Questions about library Item types and fields.

Rproenca
I'm currently evaluating Zotero for inclusion in my workflow. I have 3 questions:

1) Although they are straightforward, what does each library item means? (i.e. a definition and an example of information that can be stored)

2) Although they are straightforward, what does each library item field means? (i.e. a definition and an example of information that can be stored)

3) Is it possible to add new library item fields, and if so can we choose if they are global (i.e. exist in all library items) or local (i.e. specific to one library item)?

Thank you very much for your time and for making such a great piece of software.
  • adamsmith
    @ 1 and 2 - I wouldn't know that that exist - do you have any specific questions? Many should be obvious, anything in particular you're not sure about?
    @ 3 - no.
  • Rproenca
    What's difference between:

    a) Audiotape/Pod Emission or Podcast/Radiophonic Emission

    b) Videotape/Television Emission

    What's a:

    a) Manuscript

    b) Presentation

    (Sorry if the names are not correct but I'm translating from the Portuguese version)

    My questions about library items came from the feeling that there are probably too many. Just looking to the name I can't recognize what the differences are in terms of: in what situations should I use them; what specific fields they contain.

    That led me to ask the questions in my first post.
  • adamsmith
    An audiotape (audiorecording in the EN version) is a (usually) physical recording, e.g.


    Beatles. 1987[1967]. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. London: Parlophone.

    whereas a podcast is a web-radio episode, e.g.
    Randy Cohen. “The Ethicist for 1/30/2009.” Available at: http://podcasts.nytimes.com/podcasts/2009/01/29/30cohen.mp3 [Accessed February 1, 2009].

    Similarly, a TV-Broadcast refers to something broadcast on TV
    American Broadcasting Company. 2009. “Evening News, February 1st, 2009”

    whereas a Videorecording is something published (at least as a grey lit version) on video/dvd:
    Laughton, Charles. 2000 [1955]. The Night of the Hunter. Santa Monica, CA: MGM Home Entertainment Inc.

    A presentation is something presented - could be a mimeo, which would usually also contain date and location of the presentation, whereas a manuscript is anything written for publication but not (yet) published.

    Note that in many cases these work in very similar ways for citation purposes - in most styles there is no difference whatsoever. But a) people might want these categories and b) this allows later style development.
    The fields should be "too many", as they, too should allow for different requirements - most of my entries just use 6 or so - after all, that's what most citation styles call for - but if someone ones to store, or even cite, additional or different information, Zotero shouldn't keep her/him. Anything you don't know you probably don't need...
  • bdarcus
    Rproenc's questions—which boil down to "on what basis do we define something as a type?"—are certainly reasonable, and they've come up before; I've raised them myself. For example, "Podcast", "TV Broadcast" and "Radio Broadcast" could in theory be covered by a single type: "Broadcast." The only thing that really distinguishes them is the medium and/or format (television vs. radio vs. steaming audio).

    Perhaps the future move to what some have described as the "hierarchical model" will provide an opportunity to clean this up.
  • SimonCropper
    I think this discussion is rather mute. My understanding most styles only recognise three broad types - "book", "chapter" and "journal". Most of the other types mentioned here default to one of these broad types unless the style sheet explicitly lists them. I have looked at many style sheets and none specifically reference all the reference types you are able to record in Zotero. See the response to my question Reference type mapping between Zotero and CS.

    Therefore, audioRecording defaults to "book", podcast defaults to "article", videoRecording defaults to "book", tvBroadcast defaults to "article", manuscript defaults to "article" and presentation defaults to "article".

    Of course, you have the option of updating a style sheet to reflect the specific formatting required in your bibliography. Alternatively, when entering your items think of each of them as their default type and place the appropriate data in the fields you would for a book, chapter or article. You can then view the output using the Zotero Preview Pane
  • erazlogo
    edited February 2, 2009
    Therefore, audioRecording defaults to "book", podcast defaults to "article", videoRecording defaults to "book", tvBroadcast defaults to "article", manuscript defaults to "article" and presentation defaults to "article".
    Not quite--as you can see via the link below, audiorecording and podcast can be formatted as "song", videoRecording as "motion-picture," and tvBroadcast as "broadcast":
    http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/4782/csl-getting-conference-name-to-show-up-properly-in-bibliography/#Item_5

    Chicago styles, for one, include formatting specific to letters, interviews, manuscripts, dissertations, presentations, newspapers, and artworks. Audiovisual types are not well formatted at the moment because many things have to be changed in Zotero for them to work correctly. See, for example, this discussion: http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/5106/mla-style-and-film/
    and these tickets:
    https://www.zotero.org/trac/ticket/862
    https://www.zotero.org/trac/ticket/860
    https://www.zotero.org/trac/ticket/1060
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