Found it: Chicago 15th, section 17.70

Yes, I think it's quite important, because the longer the document is, the more difficult it becomes for a user to sift through for herself all instances of edited volumes (example: 500 pages of text). And then, if she ends up finding a typo or something in a different citation along the way, say on page 400, and then "Zotero Refreshes..." The problem isn't limited to just an edited book, but also applies to multivolume edited collections of primary source materials. (I think the problem might be more thorny here but don't have enough personal experience with this yet. This is more a prohibiting factor for an EndNote user that I know who is hesitating to try Zotero)

(So, side note: If you have easier way of approaching this problem than 1) taking note of every edited volume in a separate word document that I come across while editing footnotes and then 2) deleting/editing the reference when i come across it, and also 3) using Zotero refresh with a duplicate copy that I paste back into the final document, I would love to know it. I'm still getting familiar with citing in Zotero)

I understand that it is a challenge -- I don't know if an elegant handling would require a more detailed relationships between objects, like relationships across book sections with a record of the edited book as a whole -- but this is something that I and that other user have struggled over w/regard to EndNote.

Maybe this might also be an opportunity to think about the redundancy issue: if you have 16 sections of a single book, it seems somehow wrong to enter in the data for the edited volume 16 different times. (Even having a cmd+mouse selection for "Create Book Section from Book" that would automatically populate the record with most of the information would be cool -- I realize that you can create a duplicate record from a Book Section record, but this is just a thought I've had of late)

Anyways, just IMHO, as well. Thanks.

hi bdarcus,
thanks for the response. first thought after my posting, on the ride home: well, actually, if i'm up to 400 pages, then I'd be using a bibliography list, so it wouldn't be a problem really for this case,

but then, second thought: i am using zotero on a working paper of about 20 pages, now with about 80 footnotes, no bib. i want to cut down on the redundancy because of a) chicago style guidelines, but also because b) it takes up more paper and c) i need it to be clean before submitting it for publication -- the editor's guidelines (fortunately, i have a while yet there).

so, i'm going to have to edit it down, and i could manage it to some degree, except for the headache of when i have to or accidentally 'zotero refresh' (i feel like this has happened automatically in a couple of cases, but i don't know what user error thing i did to set it off yet).

i'll be thinking more on the issue as well. again, thanks for the response.

scot: yes, you can flatten the fields (though I forget now the key-combination to do this). So yes, the best approach is to finish the manuscript, and when you're done, make a copy of it, flatten the citations, and edit them.

At that point, of course, you cannot ever update them again, but that's likely fine.

groovy, thanks for the tips!