Best practice for digital content in printed end notes?

July 29, 2022 7:37 AM

My question is basically a re-ask of this question from JiffyQ (2014). What's the best way to provide and format links to digital sources for a print book's end notes?

The consensus from 2014 is "provide a short URL in the print book which points to a page where links will be maintained and/or archived so the original material can be found. Format the information like a standard Notes or Bibliography page depending on the content."

The book is general (but not quite mass market) non-fiction, and not academic. There are links to, for instance, YouTube, online articles, photos, commercial sites, etc.

posted by cocoagirl to Writing & Language (2 answers total)

As a reader, I'd feel most comfortable seeing URL for the author's professional website (janedoeauthor.com), where the links are maintained maybe on a page dedicated to the book. Any shortened URL would look suspect - I'd expect that it might be out of date by the time I was reading the book, or I wouldn't necessarily want to type it in, not knowing where it was going.

A distant second would be a URL for the publisher, who might also maintain a page for the book and/or author.
posted by hydra77 at 10:27 AM on July 29, 2022 [1 favorite]

Archive.org has Wayback Machine links that you can create on the days you're retrieving and citing material. Stick those in, and donate!
posted by k3ninho at 3:15 PM on July 29, 2022