Collection type

shel

I've used Zotero for notetaking at archives and have a question. I have taken extensive notes from the record books of a labor organization. The Chicago style for citations for this and for diaries, letters, etc., is no quote marks, no ital, no emphasis. Here is an example of what I want to see:

American Carpenter's Union Records, 1877-1980, Ohio History Center, Columbus, Ohio, 2:233

or

Diary, Erasmus Dodd, 2 volumes, Virginia State Archives, Richmond, Virginia, 19 April 1835, 1:122.

And on second reference:

ACU Records, 2:234.
Dodd Diary, 23 May 1836, 2:223.

This is pretty standard Chicago/Turabian historical usage for unpublished material. But I can't seem to get Zotero to give me such a simple output. Everything I output has quotations around the title. It seems a little strange that a such a wonderful tool created for academics would have a category for Instant Messages but not for simple collections in archives.

Please let me know if I'm just overlooking a particular form.
Thanks!

erazlogo

This obviously needs refinement but in the meantime you can use a workaround in Chicago Styles--just use "manuscript" item type, put the document description in the "type" field, and the short version in the "short title" field. For example:

Type: Diary, Erasmus Dodd, 2 volumes
Repository: Virginia State Archives, Richmond, Virginia
Short title: Dodd Diary

Then when you make a footnote, put date, volume, and page in the locator field:
19 April 1835, 1:122
23 May 1836, 2:223

The result will be the same as your long and short examples above.

shel

Thanks! I will give it a try.

shel

That seems to work. Thank you. The only problem now is that the title of the citation doesn't show up in the middle pane of Zotero, obviously since I've moved the title to type. But I can manage.

erazlogo

The only problem now is that the title of the citation doesn't show up in the middle pane of Zotero, obviously since I've moved the title to type.

You can add the "type" field to the middle pane to see the titles for such sources (you still won't be able to sort these by title properly with other items unfortunately).