custom item

lidans5 · October 31, 2017

is it possible to create my own "item", i'm working on microfilm and i need my own criteria

bwiernik · October 31, 2017

At this time, no. Your best option right now is to choose an item type that is close and work with that—for example perhaps newspaper, film, video or book. You can store extra fields in the Extra field, and you can cite fields stored in Extra if you put them at the top of the field and label them with a CSL citation variable, for example:
medium: Microfilm

What exactly are your needs for microfilm?

More detailed custom item types are planned for a future update.

lidans5 · October 31, 2017

hi, thanks but i starting a project indexing many many microfilm with a partner so we need 10 exact criteria fields, and tags, with sync.
do you have any idea of a program that is able to do that?

the fields, are: Name, Place (nowadays ), Location, Owner (custodian Lib.), Origin code no.,Languages,Edition, Format,Dates, Inv. no., Num. of pages-leaves, Call no., Copy Evaluation, Remarks (contents), Remarks (technical),Manualy evaluated, Sort of issued (Creator)

thanks

bwiernik · October 31, 2017

I would recommend storing these using Book in Zotero like this:

Title: Name
Author: Creator
Series: Format
Series Number: Origin Code No.
Edition: Edition
Place: Location
Date: Dates
# of Pages: Number of Pages
Language: Languages
Archive: Place
Loc. in Archive: Inv. Number
Library Catalog: Owner
Call Number: Call No.

The copy evaluation, remarks (contents), and remarks (technical) sound like they may be longer narrative descriptions. Those might be best stored as notes, rather than in a single-line field. If desired, you could also store these in Abstact, Extra, Volume, Library Catalog, or another usunused field.

Manually evaluated sounds like a checkbox for whether you’ve processed the item. You should store that as a tag.

You could also store them using Report like this:
Title: Name
Author: Creator
Report Number: Origin Code No.
Report Type: Format
Place: Location
Date: Dates
Pages: Number of Pages
Language: Languages
Archive: Place
Loc. in Archive: Inv. Number
Library Catalog: Owner
Call Number: Call No.
Extra: Edition

In terms of other tools, Tropy (tropy.org) is a tool designed for cataloging photos and other similar sorts of research materials. You can customize item types and specific fields. Note that it isn’t designed for citation like Zotero is, but that doesn’t appear to be a major need for you. I’m not sure what features it has for collaborators at this time.

In terms of other citation tools, Endnote has custom fields, but in my experience it is very frustrating to work with its interface, and it’s Group collaboration features are inadequate for most purposes.

You might also look into something like NVivo or other general qualitative research/content analysis software.

fcheslack · October 31, 2017

Tropy plans to have better collaboration features in the future, but isn't focusing on that yet, beyond being able to share metadata templates and having good export/import.

lidans5 · October 31, 2017

thanks, but i really need the ability to have custom fields with my exact criteria + tags

adamsmith · October 31, 2017

then either Tropy or CAQDAS software like NVivo or atlas.ti are your best bet.