Info for Tutors

This guide has information on library services for tutors at Cal Maritime. If you're looking for tutoring, please visit the tutoring services web page.

When an assignment asks for in-depth research requiring

• Databases
• Getting full text (so no one has to pay $35 for 24-hour access to an article)
• Using multiple resources to find information
• Copyright / intellectual property questions
• Librarians are experts in research and information resources!

We’re less able to give in-depth writing help

• There’s a border area between research and writing, and we’re fine there, but once it’s really focused on the writing itself, we would send students to you!

• We’re in the Library during working hours
• You can stop by during on-call hours at the table by the Green Room.
• You can ask a questions using the “Ask Us” button o the right side of the web pages
• We have 24/7 chat with real librarians.

Citation decision 1: What citation style?

APA (social sciences, default style at Cal Maritime)

MLA (English and humanities

Chicago (history; sometimes called Turabian)

IEEE (engineering)

Bluebook (legal; some other styles use it for legal cases and statues)

Decision 2: How picky is the professor?

• Not picky at all: Just wants citations, but doesn’t care about style or the picky details

• Super picky: Wants a specific style, with every detail correct.

Most professors are somewhere in the middle!

• Your Library’s citation guide, https://library.csum.edu/citation
• Handbooks – the Library has APA, MLA, Chicago and Bluebook
• Websites of the people who created the citation style.
  • MLA Style Center https://style.mla.org/
  • APA Style https://apastyle.apa.org/
• Google what you’re trying to do, and choose a site that ends in .edu – it’s probably a library research guide.
• Citation generators – use with a grain of salt. Librarians like Zotero Bib, zbib.org.