18.316 citing URLs

               Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 18, No. 316.
       Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
                   www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/
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                     Submit to: humanist_at_princeton.edu

   [1] From: Norman Hinton <hinton_at_springnet1.com> (6)
         Subject: Re: 18.312 citing URLs

   [2] From: cbf_at_socrates.Berkeley.EDU (8)
         Subject: Re: 18.311 citing URLs unnecessary?

   [3] From: Patrick T Rourke <ptrourke_at_methymna.com> (4)
         Subject: Citing URLs is necessary

--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------
         Date: Wed, 27 Oct 2004 08:20:31 +0100
         From: Norman Hinton <hinton_at_springnet1.com>
         Subject: Re: 18.312 citing URLs

I don't like the idea -- it reminds me of those books published in England
that used to give the titles and publication dates of books, and no other
information. It added significant time to finding them. I realize URLs
are impermanent, but at least they can give us a start at finding the
material. I'd feel very queasy about leaving such information out of a
reference.

--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------
         Date: Wed, 27 Oct 2004 08:21:32 +0100
         From: cbf_at_socrates.Berkeley.EDU
         Subject: Re: 18.311 citing URLs unnecessary?

Hi Willard,

The problem is not only finding the URL but also documenting its state as
of a particular date. Sites do change. The only remedy I know of is to use
the Internet Archive (the Wayback Machine) to make sure that the version
of the site cited (and sighted) is the same one still accessible to the
reader of the artiicle.

Charles Faulhaber The Bancroft Library UC Berkeley, CA 94720-6000
(510) 642-3782 FAX (510) 642-7589 cfaulhab_at_library.berkeley.edu

--[3]------------------------------------------------------------------
         Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 07:57:56 +0100
         From: Patrick T Rourke <ptrourke_at_methymna.com>
         Subject: Citing URLs is necessary

URLs serve as a kind of checksum for the title of a document (a meaningful
typo in a title could easily obscure the identity of the real source), or
as a way to distinguish between documents with identical titles. So, no, I
disagree, it is necessary to cite the URL of a reference.
Received on Thu Oct 28 2004 - 04:14:51 EDT