Howard Colman Library

FIND IMAGES

When you are looking for images to use in a paper, presentation, or blog post, it can be difficult to figure out which are available to copy and reuse. (For more about why this is important, see our Copyright Guide.)

The good news is that there are many places online where you can search and be sure that the images you find are in the public domain or have been licensed for reuse.

Flickr
One of the world’s largest photo sharing websites, and also includes photo collections from major museums and the National Archives. Most images are protected by copyright, but it’s easy to filter to only those images with Creative Commons licenses that allow reuse (just be sure to read the fine print).

Getty Images
Includes 50 million images available for purchase, but you can also legally embed them for free if you want to post online: just use the “Embed” function and copy and paste the code.

New York Public Library Digital Collections
Great for historical, artistic, and scientific images. Just filter by “Only Public Domain” only after you search.

LIFE Magazine Photo Archive
This free, Google-hosted photo-archive is great for finding iconic images from American history from 1860s to the 1970s. Only for personal, non-commercial uses.

Library of Congress Digital Collections
Truly encyclopedic collection of images and documents, arranged by topic.

Free Images
Huge collection of stock photos, many of them free for use without attribution, even for commercial uses. Just make sure to filter by “Free Files” after you do a search.

Chicago Collections
Search combined collections of the Newberry library, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago Public Library, and more. Good only for educational, noncommercial uses.

COPYRIGHT FOR EDUCATORS

This guide expands on Howard Colman Library’s basic Copyright Guide with information specific to educators.

How does copyright affect how I teach?

Educators often share information and documents created by others, whether it’s posting a scanned article on a class website, handing out copies of book chapters, showing film clips to illustrate a point, or using photographs in powerpoint presentations. Many times, these works will be protected by copyright. Luckily, the right of fair usemeans that this sharing is often perfectly legal.

How can I tell if a particular use is considered fair?

The 1976 Copyright Act codifies four factors that should be taken into account when determining whether or not a use is fair: 1.) the purpose of the use, 2.) the nature of the copyrighted work, 3.) the amount used, and 4.) the use’s effect on the market for the original. Essentially, the law asks us to try to guess what a judge might think of a particular use, so it’s very difficult to come up with clear rules or bright lines that apply across all situations. Although there have been attempts to create guidelines, these can sometimes be misleading; at best, they provide a minimal standard for what’s fair. (For more information on the four factors, see Stanford University’s Guide to Copyright & Fair Use.)

However, these questions get to the heart of determining what’s fair:

1. Are you transforming the original work by using it for a different purpose? (For example, criticism, scholarship, or parody)? Or are you merely copying? The more transformative the use, the greater the likelihood that it will be considered fair use. The law also gives special consideration to educational uses, so even minimally transformative uses, such as copying portions of a book about the Civil War for a history class, are generally allowed, provided that they meets other requirements of fair use.
2. Does your use compete with the original work? If your use substitutes for the original work or otherwise impairs (even potentially) the market for the original work, it is unlikely to be considered fair use. Thus, copying the majority of a textbook would probably be an infringement.
3. Did you use only what was necessary for your purposes? The more of the original that you use, the higher the bar for fair use.

Want to be sure? Check out this Fair Use Checklist‌‌ from Cornell University.

Best practices:

1. Use only as much as you need. If you only assign a short excerpt, distribute the excerpt instead of the entire work, and make only as many copies as you need for the class. One rule of thumb is to limit to one chapter from a multi-chapter work, or one article from a journal issue, but these guidelines are notoriously hazy.
2. Limit access to currently enrolled students. If you are able to, upload the document you’d like to share to a password-protected site, such as a Course Management System.
3. If possible, link to the resource (for instance, on the web, in a library database, etc.) instead of uploading a scanned copy. For works in print (like textbooks), consider placing the item on reserve at the library for student use rather than copying substantial portions yourself).
4. In general, courts tend to favor uses that appear to be in “good faith.” This can be difficult to quantify, but acting in accordance with community norms or professional best practices helps to support fair use. For example, providing appropriate attribution of the source or including the original copyright notice shows that you are acting in good faith. On the other hand, if you know (or should know) that the copy was obtained illegally, that would count against you.
5. If the work was explicitly created for educational use or is the kind of resource that students would customarily purchase (e.g., textbooks, workbooks), it is best to use it very sparingly.
6. In addition, in cases where the law is hazy, uses that are “spontaneous” are generally safer (that is, if you as an individual educator decide to use something and there isn’t time to ask permission or arrange for a license). However, if the use is systematic or common to an entire department or program, or if you plan to repeat the use in future semesters, you should investigate further.
7. Finally, if you’re still uncertain as to whether your use is fair, it’s safest to get permission for the work when it is reasonably convenient to do so.

