German umlauts [äöü] problem with ISBN identifier

zurpher
When I add German books by their ISBN identifier, I often encounter that the new book entries do not contain the correct German umlauts [äöü]. Instead they consist of two signs: a normal [aou] and the two point on top of it. Is there a way to tackle this problem?
  • zuphilip
    Example?
  • zurpher
    edited November 23, 2014
    In the following reference, the words "Rückmeldung" and "Münster" is not correct in line with my description above.

    Kuper, H. & Schneewind, J. (Hrsg.). (2006). Rückmeldung und Rezeption von Forschungsergebnisse. Zur Verwendung wissenschaftlichen Wissens im Bildungssystem. Münster: Waxmann.

    You can text this by copying the ü or the whole word into WORD processor and the delete it via backspace. It first changes into an "u" and only afterwards its deleted.

    The issue that spell checking picks up on these fake umlauts. It is arguably also not a good idea to pass on a text with fake umlauts to a publisher as it might create problems with the final editing.

    I hope it helps.
  • adamsmith
    we need the ISBN to replicate this.
  • zuphilip
    I cannot reproduce your error, i.e. I tried to add by identifier the ISBN 9783830916406, which works fine, as well as the citation, bibliography in Word. Where do you see these wrong encoded characters, Zotero or Word? What value do you have for that entry at "Bibliothekskatalog"? Maybe check the character encodings you are using...
  • aurimas
    Not sure why @zuphilip can't replicate this, but this is a known issue with WorldCat data (which is where Zotero looks using that ISBN). WorldCat uses Unicode NFD form, which produces "decomposed" characters (i.e. ü is u plus an umlaut, rather than an umlauted u). Both composed and decomposed characters are perfectly valid, but some software may have issues working with one or the other (generally NFD is more problematic, including breaking searches in Zotero).

    We're actually now (as of Firefox 31) in a position to support this properly by normalizing all strings to NFC, but this hasn't been implemented yet. I'm thinking we can start normalizing all input to NFC and then at some later point update the existing database entries retroactively (probably with 5.0 database upgrade)
  • zuphilip
    (Okay, you are right. It just looked good in Zotero and Word. But when I copy and paste the string in a text editor then I see the problem.)
  • cg-art
    @zuphilip: This also happens when I add my bibliography - then the dots above the äöü's are not above the letter but over the next...
  • zurpher
    What would be a good substitute for WorldCat, particularly for books in German?

    I have these two ISBNs for the above reference (Kuper & Schneewind, 2006) in my zotero entry:

    383091640X
    9783830916406

    @aurimas: Good news that you are going to tackle this issue. Thanks!
  • adamsmith
    I'd like to implement the GBV SRU search for ISBN search, something that zuphilip pointed out to me as a possibility here:
    http://literaturverwaltung.wordpress.com/2014/10/01/wunsch-dir-was-runde-zur-literaturverwaltung-auf-dem-7-bibcamp-in-potsdam/#comment-910

    That's an "I want to" though, not something that I can promise will happen super soon.

    Aurimas has submitted a fix for this specific issue, though, and I hope it makes it into the next Zotero version, due out by the end of this week.
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