Early Childhood Education: Library Tutorials: Cite sources using APA Style

Learning objectives

You will be able to:

1. Understand the basic concepts behind APA Style citations, including in-text citations and references list.
2. Use APA Style citation generators in Library article databases.
3. Use an APA guide to check and correct your APA Style citations.

The following tutorial is an excellent introduction for those new to APA, and a great refresher on the details of citing sources for those who are already familiar.

Please note: There are several pages in this tutorial. Be sure to click through and complete each page so you can read about how to cite the most common formats (book, journal articles, websites) and get some practice in getting the elements in the correct order

The library's subscription databases all have a feature that will create an APA style reference that you can copy and paste into your own References list. Each database does this a little differently, but just look for a link or button that says "cite", to generate the citation (or reference), then copy and paste. Below is an example from the Academic Search Elite database:

Kirkwood's librarians provide some great help to our students in using APA Style citations and references.

1. Kirkwood's librarians are ready to help your with APA style! You can stop by to get help in person, or use our Ask a Librarian chat (the tab is on the right side of each page of our website) to get help from anywhere. We can even turn the chat into a Zoom meeting so we can see your screen to see your source or references. 
2. Our APA LibGuide provides explanations on APA style, describes how to handle different unique formats, and provides many examples of references for different source formats. See link below.

You're all done! Thank you for completing this tutorial for Early Childhood Development. Before you go, here are some helpful links you can always find on our library website.

• General questions: 319-398-5696
• Research help: 319-398-5697
• Text Reference: 319-774-6491
• Make a research help appointment
• Email: library@kirkwood.edu (research help)