diff --git a/paperqa/contrib/zotero.py b/paperqa/contrib/zotero.py
index c9dd94ff..5b69776a 100644
--- a/paperqa/contrib/zotero.py
+++ b/paperqa/contrib/zotero.py
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@
         " `pip install paper-qa[zotero]`."
     ) from e
 from paperqa.paths import PAPERQA_DIR
-from paperqa.utils import StrPath, count_pdf_pages
+from paperqa.utils import count_pdf_pages
 
 
 class ZoteroPaper(BaseModel):
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ def __init__(
         library_type: str = "user",
         library_id: str | None = None,
         api_key: str | None = None,
-        storage: StrPath | None = None,
+        storage: str | os.PathLike | None = None,
         **kwargs,
     ):
         self.logger = logging.getLogger("ZoteroDB")
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ def __init__(
             storage = PAPERQA_DIR / "zotero"
 
         self.logger.info(f"Using cache location: {storage}")
-        self.storage = storage
+        self.storage = Path(storage)
 
         super().__init__(
             library_type=library_type, library_id=library_id, api_key=api_key, **kwargs
@@ -130,7 +130,7 @@ def get_pdf(self, item: dict) -> Path | None:
         if pdf_key is None:
             return None
 
-        pdf_path: Path = Path(self.storage / (pdf_key + ".pdf"))  # type: ignore[operator]
+        pdf_path = self.storage / (pdf_key + ".pdf")
 
         if not pdf_path.exists():
             pdf_path.parent.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
diff --git a/paperqa/utils.py b/paperqa/utils.py
index 4e3ce428..9ebf7508 100644
--- a/paperqa/utils.py
+++ b/paperqa/utils.py
@@ -36,9 +36,6 @@
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 
-StrPath = str | Path
-
-
 class ImpossibleParsingError(Exception):
     """Error to throw when a parsing is impossible."""
 
@@ -87,7 +84,7 @@ def strings_similarity(s1: str, s2: str) -> float:
     return len(ss1.intersection(ss2)) / len(ss1.union(ss2))
 
 
-def count_pdf_pages(file_path: StrPath) -> int:
+def count_pdf_pages(file_path: str | os.PathLike) -> int:
     with pymupdf.open(file_path) as doc:
         return len(doc)
 
@@ -98,7 +95,7 @@ def hexdigest(data: str | bytes) -> str:
     return hashlib.md5(data).hexdigest()  # noqa: S324
 
 
-def md5sum(file_path: StrPath) -> str:
+def md5sum(file_path: str | os.PathLike) -> str:
     with open(file_path, "rb") as f:
         return hexdigest(f.read())