What about showing a film in class?

As long as it supports the curriculum and is limited to students in the class, this should be fine. Section 110 of U.S. Copyright Law makes very broad allowances for the display or performance of copyrighted works, no matter what the medium is or the amount used, as long as it takes place in a face-to-face educational context. The 2002 Teach Act extends many of these allowances to the online classroom. However, it does add additional restrictions (for example, it excludes textbooks and other materials marketed for classroom use, doesn’t allow showing the entirety of a dramatic film, and seems to require that you make special arrangements to prevent students from being able to download or share the film), so in many cases this law does not go as far as Fair Use in what it allows you.

I teach about art. Can I show photographs of artworks, even if I didn’t take them?

It depends. Copyright does not apply to photographs that merely attempt to make a faithful reproduction of a two-dimensional artwork, so many photographs of public domain artworks are safe to use. (To put it another way, the photograph attempts to “copy” the original work, and therefore cannot be considered an original work protected by copyright.) However, if the work itself is protected by copyright, that would complicate matters. Whatever the case, one should follow appropriate best practices related to fair use: the amount and quality of the reproductions should serve a clear pedagogical purpose, access should be limited to enrolled students, and appropriate attribution should be provided. More detailed information can be found by consulting your professional associations, such as this guide to best practices from the College Art Association.

How do I get permission to use a copyrighted work?

It’s actually gotten a lot easier to get permission to use copyrighted works through the Copyright Clearance Center. You don’t need to track down the rights-holder (or even know their names). Just search for the title of the work, select the proper version, say what you want to use it for and how much you need, and you can get a quote for how much that license costs.

COPYRIGHT FOR STUDENTS

This guide expands on Howard Colman Library’s basic Copyright Guide with information specific to students.

How does copyright affect me as a student?

You might not think that copyright affects you, but in fact every paper, art project, powerpoint, or podcast that you create is covered by copyright, and so are most of the websites and images that you find online, not to mention most of the books and articles that you’ll read in class. You might even want to use some of these copyrighted works in the papers or multimedia works you create in class, and if you plan to share what you create on the web, you should be especially careful.

Some examples of when you might want to reuse a copyrighted work:

• Using a photograph that you found on the internet in a presentation.
• Showing a clip from a movie as part of an in-class presentation
• Quoting from a journal article for a blog post on a class website

Let’s take the first example: you want to find an image to use in a powerpoint presentation. Let’s say your presentation will also be posted to your class’s website, and you want to make sure that whatever you find won’t get you in trouble.

How do I find images that I can use in a presentation?

If you are unsure of their status, it’s best to start from the assumption that all images you find on the internet (or reprinted in books) are protected by copyright, even if there is no notice about copyright or information about the creator listed.

However, even when images are copyrighted, you may be covered by what’s called Fair Use. Fair Use is an exception to copyright law that allows people to reuse copyrighted works for certain purposes that don’t harm copyright holders or limit their ability to profit from their works. But determining whether a given use counts as fair can be difficult, so if you don’t want to worry about the intricacies of copyright law, the easiest way to find images to reuse in your presentations is to look for images with a Creative Commons license.

What is Creative Commons?

Creative Commons licenses give creators a simple, easy way to allow other people to reuse their copyrighted works in specified ways.

