How to Get Started

Your first step is to decide what style to use for your bibliography. The two styles most often used by students at NDSS are MLA and APA. If you aren’t sure which one to use, ask your teacher (they may have a preference), or ask one of the librarians.

Using MLA, a bibliography is called a works cited page, and each information source gets its own citation. Using APA, a bibliography is called a reference list and each information source gets its own reference. If all of this just sounds like alphabet soup to you, remember to check out the Glossary of Terms page to find definitions for these key words.

Pro-tip: all of the online databases available to students through the NDSS library have built-in tools for bibliographies! This is the easiest way to keep track of all of your information sources and easily put together your bibliography (whether it’s an MLA Works Cited page or an APA reference list!) The generator tool does all the work for you - all you need to do is copy and paste! Look for these icons: