Chapter 4 Finding books; Writing citations -- Exercise.

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Start your initial search. Practice finding books and practice writing citations.

Sample assignment you can look at.

 

 

Now, you will select 3 books on your topic, and write citations for them.

For this exercise, you can use books in the Cabrillo College Library, or in some other library. To search other library catalogs electronically,

  1. Go to the Cabrillo College Library homepage <http://libwww.cabrillo.edu>
  2. Click on Internet Links
  3. Click on Libraries, Other

    There are links to local and national libraries, and to libraries all over the world. The MOBAC (Monterey Bay Area Cooperative) library catalog lets you search the online catalogs for 24 libraries in this local area. If you find materials you want to borrow, ask for an Interlibrary Loan form at the Reference Desk. It can take a week, or sometimes two, to borrow the book for you.

For at least one of the books, physically locate the book and examine it. Use the library's catalog to look up the book, and then browse the shelves (check the books shelved nearby). If you use a public library, the books will be arranged according to the Dewey Decimal classification system.

For each book, note down the information you need for your citation. For the book you physically examine, get the information you need from the book itself. For the others, use the information given in the catalog record online.

    • Complete names of the author(s) or editor(s)
    • Complete title (remember to include any subtitle). For the book you actually examine, take the title from the title page inside the book, not from the cover (the cover title may be slightly different than the real title)
    • Place of publication (this information may be on the verso, i.e., backside, of the title page)
    • Publisher
    • Year of publication. You need the publication year to write your citation. However, it's important for another reason -- it indicates how current the information in the book is. For some topics, you need recent information; for other topics, it doesn't matter so much. Think about the publication date in relation to your topic.
    Exercise
  1. Start a Word document (or other wordprocessing program)
  2. Put your name at the top, and your Library 10 Section number.
  3. Title it: Initial Search.
  4. Give a brief description of your topic. Indicate the broad subject you've selected, and describe how you have narrowed it to a researchable topic.
  5. Write complete MLA formatted citations for 3 books on your topic
  6. For each of the 3 books, note down this additional information from the catalog record
    • Book location, call number, and status (is it checked out)?
    • Whether the book has a bibliography, an index, any illustrations (look where it says Description. The terms ill.or illus. refer to illustrations; col. means they are colored.)
    • Subject headings used for the book, and whether these would be useful for further searching.
  7. Email your word processed document to your instructor as an attachment.

Instructor email address: tosmalle@cabrillo.edu

Check out the sample assignment!