Arts Management

Style Guides are manuals that show how to create correct bibliographic citations in the "style" required by the discipline or journal

There are two major styles you will encounter, each corresponding to a broad array of disciplines.

APA (American Psychological Association), used widely in the Social Sciences and Business
The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association is located at UM Reference / BF76.7 .P83 2010

MLA (Modern Language Association), used in English and many other Humanities Disciplines 
The MLA Guide for Writers of Research Papers is located at LB 2369 .G53 2009 in the UMass Libraries

You may encounter the Chicago Style (Footnotes) in History Classes 
Chicago style is almost exclusively used by Historians
The Chicago manual of style is located at Z253 .U69 2003  

Most Databases now offer a feature to create citations for you automatically

In EBSCO databases (Academic Search Premier, CINAHL, PsycINFO, et. al.)
1. After conducting a search, click the link to the article you want to cite.
2. Click Cite on the right side of the screen.
3. The citations will be in the new window that opens.
4. Look for the style that you need in the list and copy it exactly into the bibliography of your paper

In ProQuest databases (ABI/Inform, Sociological Abstracts, et. al.)
1. After conducting a search, click the box next the the article(s) you want to cite.
2. Click Cite at the top of the results list.
3. The citations will be in the new window that opens.
4. Look for the style that you need in the list and copy it exactly into the bibliography of your paper