Webinars

I want to cite information from a live webinar. Modeling my citation after EE's QuickCheck Model for Broadcasts & Web Miscellanea, Podcasts (p. 789 of the digital edition), I come up with the following for a first reference note:

Kathy Meade, "Learn How to Trace Your Swedish Roots," 9 January 2014, live webinar, Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania.

This seems rather thin, but I'm at a loss as to what other information I can provide. Not being a member of the society, I do not know whether they have archived the webinar in their members-only section.

I would appreciate feedback.

Denise Picard Lindgren

Submitted byEEon Fri, 01/10/2014 - 13:04

Denise, you are right to sense that it "seems rather thin." As structured, this cites the name of a publication but (a) gives no publication data for it; and (b) gives no detail about where in that publication the specific information appears.

Imagine that this was a chapter in a book. You would not stop with the italicized title of the book. After that italicized title, you'd have parentheses with publication data that consisted of at least two things (place: date), followed by a page number, figure number, or something else of that ilk. The above citation gives us the online equivalent for a book with an individual chapter but we're not given the publication data (URL: date).

You state that you don't know whether it's also published in the GSP website's member section because you aren't a member. However, you didn't access it as a member, so think about how you accessed it: apparently as a live stream through the society's website. You you can still cite the URL of that website, along with the date on which you used that URL to access the live feed. Then, if you are referrring to a specific statement made at some point during that webinar, you would cite the minute or minute:second at which that statement is found.

EE 14.24 gives a bulleted list of the essentials for this kind of citation, as well as a couple of examples.

 

Submitted bynegenealogiston Mon, 01/13/2014 - 10:01

Thank you so much. I wouldn't have thought to cite the "personal code" that I used for access to the lecture through GoToWebinar, but I can see where this makes sense.

I confess that I have begun this year to keep a log of various aspects of my genealogical education. A firm believer in "Practice, Practice, Practice," I have challenged myself to create an EE-style "First Reference Note" for each log entry. Although we're not yet two weeks into the new year, my already well-thumbed physical copy of EE has become much more so! I'm finding it a good way to assimilate the information.

I very much appreciate the work you put into this website and its forums.

Denise Picard Lindgren

Submitted byEEon Mon, 01/13/2014 - 22:00

Denise, let's backtrack a bit. EE would not recommend citing your "personal code" because that would work only for you. Above, we wrote:

You state that you don't know whether it's also published in the GSP website's member section because you aren't a member. However, you didn't access it as a member, so think about how you accessed it: apparently as a live stream through the society's website. You you can still cite the URL of that website, along with the date on which you used that URL to access the live feed.

Our suggestion, "Think about how you accessed it" was meant to refer to the URL of the society's website. The fact that it was livestreamed and available to you then, but not openly available afterward, is something you would want to add in the comments section of your citation. All points considered, we would end up with something akin to this:

Speaker Name, "Title of Webinar," live feed, Website Owner/Creator, Title of Website (URL : Date); added comment about public access or lack thereof.

Does this cover all the issues involved in your situation?

Submitted bynegenealogiston Thu, 01/16/2014 - 11:06

I think we're almost there. I do appreciate the hand-holding!

I reviewed the society's website more carefully. There is no mention of member access to recorded webinars. So I think that indicating that the presentation was live stands by itself, with no further qualifications of availability.

Originally I omitted mention of the moderator of the webinar, which I now think is an error. The moderator should be named, particularly because she feeds questions to the speaker, which definitely shapes the information presented.

I also stuck with "live webinar" rather than "live feed," which distinguishes the presentation from a podcast.

So here's a revised first reference note. Comments?

Kathy Meade, "Learn How to Trace Your Swedish Roots," Joyce Homan, moderator, live webinar sponsored by the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, GoTo Webinar (https://www3.gotomeeting.com : 9 January 2014).

Denise

Submitted bychmcgeeon Mon, 04/18/2016 - 10:01

I'm curious about citing a webinar you attended which is no longer accessible through the service you used to attend it. For instance, I attended Thomas W. Jones, "Client Reports: Dos, Don'ts, and Maybes," 26 March 2016 at https://global.gotowebinar.com/join/8359055114075357441/547716850, but accessing that link shows it is no longer available. Instead, it has been archived on APG's website in their members-only section "Professional Development Webinar Series." Wouldn't it be more prudent to cite the archived version, even though you attended it? Otherwise your reader would be unable to verify your source. But, then again, your reader wouldn't be able to view the webinar unless he/she were a member of APG. That's a bit of a predicament.