Many of our databases offer a link to click to see a particular record or item in different citation formats. I just noticed today that the Cite Now feature in CQ Researcher Online offers this message when you try to display a citation in MLA style:
The MLA citation style is currently unavailable while we revise the format to reflect the new MLA standards.
This past spring, I looked at the new MLA rules for citing sources and wrote a post on my Digital Reference blog about the more notable changes. One thing that occurred to me as I wrote that post was a concern over the lag time between the publication of those new guidelines in the new seventh edition of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers and when various databases that offer to automatically cite materials for you will incorporate these new rules. This concern can also be extended to when citation management software (from Zotero, EndWorks, RefWorks, etc.) and faculty themselves will take note of the changes.
What I am worried about specifically is a student using the new guidelines and finding other sources of authority (database citation tools, citation management toosl, and faculty) offering a different (and older) set of rules.