Style
Resources to Consult
- Choose terms that reflect the philosophy in Information Power: Guidelines for School Library Media Programs (Chicago: ALA, 1988). The terms library media specialist, library media program, and library media center should be used. Avoid sexist language.
- Consult the Random House Webster's College Dictionary for spelling and usage.
- Consult the Chicago Manual of Style, 14th ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Pr., 1993) for capitalization, abbreviations, bibliographic style, and design of tables. Take special note of citation style described in Chapters 15 and 16.
Citations
(Author Date) System:
For greater detail on the author-date system, consult the Chicago Manual of Style, Chapter 16.2.
- In this system, author's names and dates of publication are given in the text, usually in parentheses, and keyed to a list of works cited, which is placed at the end of the article. The basic reference in the author-date system consists of the last name of an author and year of publication of the work, with no punctuation between them: (Smith 1989).
- The term author refers to the name under which the work is alphabetized in the list of works cited; thus it may refer to an editor, compiler, or organization as well as an individual author or group of authors. Note, however, that ed. or comp. are not given in the text reference.
- The citation may be incorporated in text: Smith (1989)observed that this process was irrefutable.
- When a specific page number is cited, page numbers follow the date, preceded by a comma:
(O'Toole 1980, 27)
(Mathews 1987, 131-33) - For more than three authors, use the name of the first followed by "and others".
- Separate multiple references with semicolons: (Howard 1987; Howard and Fine 1984; DaRita 1972)
- A list of references should follow the style of "Literature Cited," Chicago Manual of Style, fig. 16.1. Examples are given below:
- Alexander, R. D. 1974. "The evolution of social behavior." Ann. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 5:324-83.
- Allen, G. M. 1939. Bats. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Pr.
- Altmann, J. 1974. "Observational study of behavior: Sampling methods." Behavior 49:227-65.
- Anthony, E. L. P., and T. H. Kunz. 1977. "Feeding strategies of the little brown bat." Ecology 58:775-86.
- Baker, H. G. and I. Baker. 1981. "Floral nectar constituents in relation to pollinator type." In Handbook of experimental pollination biology, ed. C. E. Jones and R. J. Little, 243-64. New York: Van Nostrand-Reinhold.
- Electronic documents cited should also be referenced. Examples for documentation of materials obtained from computer information services and standards for citing electronic documents are provided in the Chicago Manual of Style, pages 632–34. The general format for Web addresses is as follows:
- Author/editor. (Year). Title (edition) and publication information. Available: http:// or gopher:// or telnet:// [Access date].
- A specific example: Li, X., & Crane, N. (1996). Bibliographic formats for citing electronic information. Available:
http://www.uvm.edu/~xli/reference/estyles.html [1996, April 29]. - Footnotes or Endnotes are not used in this system.
