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How to get citations quickly and easily for books and articles using the WorldCat catalog as well as using an article or research database. | Time - 02:12 | Transcript

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Getting citations to copy & paste: WorldCat and Academic Search Complete

[Image of UW Libraries homepage]

Audio: In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how you can get citations quickly and easily for books and articles using the WorldCat catalog as well as using an article or research database.

You might be familiar with some of the citation management software programs like RefWorks or EndNote. These are what you use to keep track of your citiations in a single account, with folders, and you can share them with others, as well as automatically generate bibliographies in the format of your choice. 

But sometimes, you just want a quick and easy solution, so that’s what I’m going to show you. For example, your syllabus might have a book that you need to cite in your paper. Or, maybe you’ve already found one in the catalog that you’d like to use for your bibliography.

[Image of WorldCat search on Gravity’s Rainbow]

Audio: As an example, let’s say that I’d like to find a citation for the book, Gravity’s Rainbow, by Thomas Pynchon.  Once I find the book in the catalog that I’m interested in citing …

[Image of worldcat item record for the book]

Audio: I click on the cite tool and a little window pops up. From here, this is also the place where you’d export to refworks. But what I need to do is just click on the button, and here I have it – the APA format I can copy and paste (the citation) into my paper. Note that editions can vary, and that you can view different editions using the link here.

[Image of UW Libraries homepage]

Audio:  Various databases has similar tools as well. I’ll show you just one, under articles and research databases…

[Image of Articles & Research databases page]

Audio: I will go to Academic Search Complete.

[Image of Academic Search Complete]

Audio: Here, I will do a search on the author, Thomas Pynchon.

[Image of results for search on Thomas Pynchon]

Audio:  Seeing the results, I say, “Oh, that looks like a good article.”

[Image of Article on Thomas Pynchon.]

Audio: Different article databases do this differently, but in this particular one, you can see here, there’s a button for “Cite this article.”

[Image of various citation formats for the article]

Audio: Then you can see from there I have a list of different citation formats to use.  For example, if I want to use the MLA style, I can copy and paste. Notice that it authomatically generates some extra information, so keep an eye out for that.         

[Image of database]

Audio:  Just keep in mind that different databases have a different look and feel, and not every one will have similar tools. But, a good number of them do, so you should definitely check it out.

[Image of Libraries Home Page]

Audio: And don’t forget, if have any questions or ever get stuck, don’t hestitate to contact a librarian.