NoodleBib

Content updated 3/26/2008
(To print this tutorial, set your printer to Landscape.)

NoodleBib is designed to aid in creating bibliographies for research papers in either MLA or APA-style.  You can access NoodleBib by going to the library’s web page, clicking “For Students”, then click “NoodleBib”. 

 If you are accessing NoodleBib from off-campus, you will be prompted for your ID number and last name.  Your ID number begins with 24611…….   and is found on your student ID card.

The opening screen in NoodleBib lets you log on to your personal account in NoodleBib.  If you have never logged on before, however, you will need to click the "Create a Personal ID" box  and fill in the boxes with the requested information.  Creating your personal account will allow you to save your citations and access them through NoodleBib from any computer over the Internet. 

For your "Personal ID", it is recommended that you use your IVCC ID number or your network logon (first 3 letters of your last name and last 4 digits of your SSN).

 Click the “Create a New List”.

·   Select the style you wish to use (APA or MLA).  You cannot change the style once you begin your list.

·   Description – give this list a name.  “Art paper” may be OK, but “Monet paper” may be better.  This description should help you remember the contents of this list.

From the “Select a citation type” drop-down menu choose:  Periodicals, Nonperiodicals, Electronic/Online(Exclusively), Audiovisual, Legal Sources, or Other.
   

Click “Create Citation”.

 The selections you make from the drop-down menu will determine your next screen.

Important:  journal and magazine citations are slightly different.  You need to determine if you are citing a scholarly journal (such as Journal of the American Medical Association) or a magazine  (such as Time).  If in doubt, ask!

A series of screens will prompt you for information about your source.  NoodleBib uses your answers to these questions to tailor the final form for you to fill in – with only the fields and instructions that are exactly right for your particular source.

When you have finished filling in the form, click “Check for Errors”.  Scroll down the form slowly, looking for any error messages in red.  NoodleBib will alert you to possible errors, but will not correct the errors for you.  Also, NoodleBib does not determine spelling errors.

After you have corrected any errors, click “Generate Citation”.  Your citation will be added to the list you are working in.  The latest citation added is highlighted in yellow.

Continue adding citations.

Before opening your list into your word processor, NoodleBib allows some basic formatting options.  Click the "Save As a Word Document" or the "Print" button and the options displayed below will be available to you.  You may edit any of these settings by clicking on the underlined words.

List Title – You can change the heading of your list.  The default setting for MLA is “Works Cited”, and “References” is used for APA, but you have the option to change these if you wish.

Page Header - This is used in APA and is a shortened version of the paper’s title plus the page number.  You can supply the shortened title to use and NoodleBib will supply the page number.

Italics/Underlining - This section allows you to change the formatting so that the title is in italics instead of underlined.

The "Save As a Word Document" or the "Print" button also allows you to Preview your list or Export and Print.

Preview - You can “Preview” the list in your browser, but if you copy-and-paste from this screen you will lose some of the formatting. 

Export and Print - To open this list in your word processor and print it, save it as an RTF document. By saving and printing it this way (rather than trying to copy and paste from the screen), you will end up with a perfectly formatted document with the correct margins, spacing, and punctuation.

After you have saved it as a RTF (rich text format) document, you can open it and copy-and-paste it to the end of your research paper.  “Works Cited” and “Reference” lists usually begin on a new page at the end of your paper, so be sure and add a “page break” before the list.

 Email – You can email the list as an attachment to any email address.

 Helpful Hints:

 ·   Your lists will remain in NoodleBib for 1 year from the last date you last opened it.

 ·   As a safeguard, NoodleBib will not allow you to submit a form without all the required information.  Required fields make it possible for your reader to find a source – a key reason for creating a bibliography.

 ·   Titles, such as “PhD” or “Dr.” do not appear in your citation.

 ·   Multiple authors – if there are multiple authors listed for a source, list them in the order they are listed in the book or article.

 ·   If you are citing a book and are having difficulty determining Editors, Translators, etc., pull up the record in the library catalog.  All the information you need is included on the catalog record.

 ·   Library subscription databases
    The subscription databases available at Jacobs Library include:
     EBSCOhost                                           Access Science
     ProQuest                                               Encyclopedia Britannica Online          
     FirstSearch                                            Facts on File
     JSTOR                                                  Grove Dictionary of Art
     LexisNexis                                             Access World News
     Liebert ejournals                                    Oxford Reference Online
     OVID-American Journal of Nursing       Chronicle of Higher Education
     Harper's Weekly                                   Opposing Viewpoints Reference Center
 

·   “Library subscription databases” are also referred to as “Aggregated databases” in the APA-style version.

·   Under the section “Information about online retrieval of this source”, the usual answer is “Yes, this was originally/simultaneously published in print”.

 ·   Under “Free or subscription content?” the above listed databases would be under
       “Library Subscription Service”.  If you clicked “Library Subscription Service”, the radial
        buttons under “How can your reader find this source again?” will be grayed out, and
        you will not need to select any of these options.

 ·   NoodleBib has a “Library subscription database wizard” for the MLA version only, not for
      APA style.  This tool takes you through a three-step wizard to help cite the database
      correctly.

 ·   “Name & city/state of library that provides service”: Jacobs Lib. IVCC, Oglesby,
       IL. is automatically filled in for you.  This information is required for the MLA style, but not
       the APA style.
 

NoodleBib Tip Sheet for Library Databases