I have used Zotero extensively and even developed plugins. It use to be my preference over Bookends.
But that has flipped given the evolution of MCP integration. Bookend has a major advantage over Zotero - it is AppleScriptable. It also now has an MCP server based upon a local database and Applescript. Zotero on the other hand only has MCP servers based upon its API integration.
This combination makes Bookends far more performant via AI queries and lets it do reporting tasks never possible before.
Hi Deb: Can’t be too specific. I heard Bookends mentioned a lot, thought maybe I should look at it, so downloaded and tried it out. Admit prior bias: It could be familiarity with Zotero was at least partly responsible for the frustration I felt with Bookends – things I do frequently just didn’t seem as easy to manage. Overall I didn’t find a strong incentive to make the change; especially when Zotero is free and rated very well. Also, while they do say you can import Zotero data into Bookends, that means an intermediary like a CSV, and I doubted the fields would map all that well, which would mean a lot of cleanup afterward. I gave up.
You might go to DuckDuck built-in ai, and ask it to compare the two apps – it’s pretty good at that.
It’s a worthy goal, not just for yourself but for those that come after you. My suggestion is to use a 3rd party online software for creation, modification and maintenance of the contents, such as GoodReads. With little effort you can input your titles, or ISBN, or Author, choose the correct option and then periodically export its contents to a CSV file stored in your “Library” on your computer. Use the DT Index function for the “library” directory on your computer.