For your main pieces of written work at university, you will be expected to show evidence of reading and give details of the sources you have used. This is known as a bibliography or reference list. The difference between the two is that a reference list only contains sources that you have actually referred to in your work, whereas a bibliography can contain sources that you have read for information and not referred to. Many people use them interchangeably and the best advice is to try to include a reference to anything that you have read in your work so that the two are genuinely interchangeable.
You will be given details of how to layout a bibliography in your module handbooks. The essentials that you need to know are Author, Date, Title, Place and Publisher. To get these details you usually need to look at the inside of your book on the first couple of pages. If you are listing electronic sources, you should try to get the same details but this is not always possible (Check help sites under Referencing for details). You also need to note the date that you access it as they can change. Bibliographies are listed alphabetically by author surname. Some departments require you to separate electronic sources and some don’t so check your handbook. For a really useful tool in compiling a bibliography, check out Zotero. This is a free download (you’ll need to have Firefox as your browser) Go to: www.youtube.com - Zotero video for more information.
