[Air-l] Using Online Citations to Defunct Web Sites

[jeremy hunsinger]

Ken Friedman wrote:

> Dear Ed and Jeremy,
>
> The sometimes ephemeral nature of Web sites is indicated
> by the fact that all known citation systems require a statement
> of accessed date.
>
> To my way of thinking, that fact is clear. As I see it, the facts
> of Web citation are plain on their face. They do not require
> a preamble. 

the reason for the preamble in my mind is to tell them that if you 
cannot find them where I cite them, you might be able to find them by 
using the archive instead.  

>
>
> When the Web site itself is the object of inquiry, I print out
> images of the relevant pages. 


while this is a tactic that one can use, I think it really is a waste of 
resources to a great extent.  I do not support the effort of making 
personal copies of everything on the web that people use or cite. 
 Memory is cheap, that is true, effort is not, parsing data and 
knowledge is not, etc.  I'd much prefer to rely on large archives, and 
if something disappears, as things do, books disappear and so do 
articles, they get lost, they will either reappear eventually somewhere 
or they will be traces of what was.  In either case, that they are gone 
is not a real problem to me.  I trust in people and the broader corpus, 
not the individual document.

>
>
> If there is some reason to question the credibility, care or
> veracity of a scholar, then I'd question the entire submission.
> If all else seems in order, I'd accept the missing Web material
> in the same way that I'd allow a reference to a public ex tempore
> speech unrecorded except in the notes of the scholar. 


I agree with this standpoint.  

>
>
> Best regards,
>
> Ken
>
>
>


-- 
jeremy hunsinger		http://www.cddc.vt.edu/jeremy
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