 |
| Volume 51, Number 3, Summer 2002 |
HOW DO YOU CITE A WEB PAGE? IT'S A MATTER OF DEBATEby June Kronholz
The Internet made a lot of things very simple. Bibliographies aren't
among them. Computers have made research so easy. Search engines lead to Web sites where hyperlinks point the way to vast databases where keywords pull up pages where 3-D graphics and color animation leap from the text and authors leave their e-mail addresses to promote online discussions. It just seemed logical that something else was going to get more complicated. Now it's clear what that is: the fine print at the end of a book or scholarly article-the bibliography. "All the rules we've spent years developing are out the window," sighs Karen Patrias, a librarian and bibliographer at the National Library of Medicine (NLM), in Bethesda, Md.
The purpose of a bibliography is to identify an author's sources so a reader can look them up. The American Psychological Association (APA) wants the bibliographies used in its 35 journals to "get the user as close to the source as possible," says Kathleen Sheedy, the APA's manager of electronic publishing. "You want to point him to the specific page." But Internet sites often don't have page numbers or chapters. Web sites come and go. In the anarchy of cyberspace, they don't always give dates, titles, authors, or a publisher's name and address. Articles appear on paper and, at the same time-or maybe earlier or later-in online versions that may be longer or shorter, may include audio and video clips, and may be updated every now and then. So, which is the official version of an article, and what's the date of publication? Everyone who ever wrote a thesis knew to underline book titles. But now, underlining a word or phrase can mean that it's an active hypertext link-click here and you'll be transported to another Web site, it indicates. How do you cite a Listserv message, an e-mail or a real-time communication posted on a MOO, or a MUD? "That's the challenge," says Ms. Sheedy. "Books are cut and dried, but the Web is always changing."
There's no single authority on bibliography style. Social scientists follow a style set by the APA. Historians follow the Chicago Manual of Style, put out by the University of Chicago Press. Anyone writing about the humanities follows the Modern Language Association, or MLA, rules. Physical scientists, doctors, lawyers, musicians, engineers, and mathematicians have their own styles, too. The National Information Standards Organization, or NISO, in Bethesda, Md., has tried to lead everyone to a uniform style (the citations used here follow NISO style). But so far, its following is limited. "We each follow the scholars in our field," says Eric Wirth, assistant editor at MLA. Mostly, the differences are matters of punctuation, abbreviation, and what-goes-in-what-order. APA style puts the publication date of a book after the author and before the titles. The MLA is just as clear that it belongs at the end, after the publisher's city and name. There are differences about whether to use an author's first name (Chicago style), an initial only (Council of Science Editors style), or an initial followed by a period (APA style). "We do argue for hours over where to put a period. People laugh, but we do," says the NLM's Ms. Patrias, who assembles huge bibliographies that are used at medical conferences, and who uses the NLM's own style. Those niggling differences and changing tastes meant that style manuals were periodically revised, but not very often. The APA waited 20 years before updating its manual, devoting five of 368 pages to electronic publishing in 1994. But that also was the year Internet use suddenly exploded. The APA manual "was basically dead as soon as it hit the presses," says the APA's Ms. Sheedy, who helped write it. The APA rewrote its style manual again last year, devoting 19 pages to the intricacies of citing electronic publications. The MLA already has updated its style manual twice to take account of the Internet, and it is working on yet another edition. So is the Chicago manual. But styles still differ: Some manuals dictate square brackets around Web addresses. Some decree angle brackets instead. Punctuation and abbreviation are still thorny matters. "When you come into the standards world, you have to reset your clock," says Patricia Harris, executive director of NISO. NISO is a private membership group that has set 33 different voluntary library and reference standards, including standards on thesaurus formatting, library shelving, and what information to include on the spines of books. It is developing a standard for digital talking books. And it is in negotiations with the International Organization of Standards, based in Switzerland, over guidelines on library statistics (among other things, NISO wants libraries to count their books, while ISO wants them to measure their collections by the foot). Seven years ago, NISO set out to update its 1977 bibliography standards by appointing a committee that includes, among others, the NLM's Ms. Patrias and Ms. Morrison. In a few weeks, NISO will post the committee's recommendations on its Web site, and invite public comment for 18 months. After that, NISO's 65 paying members, which include major libraries and big corporate users of information, will vote. That process could take another two years. "It could happen that the standards will be out of date" by that time, concedes Ms. Harris: "Technology doesn't stand still."
# June Kronholz is an education reporter with the Wall Street Journal. "Bibliography Mess: The Internet Wreaks Havoc With the Form,"
Wall Street Journal, May 2, 2002. |