The simplest license grants permission to anyone wanting to reuse the work, as long as they provide attribution. However, if you put a CC license on your work, you can also decide the following:

1. Can someone reuse the work for commercial purposes, or are only non-commercial, non-profit uses allowed? (NonCommercial)
2. Can someone alter the work (for example, by cropping, changing the coloration, or combining with another image) to create a derivative work, or does it have to stay as it is? (NoDerivs)
3. Does whoever reuses your work have to include the same CC license that you chose? (ShareAlike)

How can I find Creative Commons images?

Luckily, there are lots of ways to search for images online that have Creative Commons licenses, or even for a particular kind of CC license. The easiest way to see where and how to search is to go to the Creative Commons search tool.

You can also use our guide to find images in the public domain or with licenses that permit reuse.

However, you can also look for advanced features in popular websites like Google Images, Flickr, YouTube, and Wikimedia that allow you to limit to results with Creative Commons licenses.

What if I don’t see a Creative Commons license? Can I still use it under Fair Use?

Fair Use is a powerful tool that allows you to reuse images or other works without seeking permission, and educational uses tend to receive the most consideration. However, just because you’re using something for a school project doesn’t necessarily mean that your use is considered fair.

There’s a lot that goes into determining this (courts use the “four factors” to determine this, and there are no hard rules that apply in all situations. (For more info, take a look at this Fair Use FAQ.) However, these questions get to the heart of determining what’s fair:

1. Are you transforming the original work by using it for a different purpose? For example, do you include an image of a famous painting in order to analyze it? Are you using a still or short clip from a TV show in order to illustrate a point that you’re making? Or are you merely copying? The more transformative your use, the greater the likelihood that it will be considered fair use.
2. Does your use compete with the original work? If someone could use your reproduction as a subsitute for purchasing the original work, or if your reuse impairs (even potentially) the market for the original work, it is unlikely to be considered fair use.
3. Did you limit your use to only what was necessary for your purposes? The more of the original that you use, the higher the bar for fair use.

Want to be sure? Check out this Fair Use Checklist‌ from Cornell University.

What are some best practices that I can follow?

1. Use only as much as you need. For example, short clips or excerpts are safer than using the entirety of a work.
2. Limit access to who can view it. For example, it’s better to post something to a course page limited to your classmates rather than a class blog or personal website accessible to anyone.
3. If possible, link to the resource (for instance, on the web, in a library database, etc.) instead of uploading your own copy.
4. Although plagiarism is a separate issue from copyright, you can show that you are acting in “good faith” by providing citations of any copyrighted works that you use.
5. Finally, if you’re still uncertain as to whether your use is fair, it’s safest to get permission when it is reasonably convenient to do so.

COPYRIGHT AND FAIR USE IN THE CLASSROOM

This is a brief guide for students and educators about copyright and how it affects you in the classroom, including links to further resources.

See below for additional information about copyright for Students and Educators.

What is copyright?

Copyright is the legal right to reproduce and distribute a given work. Essentially, copyright law attempts to balance the rights of creators with the overall benefit to society (as the Constitution states, the law’s ultimate purpose is “to promote the progress of sciences and the useful arts”).

Why should I care about copyright?

Whether or not you realize it, you are creating and using copyrighted works all the time. Although it’s unlikely that you would commit a serious copyright violation accidentally, the penalties for infringement can be severe, and it’s best to be aware of what the law does and does not require. You might also be surprised to learn that the law may actually allow you more latitude than you expected, especially in educational situations.

How can I tell if something is covered by copyright?

The instant an original work is created and fixed in any tangible medium of expression, whether in paper, stone, celluloid, or digitally, it is protected by copyright. Attaching a copyright notice to your work and registering it with the U.S. Copyright Office is not required, but these steps do provide some additional legal protections.

How long does copyright last?

Although there are exceptions, it’s safe to assume that any work published after 1923 is protected by copyright. Any works produced after 1978 are protected for 70 years after the death of the creator. Since the term of copyright has been extended over the years and changes depending on whether the work has been published and whether it was created independently or as a work for hire, you may want to take a look at this detailed chart from Cornell University or this Brief History of Copyright from the Center for History & New Media at George Mason University.

