How do I reference old cartoons in Harvard style?

January 5, 2013 7:18 PM

I'm writing the bibliography for my dissertation which is about the animation studio UPA. I need to cite a lot of theatrical cartoons from the 1950s, which I watched on youtube. This Site give intructions for citing youtube videos, but it seems like its referring to original youtube vids, not existing films. It says to list the username of the contributor as the author, and it feels wrong to credit a John Hubley cartoon to "liquidnature13". Do I need to give the cartoon's director, year of release, and studio, as well as the contributer's username and the year it was uploaded? If so, how should I format it? (I'm using the Harvard system)
posted by Chenko to Education (5 answers total)

Best answer: You don't have to include the uploader, unless significant changes were made. Think of the uploader as the librarian who checked it out to you. Citations are about author/creatorship.
posted by Etrigan at 7:28 PM on January 5, 2013 [2 favorites]

Best answer: You are citing the historical artifact of the animated short, as well as its creator(s). Whether you watched it in a movie theater, on TV, or on YouTube is completely irrelevant.
posted by Nomyte at 7:58 PM on January 5, 2013

I think you should cite it as the original, i.e. to the creators of the content. And in addition to the points above, there's also the question of whether the YT uploaders actually had the rights to upload in the first place.
posted by carter at 8:52 PM on January 5, 2013

Best answer: Yes, cite it using the guidelines for a video using creator and date etc. I would also add the additional information that is commonly used for internet references: location/url and "accessed on" date. It is kind of a special case, best to give both creative credit as well as information to assist with verification of the source since they are not likely to be available elsewhere.
posted by cgk at 2:58 AM on January 6, 2013 [2 favorites]

This seems a very clear guideline for Harvard referencing of electronic sources.
posted by bwonder2 at 4:19 AM on January 6, 2013