How to cite? Archives, Citing, Box Numbers, Collections Info.

Hello,
I saw this example posted in 2017, and there's still no answers I can find after a long dig. Before I jump Ship to Menderly (not preferable) can someone shed some light please?

Note: I cannot do these manually - I placed an archive with a university and I literally have THOUSANDS of letters I'll be citing for my PhD - I must be able to show location, box number and collection name in the bibliography.

After digging, is it either:
1. Edit the CSL of the style (Harvard) and arrange things as they should be (I'll have ti hire a programmer)?

2. Can you edit or create an "Item' type manually?
e.g. 'Archive Letter' and have it roll up into the style?

3. Something Else?

Note: I have seen the forum info suggesting you enter archival; material as a 'Manuscript' or 'Type Manuscript' - but this still does not make the information show up in the style.

SAMPLE:

Entry in Zotero:

Type: Letter
Author: A Hammad
Title: Letter to Mr Smith
Date: 1 October 1984
Loc. in Archive: Box 35, Folder 2, Doc 3
Archive: Edinburgh Napier University Special Collections, Edinburgh, Scotland
Collection: Hammad Family Archives
Date Added: 8/3/2019, 10:12:55 AM
Modified: 8/8/2019, 1:58:15 PM

What I need, in a Harvard style:

Hammad, A. (1984, October 1). Letter to Mr Smith. [Letter]. Hammad Family Archives (Box 35, Folder 2, Doc 3). Edinburgh Napier University Special Collections, Edinburgh, Scotland.

When I generate a bibliography reference for the entry above, I get this:

1. Hammad, Letter to Mr Smith, 1984.



How can I achieve the full reference with this style?

Seems like this should be a basic feature? Loads of research happens in archives.

Thank you!
  • Zotero doesn't have a field for "Collection" in an archive, so not sure what that refers to, but otherwise sure, that's doable in CSL. Custom item types don't exist in Zotero (nor in Mendeley).

    Most Harvard styles are not used much for archival research, so you'll be unlikely to find anything even approximate in existing ones, though you could look at Chicago (author-date).

    Footnotes styles like Chicago and MHRA should work better.

    (for citation styles, Mendeley uses the same ones with much worse support in the data model for archives, so switching won't do you any good).
  • For the mean time, in any CSL-based program (Zotero, Mendeley, etc.), I recommend storing the Collection information along with the box information in Loc. in Archive:
    Loc. in Archive: Hammad Family Archives, Box 35, Folder 2, Doc 3

    or

    Loc. in Archive: Hammad Family Archives (Box 35, Folder 2, Doc 3)
  • Very helpful thanks you- keep 'em comin! I'm going back to my supervisor today to see about shifting the prescribed style.
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