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From: John <>
Subject: [TMG] Repositories
Date: Mon, 01 Jan 2001 21:37:04 -0500


One of the great divides in the universe of sources is between published
material and unpublished material. Citations to the latter MUST include a
repository for it is integral to their identification. Customarily
citations to published material do not mention a repository because, being
published, copies (usually) reside in many repositories. (When a published
work is rare, a repository should be stated.)

The portion of this thread discussing the genuine difficulties of citing
U.S. censuses has overlooked this feature which simplifies part of the
problem. The National Archives microfilms designated A-, M-, and T- are
publications. Consequently, as with published books, citations to them
should not reflect the repository where they were consulted. See the four
examples of U.S. census citations in Mills, Evidence!, 73--75. The first
three cite micropublications without repository; the fourth citing an
unpublished county copy provides the obligatory repository information.
Lackey is no different in this regard. See Cite Your Sources, 59--63.

Cite microfilm reprints made by other entities similarly to a book reprint.
For examples see Mills, Evidence!, 70 or Chicago Manual of Style,
15.178--15.181. Because the U.S. Government cannot copyright its
publications, anyone can publish reprints and often does carelessly.
Sometimes it is unclear whether one is consulting a government publication
or a reprint. Moreover, many such reprints do not provide the information
needed to construct the citation just recommended.

References to U.S. censuses on CD-ROM should cite the CD. See Mills, 72,
for examples.

Put your best cites forward,
John Crawford

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