MLA--Electronic Sources

Section 10.5.4.6

Electronic Sources

The format for documenting electronic sources of information is still being developed. The following forms are taken from the MLA Handbook, 4th ed. (1995), and recent online papers and articles (Harnack and Kleppinger, 1996; Walker, 1996a; 1996b).

CD-ROMs and Other Portable Databases

Provide the author, date, and title information as you would for a print source. Identify the medium (such as CD-ROM, electronic tape, cartridge tape) after the title of the database. At the end of the entry, include the location and name of the product and the publication date.

CD-ROM Database: Abstract with a Print Version

Steinhausen, Harold C., and Mary Vollrath.
     "The Self-Image of Adolescent Patterns

     with Eating Disorders." International

     Journal of Eating Disorders 13 (1993):

     item 80-33985, PsycLIT Abstracts. CD-ROM.

Silverplatter. 1993.

Information Published Only on CD-ROM

Material Safety Datasheets. CD-ROM. Enterprise,

FL: Solution Software. 1996.

Computer Software

Quattro Pro. Ver. 6.02 for Windows. Computer

Program. Dublin, Ireland: Corel, 1996.

Online Sources

One proposed, but not yet accepted, MLA style guideline (Harnack and Kleppinger, 1996) suggests the following format: the author's name; the full title of the document in quotation marks, if appropriate; the title of the journal or larger work if available underlined or in italics; the date of publication or last revision; the full Uniform Resource Locator (URL) address; and the date accessed in parentheses. Enclose the full URL path in angle brackets (< >) with no underlining or punctuation. (Do not end a URL with any punctuation mark, and begin it on a new line rather than breaking it between two lines.)

Journal Published Only Online

Harnack, Andrew, and Gene Kleppinger. "Beyond
     the MLA Handbook: Documenting Electronic

     Sources on the Internet." Kairos 1.2

     (1996): <http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/1.2/>

(21 Sep. 1996).

Document Available through the World Wide Web

Walker, Janice R. "MLA-Style Citations of
     Electronic Sources." Ver. 1.0, Rev. Apr.

     1995.

     <http://www.cas.usf.edu/english/walker/mla.html>

(21 Sep. 1996).

Document Retrieved from a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Archive

Use the same form as for a World Wide Web document except precede the full path name of the file with the lowercase abbreviation ftp and do not enclose the path name in angle brackets.

Curtis, Pavel. "Mudding: Social Phenomena in
     Text-Based Virtual Realities." 1992.

     ftp parcftp.xerox.com/pub/MOO/papers/DIAC92

(4 Aug. 1996).

## MLA: Electronic Sources ##