What is not covered by copyright?

Works not protected by copyright are considered to be in the public domain and can be copied or reused for any purpose without permission. Works that are always in the public domain include:

• Any works published before 1923
• Any works published by the federal government
• Ideas, discoveries, or facts, including even some minimally creative works that are merely collections of facts, such as phone books

Are there any other exceptions to copyright?

Yes, absolutely. Even if a work is protected by copyright, creators can authorize others to copy or reuse it in a variety of ways. (One easy way to do this is through Creative Commons licenses.) But the most important legal exception to copyright is Fair Use.

What is fair use?

Fair use is an exception to copyright that allows people who are not the copyright holder to copy or reuse part (or sometimes all) of a copyrighted work. As a limitation placed on copyright, fair use enhances the social benefits of copyrighted works without harming the copyright holder. For more on fair use, see these guides to Fair Use from NOLO.

Examples of fair use:

• Distributing photocopies of a book chapter or journal article to class members, or posting a pdf to a course website that only class members can access.
• Quoting short passages from another work in a review or scholarly work in order to comment on it or illustrate a point.
• Imitating or borrowing substantial portions of another work for purposes of parody or criticism.
• Showing a film in class for educational purposes.

Copyright for Students and Educators

Copyright For Students: Finding Images For Class Assignments

Copyright For Educators: What Can You Use in the Classroom?

Learn More

Stanford University Libraries Copyright Overview

Brief History of Copyright from the Center for History & New Media at George Mason University

Copyright Crash Course from the University of Texas Libraries

US Copyright Office: Copyright Basics

U.S. Copyright Office: Reproduction of Copyrighted Works by Educators and Librarians 

Creative Commons

Best Practices Codes from the Center for Media & Social Impact

APA GUIDE

This page will give you a quick overview of APA style, a common citation style for scholars in social sciences, education, and many other fields. It attempts to cover the most common sources and situations that you’ll run into, but there are many types of sources and specific cases that are not discussed here.  If you have a more specific question, you’ll want to check out one of these more detailed guides:

• Purdue OWL APA Guide
• Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (aka APA Handbook)

You can also access a printable version of our APA Citation Guide.

Reference Page—Basics

List citations in alphabetical order by author’s or editor’s last name. If your citation goes over one line, use a hanging indent for all subsequent lines. No matter the resource, all citations follow the same basic pattern: author, year, title, and publication information.

Capitalization in APA

In general, when we deal with titles, we use what’s called headline case. That is, we capitalize all important words, as in The Mutiny on the Bounty.APA, however, also uses sentence case. For the titles of articles and books, capitalize only the first word of the title, the first word of the subtitle, and any proper nouns. When it comes to the titles of periodicals like journals or newspapers, though, you are back to using headline case. Still not sure? Keep reading and you’ll find more examples.

Books

The most basic book citation looks something like this:

Author Last Name, First Initial. (Year of Publication). Title of book: First letter of subtitle also capitalized. City of Publication, State Abbreviation: Publisher.

If you are citing a particular edition, that can be included in parentheses after the title and before the period following the title.

Kaakinen, J. R., Gedaly-Duff, V., Coehlo D. P., & Hanson, S. M. H. (2010). Family health care nursing: Theory, practice, and research (4^th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis.

Articles in a Scholarly Journal

The most basic article citation would look something like this. Note that the title of the article does not require any quotation marks.

Author Last Name, First Initial. (Year of publication). Title of article. Title of Periodical/Journal, Volume(Issue), Start page-End page.

If there is more than one author, place a comma after the first author’s first initial, followed by an ampersand (&) and the second author’s last name and first initial:

Emdin, C., & Lee, O. (2012). Hip-hop, the “Obama effect,” and urban science education. Teachers College Record, 114(2), 1-24.

Three to Seven Authors

Platt, J. E., Platt, T. T., Thiel, D. D., & Kardia, S. R. (2013). ‘Born in Michigan? You’re in the biobank’: Engaging population biobank participants through Facebook advertisements. Public Health Genomics, 16(4), 145-158.

