Lauris Olson
Librarian & Coordinator, Social Sciences Collections
As the Penn Libraries' social sciences bibliographer - now coordinator for social sciences collections - since 1998, Lauris is responsible for selecting books, journals, electronic resources, and other media supporting Penn research and instruction in sociology, economics, linguistics, criminology, communication, and related fields. Lauris is Penn's Official Representative to the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research and the contact person for the Penn Libraries' Pennsylvania State Data Center affiliate membership. Lauris coordinates collection development and management activities of subject librarians for anthropology & archaeology, business, education, gender, women's studies & sexuality, political science & international relations, psychology, and social policy & practice/social work. Lauris is also the Penn Libraries' African studies bibliographer. Lauris started at the Penn Libraries in 1991 as a Van Pelt Library reference librarian, but Lauris's presence at Penn began in 1975 as an undergraduate, earning BA and MA degrees in Anthropology here, alongside a Drexel library degree.
The MLA Handbook, now in its 9th edition (2021), and available campus wide has a venerable history, going back, in various iterations, to 1951 providing guidance for students and faculty in the humanities and literary study. Though originating in the United States in the Modern Language Association, it is used worldwide. Despite its origin in the mid-twentieth century, The MLA Handbook is a very contemporary style citation manual and grammar guide. It includes methods for citing sources in various formats, not just traditional book and journal sources, but websites and videos, among other kinds other than print. Meeting contemporary needs, it provides for inclusive language principles that allow writers to meet the standards of today’s editors.
The MLA Handbook Plus website provides the fulltext for MLA Handbook 9th edition (2021) in addition to MLA Guide to Digital Literacy (2019), MLA Guide to Undergraduate Research in Literature (2019), and citation training materials.
Penn students will appreciate having this essential resource available to them at a moment’s notice online, alongside other citation management guides and tools available through the Penn Libraries.
