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This video tutorial will demonstrate how to cite books and eBooks using the APA citation style.

In this tutorial, you will learn the basics for citing a book, how to cite if there is more than one author or if a book is not a first edition, and how to cite a chapter from an edited book. Regardless if you use a print book or an eBook, you will cite it in the same way. There is no differentiation.

Every APA reference needs four parts: author, date, title, and source. As you go through these examples, you will learn how to identify these four parts and how to place and format them into a proper APA reference.

Example 1: A Book With One Author

For the first example, you will learn how to cite this book: Betting the Farm on a Drought: Stories from the Front Lines of Climate Change.

The first step is to identify the author of the book. This can usually be found on the cover or title page.

To list an author, write the last name, a comma, and the first and middle initials, followed by a period.

Example:
McGraw, S.

Next, identify when this book was written. In this case, you will need to open the book and look inside, usually on the back of the title page, to find the date, 2015.

List the date after the author, in parentheses, followed by a period.

Example:
McGraw, S. (2015).

Next, identify the title. Even though there is no colon on the page, Stories from the Front Lines of Climate Change is styled differently and in a smaller font. This shows that it is the subtitle, and should be separated from the title with a colon.

List the title of the book after the date, in italics. Make sure you only capitalize the first word of the title, the first word of the subtitle, which comes after the colon, and any proper nouns.

Example:
McGraw, S. (2015). Betting the farm on a drought: Stories from the front lines of climate change.

Next, you need to identify the source. For books, you need the publisher. The book's title page shows that the publisher is University of Texas Press.

Type the name of the publisher, and end with a period.

Example:
McGraw, S. (2015). Betting the farm on a drought: Stories from the front lines of climate change. University of Texas Press.

The last piece of information you need is the DOI, which stands for digital object identifier. You can find a book’s DOI on the back of the title page. Not every book and eBook will have a DOI available. If there is no DOI, then this element can be omitted.

If the book contains a DOI, then include it after the publisher. First, type https://doi.org/ and then the book’s DOI. Otherwise, end after the publisher. This concludes the reference.

Example:
McGraw, S. (2015). Betting the farm on a drought: Stories from the front lines of climate change. University of Texas Press. https://doi.org/10.7560/756618

If you refer to a work in your paper, either by directly quoting, paraphrasing, or by referring to main ideas, you will need to include an in-text parenthetical citation. There are a number of ways to do this. In this example, a signal phrase is used to introduce a direct quote. Note that the author's name is given in the text, and the publication date and page number(s) are enclosed in parentheses at the beginning and end of the sentence.

Example:
As McGraw (2015) writes, "As with the nuclear danger in the 1960s, the potential risks of global climate change are staggering" (p. 39).

Example 2: Multiple Authors; Editions

For this next book, there are two authors. You can obtain the date, the title, and the publisher from the book, using the steps illustrated in the first example. Note that this book is a eighth edition. You will need to include that information in your citation as well.

When citing multiple authors, list the first author as normal, followed by a comma, an ampersand (&), and then the second author. In this example, the first author has a middle initial, so this is included. The edition is placed right after the title but before the period.

Example:
Wald, K. D., & Calhoun-Brown, A. (2018). Religion and politics in the United States (8th ed.). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

Example 3: A Chapter in an Edited Book

In this example, the entire book is overseen by editors, but each chapter has a different author. If you are only using information from a single chapter, you will need to cite it a certain way.

First, find the general information for this book, as demonstrated in the previous examples. Then you need to locate the author, title, and page numbers of the chapter you are citing.

To cite, list the author of the chapter first, followed by the date and then the title of the chapter. Note that the title of the chapter is not in italics. Then type the word In, and list the editors of the book, with the initials first. At the end of their names, list Ed. or Eds. in parentheses, which is the abbreviation for editor or editors. Then, type a comma, the title of the book, and include the page numbers in parentheses. End with the publisher.

Example:
Landes, D. (2000). Culture makes almost all the difference. In L. E. Harrison & S. P. Huntington (Eds.), Culture matters: How values shape human progress (pp. 2–13). Basic Books.

For more examples and additional situations you may encounter when citing books, visit the Tyree Library's APA Citations research guide. This can be found by visiting the Library's website, clicking Guides and then Citation Guides.

This concludes the video tutorial on citing books and eBooks using APA style. If you still have questions, please contact a librarian:

352-395-5409
reference@sfcollege.edu
Building Y, NW Campus
sfcollege.edu/library

Hello! In this video tutorial, we will learn how to cite books and eBooks in MLA style.

MLA citations may include a variety of components. Sources may be part of a larger source, called a container. Examples of containers may be a database, website, or a book. The following examples will show you how to identify these components and how to place and format them into a proper MLA citation.

The examples in this tutorial include a basic book, a chapter in an edited book, an eBook, and what to do if you have multiple authors or if a book has an edition statement.

Example 1: A Book With One Author

For the first example, you will learn how to cite this book: Visual Shock: A History of Art Controversies in American Culture.

The first step is to identify the author of the book. This can usually be found on the cover or title page.

To list an author, type the name in reverse order. Type the last name, a comma, and the first name, followed by a period. If the author's middle name or initial is given, include it after the first name.