More than Seven Authors

If you have more than seven authors, list the first six authors, followed by ellipses and the final author’s name. There should be no more than seven names.

Record, N., Onion, D., Prior, R., Dixon, D., Record, S., Fowler, F., … Pearson, T. (2015). Community-wide cardiovascular disease prevention programs and health outcomes in a rural county, 1970-2010. Journal of the American Medical Association, 313(2), 147-155.

Articles in other periodicals

Citations for magazine articles are similar, but ask you to use the month and sometimes the date in addition to the year. A simple magazine citation might look like this:

Last name, First initial. (Year, Month). Article title: Subtitle of article. Publication title, Volume(Issue), Start page-End page.

Foner, E. (2014, December). Gateway to freedom: The origins of the underground railroad. Harper’s, 329(1975), 49-55.

Cite newspaper articles as you would magazine articles, but note that volume and issue aren’t required, and you must use p. or pp. before page numbers for a newspaper citation. For a one-page article, use p. (p. B2). For a multi-page article, use pp. (pp. B2, B4 or pp. C1, C3-C4).

Last name, First initial. (Year, Month Day). Article title. Publication title, Volume(Issue), page numbers.

Schultz, S. (2005, December 28). Calls made to strengthen state energy policies. The Country Today, pp. 1A, 2A.

Book Chapter

Let’s say you need to cite a single chapter out of a book (maybe it’s a book where each chapter has different authors). You can do it like this:

Chapter Author Last Name, First Initial. (Year). Chapter title. In A. A. Editor & B. B. Editor (Eds.), Title of Book (Start page-End Page). City of Publication, State Abbr.: Publisher.

Smart, P. Policy design. (2009). In J. Milstead (Ed.), Health policy and politics: A nurse’s guide (3^rd ed., pp. 129-154). Sudbury, MA: John Bartlett.

Internet Sources

Citing internet sources can be difficult because technology is constantly changing and citation styles struggle to keep up. However, there is a certain basic format that you can follow and adapt as needed. Remember, no matter the kind of source, you can still expect the same pattern: author(s), year, title(s), publication info. Omit any information (e.g., author, date of publication) that isn’t available.

The citation for a basic website should look something like this.

Author Last Name, First Initial. (Date of Publication). Webpage title. Retrieved from URL

If you can’t find an author, start with the title of the webpage and put the date after. You may also want to indicate the larger website in which the article appears.

Diabetes. (2014, July 31). Mayo Clinic. Retrieved from http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/diabetes/basics/definition/con-20033091

If you are dealing with an article from an online newspaper or magazine, the citation is very similar to the print version. Simply omit page information and add “Retrieved from http…” to the end of the citation. Do not put a period at the end of a URL.

Fox, J. (2013, November). What we’ve learned from the financial crisis. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2013/11/what-weve-learned-from-the-financial-crisis

Sometimes you will see a citation for an internet source with a long number at the end called a Digital Object Identifier (DOI). There are good reasons to use them where possible, but if you’re not sure what they do or how to figure out what the DOI for your article is, don’t worry about it.

Berg, J. (2013). On the removal of download access to Grateful Dead soundboards from the Live Music Archive. Popular Music & Society, 36(2), 175-193. doi:10.1080/03007766.2012.684998

In-Text citations

Use parenthetical citations for quotations and paraphrases in the body of your text. They are usually pretty simple, but if things start to get complicated, remember their purpose: to indicate which item from the list of works cited is being referred to, and (sometimes) where in that work the information can be found.

In general, you will want to include author last name, year, and possibly the page number in parentheses. They will look something like this:

(Author Last Name, Year, p. #).

However, some of this information might be contained in your own words. For example, if the author is named in the signal phrase, it is not necessary to repeat the name in parentheses. If you are quoting directly or paraphrasing a particular sentence, also give a page number in parentheses. However, if you are referencing the entire work, no page number is necessary.

In her capacity as a social reformer, Jane Addams relied on many strategies to make personal connections with those she sought to help (Rosenberg, 2004, p. 10).

Rosenberg (2004) discusses Jane Addams’s work as a social reformer.

