An MLA 'citation number' is assigned to each item (article, book, etc.)
indexed by the MLA staff; in the print volumes the records for items can
be found in the Classified Section, in 'citation number' order; listings in
the Subject Index volume point to items with this 'citation number'.
In this case, 89-1-485 indicates
- the year [1989]
- the MLA
Volume number, in this case I [Volumes I and II are National Literatures,
Volume III is Linguistics, Volume IV is General Literature and
Related Topics, and Volume V is Folklore --I-V are bound into a
single tome]
- the citation number within Volume I
[in this case 485]