April 22, 2016

For those who don’t follow all things MLA (what?!), I thought I’d share that they just released the 8^th edition of their MLA Handbook. MLA now “recommends one universal set of guidelines that you can apply to any type of source.” A focus is on simplicity combined with critical thinking and not on following narrow rules. To support the new citation guidelines and more, the Modern Language Association will soon publish a website called The MLA Style Center.

Marlene Lee, OSLIS Chair, and I recently purchased the new MLA book and immediately noticed that it is much thinner than the previous edition. This bodes well for simplicity. Our goal is to update the elementary and secondary instances of Citation Maker over the summer so that they are current when the new school year starts. If you are interested in helping us make decisions and iron out details – and you can dedicate some time this summer – please let me know.

If you’re curious about the changes, the Purdue Online Writing Lab offers a summary.

Thanks,
Jen

Jennifer Maurer
School Library Consultant
Oregon State Library