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How are you adding items to Zotero?
I just started using Zotero last month. So far I have added over 350 items mostly books. The books were very easy to add using worldcat and the connector. I even discovered some of my older books online at archive.org. When I found an online version I added the link to it. I can already see where this will be helpful.
For the most part, citing a book in CMOS is not different from EE. It was after I had my books in that I started to play with some of the citation formats. What could I do to have an EE citation for microfilm? I spent about an hour trying to come up with a citation for a roll of microfilm. I did eventually figure a couple out but I started thinking if I do this for everything I will never get my stuff loaded.
It was then that it occurred to me that Zotero was my personal card catalogue. A way for me to find all the bits and bobs I needed to write up my research. I don't know about you but I had given up on templates formatting my citations in genealogy databases years ago. I always use the free-form template and I already have most of my citations written in EE. No need to reinvent the wheel here.
The option to add a note to any entry was my answer all I have to do is copy the citation I already wrote from my genealogy software into the note and low and behold I was onto the next document.
This method is going to allow me to get most of my stuff into Zotero quickly. I can always adapt the CMOS citations later.
Any other thoughts or insights?
I love the idea of Zotero as personal card catalog. Absolutely inspired, IMHO. I suffer from the "I've seen it before, but just can't remember where..." problem so many times I shudder to think of them. I am certain Zotero will help me with this.
I had some 700-800 entries in EndNote that I converted over to Zotero - flawless conversion but I am working through the new entries because Zotero handles them a little bit different in terms of Item Type. So I'm changing them as I go.
I am blown away by the (relative) ease in which Zotero Connector allows items found to be entered into the program. Not always the way I think I'd want it, but that's also due to my learning curve. I often find PDF versions of books I want to index in Zotero and also download to my computer for detailed review later. For example, a Google scanned book can be indexed as a Web Page, or a Book, or a PDF, depending upon where you try to invoke the connector. But it is easy -- far easier than EndNote -- to try one way and if it isn't right, back out and go to a parent or child web page from where you just tried. I find the process intuitive.
I am in the middle of a fairly involved local history research project -- one that is morphing into a one place type of study. To keep sane, I have been writing research summaries of areas showing what I know and what I need to find out. I use Zotero to cite these mini-studies as I go along. In that way, I have cited mini-research-papers which I can refer to. Zotero has made it possible for this to be done in a very rapid and professional manner, improving my organization and research by orders of magnitude. I'm sure as I get better with Zotero that I'll be able to improve on this workflow.
By the way, though this is a genealogy related work in progress, I am deferring from worrying about EE citations (struggling with templates, etc.) for the time being. I figure if I can get the research done first, while citing my work in Chicago Manual of Style, I'm ahead of the game. When I write whatever I write at the end of the process, I'll probably be in the EE-arena.
I am glad I am not alone! As long as I make notes about the source not covered by CMOS deferring the EE citation is not that big of a deal. For me, the process of manually writing EE citations is another checkpoint for analysis of the source.
Using a note as a freeform entry is a great way to do it--and as you say prevents you from spending hours trying to force Zotero to match EE, which it will sometimes do and sometimes not.
Also, an important observation about the unexpected ways the Connector will sometimes draw in the citation information. I believe that has to do with how effectively the metadata was added to the online item in the first place. I've sometimes found that the publisher location is put into the publisher field. So there is sometimes cleanup.
I'm glad you guys are finding it useful, as do I!
