| Judith Downie
Humanities Librarian
CSUSM Library
KEL 3424
Office Hours: By appointment or if my door is
open
jdownie@csusm.edu
(760) 750-4374 |
|
MLA Bibliography is THE resource to use when doing
literature and writing research. The electronic version
indexes materials published from the early 1960s to current.
The problem with MLA is that it is an index, not a full
text, resource. Here are the ways to get to the text you
need from the electronic index.
Getting Started
Have your search strategies mapped out for authors,
keywords and subjects, this will help your search go faster
and return better results. If you attended a library
resource presentation, look at the
Subject and
Course Guides page for your class to find specific helps
that the librarian mentioned in your class.
Watch out for...
Fields:
As tempting as
it will be to type your author or work's title into the
boxes marked with the
t
as shown in the image below--DON'T GO THERE! Those fields are for the author or title of the
article you want to use as a research source and since you haven't found the
article yet, you don't have the information needed for these
fields. Source refers to the journal or book the
entry was published in and again, you don't have that
information yet. Use the Keyword
field to start.
Advanced
Search:
Use Advanced Search (screen not shown) to search a subject heading, which in
many cases duplicate the Library of Congress subject
headings you will see in the library catalog. Here you can
type the author you are researching in LAST NAME, FIRST NAME
order.
Citations:
Since you do not get full text in this database, you will
not cite this as your source database in your citations for
your bibliography. Use the database name and URL that does
provide the full text (JSTOR, Project Muse, etc.)
How to read the
citation entry
Since MLA indexes a variety of materials (articles, books, book chapters,
dissertations and proceedings), this affects how you
locate and access the material. Learn the clues to save yourself a lot
of agony!
Results List from a search on
Moll Flanders:
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General Information:
--Title of the entry (whether article, book,
book chapter, etc.) is the hyperlinked line. Click
here to see more information on the entry.
--Author is the person(s) who wrote the
article, not the author of your study.
--Source notes the title of the journal or
book that this entry is from
--Volume, year of publication, and pages
within the source are given and needed for any
citation or loan request. Books, book chapters and
dissertations will also have publisher listed with
place of publication. |
|
1
Article Entry:
This citation is for a journal article (see the yellow
underlined phrase marking the 'document type' and its
information.) |
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2
Book Chapter:
The document type label is "book article" meaning it is a
part of a larger book, but the hyperlinked title link here will give
information on the chapter, not the entire work. The yellow
underlined area is the book title. You would search the
CSUSM catalog for the BOOK title, not chapter title. |
3
Book
Entry:
This entry is for an entire book as seen in the
'document' field. This title would be what you
search in the CSUSM or Circuit catalog to see if
there is a copy available. |
4
Dissertation:
These are works by students in either masters or
doctoral programs. Most faculty do NOT want you to
use this type of resource for a variety of reasons.
Besides, there are extremely limited numbers of
copies available, making loans difficult. |
5
Article Entry with CSUSM
holdings:
This journal title is owned by CSUSM for certain
(other entries in this list may be available, but due to some
technology issues, will not show this "Cal State San
Marcos" icon, so don't rely on this icon solely.) |
Finding the full text
[article]
[book]
MLA is an index database which tells you that something
exists, but does not provide full text. To help solve this
problem, CSUSM has implemented several methods to locate the
text. Most strategies depend on what type of material you
are looking for. If all else fails,
Interlibrary Loan is available for documents that we
don't own, but does take time to get the material, so you
must plan ahead.
Article Entry
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Citation in
the results list: |
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Full
citation (clicked on the article title)
Use
the
button to check our other resources for full text. |
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A new screen
opens |
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Full Text! |
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Does CSUSM own
the book I found in MLA? Using the Book Entry (remember
to look for the entire book's title, not the chapter title)
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Citation in
the results list: |
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Checking the
Library Catalog with a title search on WRITING
BRITISH INFANTICIDE... |
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This book is
available locally, follow the instructions after you
click "Request this Item" |
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Cannot find the article text or
another copy of the book?
Use the Interlibrary Loan option from the
Library's home page or offered through the GET IT pop-up
screen. For more on Circuit and Interlibrary Loan, see the
Library Helps page "Using
Circuit and Interlibrary Loan".
Citing Your Sources
Once you have found your sources and as you write your
paper, you'll need to cite passages and ideas you've found. In order to cite
your resources properly, you need to follow the
style guide used by for this class, the MLA
Handbook.
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MLA handbook for writers
of research papers. 6th ed. New York :
Modern Language Association of America, 2003.
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Need More?
Judith Downie,
Humanities Librarian
(760) 750-4374 OR come by my office (KEL
3424), I am available if my door is open (most of the
time) OR make an appointment by phone or
email.
|
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175K) 