Citing and online PDF copy of a book published by a museum

By History-Hunter on Mon, 09/07/2020 - 10:22

Forums

Dear editor;

As my current Canadian military research is now focussing on the details surrounding individuals and their locale, I'm running into some documents that are a bit of a challenge to cite.

It is for an online PDF of a self-published book that resides in the archives of the Canadian Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa.

Had I visited the archives and consulted the physical book, I believe the citation would look something like:

Payne, Stephen R., A history of the Rockcliffe Airport site : home of the National Aviation Museum, Ottawa, Canada (Ottawa, Ontario: National Aviation Museum, 1999), call no. UG 635 C22, R62 1999, p. {page no.}.

However; I downloaded a copy and consulted that copy. 

May I ask for your opinion on the following draft citation?

Rockcliffe Airport — site history, Ingenium, Canada Aviation and Space Museum (https://ingeniumcanada.org/casm : downloaded 7 September 2020) >  Collection and Research > Research > A History of the Rockcliffe Airport Site; PDF image of a book by Stephen R. Payne, A history of the Rockcliffe Airport site : home of the National Aviation Museum, Ottawa, Canada (Ottawa, Ontario: National Aviation Museum, 1999), p. {page no.}. The National Aviation Museum is now known as the Canada Aviation and Space Museum (CASM). Two (2) physical copies are also available onsite under call no. UG 635 C22, R62 1999.

Submitted byEEon Mon, 09/07/2020 - 20:44

History-Hunter, there are several issues to discuss here. Let's go back to the basic citations for "Print Book" and "Book Digitized Online" that appears in the QuickStart Guide at the front of EE. Following those patterns, you would have this for the print book:

     1. Stephen R. Payne, A History of the Rockcliffe Airport Site: Home of the National Aviation Museum, Ottawa, Canada (Ottawa, Ontario: National Aviation Museum, 1999), p. ___.

Note the following:

  • The author’s name is never inverted in a reference note. (EE 2.16, 2.53, 12.2)
  • Titles use headline-style capitalization (EE 2.22)
  • Repositories are not cited for published books and library call numbers are not part of a citation for published works because they are available in many different libraries and under different call numbers. (EE 12.1 lays out all the essential elements for book citations)

Building upon the basic citation above, the QuickStart Guide uses the following pattern for "Books digitized online" (the two layers are in different colors):

     1.  Stephen R. Payne, A History of the Rockcliffe Airport Site: Home of the National Aviation Museum, Ottawa, Canada Ottawa, Ontario: National Aviation Museum, 1999), p. ___; PDF download at Ingenium [museum consortium] (https://ingeniumcanada.org/aviation/collection-research/research-history-rockcliffe-airport-site.php).

Note the following:

  • Payne’s work should be the lead element. The website is just a delivery mechanism.
  • In your draft of the latter, you place “Rockcliffe Airport — site history” in the Creator field for the website. The reason is not clear.
  • At the site itself, we find the creator of the website is a consortium of museums. Citing several museums with long titles in author field would be quite cumbersome. A simpler approach would be to use the "type of item field" after the title to say that it's a museum-consortium site.
  • Citing the exact URL will take users of your citation to the exact page without having to go through a lengthy menu.
  • EE’s version cuts the citation nearly in half. Your core citation for the book online (not including your last two explanatory sentences is 64 words. EE’s suggestion is 33.

 

 

 

Submitted byHistory-Hunteron Tue, 09/08/2020 - 18:53

Dear Editor;

I understand the logic you use for the original book, had I used that. However; I'm a bit uncomfortable with the proposed citation for the book in PDF form. The order of the proposed citation emphasizes the printed book. I "saw" the PDF document, not the physical book. The PDF has some small differences, I believe introduced in the PDF process, which does not appear to have affected the printed matter. However; I did not have the opportunity to verify that the differences were only cosmetic in nature. This is why I tried to reverse the order of the clauses.

Also; I should note that while Ingenium is the shared document server for the "consortium" of museums, each museum has its own archives and the only two physical copies are in the archives at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum (CASM) in Ottawa. The document was "self-published" by the museum and so is not in general circulation. So the reference to the sole source for the physical copies is actually necessary if one is to locate one of the master copies. The call number is more a note for me, if I ever have the opportunity to visit and consult the original work.

My choice of using a "trail of breadcrumbs" was a matter of pragmatism, dictated by the software I use. I will have several types of references to this same root URL (the Ingenium document server). Using a "trail of breadcrumbs" allows me to set up a reusable Master template with fields into which I can put the information that varies with each source I use within a repository.

Submitted byEEon Wed, 09/09/2020 - 10:37

Modern technology has definitely created for us a tangle of fishhooks!  If you find substantive differences between the printed version and the PDF, then EE would not cite the printed edition at all. EE would cite the PDF edition in the book layer.

Re Ingenium vs. a particular museum, in the website layer we need to cite what we use. If the book itself is published by just one museum, then EE would cite it as the publisher in the layer in which you cite the book.