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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/23968
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I'm wrestling with this issue right now. It is annoying to see a long, long URL, but equally annoying to see meaningless short URLs (beginning 'bit.ly,' which I mistakenly took to be malware sites at first). Since Bitly now allows customized short URLs, how about this as a citation: "Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 41, Part 3, 423. Google eBooks [shortened URL] [http://bit.ly/OfficialRecords-I-43-3-Eli-Long](http://bit.ly/OfficialRecords-I-43-3-Eli-Long) .

The short URL indicates the source, and replaces this monstrosity: [https://books.google.com/books?id=xcVZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA423&lpg=PA423&dq=col.+eli+long+and+waterhouse%27s+house&source=bl&ots=ZrL5PI1rYe&sig=46cfvONeV8KIjIJmGFeLMgLH6DY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwix9JGPt5nOAhVM5yYKHRjyDRAQ6AEIJzAC#v=onepage&q=col.%20eli%20long%20and%20waterhouse](https://books.google.com/books?id=xcVZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA423&lpg=PA423&dq=col.+eli+long+and+waterhouse%27s+house&source=bl&ots=ZrL5PI1rYe&sig=46cfvONeV8KIjIJmGFeLMgLH6DY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwix9JGPt5nOAhVM5yYKHRjyDRAQ6AEIJzAC#v=onepage&q=col.%20eli%20long%20and%20waterhouse)'s%20house&f=false .

The long URL produced a broken link anyway, because Google used the (') character. Some eBooks have even longer URLs, so I need this common-sense solution. For my current project, this is my decision to make, but for a formal thesis or publication, would it be acceptable? Chicago Style allows a good bit of leeway. MLA Style is less flexible.

Original score: 2