HIT: Citing from SIRS, INFO TRAC, etc.

[pat bender <pbender@MCIUNIX.MCIU.K12.PA.US>]

Here are some of the responses I received.  I apologize to those who
responded before I was asked for a hit.  I printed those and erased them.

Author. "Article title." Original Source of Article(italics or
underline), date of original source, page numbers. [Online]. SIRS
Researcher on the Web(italics or underline).  Available:
http://researcher.sirs.com/(the rest of the address for the exact
article). ["search term," if necessary for retrieval].  Access date.


We have added the ["search term"] because we feel it is so important if
the instructor wants to locate the article again.  You will need to
remind your students to be sure to note that when they are searching.
The [online]. reference is being shown less & less, it is just a matter
of preference for instructors but it would be nice to differentiate
between CD-ROM & online, I think.

According to the MLA Handbook, 4th ed., when citing material accessed
from a periodically published database on CD-ROM, you include:
1. Name of the author (if given)
2. Publication information for the printed source or analogue (including
title and date of print publication)
3. Title of the database (underlined)
4. Publication medium (CD-ROM)
5. Name of the vendor (if relevant)
6. Electronic publication date
They cite the example:
Angier, Natalie.  "Chemists Learn Why Vegetables Are Good for You."  *New
York Times* 13 Apr. 1993, late ed.:  C1.  *New York Times Ondisc*.
CD-ROM.  UMI-Proquest.  Oct. 1993.
*denotes underlined.

SIRS actually shows you samples of citing sources in their help menu,
chapter 12.  You can access that by prssing the F1 key in SIRS. (Pat's
note: I don't think this is available in the Macintosh version.)

Check the help scrren for SIRS. One of the chapters is osn how to cite
articles

     I did not know until recently (although I have been using the
program all year) that the SIRS CD has a tutorial section that has a
section in it on correct citation for SIRS.  I am not at school so am
unable to tell you exactly how to get into it, but I think it was through
Help, and it does a good job of answering your question.

 IAC (Infotrac) provided citation examples in May, 1996, using MLA 4th
ed., 1995 guidelines.

Kluger, Jeffrey. "Dr. Sigmund Doolittle." Discover Feb. 1996: 84-87.
Infotrac: General Periodicals ASAP, CD-ROM, Information Access, April
1996.

Underline Discover and Infotrac: General Periodicals ASAP. Does not
include date of access only date of Infotrac update.

When these print, they cite the original source, so we have permitted students
to do a regular periodical newspaper citation, feeling that it doesn't matter
how they got to the periodical. We allow this also with microfiche, and feel
that the only difference is in the vehiscle, not the original provider. I'm
sure though, that it might be worthwhile to add the CD-ROM source, at the
end, so that teachers could track an item when necessary

        If you go into the help menu in Sirs (F1, I think), you will find a
whole chapter on how to cite it. It is Chapter 12. I printed it out,
laminated it, and gave a copy to all the teachers & kept a stack for quick
reference for students in the library. It gives examples for Turabian, MLA
(4th ed.) & APA. The examples are really very good.
Linda

Pat Bender
Director of Library Media Services
Mount Saint Joseph Academy
120 W. Wissahickon Avenue
Flourtown, PA 19031
215-233-3177
FAX: 215-233-9126
e-mail: pbender@mciunix.mciu.k12.pa.us