NoodleBib

Content updated 2/22/2011

NoodleBib is designed to aid in creating bibliographies for research papers in either MLA, APA, or Chicago style.  You can access NoodleBib by going to the library’s web page, clicking “Citing Your Sources”, 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 .

 Click the “Create a New Project”.

·   Select the style you wish to use (APA, Chicago, or MLA).  You cannot change the style once you begin your list.  If you are using MLA style, choose MLA Advanced as this is designed for college students.

·   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.

To begin adding sources for your project, click Bibliography under the Components section of the screen.  From the next screen that displays, choose the type of resource you are citing from the drop-down menu.

From the “Select a citation type” drop-down menu choose: 
   

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 underlined instead of in italics.

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

Print/ Export to Word - 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.

Print/Export to Google Docs

Share  - your project with your instructor.

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.

NoodleBib Tip Sheet for Library Databases