Using Credo Reference

UC MERCED LIBRARY TUTORIALS

Using Credo Reference 

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If you are off campus you will need to connect to the campus network with the VPN before starting this tutorial.

http://library.ucmerced.edu/use/technology/vpn

Introduction

This tutorial will show you how to find reference materials in Credo Reference, a library database.

What are reference materials?

In this tutorial, you will learn to:

• access Credo Reference
• search in Credo Reference
• refine your search results
• email Credo Reference articles with citations
• export Credo Reference articles to citation  managers
• listen to, download, embed, translate, and save Credo Reference articles

Why Use Credo Reference?

Credo Reference is a great source for reliable background information on your topic. By performing one search, you can find information from encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other reference sources.

Use the active web page on your right to complete the tutorial.

Accessing Credo Reference

To access Credo Reference, click on the Databases tab in the search box in the upper right hand corner.

• Type or copy & paste Credo into the search box.
• Click Go.
• Click on Credo Reference.

Searching in Credo Reference

The Credo landing page lets you search for topics, or select from a list of popular topics.

Let's start with by searching:

• Type or copy & paste food labeling (or your own search terms) in the search box.
• Click Search.
• Scroll through the list of results to see if any of the articles look useful. 
• At the top of your search results, you will see ways to refine your search, such as by Type, Collection, Subject, etc.
• Note that the essay, chapter, or definition is listed first in blue, while the source of the article is listed below the title, in black.

Refining Your Search Results

• To filter your search results, pick one of the limiters at the top of the page. Select how you'd like to refine your search using the dropdown.
• Options include filtering by Type (e.g., reference articles, definitions, pro/con), Media (e.g., to find images, maps, video, audio, etc), and Subject.

Related Resources

Once you find relevant background information on your topic, Credo can lead you to more in-depth information found in books and scholarly articles. Once you are looking at an article, selected from the results list:

• Use the link in the right hand column under Search Other Sites to see additional resources.

• Under the Search Other Sites, UC Libraries Catalog (Melvyl) links to books, ebooks, and selected scholarly articles.
• Academic Search Complete, Google Scholar, and JSTOR link to scholarly articles.
• The Oxford English Dictionary offers additional definitions.
• NewsBank provides news articles from around the world.

Email Articles with Citations

Once you find the article(s) you need, Credo allows you to email articles and citations for easy access.

What is a citation?

To email yourself an article and the citation:

• Click on an article title.
• Click the Share icon.

From here you can choose to email yourself the article, print a PDF, or save or export the article.

To email the article:

• Choose the appropriate citation format.
• Check the box next to Full Text.
• Enter your name.
• Enter your email address (or person you want to share with) at Email to.
• Click the Go button to send the article.

Try this now with an article that looks interesting.

When you are done, click the Back button in your browser.

What is a citation format?

Export & Cite Articles

Credo also makes it easy to export articles to citation managers like EasyBib and RefWorks.

What are citation managers?

To export an article to a citation manager:

• Click on an article title.
• Click the Citation icon.
• Select which citation management tool (e.g. RefWorks) you want to export the article to.

Try this now.

Listen, Download, Embed, Translate, & Save

Notice that Credo also offers options to listen to or translate articles. You can see these options in the bar at the top of each entry.

Conclusion

This concludes the Using Credo Reference tutorial. Now that you've finished:

• Complete the short 3-question quiz on the next page.
• Enter your email and your professor's email when prompted.
• Send the email.
• Print your quiz results if desired.
• Let us know what you think about the tutorial by clicking on the feedback link.

Thank you!

What is your faculty instructor's name?

Certificate

Please enter your name and email address to retrieve a copy of your completed quiz.

You can enter multiple email addresses separated by commas, with no spaces (for example, bobcat@email.com,bobcat2@email.com). If you are doing this for a class, you may need to enter your instructor's email address also.
 
Note: It could take up to 10 seconds to generate the certificate. Please do not click the Print/Send button more than once.