Being able to interpret a citation is an important research skill. Conventions for documenting sources vary by discipline, but typically a citation tells you enough basic information to go and find the item no matter what style is used (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.).

There are three steps in following a citation trail to locate an item at Collins Library.

1. Read the citation to determine what kind of source you are looking for (a book, an article, something else).
2. Choose the essential citation information you need to locate the item.
3. Use Primo to search using the citation information.

Consider the citations below and match them to the correct resource type.

Burcaw, Shane. Strangers Assume My Girlfriend Is My Nurse.  New York: Square Fish, Roaring Brook Press, 2021.

Kingma, Elselijn. 2007. "What Is It to Be Healthy?" Analysis 67 (2): 128–133. http://www.jstor.org.pugetsound.idm.oclc.org/stable/25597789.

“How to Become a Disability Advocate – Cripple Media.” n.d. Accessed November 22, 2024. https://cripplemedia.com/how-to-become-a-disability-advocate/.

Once you've identified a citation, your next step is to locate the full text. Whether it's a book, magazine, journal, or newspaper article, check Primo. Use the library map to identify the floor of a physical item.

Searching Primo for a book is pretty straightforward: search by the title of the book and/or the author's (or editor's) name. If you are looking for a chapter or essay in an edited collection or anthology, again search by the title of the book.

Locating individual articles (from a magazine, newspaper, or scholarly journal) in the library catalog is a little like looking for a needle in a haystack. For this reason, searching for the journal first is often a more effective way to find an article. To locate a specific article from a citation, follow these steps:

1. Type in the title of the journal in the Primo search box. Limit the "Material Type" to "Journals"
2. Find the record in our library catalog and determine whether the journal is online or in print.
3. Locate the correct year, volume, and issue number.
4. Locate the article within that issue using the table of contents or the page numbers indicated in the citation. 

Google Scholar can help you find articles and other sources which have cited a source that you have found. Frequent citation is often (but not always!) a marker for a particularly influential scholarly work.

Step 1: When looking at your search results, check for the 'Cited by X' link underneath each result. That will tell you how many subsequent articles (that Google Scholar is aware of) have cited this particular article or book.

Step 2: Click that link, and you will be taken to a new set of results, all of which have cited the original source, which will still be listed at the top of the page. Use Primo to find out if Collins Library provides access to the full text.