The first place to check is called QuickStudy: Citing Sources. This online guide is available through the library website and offers general information on how to recognize and avoid plagiarism and how to cite sources using the three most common styles at the U of M which are: APA, MLA and Chicago.
The QuickStudy tutorial is available at: http://tutorial.lib.umn.edu/infomachine2367.html
What is a citation manager?
A citation manager can help you track the citations for the articles and books that you plan on using in your research. It can provide links directly back to online sources so that you don't have to run a search for that article or website every time you want to look for the information. It can also help you format your bibliography/references page correctly.
How do I get a Refworks account?
You can sign up for a Refworks account online at: http://www.lib.umn.edu/site/refworks.phtml. It only takes a minute or two and the account is created immediately.
How much does it cost?
If you are a student at the U of M then the Refworks account is provided to you free of charge.
What does it do?
Refworks allows you to save time in formatting your citations, keeps track of your citations for you and many databases at the U of M are directly linked to Refworks making exporting your citations into your account quick and simple.
The new Assignment Calculator [Beta] adds more features and different types of assignment templates. Now students can customize their assignment calculator by deleting steps that may not be required for a particular assignment or even choosing a different template style. For example, there is a new template just for lab reports!
The new assignment calculator can be found here.
The old assignment calculator was primarily for research papers and divided the research and writing into 12 steps.
From the Undergraduate Virtual library page, you can find both the old assignment calculator and a link to the new Assignment Calculator.
To use the Full text finder tool you are required to enter the journal name. For example, if you want to find online or print copies of the journal called "Adult education" you would type "Adult Education" in the journal name text box.
If you were looking for a specific article in that journal you could type additional information in the other text boxes such as the author or the year.
Once you fill out the text boxes click "Go" and you will be taken to the Find it page which will list possible journal matches.
If your journal is not available online, you may need to check for print.
Before visiting a library in search of a print copy of the journal you will want to make sure that they carry the year, volume and issue that you are looking for:
MN-CAT (the U of M library catalog) is now MN-CAT Plus
MN-CAT Plus introduces new search functions, images of books, the new "Get it" system and a beta version of an article tab and article search functions.
• MN-CAT Plus, the library’s online catalog, can be searched to find books, journals, magazines, newspapers, maps, documents, CD’s, and videos that the U of M library owns. The online catalog can be accessed at http://www.lib.umn.edu. There is now limited article search functions within MN-CAT Plus, but you may still want to use the journals catalog to be sure to find all available articles.
• Click on the link “In the U of M Library��? to find out if the book has been checked out. In MN-CAT Plus green type indicates a copy of the item may be available, while red type indicates that all copies are currently unavailable.
• MN-CAT Plus DOES NOT search for article titles or article authors. There is a new tab called "articles", but currently it only searches a limited number of article databases.
• Click on "Online Access" to find out if the library owns the full text of an article and it is available online. If you are a U of M student there is no charge to access most articles.
• Not available online? Click on the title, then the library name to find out what issues of a newspaper, magazine, or journal the library owns in print.
• If you find your issue number in either the summary or the description of the record the library does own the article in print.