[Steppes] Changes in MLA format for web documents

[Karen Calhoun]

Thought that I would pass this on so that you can update your research. 
Our librarian is really good and keeps us all on our toes.
 
Katya

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FYI.  Some of our teachers were working with students in the computer
lab this morning on a research project.  The kids went to Citation
Machine to create their citations for their bibliography and discovered
that the template no longer asks for the URL for a web document.  (I
know that it was still asking for a URL last week because our 7th
graders are all doing projects and we have been there a zillion times in
the last 3 weeks!).  When the teacher this morning emailed me to ask if
it was a fluke or if the rules had changed, I did a little
investigating.  It seems that MLA has just published a NEW handbook that
was released in March, and there are some changes that have been made. 
This is a link to an article that explains some of that:
 
http://chronicle.com/news/article/6093/new-mla-guidebook-offers-web-site-research-narratives-and-some-rule-changes

 
Here is the short explanation about dropping the URL requirement:  
"Two changes in the new edition*s citation rules have already drawn
some fire in the blogosphere, Ms. Feal said. Rather than assuming that
all citations refer to print sources unless otherwise indicated, the new
edition recommends that all citations specify from what medium the
source comes. Another change recommends that citations of Web sites omit
the URL, as they often change and can be too long to fit comfortably in
a list of citations, Ms. Feal said."
more info:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/15/