Last week I learned via Twitter that the Modern Language Association (MLA) created guidelines for citing tweets in MLA Style. I dutifully retweeted and have read numerous comments (grateful, humorous, snarky) about the new guidelines.
So is this a major advance for scholarship or the end of the world as we know it? I vote for somewhere in between, but in “Tweet, Loc. Cit.” Scott McLemee, Intellectual Affairs columnist for Inside Higher Ed, discusses how scholars on Twitter use it for communication and sharing papers online.
WARNING : This new citation guideline does not mean you can start searching Twitter to find articles. However, you can use Twitter for connecting to updates in your discipline by following scholarly associations (e.g., Modern Language Association) and active scholars in your field.
While you’re on Twitter, don’t forget to follow Sterne Library (@Sterne_Library).
P.S. – Do yourself a favor, and don’t cite retweets. Cite the original tweet. If you’re using information from a document linked from a tweet, read and cite the original linked document. This is advice from me, not from MLA (yet).