Import from Endnote preserving original "Added to Library" date

jlcarney

Hello, I'm trying to shift to Zotero after 16 years on Endnote with a library of nearly 5k references, and retaining the original "Added to Library" date information would be very helpful. I imagine using Zotero's "Extra" field could facilitate this, but I haven't come up with a workable solution yet.

My thought is that, if I could export my dataset from Endnote with "Added to Library" included, I could then change the name of the column in the resulting spreadsheet in such a way that Zotero would import this into "Extra."

I have looked into creating a custom output style to base the export on, but I am unable to add "Added to Library" as a field in Endnote's custom output styles.

Another thought is to find an existing output style that includes "Added to Library," but neither .xml nor the various .txt outputs I've tried, including "show all fields", include this field.

I'll be grateful for any suggestions anyone who has been down this route can offer.

Best wishes, -Josh

adamsmith

I'm afraid if you're not able to get this out of Endnote, there's not much we can do from the Zotero end. We can't read the database directly (Endnote is very much not OK with other tools accessing their database, nor is there an API).

Is there a way in which you could copy the Added to Library to a custom field in bulk? That's the only thing I can think of.

jlcarney

Thanks Adam. I'm tinkering with screenshots of two columns of data ("record number" and "added to library") from Endnote, combing these to OCRed PDF, then exporting to Excel. This could work, as record number can sometimes be exported from Endnote, and the info could then be associated correctly. But the screenshot to spreadsheet results have been inconsistent. Would love to hear if anyone else has come up with a better solution.

emilianoeheyns

BBT might be able to help here: https://retorque.re/zotero-better-bibtex/installation/preferences/hidden-preferences/#patchdates

emilianoeheyns

To use this you don't need to have imported these using bbt, it just acts on the lines in the extra field, regardless of how they got there.

jlcarney

Thanks! I'm sill fooling with trying to get the data out of Endnote but, if I manage that, this should be exactly what I need.