A work with two authors: Provide author name(s) in the signal phrase or in the parentheses. Spell out and in the signal phrases but use & in parentheses.

Tibbs and Cummings (2012) discuss the legal implications of hip-hop and argue for “rethinking law related to the criminal justice system” (p. 11).

The article discusses the legal implications of hip-hop and argues for rethinking laws related to the criminal justice system (Tibbs & Cummings, 2012, p. 11).

A work by three to five authors: Name the author(s) in the signal phrase or in the parentheses the first time you cite the source. Afterwards, you would mention the first author followed by “et al.”

Lingard, Martino, and Rezai-Rashti (2013) discuss the rise of global modes of test-based, top-down accountability in school systems (p. 18).

There is a rise of global modes of test-based, top-down accountability in school systems (Lingard et al., 2013, p. 18).

Unknown Author: Cite the source by its title (or a shortened version) in the signal phrase or in parentheses. Italicize book titles and reports; titles of articles and chapters go in quotation marks.

A study was conducted to measure users’ opinions of library programs and services (“Love Your Library,” 2013).

The “Love Your Library” survey (2013) was conducted to measure users’ opinions of library programs and services.

Two or more works in the same parentheses: When your parenthetical citation includes two or more works, order them the same way they appear in the reference list, separated by a semi-colon.

Several studies discuss the benefits of embedded librarianship in higher education (Riccio, 2000; Hamilton, 2012; Shank & Bell, 2011).

Internet sources

In his review of Kanye West’s new album, Lusk (2013) claimed that “Yeezus is the most adventurous album West has released” (para.1).

More Info

Still not sure? Consult one of the resources listed at the top of the page or contact your library’s citation expert, Andy Newgren (815-226-4165; anewgren@rockford.edu).

MLA STYLE

This page will give you a quick overview of MLA style, the primary citation style for scholars of literature and languages. It attempts to cover the most common sources and situations that you’ll run into, but there are many types of sources and specific cases that are not discussed here.  If you have a more specific question, you’ll want to check out one of these more detailed guides:

• Purdue OWL MLA Guide
• MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers

You can also access a printable version of our MLA Citation Guide.

Works Cited Page—Basics

List citations in alphabetical order by author’s or editor’s last name. If your citation goes over one line, use a hanging indent for all subsequent lines. No matter the resource, all citations follow the same basic pattern: author, title, publication information, and format.

Books

The most basic book citation would look something like this:

Author Last Name, First Name. Book Title. City of Publication: Publisher, Year. Medium of publication.

Addams, Jane. Twenty Years at Hull House. New York: Macmillan, 1910. Print.

Book with More Than One Author

If you have more than one author, the first name appears in last name, first name format; subsequent authors appear normally.  These same rules apply to any kind of source, not just books.

Selby, Paul, and Newton Bateman. Encyclopedia of Illinois. Charleston: BiblioLife, 2009. Print.

Grossberg, Lawrence, Cary Nelson, and Paula Treichler, eds. Cultural Studies. New York: Routledge, 1991. Print.

Book with No Known Author

If there isn’t a known author, simply begin with the title. The first word of the title will also replace the author last name as the word that you use to identify the work in an in-text citation.

Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. 11^th ed. Springfield: Merriam-Webster, 2005. Print.

Articles in a Scholarly Journal

Citations for articles still follow the same basic “author, title, publication information, and medium” pattern, but in this case you have to account for two titles instead of just one, and the publication information is presented differently. Note that, unlike many other pieces of information in the citation, the title of the periodical does not end with a period.

A simple journal article citation would look like this:

Author(s). “Title of Article.” Title of Journal Volume.Issue (Year): pages. Medium.

Heard, Matthew. “‘Dancing is Dancing No Matter Who Is Doing It’: Zora Neale Hurston, Literacy and Contemporary Writing Pedagogy.” College Literature 34.1 (2007): 129-55. Print.

Articles in other periodicals

Citations for magazine articles are similar, but use date of publication rather than volume and issue. A simple magazine citation might look like this:

Last name, First name. “Title of article.” Title of Periodical Date of Publication: Start page-End page. Medium.

