APA Style CENTRAL® Update: Improved Searching of Learning Center Content

The search function in the Learning Center has been improved! APA Style CENTRAL recently added features and updated tools to help with your research and writing in APA Style (also see our previous blog posts for details about spell-check and appendices and citing within paper elements).

After discovering that users were not easily finding relevant quick guides, sample references, and other content when searching the Learning Center, we updated the behind-the-scenes indexing for the learning objects to make them easier to find.

You can now enter a variety of search terms without having to exactly match the terms used in the learning object’s description or title. All of the relevant parts of the search results are highlighted in yellow. If the answer can be found in both the learning object and an associated PDF in the LEARN MORE section, both will be highlighted.

For example: Searching for “chapter” results in highlighting of the quick guide title “Book Chapter Reference”; all instances of the word “chapter” in this quick guide’s DESCRIPTION heading; the video preview box in the THUMBNAIL section; and the text in the LEARN MORE section, “APA Style Guide to Electronic References, Examples 19-20″.

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Another notable example: Searching for “Bible” will display the “Citing References in Text” quick guide, with highlighting of the relevant section of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association that addresses the citation of classical works.

Let us know! If you search the Learning Center but don’t find what you’re looking for, please email us! Tell us what search term(s) you used and what you expected to find so that we can update the content indexing to improve the search functionality.

Search tip: To quickly clear your search terms from the search box or view all learning objects again, use the “Show all items” link to the left of the search box (see screenshot above).

Related resources:

Questions? Want to see more features added to APA Style CENTRAL?
Let us know!  support@apastylecentral.org

Redesigned APA Style CENTRAL Training & Support Home Page

The APA Style CENTRAL® Training & Support Home page has been redesigned to help you access our training materials more quickly and easily.

""We offer support in a variety of formats designed to help students, instructors, librarians, and administrators:

You can also subscribe to the APA Style CENTRAL email list (announcements only), and view the contact information for the APA Style CENTRAL Support team.

The right navigation rail enables quick access to all of these links within the APA Style CENTRAL support site in the “Training & Support” section. There is also an “APA Style® Information” section for easy access to additional APA Style resources.

Bookmark or link to the APA Style CENTRAL Training & Support home page in library websites, LibGuides, your course management system, or any other location where students, faculty, and researchers will find it.

If you have any questions about using APA Style CENTRAL, please email us or call (1-800-374-2722; TDD/TTY: 202-336-6123) — we’re here to help you!

Apply by 3/31 for the APA Librarian Conference Travel Award

There’s still time to get your application package together!

Do you work in an academic or health sciences library in the United States? Are you an early- or mid-career librarian? Are you looking for sources of funding for a conference you’d like to attend this spring?

If the answer to all of those questions is yes, please consider applying for an APA Librarian Conference Travel Award! Through March 31, 2018, we are accepting applications for conferences taking place from May to August 2018. This includes – but is not limited toLOEX 2018, the Medical Library Association Conference 2018, ALA Annual 2018, the ACRL Immersion Program and Teacher Tracks, and the APA Annual Convention.

The award is intended to help defray conference-related expenses for librarians with less than 15 years of experience after receiving their MLS/MLIS. Three cash awards are distributed three times each calendar year, and the application cycle opens and closes on a rolling basis. At this time, we are not limiting the conferences that are eligible for travel award funding. Applicants should identify the conference that best meets their professional needs, and explain how attendance will support their current duties and future goals.

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Webinar Alert: APA Style CENTRAL® Trainings for March & April 2018

APA’s training specialists have developed several webinars for librarians, instructors, and students that include a content overview and a live demonstration of features.

Click on any session link below to register (all times are EDT).

APA Style CENTRAL Overview (60 minutes) introduces librarians, faculty, and students to the platform:

Teaching With APA Style CENTRAL (60 minutes) details how faculty, librarians, and other instructors can use APA Style CENTRAL in teaching APA Style:

Writing Papers in APA Style CENTRAL (30 minutes) teaches end users how to create and save papers using APA Style CENTRAL:

For more information, including the full training schedule, visit the APA Style CENTRAL webinars page.

Tutorials on APA Databases Now Grouped in Playlists

The Tutorials on APA Databases page has been redesigned for easier use. It contains the same content, but the tutorials are now grouped in playlists by platform (APA PsycNET, EBSCOhost, Ovid, and ProQuest).

This page also contains the YouTube playlist for the Introduction to APA Databases that explains how to use our different databases and what you’ll find inside each one. This information is helpful for new users or anyone that could benefit from a refresher.

If you’re not yet familiar with this extensive library of video tutorials, we invite you to head on over and check it out! On the APA Databases site, look for the “Tutorials on APA Databases” link under the “Training & Technical Support” section in the right navigation pane.

Feel free to link to any of these playlists — or individual videos — in your library websites, LibGuides, course management systems, or other locations where students, faculty, and researchers will find them.

Related Resources: