Searching High and Low

Like adam over on theshiftingstacks, I began wondering about how to apply the seventh edition of the MLA Handbook to sites like YouTube and Flickr that host user-generated resources.

While the seventh edition of the “MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers” does a good job of providing examples for information found on sites that publish their own content like Newsweek, CNN, and National Public Radio it does not provide any examples for sites like YouTube that host user-generated content.

I’ll give you that the number of educationally-relevant videos on sites like these is likely dwarfed by videos of cute kittens, but plenty of cite-worthy materials do exist.  And with a recent report indicating that Americans viewed over 16 billion online videos IN ONE MONTH, educators and librarians will likely see more and more of these showing up in works cited pages.

Example MLA Citations for Videos on YouTube

Here are a couple of example citations for YouTube videos based on my understanding of MLA’s guidelines found in section 5.6.2b.

Carnegie Mellon Univ. “Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.” YouTube. N.p., 20 Dec. 2007. Web. 15 July 2009.

CCAC Library. “Ebscohost: An Overview.” YouTube. N.p., 29 Jan. 2009. Web. 15 July 2009.

In these examples, I chose to include the “N.p.” for “no publisher” based on this Lawrence Lessig citation example on page 186 of the manual:

The above refers to a post on Lessig’s blog. Even though he owns the site and publishes/posts blog articles, MLA does not consider the author and owner/operator as a “publisher” in this situation. Is that because the site is operated by an individual and not a corporate entity?

In applying this to the YouTube examples it seems inaccurate to cite YouTube as the “publisher or sponsor of the site” since YouTube has zero responsibility for the content of either video, hence the “N.p.” for no publisher.

Not listing a publisher in these citations will likely apply to most videos on user-generated sites like YouTube. One instance where this may not apply is for videos on user-generated sites that are posted by the site owner.  For example:

“YouTube Help Center Welcome Video.” YouTube. YouTube, 04 May 2007. Web. 15 July 2009.

I come to this conclusion based on this citation (page 186) for a recorded streaming news segment:

“Hourly News Summary.” National Public Radio. Natl. Public Radio, 20 July 2007. Web. 20 July 2007.

In this instance, NPR published an audio file on the its own site and was recognized by MLA as the publisher or sponsor of the site.

So it seems that:

1. MLA does NOT recognize as a “publisher or sponsor” an individual that owns a website and posts/publishes content (Lessig)
2. MLA DOES recognize as a “publisher or sponsor” an organization or corporate entity that owns a website and posts/publishes content (NPR)

How would you cite them?

A growing number of library database providers are making customizable search box widgets available to subscribers. Vendors like Ebsco, Gale, Proquest, and Facts on File all simplify the process of adding a search box to a website (or CMS like Blackboard) into a few steps  that result in “copy and paste” code.

I mentioned Ebsco’s tool previously.  Here are a few more vendors I came upon recently for my library:

• ProQuest Search Widget Creator

• Gale Widgets

• Facts on File

  - link may not work if you are not a current subscriber

• CredoReference

  - subscribers need to contact support for “HTML search box code”

Do you know of others?