non-text sources

mfranks
We need more options for non-text objects! I have a bunch of Roman coins that I need to input but I'm finding myself having to rig the "artwork" category to suit them. Although I'm not opposed to this kind of fix, is there a way to add a custom object type? Right now there is no place for me to input findspots or mint locations etc. and there is only one "extra" spot. Any suggestions for a better fix?
  • adamsmith
    how would these be cited in relevant citation styles?

    No, you can't create custom item types or fields and won't be able to any time soon.
  • DWL-SDCA
    I have a few questions and a suggestion. Are these objects in your possession? If so, how do you know the location of the find-spot or mint? The latter may be discernable from the object but not the find-spot. Did you personally find the object or is there some document that provides the information? I recommend citing that document along with your cite of the object as an artwork. I'm also interested in the question posed by @adamsmith. Are you intending to cite the objects in a manuscript or are you, perhaps, trying to adapt Zotero to serve as a catalogue of your holdings? I have seen scholarly publications where photos of objects are presented. Typically, the find-spot and creation location are presented as information in a caption and (sometimes) the authority is cited.
  • mfranks
    I'm writing a dissertation that uses multiple types of sources: coins, statues, ancient texts, inscriptions, etc. More data is relevant than just library catalog information. Such things are often cited by their identification number (so not complicated at all) but as individual items I need to be able to sort by date, by place (i.e. coins or statues from Rome vs. Athens or Pergamum etc.), and by creator (who minted the coin or commissioned the statue). In my line of work citation is the easy part. It's storing and sorting all of the different types of data. I was hoping that zotero would be able to help me make order out of the chaos but it doesn't help me if I can't accurately catalog the items.
  • adamsmith
    we recommend using tags and/or collections for sorting/organizing/filtering - especially used in combination they're very powerful.

    Fields are added almost exclusively where they're required for citations - if we'd add every field that someone needs for organization, we'd never see the end of this.

    Custom fields may(!) be introduced in the long run, but certainly not within the next year.
  • aurimas
    I would be curious to hear what zotero would have over a simple spreadsheet application for purposes like this, where the items are not directly cited.
  • mfranks
    I have them in a spreadsheet right now, along with a bunch of other iconography that I'm using for my project. I was hoping to get all of my research into one place, not multiple spreadsheets accompanied by the PDFs with the images and commentaries on the objects, plus the word document where I have notes about each item. I typically have 3 programs open at a time to look at one item. I was looking for a better solution and some of my modern historian colleagues recommended zotero because that's how they were able to use the program. I'm currently trying tags like "Mint - Rome" to see if I'm ok with the way that it sorts the data.
  • adamsmith
    Tagging will almost certainly include the option to color coding - along the lines of gmail categories - in the next major version of Zotero, due out late this fall.

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