Geography & Environmental Studies Subject Guide: GENV 1201 -- The Human Environment

Citing online media can be tricky because it's not always clear what format it falls under. Is it a TV show? A movie? Or more like a radio broadcast or a YouTube video? Sometimes you need to adapt.

When in doubt, check the APA Style manual.

Section 10.12 (p. 344) of the APA Style manual lists examples for citing YouTube video or other streaming video (emphasis added). I would follow this format to cite a Curio video. E.g.,

Not sure who the "author" of your Curio video is? Look at the Team section listed under Metadata:

It would also be acceptable to adapt the format for other audiovisual works. The important thing is to be consistent, and include as many relevant details as possible.

NOTE ABOUT STREAMING DATABASE CONTENT: The Curio streaming video database is a Canadian news service. Since your Scavenger Hunt instructions were issued, it updated its Free Trade content and added a 2025 video! All the databases, and Novanet, receive frequent updates as new content is added. With streaming video databases, content is also sometimes removed as new content comes online.

In this week's scavenger hunt, you get to search a ProQuest database and select and e-mail articles to yourself.

Tip 1: Use the "Modify Search" option so you don't have to re-type your search words!

Tip 2: The NOFT (anywhere but full text) search limiter is a good one to use in any ProQuest database. Ebsco databases (GreenFile, Business Source Complete, America History & Life, etc.) already default to this type of NOFT search. You can also select the "peer reviewed" button before your search to limit to peer-reviewed, academic literature.

NOTE: sometimes databases include non-academic hits in their list of peer-reviewed articles by mistake, so if you are seeking purely peer-reviewed academic literature, make sure you also select "scholarly journals."  Also, don't select "full text" in any database because if one database doesn't have full text, it should take you to another that does. 

Tip 1: Novanet

If you are searching a common name in Novanet, try the "contains exact phrase" limiter: 

Tip 2:  Having a hard time listing keywords for your geographer's research interests? Novanet subject headings can help! Click into your geographer's articles or books and read the subject headings (tags) that describe their work. Look for common words and themes.

Want to know more about AI hallucinations, bias, and the overall ethics of generative AI? Follow Dr. Casey Fiesler on YouTube or TikTok: @ProfessorCasey and check out the Library's Gen AI guide.

Tip 1: Watch the videos in your assignment. They will help you.

Tip 2: Look up journal articles or books in Novanet to get their DOIs (DOI for journals and ISBN for books) and then input these numbers into Zotero using the "Add items by identifier" option. Zotero should find the journal or book from these identifiers. 

Alternatively, find journal articles through Google Scholar and use the Zotero connector (See Page 1 of Scavenger Hunt instructions).

Tip 3: Enable your word processor's Zotero plug-in to generate bibliographic entries. 

Tip 4: To cite Eden Kinkaid's video presentation located here, use APA's YouTube example for your basic format. Eden Kinkaid's video is on their personal Web space, not on YouTube, so instead of listing YouTube as the publisher, list the name of Kinkaid's site.

See APA for the basic format of a video citation: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/youtube-references   Note: These APA video citation examples also contain examples of how to cite content that has no easily identifiable date.

Tip 1: See the Novanet Search Tips link (highlighted below) for examples of how Novanet might differ from Google Scholar. Novanet operates similarly to a library database with many advanced search options.

Tip 2: See the University of Windsor Library for an explanation of how Google Scholar works and how it differs from a library database or a catalogue (like Novanet): Search Engines vs. Google Scholar vs. Library Databases.

Tip 3: Set your Library Links in Google Scholar to avoid paywalls and get routed through to full-text articles through the Library's subscriptions. Follow these steps: 

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This week you take a deeper dive into Novanet and its various search filters. Your Scavenger Hunt instructions are very clear, so if you follow them carefully, you shouldn't run into problems.

That said, here are extra tips:

Tip 1: Look at Pages 2 and 3 of your search results. Lots of good books don't make it to Page 1!

Tip 2: If you click into an Open Access e-book and you cannot find full-text access, move onto another book. Send Laura a link to the initial book you had a problem with and she'll investigate.

Tip 3 -- Citation:

Links to ebooks in Novanet take you to various online platforms/hosts of ebooks. The Library's main ebook providers are Ebsco and ProQuest. Each has a citation generator but double check the results.

Ebooks are books, so your APA citation will follow a book format. See book/ebook formatting examples on the APA website.

The basic format is:

AuthorLastName, FirstInitials. (Year). Book title in italics and lower case. Publisher. DOI or URL.

Since this is an ebook, your citation will need a URL or DOI (digital object identifier). You can usually find a DOI or a "persistent link," "permalink" or "stable URL" on the landing page of the ebook. Different ebook providers put it in different places. If you can't find it, try to click the "share" button for an ebook. It will usually give you a stable URL to copy.

Here are the locations of persistent links for an Ebsco ebook (L) and a ProQuest ebook (R) found through Novanet:

WHERE CAN I FIND A PRINT COPY OF The Canadian Geographer/Le Géographe Canadien?

• Look up your journal title in the Novanet catalogue to get its call number.
• The Library has five floors. Print journals are on the Ground Floor, which has red carpet.
• Look for signs on the ends of the shelving to see which area contains your call number.
  • Note: There are low shelves and tall, regular shelves containing journals on the Ground Floor. You want the regular, tall shelves.

WHAT IS A "BOUND JOURNAL"?

• Academic journals like The Canadian Geographer (now named Canadian Geographies) are published at regular intervals throughout the year. Each year typically contains a volume with several issues.

HOW DO I CITE A JOURNAL ARTICLE I FOUND IN THE TABLE OF CONTENTS?

• See the APA website for examples of how to format a journal citation: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/journal-article-references#1
• Every journal citation will contain the following information, in the following order:
  • author name or names
  • date of publication
  • title of article
  • title of journal
  • volume 
  • issue, if available (sometimes called "number" on the journal)
  • page numbers of the article within the journal issue
  • URL or doi, if available

• If you use a citation generator, ALWAYS double-check it against proper APA format through the APA Manual of Style website or another APA guide located here: https://libraryguides.mta.ca/research_help/citation_guides/apa
   
• Note the hanging indent in all lines beneath the first line of an APA citation. Try shortcut CNTRL-T in Microsoft Word. In Google Docs, go to the Format menu > align & indent > indentation options > hanging.

• Never looked for a book in the library? No problem. Type your book title into the Novanet catalogue. Try using the drop-down menu to search by title. Note: If Novanet finds a print and e-book copy, use the print for this assignment.
   
• Novanet will tell you the book's call number, which is its location in the library book stacks. See How to Read Call Numbers.
  Look at the first two letters of your call number. Signs on the stairwell doors tell you which floor contains which letters.

• Library books are organized by subject area using the Library of Congress subject classification system. This poster (also posted near Access Services and above the water station on the Library main floor) shows you which Library of Congress letters correspond to which subjects. E.g., N is Visual Arts; HX is Socialism, Communism, Anarchism. These classification letters help form the book's call number.

• Need help finding your call number in the stacks? Ask at Access Services or in the Reference Office -- staff and librarians are happy to help!
   
• Need help making an APA citation for your book? Try Novanet's citation generator, but double-check any citation generator's result with APA. See https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/book-references