Duplication of "Type" in Letter Item Type bibliography entry

DonnaCoxBaker · February 18, 2019

The Type field in the Letter item type is repeated twice in the bibliographic entry. In this case, my Type is "bill of sale," but it works the same if I use anything in the field. It puts it before the recipient's name, then before the date. I'm not seeing the second one (just before the date) in the CMOS manual. Should this be removed from the CSL?

Hutcheson, J. C. Bill of sale to Reuben Bennett. “[Sale of Lucy and Her Child Nelson, $700].” Bill of sale, October 31, 1844. SPR512. Reuben Bennett records, 1816-1867: Slave Bills of Sale; photocopy of original documents. Alabama Department of Archives and History.

adamsmith · February 18, 2019

I can look into this, but I'm guessing it only happens under very specific conditions (with type also doubling as the title), so might take a little.

DonnaCoxBaker · February 23, 2019

Thanks, Adam. I've noticed a couple of things that might be related. I think I understand that Letters, Emails, and Instant Messages are all variants of the same item type in CSL: "Personal Communication." They are distinguished based on the type (genre) field, I assume? But in Zotero, only the Letter item type allows you to key in your own letter type. The type field is not offered in Emails or Instant Messages, and the CSL code forces in the type (which only shows when you print the report). It formats it incorrectly on Instant Messages, saying it is a "letter from...." rather than an "instant message from..." in the bibliographic entry.

lastname, firstname. Letter to firstname lastname2. “instant message,” January 1, 2011. https://sampleurl/.

Report:
instant message
Type Instant Message [shows only in the report--is not entered by user]
Author firstname lastname
Recipient firstname lastname2
URL https://sampleurl/
Rights rights
Date 1/1/11
Extra extra
Accessed 2/1/1922, 6:00:00 PM
Language language
Abstract abstract
Short Title short-title
Date Added 11/8/2017, 9:18:57 PM
Modified 12/24/2018, 4:58:47 PM

"Instant message" also seems to be a term on its way out of use. And there will be many other types of "personal communication" to surface in the years ahead, I would guess. I wonder if Zotero might want to change all three of these item types to one called "personal communication," leaving the Type free-form, so we can input new communication formats as they surface.

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Artwork also repeats the date in the note, by the way, when you have something in every field--in case that helps with the mystery above.

firstname lastname, artwork title, January 1, 2011, medium, artwork-size, January 1, 2011, location-in-archive, archive, https://sampleurl/.

adamsmith · February 23, 2019

FWIW, I'd just ignore email and IM -- Letter (by virtue of the "type" field) already functions as a general purpose personal communications type.

DonnaCoxBaker · February 24, 2019

That is my plan--let the Letter field be the catch-all. I just think Zotero might want to make the changes in a future update. The CSL, though, needs to be altered to get rid of the duplicate date field in the Letter item type. Thanks, Adam.