It's a textbook case

[MmeBlueberry]

Modern Language Association. It's one of two organizations that has established standards for formatting written work (among other things). The other is APA, American Psychological Association, which I *think* is used mainly for graduate work and beyond - MLA is used, in the US at least, as the standard for everything up to that point. (It's possible that there are certain fields of undergraduate work that require the use of APA rather than MLA, but the division I've experienced is what I've posted. Also, it sometimes depends on one's professors as to which format is expected.)

APA includes "American" in its title, so I'm assuming its use is restricted to the US. And since those of you who aren't from the US are indicating a lack of familiarity with MLA, I'm guessing the same about it.