Working in the Archives: a Guide to Citation

WORKING IN THE ARCHIVES: A GUIDE TO CITATION

This is exactly what it calls itself: a guide to citation. You may prefer a different system of presentation, such as the MLA style, which, for instance, underlines rather than italicises book titles. Those differences are cosmetic. The important issue is to note the information which is required of you: a date of access and a url for a website, or the names of correspondents and a date for a letter. Sometimes you will find that the library does not provide all of the details I have suggested below: occasionally, an archive box will not have a call number, but will just be ‘The Pennyfeather Papers’ in the catalogue. You will use your common sense. The point of these citations is to allow your reader to track down the papers you have used, so give the best directions you can, and don’t worry if it doesn’t look exactly like the models suggested below.

1. Citing the first printed edition of Martha Pennyfeather’s novel, A Wivenhoe Girl:

Pennyfeather, Martha, A Wivenhoe Girl (London: John Murray and Sons, 1855)

2. Citing the digitised copy of the printer’s proofs for the novel, available on the Pennyfeather Archive on the University of Lawrence, KS, library website:

Pennyfeather, Martha. Proofs for A Wivenhoe Girl. Pennyfeather Archive, University of Lawrence, KS. 8 Aug. 2009.

3. Citing the manuscript draft of the novel which is held in the British Library (for the purposes of illustration, let us imagine that the MS was written in a substantial notebook, which is bound, and which therefore has its own shelfmark, i.e., it isn’t stored with other papers in a box):

Pennyfeather, Martha, A Wivenhoe Girl, MS 33013. British Library, London.

4. Citing the manuscript notes among Martha Pennyfeather’s papers in the archive box in the British Library. These papers are loose, and are numbered in pencil.

Pennyfeather, Martha, Note 25, Martha Pennyfeather Papers, BL 33013. British Library, London.

5. There is a letter from Charlotte Bronte to Martha Pennyfeather among the papers in the same box.

Bronte, Charlotte, Letter to Martha Pennyfeather. 15 May 1838. Martha Pennyfeather Papers, BL 33013. British Library, London.