Strategies and Tools for Teaching Music Learners about Citations

abstract: Formatting citations is a task faced by students across all disciplines and at all stages of their academic careers, and the wide variety of content types and formats used in music-related research means that this work can be especially complex for students in music classes. How can library staff teach music students about footnotes and bibliography entries without spending entire sessions pointing out the positions of commas and parentheses, thereby leaving limited time to discuss the relationship of citations to knowledge production? The authors introduce a range of methods for providing instruction on formatting citations, including the implementation of a flipped classroom approach, incorporating interactive tutorials, engaging students with in-class group activities, and providing course instructors with asynchronous learning tools like videos to link from a learning management system. By introducing students to the value of citing their sources and the process of citation creation, library staff can promote long-term retention of relevant concepts while using instruction time efficiently.