Should you use MLA or APA for your mini-search essay? What does MLA or APA stand for, anyway?? 
MLA stands for MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION, whereas APA stands for AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION. Basically both are groups that have gotten together to decide how to cite references in in-text citations and a bibliography in order to give credit to the articles writers refer to in their essays. They are the same concept, a set of rules designed for references within a research paper. 
So which one should you use? MLA is more for projects on literature, such an essay on a book. It is a little sleaker and more streamlined because it doesn't require you to include a date in parentheses, just the author and page number.
For example:
In To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout learns "It's a sin to kill a mockingbird" (Lee 42).
APA, on the other hand, is a little clunkier and more complicated, but gives the year of publication, too. This is very helpful for research essays, where people reading the essays would want to know if the research was conducted recently or 50 years ago. Here's an example:
The research also “confirm[s] the prevailing view that, in general, DE research is of low quality, particularly in terms of internal validity” (Abrami et al., 2004, p. 416).
You can decide which method makes most sense for you!