Subject Guides: College and Academic Writing 2023: Home

Ask A Librarian

MLA Citation Format

MLA Style Center, 9th Ed.
MLA Avoiding Plagiarism
MLA Citation Examples
Shows examples of citations in a variety of formats (e.g. Journal Article, Book, etc.)
MLA Citation Practice Template
Allows you to enter source elements into a form to see how they fit together as a citation.
MLA Using a Pattern (video)

APA Citation Format

Zotero for research management

Using Zotero
Zotero is an application that collects, manages, and cites research sources. It's easy to use, connects with your web browser to download sources, and best of all it's free! Zotero allows you to attach PDFs, notes and images to your citations, organize them into collections for different projects, and create bibliographies.

Frequently Asked Questions

Getting Started: Key Resources

You can search for books in our library and other libraries using the links below. If you're not sure how to find what you're looking for, ask us!

URSUS Library Catalog
Catalog for the University of Maine system, including USM. You can choose to limit your search to USM, or search all libraries and use interlibrary loan.
MaineCat
If URSUS doesn't have what you're looking for, use MaineCat to widen your search to all Maine libraries. You can request any book you find and it will be delivered to the USM library location of your choosing.
WorldCat
You can widen your search to libraries worldwide using WorldCat. If you find a book you need, request it using the "Order through Illiad" link.

Below are just a few of our multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary databases that should have articles on most subjects. For more databases, check out our Databases A-Z page and select a relevant subject from the drop-down based on your area of research.

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
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Academic Search Complete is a large scholarly, multidisciplinary, full-text database, with more than 7,400 full-text periodicals, including more than 6,300 peer-reviewed journals. In addition to full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for more than 11,500 scholarly, popular, trade, and special interest serials, and a total of more than 12,000 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, and more. Updated daily.
Global Newsstream This link opens in a new window
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A comprehensive contemporary news collection of current, full-text news sources including newspapers, newswires, news journals, television and radio transcripts, blogs, podcasts, and digital-only websites.
Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
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Google Scholar provides easy searching of scholarly literature on the Internet across many disciplines. Access to the library's subscription resources is through the "Full Text @ USM" link.
Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
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Project Muse, a project initiated by John's Hopkins University Press, provides PDF full-text access to more than 600 peer-reviewed journals from 250 university presses and scholarly societies. Project MUSE covers the fields of literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, economics, and others.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
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JSTOR is a full text digital archive of scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Coverage generally begins with the first issuse running to within 3 years of present. Current issues of journals are often available from other USM databases.

Need to find a resource by citation? OneSearch is a great place to start! OneSearch is a way to search many of the library’s resources using a single search box.

These resources contain basic overview information that can be useful when you're just beginning your research.

Gale Virtual Reference Library This link opens in a new window
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Gale Virtual Reference Library (GVRL) provides access to a range of encyclopedias, dictionaries and other reference sources. Individual titles may be added or cancelled yearly.
Oxford Reference Online This link opens in a new window
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Oxford Reference Premium contains over 125 language and subject dictionaries and reference works, all published by Oxford University Press. Areas of coverage include science and medicine, the humanities and social sciences, and business and law. Content includes world maps, illustrations, timelines, weblines, and key titles from the Oxford Companions series. English dictionaries and thesauri, guides to grammar and usage, and dictionaries of etymology, foreign languages, quotations, and names are provided.