How Do I...? Use the Library's Short Help Videos to Learn Quickly

What is peer-reviewed research? How do I use these tools offered on the library Website? Where do I begin research? How do I login from off-campus? These answers and many more can now be answered via our new Help section. Consisting largely of short videos answering specific questions, the help area s organized into the following sections:

• Starting Points
• Finding Resources
• Research Steps
• Logging In
• Citing Sources

The Help section can be accessed either from the top menu under Help or under the "For Students" Focus Area under the "How Do I...?" link.

Help For Citations and Reference Lists

End of semester means it's time to compile reference lists for your final projects and papers. Here are some reference and citation tips:

1. Consider using these Citation Guides from the Online Writing Lab at Purdue:
MLA | APA

These guides cover most situations with examples after which you can pattern your own citations and references.

2. Special situations may not be covered in the guides. In those cases, visit the Reference Desk to consult the actual citation rules. The most recent editions of both the MLA Handbook and the APA Publication Manual are behind the Reference Desk on Reserve.

3. The citations provided by databases like EBSCO and ProQuest are not always formatted correctly. There are other citation creation services available for free online, like Citation Machine, which are not always correct. You should use these services with caution, and check their work against either the OWL guide or the actual citation manual.

4. Remember, if you don't cite your sources, you are plagiarizing, and plagiarism comes with stiff penalties.

Zotero: A Free Tool to Manage Your Research Sources

Zotero is a free add-on for the Firefox Web browser which allows you to manage your research resources. Save citation information and URLs for books, articles, Web pages, images, videos, sound files and other media, all accessible from your Web browser. See for yourself:

New Style Manuals for MLA and APA

The newest editions (released in August) of the style manuals for both MLA (7th ed.) and APA (6th ed.) are now available On Reserve at the Reference Desk. If you'd like to see one of them, just ask a library staff member. They are filed under LIB001 on the Reserves shelf.

You can also access style and formatting guides on the new editions of the MLA and APA style manuals at the Purdue Online Writing Lab's Website: MLA and APA