Zotero offers multiple options to organize references. You can mix and match these features to find an organization system that works for you - and stick to it!
Every reference that you add to your library will appear under the "My Library" tree. It's up to you to organize the references into collections and subcollections.
Some people use collections to organize their collection by topic, while other people find it useful to organize collections by paper or assignment. If you delete an item from a collection, it will still be saved in your library, so you can add it to a different collection in the future.
The "Item Details" pane has a tab to add notes. You can attach multiple notes to an item.
It's important to know that the search bar does not search your notes.
The first like of your note will appear in the Item Details pane for easy browsing.
Unlike notes, you can search your Zotero library for tags.
You can manually add or delete tags from the "Item Details" pane. You may notice that some references have tags that you didn't input. When you import your references from a a research database or high-qulity PDF, otero will import metadata, like tags, too.