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NoodleTools: A Guide for DMS Students
I.
Creating an account
To open NoodleTools, go the the DMS
Library homepage. In the folder titled
Research Tools, you will find a link to
NoodleTools.
On the “Register or Sign In” screen, select
“Create a Personal ID”
On the “New User Registration” screen you will
be asked for the School/Library Username and
Password in order to use the subscription
purchased by CISD.
School/Library Username is
DawsonMS
School/Library Password is
lonestar
Complete the “New User Registration”
worksheet
IMPORTANT!!!!!
Personal ID – FirstName.LastName
(example: Mortimer.Snerd)
Password = 6-digit ID number
When ALL information has been filled in, click
“Register”
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II.
Creating a Project
You must create a project in order to work with
Citations and Notecards.
To create a new research project, select Create a
New Project.
PLEASE NOTE: Each research assignment is a
single project. You create the project ONCE then
open that same project each time you need to add
citations and notecards.
The citation style is MLA.
Select the Junior Citation level.
Type the title of your research assignment into
the box labeled Description. Click on Create
Project
The Dashboard is the command center for your
research assignment.
You will type your research question and thesis
statement in the spaces provided to keep you
focused on your task. You will share (turn in) your
assignment from the Dashboard.
From here, you can access Works Cited, Notecards.
You can also use the Dashboard To Do List to keep
up with due dates for your research project.
Your teacher’s comments on your work will be
posted to the Dashboard Comments section.
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III.
Citing Sources (Works Cited)
In order to create citations and notecards, you must
first open your research project.
From the Components section of the Dashboard,
select Works Cited
From the drop down menu under MLA Works Cited,
choose the type of source you are citing.
Click Create Citation
It is imperative that you choose the correct citation
type. If you have questions, NoodleTools will provide
help via the Source Check window that appears
after you click Create Citation. Your teacher and
librarian can also help.
When citing an electronic source from a Database,
you MUST know if you are dealing with original
content or something reproduced from a print
source. See next page.
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Choosing the Correct Citation Type for a Database Article
Gale/Cengage – this company provides 5 different databases. The content depends on which
database you select. I recommend that you use either Student Resources in Context or Gale Virtual
Reference Library.
 Student Resources in Context –Content from newspapers, magazines, academic journals,
reference. There is a heading which indicates the origin of the article.

Gale Virtual Reference Library –As the name implies, this database contains content from
reference books.
Facts on File – this company provides 11 different reference databases. To determine the correct
citation type, you need to refer to the “Text Citation” at the bottom of each entry.
Example of Facts on File’s citation for REPRODUCTION
Roberts, Priscilla. "Pearl Harbor." In Tucker, Spencer C., gen. ed. Encyclopedia of American Military
History. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2003. American History Online. Facts On File,
Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?
ItemID=WE52&iPin=EMHIII0021&SingleRecord=True (accessed April 1, 2011).
Example of a citation for ORIGINAL content
"Palin, Sarah." American History Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?
ItemID=WE52&iPin=atlasb102&SingleRecord=True (accessed April 1, 2011).
ABC-Clio – this company provides 5 different databases. ALL of the content in ABC-Clio is original
to the database.
EbscoHOST – this company provides several different databases. Content in these databases
comes from newspapers, magazines, journals, reference books, etc. I recommend that you use the
Student Research Center search interface. The header of the article provides all the information
needed to complete the bibliography including the type of source and the name of the database from
which the article was retrieved. If the document is a transcript from a Congressional hearing, you will
have to select “Government publication” as your citation type and will be asked to provide the
information on how you retrieved/viewed the information.
Encyclopedia Britannica – select Database as the citation type. Treat as a Reference Source which
is an E-publication (born digital).
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NoodleTools has a “shortcut” feature that allows you to copy and paste citations—as long are
they are in the correct format (MLA).
For databases
For books
databases
books
1) Enter ISBN number – Click “Search”
2) Select correct book – Click “Import selected
source”
Paste citation in this space--see info above
3) Click “Continue”
4) Click “Submit”
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IV.
Creating Notecards
After creating your citation, you will see this screen.
To create a Notecard, click on New under the
Notecards heading next to the source you are
using.
Each Notecard should have the following
information:
Title: this is the title of your NOTECARD and
reminds you of what information is contained on
the card.
Source: automatically filled in IF you open
Notecard as directed above
Pages: the page number(s) of the information you
are quoting (if your source has page numbers)
Tags: subtopic drawn from Thesis Statement
Direct Quotation: In this section, you will type wordfor-word, the information from the source you are
using. If it is an electronic source, you may copy
and paste. Also see link to “How do I do this?”
Paraphrase: In this section, you will write, in your
own words, what the author is saying. Your
paraphrase needs to reflect that you understand
what the author has written. It is NOT enough to
simply change a word here and there. A
paraphrase is someone else’s ideas stated in your
words. Also see link to “How do I do this?”
My Ideas: In this section, you should explain how
the information supports/proves your thesis
statement. Also see link to “How do I do this?”
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V.
Organizing your Notecards using Tags and Pile
Tags are subtopics which help you see which
notecards are related to one another by the
information contained on the card.
At the middle school level, your tags are drawn
from your thesis statement. To help organize your
notecards into piles based on your tags, you will
need to color-code your notecard by its tag.
First, you need to open the Notecard Tabletop,
either from the Dashboard or by Clicking the
Notecards link at the top of the page.
Drag your notecard out of the New Notecards box
onto the Notecard Tabletop.
Control-Left Click the Notecard to select it.
A “selected” card has a yellow “glow” around it. After
the notecard is active, go to Tags, choose the color
you want to assign to that tag, and click Apply.
Ctrl-Left Click to deselect the notecard.
To create a Pile, drag Notecards with the same
color-code onto each other. You will be asked to give
each Pile a title. The title should be the same as the
tag. A number will appear on top card of the pile to
indicate the number of cards in that particular pile.
When you’ve finished, you should have 3 piles—one
for each part of your thesis statement.