Add new general author type: Illustrator

athelas

This is maybe somehow related to http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/8678/greater-number-of-image-reference-types/ but not directly.

While playing with some output styles and expanding my Zotero collection I ran into issue of not being able to specify the illustrator of the book. Contributor field does not do, because in the bibliographic reference on output I need to explicitly say that this is an illustrator. Many monographs are illustrated (especially in medicine) - sometimes by truly important masters - there is a nature of works where this information might be essential.

Thanks!

sallyhill

I have also had trouble with the lack of an illustrator category. If it could be included, that would be great.

Heidelberry

As an educator, my children's book collection is well over 1,000 books. I find it amazing that there is no "Illustrator" field to reference the books in my collection. I do author studies with my students, as well as illustrator studies. They do not always work with the same authors and I need to be able to pull them out separately. It also make more sense to have them listed separately for the reference lists that are created. Please consider adding a specific "illustrator" field. It would make Zotero MUCH more accessible and beloved by educators! Thank you!

adamsmith

are illustrators cited and if so how? We need sample citations from relevant style guides.

For purely organizational purposes there is no need to create a separate creator type - you can just tag it with the illustrator's name - tags are better for filtering anyway.

Heidelberry

Thanks for the tip about the tags. I guess I'll go in that direction. That's more what I need it for anyway, filtering.

Heidelberry

I have since made records for almost 200 of my 1200+ books. I did NOT include the illustrators name as a tag because I found I needed that for the subject matter (I have 49 tags already). When I'm teaching, I don't want to look through 100s of tags to find the ones I need for a subject because I would have upwards of 800 illustrator tags in there. Why is it so hard to just add a illustrator field up top? It's important for primary teachers to be able to look up things by illustrator, but it certainly doesn't make sense to fill up the tags with all the illustrators names listed separately. Could it not just be added to the options under Author? Please.

Heidelberry

As for citing, which I don't need to do a whole lot of (although my teaching material lists will look a lot more professional) I did find someone with a similar concern - also dealing with children's picture books, who made a suggestion for the APA style. Here's the link with the suggestion someone offered.
http://www.noodletools.com/helpdesk/kb/index.php?action=article&id=188&relid=2

adamsmith

Why is it so hard to just add a illustrator field up top?

Because adding a new field brings with it a lot of issues: How is that field going to be exported in standard export formats to assure that Zotero remains compatible and able to produce standard export output? Should that field be included as a citable variable in CSL: If so, that entails changing the csl schema, adding to locale files etc.
In short, adding a new field to Zotero is a very big deal and is done very conservatively.
With collections, subcollections, tags, and saved searches Zotero offers you a multitude of ways to best organize your data that can be adapted to pretty much any need. You may have to experiment to see what works best for you.
There is also the contributor field that you could consider using.

As for citations - we would really want something authoritative - i.e. a style guide for a journal or a scholarly association - to see whether and how to deal with this.
Someone making an ideosyncratic suggestion for APA is not a solid enough criterium to base decisions like this on.

adamsmith

ticket opened on this, MLA requires illustrators:
https://github.com/ajlyon/zotero-bits/issues/47

lhager

Noticing that this conversation is from 2011, I'm wondering if this feature going to be added to Zotero soon? I have the most updated version but Illustrator isn't a option.

adamsmith

It will be added almost certainly, but can't tell you how soon timewise (almost certainly in v. 4.2, though). No fields or item type changes have been implemented in Zotero since 2011 for the reasons I specify above.

lhager

Glad to know that it's in the works -- thanks!

lwallmark

I agree this is an extremely important field to add. I'm pursuing an MFA in writing for children and young adults. In the first semester alone, I have to read 125 picture books and need a way to include the illustrator's name. Tags don't work because I need to use MLA format for my bibliography.

adamsmith

as I said:

It will be added almost certainly, but can't tell you how soon timewise (almost certainly in v. 4.2, though). No fields or item type changes have been implemented in Zotero since 2011 for the reasons I specify above.

LiborA

Is anythink new with adding Illustrator to the Zotero? ISO690 also use Illustrator as a specific type of author.

adamsmith

we're getting closer, but nothing new on any new fields or item types yet.

leoneannabella

Any further updates? I work with children's books and can't really manage without being able to cite an illustrator properly.

martin.lander

I agree, Contributors to documents in addition to 'authors', 'editors' and 'translators' are 'illustrators', 'illustrators' contribute to Books, Patents, Law Cases, Medical/Science Journals, but their work is fundamentally different from the work of the text creator/author.
Sometimes the primary contributor to a work eg. Picture book, Graphic novel, IS the illustrator the text author is a secondary/minor function. Admittedly in these examples, the author may also the artist or illustrator but that is not always necessarily so and it would be helpful to be able to draw the distinction.
APA should include it. https://guides.library.lincoln.ac.uk/c.php?g=110736&p=717944
MLA guide at Monash University Includes it https://guides.lib.monash.edu/c.php?g=219786&p=3970435
So does Academy of Art Univerity - San Francisco
http://elmo.academyart.edu/reference-help/mla_citation_guide.html
so too does Harvard,
https://rmit.libguides.com/harvardvisual/images-within-the-books

bwiernik

(Note that that APA example is wrong. APA does not include illustrators unless they are a principal creator of a work, such as for a children’s book, and in such cases does not label their role, but instead just lists them like an author.)

meika

Is this moving into action? An illustrator is a basic type.

meika

okay a year later...

bwiernik

New item types and fields is currently being actively worked on finally.

meika

excellent

Martin Slavík

Unfortunately, illustrator still not present in Zotero 5 beta, but with the translator and contributor field, you can distinguish between them.

bwiernik

No, don’t use Contributor. That won’t be cited. You can add Illustrator to Extra like this:
Illustrator: Last || First A.

That will get picked by citation styles written to handle illustrator (eg, APA) and will be migrated once Zotero has a real illustrator field.

Martin Slavík

Thank you for your clarification and suggestion. I will use it.