
WORKSHOP CONTENT
Part 1: Introduction to Personal Knowledge Management
- Explore effective note-taking systems and self-organization techniques, with a focus on how Obsidian can enhance your research workflow.
- Hands-On Activity: Assess your current organization methods and discover how Obsidian can streamline and improve your knowledge management process.
Part 2: Getting Started with Obsidian
- Learn the core functionalities of Obsidian, including creating and managing notes using Markdown syntax, interface adjustments, installing plugins.
- Dive into advanced features such as note linking, graph view, tags, and using templates for seamless organization.
- Trying out templates with which you can organize your tasks and projects.
Part 3: Integrating Zotero with Obsidian
- Set up and connect Zotero with Obsidian to manage references and citations efficiently.
- Apply a variation of Niklas Luhmann’s Zettelkasten method to create a structured, interlinked personal research library using Obsidian and Zotero.
TARGET AUDIENCE & PRIOR KNOWLEDGE
This workshop is for anyone interested in reflecting on their personal knowledge management and exploring Obsidian as a note-taking tool with Zotero integration. No prior experience with Obsidian is required, but a basic understanding of Zotero is necessary, as the workshop does not include a general introduction to Zotero.
Please familiarize yourself with Zotero beforehand.
TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS
ABOUT THE TRAINER
Nele Fuchs is data scientist for training and consulting at the DSC. She studied Philosophy, Material Culture: Textile (CvO University of Oldenburg), and Transcultural Studies (University of Bremen). As a data scientist in the humanities, she supports researchers in the areas of digital humanities, data science methods for qualitative research and FAIR-compliant qualitative data management, using her expertise in handling sensitive qualitative data. She has been working with different personal knowledge management systems for ten years, having relied on pen and paper until recently, and has now found her go-to tool in Obsidian.