Citing Materials Harvard University Archives Suggestions for Citing Materials General information on citation practices are found in standard manuals such as The Chicago Manual of Style and authors are encouraged to consult those sources for background. What is given here is advice derived from the experience of the curators of the University Archives. It is based on the premise that a primary purpose of footnote references is to facilitate a reader's retrieval of cited items, in addition to documenting facts or interpretation in the text. The components of a citation ordinarily will include the following, though the order of presentation may vary.
Examples are available by way of illustration of the general principles outlined here.
Both of these components should be part of the citation. Title or description of the item itself. The Harvard Archives assigns call numbers to each record series and these are handy means of reference and should be included in a footnote reference whenever possible. However, since call numbers sometimes are changed, the material also should be identifiable through the descriptive elements outlined above. Reference to its physical location in the Pusey Library is unnecessary.