Example:
Kammen, Michael.

Next, identify the title of the book. In this example, the title is Visual Shock: A History of Art Controversies in American Culture. Even though there is no colon on the title page, A History of Art Controversies in American Culture is styled differently and in a smaller font. This shows that it is the subtitle and should be separated from the title with a colon.

List the title of the book, in italics, after the author. Capitalize the first word of the title, the first word of the subtitle (which comes after the colon), and all important words. End with a period.

Example:
Kammen, Michael. Visual Shock: A History of Art Controversies in American Culture.

Finally, identify the publication information. This is the name of the publisher and the year it was published. If this information is not available on the title page, look for it on the back of the title page.

The publisher's name is listed after the title, followed by a comma, and then the year the book was published. End with a period. This completes the citation.

Example:
Kammen, Michael. Visual Shock: A History of Art Controversies in American Culture. Alfred A. Knopf, 2006.

If you refer to a work in your paper, by directly quoting, paraphrasing, or by referring to main ideas, you will need to include an in-text parenthetical citation. There are a number of ways to do this. In this example, a signal phrase is used to introduce a direct quote. The author's name is included in the text, and the page number is enclosed in parentheses at the end of the sentence.

Example:
Americans have increasingly shown their support of art through museum visits. As reported by Kammen, "Attendance at art museums rose from 22 million per year in 1962 to well over 100 million in 2000" (304).

Example 2: A Chapter in an Edited Book

In this next example, the book is overseen by editors, but each chapter has a different author. If you only use information from a single chapter, you will cite that chapter only. You will need to locate the same citation components as the first example, but also the title, author, and page ranges of the chapter you are citing.

First, begin with the author of the chapter you are using, followed by the title of the chapter. Enclose the title of the chapter in quotation marks. For this example, the first word of the title is italicized since it is the title of a book, but the rest of the chapter title is not italicized.

Example:
Nelson, Claudia. "Jade and the Tomboy Tradition."

The chapter title is followed by the italicized book title, a comma, the phrase edited by, and the editors' names in normal order.

Example:
Nelson, Claudia. "Jade and the Tomboy Tradition." The Oxford Handbook of Children's Literature, edited by Julia L. Mickenberg and Lynne Vallone,

Include the publisher and date as usual, and then list the page numbers of the chapter after the date. This completes the citation. In this example, the phrase University Press is abbreviated to UP.

Example:
Nelson, Claudia. "Jade and the Tomboy Tradition." The Oxford Handbook of Children's Literature, edited by Julia L. Mickenberg and Lynne Vallone, Oxford UP, 2011, pp. 497–517.

Example 3: An eBook with Multiple Authors and Editions

In the last example, there are a few new characteristics. This is an eBook located through a library database. The eBook has two authors, and it is a second edition. You will need to include this information in your citation.

Once you have found and opened an eBook, scroll to the title page to locate the citation components.

For books with two authors, list the first author's name in reverse order, followed by a comma and the word and. Then list the next author in normal order. If a book has three or more authors, list only the first author's name, followed by a comma and the abbreviation et al.

Example:
Metcalfe, Barbara D., and Thomas R. Metcalfe.

List the title next, in italics, and then a period. The edition is listed after the title. Type the edition number, followed by ed. (which stands for edition), and a comma.

Example:
Metcalfe, Barbara D., and Thomas R. Metcalfe. A Concise History of Modern India. 2nd ed.,

List the publisher and date as before, ending with a period.

Example:
Metcalfe, Barbara D., and Thomas R. Metcalfe. A Concise History of Modern India. 2nd ed., Cambridge UP, 2006.

When citing an eBook from a database, include the name of the database. The name of this database, Ebook Central, is listed at the top of the screen. Finally, you need the URL of the eBook. In Ebook Central, this can be found in the address bar. Look for a Permalink option within other databases.

Format the title of the database or website in italics, type a comma, and then copy and paste the URL. Remove the https:// from the beginning of the URL. End the citation with a period. This concludes the citation.

Example:
Metcalfe, Barbara D., and Thomas R. Metcalfe. A Concise History of Modern India. 2nd ed., Cambridge UP, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sfcollege-ebooks/reader.action?docID=274880.

Some scholarly books have a digital object identifier, known as a DOI. This can be found on the title page or the next page. If a DOI is given, use that instead of the URL, using the format https://doi.org/ and then provide the DOI.

Example:
McGraw, Seamus. Betting the Farm on a Drought. U of Texas P, 2015. Ebook Central, https://doi.org/10.7560/756618.

In-text citations for works with two authors will include both last names. For works with three or more authors, list the first author’s last name and then the abbreviation et al.

Examples:
Metcalfe and Metcalfe discuss the legacy of British rule on the current political structure and constitution of India.

Jones et al. found that veterinary students suffer higher rates of depression and anxiety than other graduate students.

For more examples and additional situations you may encounter when citing books, visit the Tyree Library's MLA Citations guide. This can be found by visiting the Library's website, clicking Guides,and then How-To Guides.

This concludes the video tutorial on citing books using MLA style. If you have any questions, please contact a librarian:

352-395-5409
reference@sfcollege.edu
Building Y, NW Campus
sfcollege.edu/library