Clarification requested on citing eBooks

By History-Hunter on Fri, 10/02/2020 - 15:11

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Dear Editor;

I looked at the following section, which explains how to cite eBooks of published works, delivered electronically:

Page: 699 (image 705)
Section: 12.60, E-Books: Audio & Text Sub-section: Electronically Readable Text (Kindle)

I then looked at what I believe is the correct QuickSheet:

Page: 655 (image 661)
Section: ELECTRONIC PUBLICATIONS: E-DELIVERY OF PRINT-PUBLISHED BOOK

I note that the First Reference Note of section 12.60 does not seem to include the format, "Kindle edition", while the noted QuickCheck Sheet does.

Was this a simple proof-reading error or is there something else that needs to be noted?

Submitted byEEon Fri, 10/02/2020 - 19:23

History-Hunter, I'm not sure which QuickSheet you used. You cite for it "Page: 655 (image 661) but that's not a QuickSheet. The current edition of EE (p. 699, image 699) does explicitly say "Kindle edition" in the Source List Entry (snippet below). In the First Reference Note, it does not include it because the Amazon.com reference is being explicitly cited. If you wish to insert a comma after the book's title in the reference note and add there the explicit words "Kindle edition," no one would fault you. I suspect other editors would likely omit it.

Again, this is another issue where citation is about need, rather than formula.

​

 

Submitted byHistory-Hunteron Fri, 10/02/2020 - 21:19

Dear Editor,

I just double-checked my page references and they are correct for the 3rd edition, 2015. Has the Kindle edition changed from that date. It would explain the mismatch.

Submitted byEEon Sat, 10/03/2020 - 09:04

History-Hunter, the current Kindle edition (and current hardback edition) is 3d edition, revised (2017).  But which QuickSheet are you referencing?

Submitted byHistory-Hunteron Sat, 10/03/2020 - 12:18

Dear Editor;

Ah...  I see the disconnect and appreciate your bearing with me on this. I see that my copy of the 3rd edition, Kindle format, 2015, has been revised to the 3rd edition, Kindle format, 2017. This can be confusing and perhaps this has a bearing on the subject at hand (see my trailing note).


As requested...

The publishing info, from image 15  of 899 is as follows;

FIRST EDITION copyright © 2007
SECOND EDITION copyright © 2009  
SECOND EDITION, REVISED copyright © 2012  
THIRD EDITION copyright © 2015
...

PUBLISHED BY  Genealogical Publishing Company, Inc.  
3600 Clipper Mill Road, Suite 260  
Baltimore, Maryland 21211

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2015937868  
ISBN 978-0-8063-20175  
Made in the United States of America 

It identifies itself as:
Mills, Elizabeth Shown. Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace (p. 10). Elizabeth Shown Mills. Kindle Edition. 

-------

The QuickSheet page is titled;

QuickCheck Model
ELECTRONIC PUBLICATIONS
E-DELIVERY OF PRINT-PUBLISHED BOOK

and the image bears the page no., 655

It identifies itself as:
Mills, Elizabeth Shown. Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace (p. 661). Elizabeth Shown Mills. Kindle Edition.

However; the stated page number is actually the image out of a total of 899.

-----

In the example you gave, the reference note (to me) reads as if the print book is implied to be identical to the one downloaded from Amazon. I'm not sure whether that one can always assume that without comparing the two forms. So; I'd feel more comfortable using a reference note "Format" segment that looks something like that in the Quicksheet I noted. eg. "[title]..., 3rd edition, Kindle format,...[place of publication]." Of course; I would also not use a download site clause unless the kindle version is only available at one specific site. That would be for the same reason that one doesn't state a repository for a published book. Also; in deference to the way one must find "pages" in the electronic version, I might be tempted to state the image number in my references and include the imaged page number in parentheses. This would remove any doubt as to what I consulted. Does this work?

Submitted byEEon Sun, 10/11/2020 - 14:02

H-H, I think I see the root of our confusion. Above you wrote:

The QuickSheet page is titled:

QuickCheck Model
ELECTRONIC PUBLICATIONS
E-DELIVERY OF PRINT-PUBLISHED BOOK
and the image bears the page no., 655

Two separate things are conflated here:

  • EE's 100+ QuickCheck Models that appear within EE, on grey pages, where the parts of a citation are diagrammed.
  • EE's QuickSheets, which are not part of the book EE. The QuickSheets are standalone 2- or 4-leaf laminated "cheat sheest" that focus on a single issue such as genetic sources or African-American sources or Ancestry sources, etc.

You also wrote:

In the example you gave, the reference note (to me) reads as if the print book is implied to be identical to the one downloaded from Amazon. I'm not sure whether that one can always assume that without comparing the two forms.

Ah, yes, never assume anything! Anytime a book is billed as a different edition there will be differences between it and other editions. A reprint reproduces the original exactly. If the author/editor/publisher/whatever make substantive alterations, the work is not called a "reprint." It must be called a new "edition."   EE 12.75 through 12.82 discusses these differences.

Regarding a difference between page numbers and image numbers in the Kindle edition:  Beginning in 2017, I persuaded my publisher to abandon the traditional practice of numbering "prefatory" materials with roman numerals (i, ii, etc.) while starting the Arabic numbers (pp. 1, 2, etc.) with the first page of the text. If you're using the 2017 Kindle edition, the image number on the screen will be the page number in the book. If you’re using the 2015 Kindle edition, then yes, the page number is different from the image number.

Multiple numbering schemes are rife throughout many of the sources we use. For example:

  • If we are using an original church register, we may have entry numbers as well as page numbers.
  • If we’re using an electronic book, the image number (if there is one) is typically different from the printed number.
  • If we’re using a census, there may be multiple numbers on the page: stamped, penned at top left, penned at top right, etc.
  • If we use online images of any type, we frequently have a page number on the record that is different from the image number used by the database.

Always, when we cite a number, we try to make it clear what that number represents. EE examples illustrate that for many types of records that carry dual numbers. With regard to the images we use online, we have one basic rule: details that identify the original should not be mixed with details that identify the website.  This means:

  • If we are using a Kindle book, we have a simple, one-layer book citation that may involve dual numbers. If the printed page 655 and the image is 661, then we can cite just the page number. Or, if we wish, we can add the image number, in which case we specify which number is which.  
  • If we are citing documents imaged online, we have a multiple-layer citation. In the layer for the document, we cite the page number that appears within the image. In the layer where we cite “Database,” Website Title (URL: date), ____, we use the image number.  

To sum everything up, a citation to the current Kindle edition in which the image number syncs with the page number would be this:

Elizabeth Shown Mills, Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace, Kindle ed. (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co. 2017), 655.

In short, it’s just like the print version, except you change the edition name.

If you have the 2015 Kindle edition, with page numbers that differ from the image number, then the citation would be this:

Elizabeth Shown Mills, Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace, Kindle ed. (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co. 2015), page 655 (image 661).