KerkoApp – searchable web interface for Zotero bibliographies

KerkoApp is a web application for publishing bibliographies maintained with Zotero. It provides a dedicated search and browsing interface through which visitors can explore academic references, curated reading lists and research collections.

The software uses the Kerko library to provide its bibliographic search functionality. KerkoApp acts as a ready-made application around that library, allowing organisations to publish their collections without developing a complete website from scratch.

KerkoApp separates the management of bibliographic content from its presentation. Researchers can continue maintaining their records in Zotero while visitors use a separate website optimised for discovering relevant publications. This makes it particularly useful for academic departments, specialist libraries and collaborative research projects.

Configuration is handled through TOML files and environment variables. Organisations requiring more specialised functionality can customise the application or extend the underlying Kerko library.

This is free and open source software.

Key Features

• Full-text search across bibliographic records and PDF attachments.
• Supports Boolean operators, phrase searching, logical grouping and term boosting.
• Faceted navigation using topics, resource types, publication years and languages.
• Create additional search facets from Zotero collections and subcollections.
• Rank search results by relevance using the BM25F algorithm.
• Sort results by publication date, author or title.
• Format references using Citation Style Language styles.
• Export individual records or search results in BibTeX and RIS formats.
• Synchronise bibliographic records, notes and attachments from Zotero.
• Provide Atom feeds for newly added records and customised searches.
• Generate XML sitemaps and structured metadata for search engine indexing.
• Display links between related references, including citations and cited-by relationships.
• Supports multiple interface languages.
• Responsive interface for desktop and mobile browsers.
• Customise templates, stylesheets and application behaviour.
• Supports plugins and extensions through the Kerko Python API.
• Configure application settings and secrets using separate TOML files.

Website: github.com/whiskyechobravo/kerkoapp
Support:
Developer: David Lesieur
License: BSD 3-Clause ‘New’ or ‘Revised’ License

KerkoApp is written in Python. Learn Python with our recommended free books and free tutorials.

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