Editor’s Note: In a nod to those of you who are writing research papers in the last few weeks of the semester, the citations used in this issue’s Off The Shelf column resemble those you might use in your research papers. (Web Editors note: The formatting (spacing, line breaks, etc) used for online citation can be very different from print citation. Check the print edition for more accurate print citation formatting)

It’s about that time of year when student thoughts turn frantically to winter break. Sorry, I mean thoughts turn to completing term papers and research essays. Yeah, that’s what students are focused on, absolutely. We in the library are sometimes at a loss about what to ask our student workers about, so soon we’ll ask, “When are you ‘done’?” meaning, “When are you finished with exams and papers for the semester?” (Coan 7).

Really, we care, we just don’t always know what to talk about (Brown 395).

Hopefully, if you’re working towards completing a research paper, you haven’t done what I used to do in my student days: forget to track my sources (Official Transcript 3). Yes, we librarians and faculty nag you to organize your source material and keep a running list of citations. In your defense, though, how are students able to separate our usual blather with when we’re saying something helpful? (Library Outline 2) Sounds like a golden opportunity for you to hone the life skill of selective hearing.

Now that I have your selective attention, I’ll share that library databases and their citation and email functions make your research life a lot easier.  Even the once clunky interface of JSTOR now provides you with an MLA 8th  Edition citation with just the click of a button (“How to export” 1).

Our catalog creates citations, as does our database of educational and documentary videos, Films on Demand. Even Wikipedia can cite itself nowadays, although good luck if you’re relying on their content. If you need help citing more reliable web sources, you can get some assistance on our citation help guide: http://libguides.madisoncollege.edu/citation.

Then again, you might not have even gotten that far. Have a paper deadline hanging over your head? Need a topic? Know what you would like to argue about but you haven’t found compelling evidence yet? These are all great reasons to ‘Book a Librarian!’ Visit our web site at http://libreservations.madisoncollege.edu/booking/book-a-librarian and you can sign up for a one-on-one research appointment with one of us over the coming weeks.

Our goal, like yours, is to get you through, successfully, to winter break so that you can enjoy your time sleeping, eating, playing, watching TV, and traveling with the knowledge that you have done your best this semester.

Works Cited

Brown, Ann Goebel et al. “Librarians don’t bite: assessing library orientation for freshmen.” Reference Services Review, vol. 32, no. 4, Dec. 2004, pp. 394–403. http://tinyurl.com/j5yf3c4

Coan, Matthew. Desk Conversations (Informal), Madison College Libraries. 2016. Madison Area Technical College.

“How to export citations from your search results.” How to Export Citations from Your Search Results, JSTOR, 27 Aug. 2016, support.jstor.org/core-functionality/2015/10/29/how-to-cite-good-and-do-other-things-good-too.

Library Outline for ICW, Intro to College Writing – Library Day. Madison College English Department. 2008-2016. MATC.

Official Transcript. Coan, Matthew R. Office of the Registrar, Madison, WI, 1987, pp. 1–3, University of Wisconsin-Madison.