Terry's TMG Tips

Customizing Your Source Citations - Books

This page updated 14 Dec 2000; reformatted 19 Jan 2002

Version note: Applies to TMG 4, 5 & 6

Ms Mills' book provides some dozen and a half examples for citing books as sources. Her examples cover books by an individual author, by multiple authors, books of complied records, multi-volume sets, re-printed books, and many more. The Mills templates produced by Wholly Genes Software include templates to reflect many of these examples.

But I've found in real life, my sources turn out to be much more mix and match - the book I use is likely to be a reprint edition of complied records by multiple authors. So I ended up patching elements from several TMG templates together to accurately record my source. Finally, I concluded that an "all purpose" book template that would address all those possibilities was possible and desirable. The following is the template I worked out.

Terry's all purpose book template:

Some technical notes for those who would like to copy or adapt this model:

• This template uses three custom source elements. While it would be possible to create it using standard source elements, the meaning is made clearer by their use. I created WRITER ROLE in the Editor group, SECOND ADDRESS in the Second Locations group, and SECOND PUBLISHER in the Second Person group.

• This template removes the "Hereinafter cited as . . . " phrase included in the usual TMG template - Ms Mills has indicated in messages on the TMG-List that this phrase is often not used today so long as the short title is clearly recognizable.

• For reprints, I include the original publisher information, which does not appear in Ms Mills book, on the theory that a researcher may want to consult the original edition if it can be found.

• For help with the procedure of creating a custom Source Type, see Creating a Custom Source Type.

How this template works:

The template allows for one or more "writers," for that writer to be an author, editor, or compiler, and to be either a person or an agency. Multi-volume sets and series, as well as revised editions and reprints are accommodated. All this is accomplished by including optional source elements, which are left empty if they do not apply. These empty elements will be ignored in the printed citations.

Some rules for use of the template:

Writer – Enter the name of the writer in the AUTHOR field:

• If it is one person, enter in the form: Jones, John J.

• If it is several people, enter in the form: Jones, John J.; Jones, Susan Ann; Smith, Robert A.

• If is an agency or organization, enter (with no commas) in the form: Alpha Co. Historical Society

• If Unknown, enter: [Anonymous]

Edited or Complied works – Enter in the AUTHOR ROLE field:

• If by one writer, enter: editor or compiler

• If by more than one writer, enter: editors or compilers

• Otherwise, leave this field empty

Multi-volume works, part of a Series, or Revised editions – Enter in the VOLUMES field:

• If multi-volumes, enter the number of volumes in the form: 4 volumes

• If part of a series, enter the series name, for example: Carolina County History Series

• If a revised edition, enter edition in the form: 2nd Edition

Publication information – Enter in PUBLISHER ADDRESS, PUBLISHER, and PUBLISH DATE fields:

• If privately printed, enter in the PUBLISHER field: privately printed

• If publication date, publication place, or publisher not given, leave those fields empty and the output will include appropriate notes that the information is missing

Reprint editions – Enter the publication information for the reprint in the SECOND ADDRESS, SECOND PUBLISHER, and SECOND DATE fields.

• If not a reprint, leave these fields empty and they will be ignored

Comments – If additional comments about the book are appropriate, enter them in the COMMENTS field (on the Supplemental Tab) and they will appear at the end of the full footnote.

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