Upgrade StorageSeriously, isn't there an easy way to cite multi-volume works?
I've searched through past discussions about this problem, and none of the answers have seemed very helpful. One suggestion was to enter each volume as a separate entry.
But that method (which I've tried) means that creating a notation for volume 2 will treat it as if it were a completely different work (rather than a work already cited when creating a note for vol. 1).
Another suggestion was to enter the volume number along with the page # when creating each individual notation (e.g., "2: 323"). That solution works for Chicago style, but not for Blue Book. I use both. In fact, one of the main reasons I tried using Zotero for managing my citations was because of a horrific experience I once had converting more than 100 footnotes from Chicago to Blue Book. It took at least 2 weeks. I thought that Zotero would save me that headache in the future. But Zotero won't be able to make that conversion if it has no way of capturing volume numbers within each individual notation. Probably half my notations include material taken from multi-volume collections (e.g., "Papers of James Madison," "Records of the Federal Convention"). Seriously, after all these years, is there really no easy way to list volume # along with page number when creating a notation for multi-volume works?
If there exists a thread that already addresses this problem in a more helpful way, please, will someone link to it?
But that method (which I've tried) means that creating a notation for volume 2 will treat it as if it were a completely different work (rather than a work already cited when creating a note for vol. 1).
Another suggestion was to enter the volume number along with the page # when creating each individual notation (e.g., "2: 323"). That solution works for Chicago style, but not for Blue Book. I use both. In fact, one of the main reasons I tried using Zotero for managing my citations was because of a horrific experience I once had converting more than 100 footnotes from Chicago to Blue Book. It took at least 2 weeks. I thought that Zotero would save me that headache in the future. But Zotero won't be able to make that conversion if it has no way of capturing volume numbers within each individual notation. Probably half my notations include material taken from multi-volume collections (e.g., "Papers of James Madison," "Records of the Federal Convention"). Seriously, after all these years, is there really no easy way to list volume # along with page number when creating a notation for multi-volume works?
If there exists a thread that already addresses this problem in a more helpful way, please, will someone link to it?
Zotero will understand vol. 2, p. 323 when entered in the locator field (I think regardless of what the locator is set to; definitely works with page), but citation styles aren't programmed to display that according to relevant manuals.
OK, suppose I want to make this citation, from vol. 1, pg. 17 of Max Farrand’s Records, in Chicago style:
Madison’s Notes, May 29, 1787, in Max Farrand, ed., The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, Rev. ed, vol. 1 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1937), 17.
Using Zotero, I could click on vol. 1 of Farrand’s Records, in the main field, write, “Madison’s Notes, May 29, 1787, in” within the “prefix” field [using the “classic view” of Zotero], and 17 within the page field. If my next citation was from vol. 3, and I wanted it to look like this:
Letter from James Madison to his father, Aug. 12, 1787, in Farrand’s Records, 3: 69.
I could write “Letter from James Madison to his father, Aug. 12, 1787, in” within the “Prefix” pane and “3: 69” within the page pane.
So far, so good. However, sometimes I use Bluebook style, in which case the style is completely different, and the volume number precedes the rest of the citation information. So the first citation in Bluebook looks like this:
l THE RECORDS OF THE FEDERAL CONVENTION OF 1787, at 17 (Max Farrand, ed., Yale Univ. Press, 1911) [hereinafter FARRAND’S RECORDS] (Madison’s Notes, May 29, 1787).
And the subsequent citation should look like this:
Letter from James Madison to his father (Aug. 12, 1787) reprinted in 3 FARRAND’S RECORDS, supra note 4, at 69.
But I can’t see how, if I’m using Zotero, I can properly insert the volume number when I’m entering for Bluebook style (assuming I know in advance that I want Bluebook). And, God help us, an even greater headache arises if I ever want to convert from Chicago to Bluebook.
No one needs to tell me that the Bluebook was Satan’s spawn, sent on this planet to torment legal scholars, because I already know that. (Although I’m not a legal scholar, I do write on constitutional topics, which means I sometimes start out believing that an article will be published in a history or politics journal, but decide instead to shop it around to law journals, hence the need sometimes to convert from Chicago to Bluebook.)
All of this headache would go away if Zotero had one pane to input volume numbers (when relevant) and a different pane to input page numbers (when relevant). I just can’t understand why it wouldn’t be a standard feature for making citations, since it is so common for writers to be citing from a multi-volume work.
It would be even easier if Zotero would also have an option for citing particular parts of a collection of letters or papers (e.g., “Letter from James Madison to his father, Aug. 12, 1787”), but that’s getting perhaps hyper-specialized. Be that as it may, being able to cite both volume and page for each notation, it seems to me, ought to be standard.
I don't currently see a good workaround in Zotero that allows converting between styles. I do think this exact scenario, while certainly not unique, is a good deal less common than you make it out to be and adding multiple locators is certainly not trivial, both in terms of style handling and in terms of GUI.
Of course I can't say in any absolute sense how common my own experience is. I do know a lot of friends and colleagues who write articles using both Blue Book and Chicago/MLA . . . but, then, my circle includes a lot of constitutional scholars.
As for the last objection: "adding multiple locators is certainly not trivial, both in terms of style handling and in terms of GUI," I can't comment, because I don't even understand what that means.
But thanks for getting back to me.