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A Lesson about Reference Formatting

I had an interesting and learning experience the other day. I was observing a highly experienced reference librarian at his job for a research project. A question was posed completely outside of the librarian’s field of expertise – even in another language. As the librarian worked on the quest to locate the article for the graduate student, he used indications about how the reference was formatted; that is, in the context of the reference list, it was reasonable to assume that the wording in italics was the title of the journal.

 

As I teach my classes, I often enjoin my students to apply the principles of the American Psychological Association (APA) formatting to their reference lists. In our profession, there are two abiding laws for reference/bibliographic lists: provide enough information that anyone using the list can locate the referenced item, whether a book, article, web site, proceeding, etc. and, be consistent; that is, whatever format you select, use it throughout the entire list. The importance of this consistency came home to me as I watched the librarian assist the student. I realize that for many of my students it may seem so incidental, yet this experience illustrates why we professors of LIS get so “picky”. Thank you to my librarian friend for reminding me of why I do what I do.

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