Gillette, Felix. “The Rise and Inglorious Fall of Myspace.” Bloomberg Businessweek 27 June 2011: 52-59. Print.

Cite newspaper articles as you would magazine articles, but note that the pagination is indicated differently. Instead of beginning and ending page numbers, simply indicate the page the article begins on, and add a “+” if it goes beyond that page. If the newspaper has separate editions, name the edition after the date.

Last name, First name. “Title of article.” Title of Periodical Date of Publication, edition: page. Medium.

Jeromack, Paul. “This Once, a David of the Art World Does Goliath a Favor.” New York Times 13 July 2002, late ed.: B7+. Print.

Articles in online databases

Many times, the articles that you cite will be ones that you found in an online database. Citations for articles in databases begin the same as other articles, but include some additional information at the end of the citation regarding the database and the date of access.

Heard, Matthew. “‘Dancing is Dancing No Matter Who Is Doing It’: Zora Neale Hurston, Literacy and Contemporary Writing Pedagogy.” College Literature 34.1 (2007): 129-55. Project Muse. Web. 8 July 2015.

Gillette, Felix. “The Rise and Inglorious Fall of Myspace.” Bloomberg Businessweek 27 June 2011: 52-59. Academic Search Complete. Web. 8 July 2015.

Internet Sources

Citing internet sources can be difficult because technology is constantly changing and citation styles struggle to keep up. However, there is a certain basic format that you can follow and adapt as needed. Remember, no matter the kind of source, you can still expect the same pattern: author(s), title(s), publication info, medium. In many cases, the publisher or sponsor of the website will be the same as the name of the website. Omit any information (e.g., author, date of publication) that isn’t available.

The most basic citation would look like this:

Author Last Name, First Name. “Title of Webpage.” Title of Website. Publisher or sponsor of site. Date of Publication. Web. Date of Access.

“Can You Prevent Type 2 Diabetes?” WebMD. WebMD. 28 September 2014. Web. 13 May 2015.

Krogstad, Jens Manuel, Renee Stepler, and Mark Hugo Lopez. “English Proficiency on the Rise Among Latinos.” Pew Research Center. Pew Research Center. 12 May 2015. Web. 9 Nov. 2015.

In-text citations

Use parenthetical citations for quotations and paraphrases in the body of your text. They are usually pretty simple, but if things start to get complicated, remember their purpose: to indicate which item from the list of works cited is being referred to, and where in that work the information can be found.

In general, in-text citations will follow this format:

(AuthorLastName Page#)

However, if the author is named in your signal phrase, only the page number is necessary in parentheses. Otherwise, include both author last name and page number.

Author not named in signal phrase:

Romantic poetry is characterized by the “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” (Wordsworth 257).

Author named in signal phrase:

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that “to believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men,—that is genius” (1).

Three or fewer authors: list the authors’ last names in the text or in the parenthetical citation, just like you would for a single author.

The authors state that “tighter gun control in the United States erodes Second Amendment rights” (Smith, Yang, and Moore 76).

More than three authors: Provide the first author’s last name followed by “et al.”

Some scholars have argued that “these novelistic features heighten the serial audience’s engagement” (Goodlad et al. 25).

No known author: Use a shortened title of the source in parentheses.

Mayo Clinic staff members note the potential health benefits of yoga include “stress reduction, improved fitness, and management of chronic conditions” (“Yoga”).

Multiple works by the same author: Include a shortened title in addition to author name.

In order to better understand the modern university, we need to “embody the reward and turmoil of education in a democracy” (Rose, “Lives” 238).

Indirect quotations: When possible, quote directly from the source. If you must quote indirectly (e.g., you need to use words already quoted by another author), use qtd. in (“quoted in)”

Ravitch argues that high schools are pressured to act as “social service centers, and they don’t do that well” (qtd. in Weisman 259).

Citing multivolume works: When citing multivolume works, include volume number before page number.

. . . as Quintilian wrote in Institutio Oratoria (1: 14-17).

