Recently I said that some some people were feeling "burned" by the latest (6th ed.) release of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. I was then asked what people were feeling "burned" about. To this end, I provided the following list:
A library director that I have been corresponding with finds much consternation in the heavy emphasis of digital object identifiers (DOIs) for journal citations.
The sample papers that the APA produced in the 1st printing were often contradictory to the manual’s textual explanations, which were Spartan to begin with.
Many were upset that the manual was so filled with errors that they would either have to fill their existing copies with red ink to fix the corrections or they would have to carry around several pages of PDF printouts with the corrections and revised sample papers.
The APA’s nonchalant attitude—constantly emphasizing their “flexibility.” Flexibility is fine, until it encounters an instructor’s rubric. [I am still trying to get a straight answer about margin and header placement—I did get a reply from APA, but the “Style Expert” told me two contradictory things in as many sentences.]
The information expressed in the publication manual, concise rules book, and workbooks can contradict each other—even though they are all APA publications.
The lack of good citation examples. The APA released a brilliant companion manual (APA Style Guide to Electronic Citations) in 2007, but many of the examples were not carried over into the new book—which is 100 pages shorter than the 5th ed.
Some take exception to the poor indexing of the manual.
My personal beef is the lack of proper scaling in the sample papers—a sentiment that I am not alone in expressing. The APA says that it was not possible, however, this was done in the previous version.
Some comments, discussions, and notes can be found in:
Today, technologically speaking, is a momentous day. Windows 7 is being launched and will be replacing the much maligned Windows Vista. To celebrate the occasion, Microsoft suggested that individuals host launch parties. It should be needless to say, but Microsoft’s marketing people dropped the ball again.
They posted a series of videos to help teach people how to host a launch party. You can see one of the videos below. The video is six minutes long and if you watch the digital clock in the background, you will see it move back and forth through time. If you do a Google video search using the terms: windows 7 launch, you will find a host of cheesy launch party videos created by/for Microsoft. The videos look like MADtv skits, but they are the real deal.
THE REAL DEAL
The videos are so cheesy that it would seem almost impossible to make fun of it, but someone did. Checkout the clever parody below. . .
Having run Windows 7 (and being a Mac head), I can tell you that my experience was far better than with Windows Vista. It is different, but was far smoother in my experience.
Yes, I am still here. I have been very engaged in a number of library projects lately. One that I have taken great pride in is our revised APA guides. It seems that the guides have struck a chord for a great many people, but not from a group that I would have expected.
Interestingly enough (to me), there seems to be stronger interest from our American friends in the guides. The APA guides have proven to be a great draw to the MHC Library Services blog. The pie chart that accompanies this entry is a snapshot of Web traffic to the library blog. American interest can swing between 40 and 60 percent, but it almost always matches or exceeds interest from within the college. This trend started the day I posted information on our updated APA guides. To me, it is both disappointing (that our own college population seems less interested in our product) and gratifying (that we have reached a broader international audience) at the same time.
I loadedthe Windows 7 Release Candidate onto the Windows partition of my iMac yesterday. The process was fairly simple thanks to the directions that were provided by SimpleHelp.net. I was somewhat lucky and everything appears to have gone off without a hitch.
What I am doing now is experimenting with some of the software that is a available for Windows 7. This posting (if it works properly) will have been scripted and posted through Windows Live Writer. This work is being done, in part, for the preparation of my machine to be demoed at the college’s next Geekapalooza event. I do not mess with the plumbing an OS, so I cannot speak to being extensively knowledgeable about such issues, but I do find that Windows 7 has delivered thus far – accessing my personal network was a cinch (I had troubles in the past using Vista to connect to my home network). I am also a fan of the redesigned taskbar. The new taskbar delivers some Mac OS X dock-like functionality, but delivers some nifty Vista features such as the window preview pane. Overall, it seems much snappier than my Vista-based machine in my office.
Despite being a Mac person for the last 10+ years, I am pleased with this new Microsoft OS thus far (a whopping 2 days – for which some people are smirking and thinking, “Give it time, give it time.”). I do love to get my hands on a new OS and give it a spin. I definitely foresee myself using the Windows 7 OS, which is not to say that I have given up on OS X, especially with 10.6 due in September, but I do see it a great complement to my existing home setup. Cheers, from my not yet abandoned blog.
After a great deal of effort we might have wrestled the beast known as Relais Post-to-Web down. After some minor set backs, our testing was finally successful yesterday. We can now proudly send our ILL team to Calgary for the Relais workshop on Monday, June 15th with some bragging rights as the first college in Canada to implement this system. I believe this progress document delivery system is a feather in our cap - especially for being such a smaller college.
What am I talking about? What is Relais Post-to-Web? Essentially it is a paper free document deliver system for patrons that use the ILL service to acquire journal, magazine, and newspaper articles. When a patron requests an article, (a) we order it, (b) the lending institution transmits a copy of it, (c) we receive and send a notice to the patron that contains a link to download the article, and (d) the patron receives the notice, at which time they can choose to download or print the desired article. Easy peezy lemon squeezy.
The most difficult part (well maybe not "the most" difficult part) was coordinating schedules between Relais support, ILL staff, and myself - due to staggered shifts here, and time zone differences between Medicine Hat and Ottawa. After several WebEx sessions and phone calls with Relais Support, we were able to hammer our the major kinks. The next step, before opening it up completely to our patrons, is to recruit some guinea pigs to help us test the process in a real-world context.
Next issue: Millennium printing to the new Xerox print centre. Works for somethings, but not others. Argh!
When examining the periodical wall in the Vera Bracken Library the following conversation could be heard:
"We need to have more pretty looking magazines out here." - Female Staffer "Yeah, we need Vanity Fair, or something like that. Oh, wait. There it is." - Male Staffer "Oh, yeah we do have it." "Yep, with Gisele Bündchenon on the cover." "Who's that? [Inspects the cover.] Yeah, she's gorgeous." "Yep, you could say that, but if I were a guy...." "'A guy'?" "No. Yeah. That's not what I meant to say." "Huh?" "What I meant to say is that, 'If I were less of a gentleman....'" "Oh." "Yes, I would agree and throw in a few more expletives."
"I forgot I was thinking." - staffer #1 "You forgot you were thinking?" - staffer #2 "Yeah, I forgot I was thinking." "How do you forget you were thinking?" "No, it was about that smell. I forgot about it." "Oh. Okay, I think I get it now."
In an effort to dramatize a situation, a male staffer slams the heal of his palm against his head. The problem was that he struck his temple and not his brow - too hard. This temporarily stunned him and gave him a mean headache for a half hour. D'oh!
The moral: If you poke fun at others, be sure that you do not become the punchline.
After fixing a falling light panel, a male employee jokingly comments that he must tuck and adjust his shirt to cover his “muffin tops” (a.k.a., love handles). After a conversation about modern body type terminology and the meaning of the term “butterface,” the following conversation took place:
Female Employee - "Yes, we saw a woman the other day. She was tall, blonde, and had a nice figure. [Female Employee #2’s Name] and I didn’t see her face, but we assumed she must be beautiful. Maybe not, but we wish we had some of that."
Male Employee "Ummm... you do realize that if I said that, I could lose my job. You might want to rephrase that."
[Laughing hysterically at her faux pas.] "That’s not what I meant. We wish we were that tall. We wish we had a little of that height."
