Online bibliography tools

There are lots of easy-to-use online tools that help you write bibliographies.

As long as you record the details of sources as you go, these tools do most of the work for you.

Bibme

Bibme is a simple tools that lets you paste in the URL of a website or search for a book by title or author. Select the source you used from the list, add any missing details and Bibme creates and saves the reference.

When Bibme can't find the creator of a website you can check the 'About us' or 'Contact us' page to find out who made the site and add this information to the reference by typing it in. When you're done you can export your bibliography into a Word document.

It's important to note Bibme creates references in styles like MLA, APA and Chicago, but not the Harvard style most schools use.

Scotchbib

If you need to submit your bibliography using the Harvard/Author-date style, ScotchBib is a better option. You can create citations in Harvard style for books, websites, media and more.

If Scotchbib can't find information about a source, you might have to find some of the information yourself, much like Bibme. But once you've saved all your sources, Scotchbib creates your bibliography for you.

Word

Not many people know that Microsoft Word has a built in bibliography tool which works really well, although it doesn’t include the Harvard referencing style.

The main advantage of using Word is that you don’t have to be online to create your bibliography.

To find out more, have a look at these simple instructions from Microsoft on creating a bibliography in Word.