KnightCite
Encyclopedia
KnightCite is a web based citation generator hosted by the Calvin College
Hekman Library that formats bibliographic information per academic standards for use in research papers and scholarly works. It has become a popular tool among high school and college students seeking help formatting bibliographies and citations. In addition to Calvin, many other university libraries refer students to this web site.
There is no advertising at the site, and the use of the tool is free of charge. It is provided as a public good
by Calvin College. Glenn Remelts, library director at Calvin College said, "This is just our gift to the struggling students who've probably spent more time formatting their bibliographies than writing their papers. So if we can make life a little easier, that was our mission."
According to the developer, Justin Searls, “The purpose of citations is not to give kids another thing to learn. The purpose of citations is to avoid plagiarism of other people’s work, and in anything we can create or give students to help avoid plagiarizing other people’s work I think is for the better”
and The Chicago Manual of Style
. Users are prompted to enter information obtained from an academic source, and the engine automatically delivers the bibliographic reference in the requested format. "It gets rid of the need to memorize tedious syntactical styles that aren’t of any educational benefit in-and-of-themselves," according to the developer.
As of August 2009, the site showed it generated more than 13 million citations.
Calvin College
Calvin College is a comprehensive liberal arts college located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Founded in 1876, Calvin College is an educational institution of the Christian Reformed Church and stands in the Reformed tradition of Protestantism...
Hekman Library that formats bibliographic information per academic standards for use in research papers and scholarly works. It has become a popular tool among high school and college students seeking help formatting bibliographies and citations. In addition to Calvin, many other university libraries refer students to this web site.
There is no advertising at the site, and the use of the tool is free of charge. It is provided as a public good
Public good
In economics, a public good is a good that is non-rival and non-excludable. Non-rivalry means that consumption of the good by one individual does not reduce availability of the good for consumption by others; and non-excludability means that no one can be effectively excluded from using the good...
by Calvin College. Glenn Remelts, library director at Calvin College said, "This is just our gift to the struggling students who've probably spent more time formatting their bibliographies than writing their papers. So if we can make life a little easier, that was our mission."
According to the developer, Justin Searls, “The purpose of citations is not to give kids another thing to learn. The purpose of citations is to avoid plagiarism of other people’s work, and in anything we can create or give students to help avoid plagiarizing other people’s work I think is for the better”
Function
This tool can generate citations and bibliographic information in three formats, MLA Style Manual, APA styleAPA style
American Psychological Association Style is a set of rules that authors use when submitting papers for publications in APA journals. The APA states that they were developed to assist reading comprehension in the social and behavioral sciences, for clarity of communication, and to "move the idea...
and The Chicago Manual of Style
The Chicago Manual of Style
The Chicago Manual of Style is a style guide for American English published since 1906 by the University of Chicago Press. Its 16 editions have prescribed writing and citation styles widely used in publishing...
. Users are prompted to enter information obtained from an academic source, and the engine automatically delivers the bibliographic reference in the requested format. "It gets rid of the need to memorize tedious syntactical styles that aren’t of any educational benefit in-and-of-themselves," according to the developer.
History
The web site was developed in 2004 by Calvin College student Justin Searls, who built the site as an employee of the school’s Hekman Library, at the request of a digital librarian there. the programming required more than 25,000 lines of code.As of August 2009, the site showed it generated more than 13 million citations.