Helpful hints:
If you are searching for a book that says it is checked out and isn’t due back until the end of the semester (Dec. 18th for fall 09) that probably means that a professor has it checked out.  Don’t fret about not being able to get that book your need for your class!  If you need the book just let us know.  We’ll recall the book for you!

Have you wondered about the ‘method behind the madness’ of the Library of Congress system? Books are classified by topic and so if you find one book that is perfect on your topic, look around for other books near the one you got off the shelf as they will be on similar issues.  If you know you’ll be coming back to this topic in the future try to remember the section by its Letter and number designation to save future steps when searching for books in the library.

-Joseph Robert Clark

Writing a paper is only half the battle. Putting together your footnotes and bibliography can take as much time as writing the paper. Here are some tips that might help…

Many of our databases have citation tools that can help. For example, when you are using Proquest, you can select articles and save them to a folder. When you click on cite, you can select from APA, Chicago, or MLA citation styles. (Proquest Citation Help Guide) PAIS International and Linguistics & Language Behavior Abstracts have similar features. If you use these citation tools, make sure to thoroughly doublecheck the references for accuracy.

We keep copies of all of the major citation style manuals – MLA (Modern Language Association), APA (American Psychological Assocation), Chicago, Turabian, The Bluebook (for legal writing), and Keys for Writers – at the front desk.

Some of the basics of citing sources are available on the websites for these publications. If your references are pretty straightforward, you might find what you need using the links below:

MLA
APA
Chicago
Bluebook

You can also get some good tips from these academic websites:
OWL at Purdue
Duke University Libraries