Citation Guide for Primary Sources on the Web
By carefully documenting your sources, you acknowledge your intellectual debts and provide readers with information about the materials you used during your research. The discipline in which you are writing and class requirements will determine the citation system you should use.
Following are examples of citations for online documents, photographs, oral history interviews, and news film clips in three standard citation styles for the social sciences and humanities: Chicago, Modern Language Association (MLA), and American Psychological Association (APA).
Chicago Manual of Style
Chicago distinguishes between citation systems for notes and bibliographies. Common elements of a footnote or endnote for primary sources published online include: the author, document title or a description, document date, title of the website, reference URL, and date accessed. For example:
17. Lloyd A. Barbee to Milwaukee Board of School Directors, May 2, 1965, March On Milwaukee Civil Rights History Project, accessed June 8, 2010, http:// collections.lib.uwm.edu/u?/march,206.
18. Pam O'Halloran, interview by Michael Gordon, Aug. 16, 2007, March On Milwaukee Civil Rights History Project, accessed June 8, 2010, http:// collections.lib.uwm.edu/u?/march,1523.
19. Ben Fernandez, photograph of fair housing demonstration, Sept. 9, 1967, March On Milwaukee Civil Rights History Project, accessed June 8, 2010, http:// collections.lib.uwm.edu/u?/march,666.
20. WTMJ-TV, news film clip of Martin Luther King speaking at UW-Milwaukee (2 of 2), Nov. 23, 1965, March On Milwaukee Civil Rights History Project, accessed June 8, 2010, http://collections.lib.uwm.edu/u?/march,941.
In your bibliography, it is usually sufficient to cite the title of the website, its publisher, and the URL. For example:
March On Milwaukee Civil Rights History Project. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries. http://www4.uwm.edu/libraries/digilib/march/ index.cfm.
See the Chicago Manual of Style for more information and examples.
MLA Handbook
In your bibliography (which MLA calls the "Works Cited"), state the author, document title or description, document date, title of the website, publisher of the website, medium of publication ("Web"), date accessed, and the reference URL enclosed in angle brackets. For example:
Barbee, Lloyd A. Letter to Milwaukee Board of School Directors. 2 May 1965. March On Milwaukee Civil Rights History Project. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries. Web. 13 Jan. 2011. <http://collections.lib.uwm.edu/ u?/march,206>.
Fernandez, Ben. Photograph of fair housing demonstration. 9 Sept. 1967. March On Milwaukee Civil Rights History Project. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries. Web. 13 Jan. 2011. <http://collections.lib.uwm.edu/ u?/march,666>.
O'Halloran, Pam. Interview by Michael Gordon. 16 Aug. 2007. March On Milwaukee Civil Rights History Project. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries. Web. 13 Jan. 2011. <http://collections.lib.uwm.edu/u?/ march,1523>.
WTMJ-TV. News film clip of Martin Luther King speaking at UW-Milwaukee (2 of 2).23 Nov. 1965. March On Milwaukee Civil Rights History Project. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries. Web. 13 Jan. 2011. <http:// collections.lib.uwm.edu/u?/march,941>.
MLA directs writers to use parenthetical references in the body of their writing to identify their sources and the specific location in a source from which they borrowed material. See the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers for more information and examples.
APA
In your bibliography (which APA calls the "reference list"), state the author, document date (enclosed in parentheses), document title or description, title of the website, publisher of the website, and the reference URL preceded by the phrase "Retrieved from." Omit the period following the URL. Use square brackets to indicate information that does not appear in the document. APA instructs writers to include retrieval dates only when the source material may change over time, which is not the case with this digital collection.
Barbee, Lloyd A. (1965, May 2). [Letter to Milwaukee Board of School Directors]. March On Milwaukee Civil Rights History Project. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries. Retrieved from http://collections.lib.uwm.edu/u?/ march,206
Fernandez, Ben. (1967, September 9). [Photograph of fair housing demonstration]. March On Milwaukee Civil Rights History Project. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries. Retrieved from http:// collections.lib.uwm.edu/u?/march,666
O'Halloran, Pam. (2007, August 16). Interview by Michael Gordon. March On Milwaukee Civil Rights History Project. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries. Retrieved from http://collections.lib.uwm.edu/u?/march,1523
WTMJ-TV. (1965, November 23). [News film clip of Martin Luther King speaking at UW-Milwaukee (2 of 2)]. March On Milwaukee Civil Rights History Project. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries. Retrieved from http:// collections.lib.uwm.edu/u?/march,941
Like MLA, APA directs writers to use parenthetical references in the body of their writing to identify their sources and the specific location in a source from which they borrowed material. See the Publication Manual of the APA for more information and examples.