Internet sources: You do not need page or paragraph numbers for internet sources. Use last name or shortened title if there is no named author. If you name the author in the signal phrase, no parentheses are necessary.

One online music critic declared that Yeezus is “the most adventurous album Kanye West has ever released” (Lusk).

Darian Lusk declared that Yeezus is “the most adventurous album Kanye West has ever released.”

More Info

Still not sure? Consult one of the resources listed at the top of the page or contact your library’s citation expert, Andy Newgren (815.226.4165; anewgren@rockford.edu).

SCIENCES

Reference

On the shelf

Encyclopedia of Chemistry (Ref QD4. M33 1997) 4 vols.
Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences (Ref QE5 .E5137 1996) 2 vols.
Biology (Ref QH307.2 .B556 2001) 4 vols.
Endangered Species (QL83 .N35 1999) 3 vols.

Books

If you’re browsing the shelves, books related to Science can be found in call numbers beginning with the following letters:

• Science (General): Q
• Mathematics: QA
• Physics: QC
• Chemistry: QD
• Geology: QE
• Biology: QH
• Botany: QK
• Zoology: QL
• Human Anatomy: QM
• Physiology: QP
• Microbiology: QR

Library Catalog
Books at Howard Colman Library.

WorldCat
Locate books available elsewhere and request via interlibrary loan.

Article Databases

American Chemical Society (ACS)
Full-text access to scholarly journals in chemistry and related fields

CINAHL Complete
Best place to start for scholarly journal articles and trade magazines related to all aspects of health and medicine, selected specifically for field of nursing. Mostly full-text.

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
Online directory that indexes and provides access to quality open access, peer-reviewed journals.

GreenFile
Interdisciplinary database of scholarly articles relating to the environment and environmental change.

Medline
Database of biomedical and life sciences journal articles.

Public Library of Science (PLOS)
Contains over 140,000 peer reviewed articles that are available via open access.

PubMed
Largest index of citations for scholarly journal articles in health and medicine. Some full-text.

Internet Resources

AGRICOLA
United States Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Library Catalog

arXiv
Cornell University e-print service in the fields of mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance and statsitics

Medline Plus.gov
Provides health information the U.S. National Library of Medicine

PSYCHOLOGY

Reference

On the shelf

Encyclopedia of Human Development (BF713 .E65 1990)
Handbook of Psychological Assessment (BF176 .G76 2003)
Encyclopedia of Human Behavior (Ref BF31 .E5 1994) 4 vols.
Encyclopedia of Psychology (Ref BF31 .E52 1994) 4 vols.
Encyclopedia of Learning and Memory (Ref BF318 .E53 1992)
Encyclopedia of Human Intelligence (Ref BF431 .E59 1994) 2 vols.
Encyclopedia of Human Emotions (Ref BF531 .E55 1999) 2 vols.
Encyclopedia of Applied Psychology (Ref BF636 .E52 2004) 3 vols.
Mental Measurements Yearbook (Ref Z5814 .P8 B932)

Online

Encyclopedia of Industrial and Organizational Psychology
For researchers and practitioners needing information on research methods, training and development, staffing and organizational development, and team-building. Full-text.

Books

If you’re browsing the shelves, books related to Psychology can be found in call numbers beginning with the following letters:

• Logic: BC
• Psychology: BF

Library Catalog
Books at Howard Colman Library.

WorldCat
Locate books available elsewhere and request via interlibrary loan.

Databases

Lifespans are Long Enough: A Debate (Films on Demand) Film on finding cures to aging.

Living with Dying (Films on Demand) Film on the end of life and grief.

PsycArticles+PsycInfo Best place to find scholarly articles in field of psychology.

PsycTests Covers non-proprietary tests and measures in psychology.

Secrets of Centenarians (Films on Demand) Film on “successful aging.”

Internet Resources

Government Resources

National Center for Health Statistics:Fast Stats A to Z

National Institute of Mental Health

National Library of Medicine (Databases, Resources, API)

Associations and Organizations

American Psychological Association

American Psychiatric Association

Association for Psychological Science

Psychology in the News