What is a Bibliography (Works Cited List)?

A bibliography is a list describing the books you used for your research. (“Biblio” refers to books and “graphy” refers to description.) Since students today generally use online sources as well as books, it is perfectly acceptable to use the title “Works Cited” if you prefer.

Why do I need a Bibliography?

The purpose of a bibliography is to give credit to the sources you used for your research. This is standard practice at every level of education and in every profession. There are no new ideas which have not been build on the work of others, and you honor those whose work you use!

A bibliography enables anyone who reads your paper and wants more information to find the sources you used. (Today that may only be your teacher, but someday you may be a famous researcher and students will want to find more information using YOUR sources!) Remember that using another person’s ideas without acknowledging that person’s work is plagiarism.

How do I cite my sources?

There are several styles for citing sources. Fay School uses the MLA (Modern Language Association) style. The Fay School Citation Guide has detailed instructions and examples for most materials you will use for research. It is available on the Fay Library Web page and in booklet form at the Fay School Library. If you need more detailed information, use the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers by Joseph Gibaldi. There are several copies in the Reference section of the Fay Library (REF 808.027 GIB).

NoodleBib is an online citation generator that takes care of punctuation and helps you produce a polished source list that's correctly formatted and ready to print. Fay School has a subscription to this very useful tool, which makes it easier to correctly cite the sources you use for your research.

Do you have any suggestions for making this easy?

Yes! Just follow these three guidelines:

1. As you gather information, be sure you record all the bibliographic information from each source. Do you need help finding the information for your works cited list?
2. Use an ORGANIZATIONAL SYSTEM that works for you and includes a place to record your sources.
3. Remember that help is no further away than the nearest librarian. Successful students have learned to ASK A LIBRARIAN!

How should I format the Bibliography?

Center the title (Bibliography or Works Cited) at the top of the page. Arrange the entries alphabetically by the first word of each entry (ignore “a”, “an”, “the” and start with the next word). Bibliographic entries are NOT NUMBERED. If there is no author or editor given, start with the title. Double space everything in your paper, including the bibliography. The first line of each entry is at the left margin, and the rest of the entry is indented 1/2 inch. This is called a “hanging indent.” NoodleBib takes care of all the formatting for you! For more information about NoodleBib, see the Citation Guide.

• See how to create a hanging indent in Microsoft Word™.
• See a sample bibliography (works cited list).

Help! My paper is due tomorrow, and I don’t have the bibliographic information I need for the library books I used! What can I do?

No need to panic—you can solve this problem! Remember that all the books in the Fay Library are in the online catalog. Just go to the Fay Library Web page, search for the book using keywords from the author, title or subject, and you should find the book easily. When you click on the title, you’ll see all the information you need for your bibliographic citation: author, title, and publication information (city, publisher and publication year).