UNLV Libraries Research & Information

APA style change for electronic resources

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 07:52:10 -0800

The APA style guidelines for electronic resources have recently changed. The Lydia M. Olsen Library has put up a page with some examples of the new style.

Everything you ever wanted to know about your NY Times options

Thu, 31 May 2007 12:31:15 -0800

Here's my summary of what I think I know about the NY Times online - please comment to fill in what I've missed!

For the daily reader who wants to scan headlines and see photos, it makes sense to visit NYTimes.com to browse the day's news.

A few features like op-ed pieces and articles published between 1981 and two weeks ago are limited to Times Select subscribers. You can get free access to Times Select articles with your unlv.edu email address!

Sign up for free educational Times Select access.

The complete New York Times archives are also searchable through links from the UNLV Libraries web site. The Historical New York Times Archive offers PDF images of newspaper pages from 1851-2003. Magazine and book review pages are included.

To run a search that includes articles from after 2003, or if you wish to search other major metropolitan newspapers in addition to the Times, use ProQuest National Newspapers from the library web site. Full text of articles from the East Coast Late Edition is available from June 1, 1980 to the current day's paper. The New York Times Magazine and the New York Times Book Review are both available from 1997 forward and may be searched in combination with other papers or separately.

Access to the full text of articles from the New York Times is also available through Lexis Nexis Academic (1980-current) and
Factiva (most recent three months) for users accustomed to these search interfaces.

Occasionally an article or photo will be removed from the online archives as a result of a court case that limited the rights of newspapers to republish the work of certain freelancers in digital format. Citations to these articles or photos appear in the database along with a note that the content has been removed. These articles or photos are almost always available on microfilm, which you can use on the second floor of Lied Library.

Another search option is to use Google's news archive search. Direct access to articles found using this search is most often pay-per-view; however, if you have set up academic access to Times Select you can bypass the $4.95 fee for articles published after 1981. If you haven't set up Times Select or need an older article, use the citation information to locate the same article in the Historical New York Times Archive.

Pay-per-view articles from other papers that you find through the Google News Archive may also be available through one of UNLV's online newspaper collections. To find out if a particular paper is available, search for the title or city on the list of UNLV's print and online journal subscriptions, which will tell you what dates are available for each paper and link you to the online source.

Quick and dirty bibliography forms

Tue, 05 Dec 2006 13:06:52 -0800

Sometimes setting up a RefWorks account can be too much trouble and students just want to fill out a form and get bibliography entries formatted in MLA or APA style. I looked at about 20 services that are available and picked the ones I think are the best. They're available at http://www.library.unlv.edu/help/morebibtools.html & linked from the style guide summary page.

NoodleBib Express
Questionnaire will help students create accurate citations, but processing a big bunch of them could be time consuming. NoodleBib Express is free; a subscription option lets users create a personal account and save notecards.

KnightCite Citation Maker
Quick form to fill out, clean page design - no login, no ads, from Calvin College Hekman Library. MLA, APA, Chicago style available.

Son of Citation Machine
Select type of resource then fill out a form to create MLA, APA, Chicago style citations. Site has lots of notetaking & anti-plagiarism advice.

EasyBib - MLA formatting
Enter citation information into a form and it generates MLA references. Free version available with option to upgrade to a version that formats in APA for a fee. Lots of advertising on the site.

OttoBib
Fast, but for books only; enter ISBN number only and retrieve citation in MLA, APA, or Chicago format.

New hours for computer lab in CBC

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 09:21:42 -0800

As of October 27, the CBC B computer lab closes at 8pm Monday through Thursday and at 5pm on Friday. It is still open until midnight on Saturday and Sunday. There is a lab with 60 computers in TBE A311 that is open to midnight every day. This may increase computer use in the library. Find computer lab hours here.

Update: The lab in TBE A311 is mainly for engineering students and requires a different login than other labs on campus. The lab in the Student Union (Room 233) is open until midnight Monday-Thursday.

Science Direct printing problem

Tue, 24 Oct 2006 11:11:26 -0800

During a class yesterday the professor pointed out an error message she received when trying to print an article from Science Direct. The message was "could not start print job." She said that she got the message fairly frequently. A google search quickly turned up the answer on a Drexel librarian's blog (Drexelbioscience). Basically it has to do with the length of the article's URL and Science Direct should have a fix by the end of this month. In the meantime, if a patron gets that error message they should save the pdf first and then open it and print. For the complete answer, go to http://www.library.drexel.edu/blogs/drexelbioscience/2006/09/science_direct_printing_proble_1.html