Get Help
Skip to Main Content

Annotated Bibliography: How to Create One

A series of steps and advice in creating an Annotated Bibliography

Need more sources?

Remember that the Reference Librarians can help you find books, articles, and other materials of interest.  Use the Get Help button below to get in touch.

 

 

 

Digging deeper

  • If, after you've assembled your list of sources, you feel your coverage of the subject is a little "lightweight," and that you may be missing some important sources, take a look at the footnotes/endnotes and bibliographies/reference lists attached to the books and articles you have available. Do more than one of them refer to the same source articles or books? Would that article or book be considered important to the subject area?

 

  • Take a look at existing bibliographies, which might be a separate book, a periodical article, or posted on the Web (but only if from a credible, identified source). If several cite the same item, and it's relevant to your topic, see if that work is available and would meet your criteria.

 

  • If your sources seem a little scattered and unrelated to each other, you might want to think about scoping down your topic to something more specific, like "Freudian interpretations of Macbeth, 1995-2005" or "Euthanasia in the Netherlands: Current trends."  Then do searching with that specific topic in mind.

 

  • Consult with a Reference librarian at whatever library you are using to get more ideas.  Take the idea back to your teacher to get further scoping help and ideas.