 using a citation manager. Citation managers are tools that help you keep track of the sources you want to use in your paper and create draft citations for those sources. Every citation manager is different, but there are a few features that are common to most citation managers you might use. In this video, we'll cover the basics of how to use these features. For tool-specific instructions, you can check the website for the citation manager you choose. Adding items to your library At the core of every citation manager is a place where you keep your list of items. This is usually called your library. There are several ways to save items to your library, but the easiest way is to install your citation manager's browser extension. This extension will add a button to your browser. To add items using a browser extension, open the record for an article or another resource in the database or discovery layer. Click the citation manager button. This will gather all of the information you need to cite this source, so the author, title, date, etc., and save it into your library. When you save an item into your library, it may or may not include the full text. Your citation manager will try to save the full text if it's available on the page when you click the browser button. If this doesn't work, you can save the full text onto your computer and then attach it to the item in your library. Attaching the full text to your citation manager will make it easy for you to read the article again. Organizing your library Once you have some items in your library, you'll want to keep things organized, so you'll be able to find what you're looking for easily. You may want to organize your library based on different themes of a topic or based on different assignments you're working on. Most citation managers offer the following options for staying organized. Folders, sometimes known as collections, tags, notes, and the ability to sort by title, author, or any other field. Creating a group library If you're working on a group assignment, using a citation manager makes sharing resources with your teammates easy. To use a group library, make sure everyone in your group has signed up for an account with the same citation manager. Then create a group library, invite everyone in your group to join, and then, along with your teammates, add and remove items, leave comments, and more. Formatting your citations Once you're ready to start writing your paper, a citation manager can help format your citations. Every major citation manager has a plugin for Microsoft Word that will allow you to generate both in-text citations and full references in APA style and insert them into the appropriate places. Some citation managers have a similar plugin for Google Docs. If you need to add references in another program, such as PowerPoint or Outlook, you can select the items in your citation manager and paste an APA style reference list into any program. Make sure you check to make sure the references are correct. Citation managers are not perfect, and they can make errors when formatting your references. You will often find small errors in any automatically generated references, but it is usually faster to fix a few small mistakes than to create the references completely on your own. Think of a reference that's been generated for you by the citation manager as a rough draft that you can then correct. You now know the basics of how to use a citation manager to keep track of sources and create references. Thanks for watching!