This is more short thought than full-length post, but something I felt like sharing nonetheless. As I start hyperlinking my arguments and other data for the this project, it occurred that at some point our good friends at the MLA and APA may soon be without jobs. The point of citing has always been to be able to track down the original source and verify what you are saying and how you are using the source. However, in the hyperlink world, citation the way it is used in academic papers seems like a step backwards. It is so much easier to just click through to the source than it is to track down based on a cite, which are often convoluted and differ from paper to paper (not to mention are barely adequate to cite digital media). In fact, you can even link to the very words you use in a quote by using anchors and the like.
Like I said just a thought, but there you have it.
Very true, Robin. Still, some folks are interesting in tracking linked resources back to the “original source.” We see similar motivations in efforts like the Curator’s Code, which “aspires to…evolve our thinking about the levels of attribution.”