PREPARING A
BIBLIOGRAPHY
SEMANS LIBRARY *
FOOTHILL COLLEGE
12345 EL MONTE, LOS ALTOS HILLS, CA. 94022
LIBRARY RESEARCH GUIDES
Various manuals offer slightly different bibliographic formats depending upon the subject matter.
Usually it is acceptable to follow any of them as long as you are consistent. You can find a variety of
style manuals by searching the library catalog for the phrase: report writing.
The examples below are in the Modern Language Association style (MLA) - one of the most
commonly used. For a more complete list of citation examples, consult the MLA Handbook for
Writers of Research Papers (Ref LB2369.G53 2003). Although underlining of book and
journal titles is the more common format, some instructors may accept or require the use of
italics for titles.
SAMPLE CITATIONS
BOOKS
Single author
Clifford, James Lowry. Young Sam Johnson. New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1989.
Two or three authors:
Walton, Pricilla L. and Mamina Jones. Detective Agency:
Women Rewriting the Hard-Boiled Tradition.
Berkeley: U of California P, 1999.
Four authors:
Quirk, Randolph, et. al. A Comprehensive Grammar of the
English Language. London: Longman, 1985.
An edited work
Phillips, William, ed. Great American Short Novels. New
York: Dial Press, 1977.
ENCYCLOPEDIA ARTICLES
Signed (author given)
Leet, Don J. "Volcano." Encyclopedia Americana. 1990 ed.
Unsigned (no author)
"Anorexia nervosa." Encyclopaedia Britannica: Micropaedia. 1985 ed.
PERIODICAL ARTICLES
Weekly magazine
Tuchman, Barbara. "The Decline of Quality." Newsweek
2 Nov. 1990: 38-39.
Monthly magazine/journal
Bell, Steven J. “Is More Always Better?” American Libraries
Jan. 2003: 44-46.
Scholarly journal (with continuous pagination)
Aron, Raymond. "The Education of the Citizen." Daedalus
Newspaper articles
Goodman, Walter. "The Artist and the Politician – Natural
91 (1982): 249-262.
Antagonists?” New York Times 24 June 1991: B1.
4/07
INTERNET or MULTIMEDIA
Website
Title of the Site. Name of the editor of the site (if given). Date of the latest update (if given).
Name of sponsoring organization (if given). Date of access <URL>.
Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Levi Asher. 2003. The American Museum of Beat Art. 27 Mar. 2007
<http://www.beatmuseum.org/ferlinghetti/lawrenceferlinghetti.html>.
Online Service
Magazine articles which are reproduced in an electronic database online, such as Expanded Academic
Index, are cited like print articles, with additional information added at the end: the name of the database
(underlined), name of the online service, name of the library that provided the service, city and state of
the library, the date accessed, and URL, if known.
Reid, Calvin. “Patriot Act Worries Publishers, Libraries.” Publishers Weekly 1 July 2002: 17.
Expanded Academic ASAP. Infotrac. Foothill College Library, Los Altos Hills, CA.
26 Mar. 2003 <http://infotrac.galegroup.com/menu>.
E-Mail
Doe, John. “Re: Citing Electronic Sources.” E-mail to Jane Doe. 21 Dec. 2001.
Note: The American Psychological Association (APA) has developed its own set of guidelines for citing
electronic sources. Look at the “APA Publication Manual Crib Sheet” page on the Internet
http://faculty.ed.umuc.edu/~mofsowit/apacrib.htm for guidelines. Check with your instructor if you
are unsure about using MLA or APA for citing electronic sources.
MLA ENDNOTES/FOOTNOTES or PARENTHETICAL DOCUMENTATION:
If you are using endnotes or footnotes following MLA style, numbers appear within the text of your
paper1 and the corresponding endnotes or footnotes appear at the end of the text of your paper. Number
each endnote with a superscript prior to the endnote, as shown in the following examples.
1
Joseph Gibaldi, MLA handbook for writers of research papers (New York: MLA, 1995) 59.
2
Barbara Tuchman, “The Decline of Quality,” Newsweek 2 Nov 1990: 38-39.
If you use parenthetical documentation along with a bibliography or works cited, endnotes are not
usually required.
“With parenthetical documentation, you insert a brief parenthetical acknowledgment in
your paper whenever you incorporate another’s words, facts or ideas. Usually the
author’s last name and a page reference identify the source” (Gibaldi 204).
Given the author’s last name, readers can find complete publication information for the source in the
alphabetically arranged list of works cited.
APA uses the author and publication date (Gibaldi, 1995) rather than page number when references are
cited within the text.
IF YOU NEED MORE EXAMPLES, ASK A LIBRARIAN
4/07