Re: ... and speaking of citations

[Eric Crump <wleric@showme.missouri.edu>]

They should, Sara. Helps document design as well as serving as a
breadcrumbs for people following citation trails. Nothing worse, in print
or pixel, than endless undifferentiated rivers of text. Worked in the 19th
century, but folks don't read like that nomo. 

I would add, though, that readers also ought to do their bit & take
advantage of the basic features their reading tools (browsers, in this
case) offer. 

"Find"

I remember getting frustrated once trying to find a particular passage in
my paperback copy of _Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance_. Finally
decided to see if there was an online copy. There was. I found the exact
phrase I was after by loading the document and using the browser's "find"
function to search it. Took two minutes. 

So between better document design and better awareness of the functions
our tools provide, finding stuff in online documents should actually be a
good deal easier than finding them in print (because even when you have a
page number, you still have to scan that whole page to find the particular
bit you want).

--Eric Crump