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Welcome to the Saddleback Library. My name is Elizabeth and I am the Distance Learning
Librarian at Saddleback College.
Today we will learn about NoodleTools, the bibliographic management software in the Library.
Let's say you are writing a paper and your instructor needs a bibliography or reference
list. They are throwing out terms like APA or MLA and you have no idea what they are
talking about. Then they tell you the bibliography is a big part of your grade and the library
can help you.
The Saddleback Library can help you, AND we have a great program called NOODLETOOLS that
will make creating a bibliography or reference list easy for you.
Before we get started let's have a quick chat about why your instructor is asking you to
cite your sources. Whenever we write about something that we had to research or find
information about a new topic and use it in an assignment, we need to cite the source
where we found it to give that person or group credit for their work. If we don't cite the
author of the source we are taking credit for something that is not ours and that is
called plagiarism. Plagiarism is a big deal and can lead to a lot of problems in your
academic career. So don't plagiarize. Cite your sources. Cite them in your paper or assignment
and have a bibliography or works cited page at the back of your assignment so your instructor
can see your sources. Easy!
One more thing to know before we get started in NoodleTools is that there are different
CITATION STYLES. These citation styles are based on what kind of class you are taking.
Your sciences and social sciences tend to use the APA citation style while your English
and Liberal Arts classes tend to use the MLA citation style. There are a lot of different
citation styles. NoodleTools lets you choose between MLA, APA, and Chicago/Turabian.
Now let's get started.
The link to NoodleTools is on the Saddleback Library website under Research Tools > Articles
/ Journals in the Tools box in the lower right hand side of the web page. Click on NoodleTools
then Create a Personal ID if you do not already have a NoodleTools account through Saddleback
College.
Once you have an account you are ready to begin. On this page click Create a New Project.
Pick one of the three Citation Styles. I choose APA because that is what we use in LIbrary
Science. Next choose ADVANCED under your Citation Level. The Advanced Citation Level is what
you should use in college. Then write a description of your project in the Description box. I
type "Demo for YouTube" and click Create Project.
Here is the dashboard. You can see the Project, enter a research question and thesis statement
if you want. You can share your NoodleTools project with a teacher's drop box (my students
do this) and even collaborate with other students.
Under the Components box I click References to start creating my references list. If you
are using MLA you will click on Works Cited and Chicago will click on Bibliography. This
is in the exact same place in NoodleTools but each citation style has it own language
so a few things might be a little different when it comes to terms used in each style.
Here you can see I am working on my APA References.
The cite a: box is the MOST IMPORTANT part of NoodleTools. This box decides how to cite
a source. When I click the arrow you can see I have a lot of choices.
If you are not sure what kind of publication you are citing, do a Google search for the
title of the source (not the title of the article) and find out. Or ask a librarian
and we can help you. NoodleTools also has a section that you can look at to make sure
you have your source correct. Getting your source correct is the most important thing
you can do in NoodleTools.
The article I am citing today is a Journal article. I choose Journal and then click Create
Citation.
NoodleTools then checks to make sure I really want to cite a journal. It has this "Show
Me" option that will walk you through a few slides to make sure you have chosen the correct
source to cite. Citing a book is much different than citing a journal article and taking some
time to make sure you have picked the correct citation source is the most important thing
you can do. When I am sure I have the correct source I click continue.
This is the page where we will start entering information. At the top you can see I am citing
an Article from a Journal. Next I have some tabs and I need to click the correct one for
my source. I can scroll over each source to see what my options are. I know that I got
my Journal Article from one of the Library Subscription Databases so I would click Database.
Now we get to the part where we enter information. My quick way of doing this is having a document
open that has the information on it already and I copy and paste as needed. I will still
need to edit a bit but this helps to get things moving. If you are having problems reading
or understanding the citation information, please view the "How to read a citation" video
on the Saddleback Library YouTube channel.
As I enter the requested information I make sure to pay attention to any exclamation that
pops up. NoodleTools is great but I need to make sure I enter the information correctly
or the citation will be incorrect.
If you have more than one author, be sure to "Add another contributor" in NoodleTools.
And enter the author's names as they are listed.
Here I copied and pasted the title of the article from the database and you can see
a yellow exclamation has come up. When I click on it there is a suggestion to check my capitalization.
According to the APA style guide, I only capitalize the first letter of the title and any proper
nouns. This is an easy fix!
At the bottom of the page you have an option to add an Annotation, or summary of your source
if you would like to. When you have entered all the information and checked for errors
click submit.
Here is your citation! Now I know you might be thinking that was a lot of work but let
me show you a few things you don't have to worry about now. This is my APA journal citation.
I entered everything NoodleTools asked me to. Then NoodleTools went and did all the
things I hate to do such as creating the hanging indent, putting periods and brackets where
needed. Italicizing appropriate text and putting everything in order for me. And when I have
completed all my entries I can go to Print/Export and NoodleTools will give me a perfectly formatted
Reference list I can add to my assignment. I love this program and hope you do too!
NoodleTools can help you accurately cite your sources. This tool should make you, and your
instructors, happy.
Thank you for using the Saddleback Library. Please contact us with any questions you have.
Visit us in the Library, Chat with a Librarian online for a quick question, Call the Refernce
Desk to speak to a Librarian, Schedule a Research Consultation and visit our webpage at saddleback.edu/library.
You can even Friend us on Facebook. The Saddleback Library, how can we help you?