Creating Perfect APA Page Headers v.2.0

Some time ago, I wrote an article about creating perfect APA page headers. Like anything having to do with computers, there is more than one way to do anything. The following is an alternate way of creating those perfect APA page headers.

NOTE: Clicking the images will enlarge them in a new tab/window.

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STEP 1: Insert a blank header: Insert (tab) > Header drop-box (Header & Footer panel) > select Blank. You can also double-click in the header area to access the editable header.

STEP 2: The header should be left aligned by default. Simply enter the desired header text as you would expect it to appear on page 2 and subsequent pages. Next, press the keyboard’s Tab key until the cursor is aligned with the right margin.

NOTE: When inserting the page number: select Page Number drop-box (from either the Insert or Design tabs) > Current Position > Plain Number.

STEP 3: Select the Different First Page check-box in the Options panel under the Design tab. Do not worry if the header disappears.

STEP 4: Repeat steps 1 and 2, and insert the desired text (i.e., "Running head: . . . ") and page number where appropriate.

STEP 5: You can insert a page break in the main body of the manuscript to see if it works. Once beyond page 1, the running head (sans the phrase: "Running head:") should appear.

STEP 6: If it has not been done, double-click or highlight the header elements and format the text accordingly (i.e., 12-point, Times New Roman font).

This technique should work whether you use Word 2007, 2010, or 2013. If this technique does not work, try the aforementioned one.

Citing a Telephone Book (APA Style, 6th ed.)

Figure 1. Yellow Pages: Lethbridge and Area
(ca. 2011) cover . (Click image to enlarge.)

I have been asked to amend my telephone book in APA style for the 6th edition and this is what I suggest:

Like the previous APA edition, there is no one perfect answer to citing a telephone book. What I suggest may be interpreted differently by others. To this end this is my rationale for a general telephone book citation is as follows:

AUTHOR: -leave blank-

• Since the author is not explicitly given, lead with the title instead. The directory (as a whole) is written by many individuals, companies, and organizations—as demonstrated by some of the subsections and advertisements. It may not be best to attribute authorship solely to The Yellow Pages Group—though editorial credit could arguably be given to that group.

TITLE: Yellow pages: Lethbridge and area [Telephone directory].

• Since this “book” is not a book that has been published in the traditional sense (i.e., providing copyright date, proper title and publisher’s pages), provide the title of the publication (as disjointed as it seems) and display the “medium” in brackets. This description of the medium is not officially noted in the APA Manual, but it should clear up any confusion that may plague your audience. Review section 6.29 (pp. 185–186) of the APA Manual for details. The title is italicized, but the descriptor in brackets is not.

PUBLICATION DATE: n.d.

• Though we can reasonably assume that it was released in 2011, no explicit copyright date is given, so the use of “n.d.” for “no date" would be appropriate.
• Alternately, it may be permissible to use “[ca. 2011]” to indicate a reasonable estimate for the date of publication. An example of such a case can be found on pages 213–214 of the APA Manual.

PLACE OF PUBLICATION: Verdun, Canada.

• The Yellow Pages Group has many offices across Canada, however, their website (http://www.ypg.com/en/about-us/company-profile) tells us that the head office is in Verdun, Québec, Canada. It may be fair to use this as the place of publication.
   
• NOTE: In the 6th edition, you only need to include the city and country for publisher location if it is outside the U.S.A., so: Verdun, Québec, Canada or Verdun, QC would not generally be acceptable.

PUBLISHER: Yellow Pages Group.

• This much still seems (somewhat) clear.

Your basic reference may appear as:

Figure 2. Possible display of the generic telephone book entry in a reference list. Be mindful of properly employing the hanging indent, double-spacing, and italicization of the title in your entry. (Click image to enlarge.)

If you use a particular subsection of the book or advertisements, etc., then everything we have written thus far, may be thrown out the window. A future post will advise you on citing a particular advertisement.

If you want a second opinion, you can prompt an APA expert at The APA Style Blog. They will take suggestions and write about popular queries.

MHC Library Quotes #10

When discussing the disciplining of children the following conversation transpired:

Employee 1: "I used to use a wooden spoon. Mom would use a thong. You know, one of those rubber thongs."

Employee 2: [Puzzled look.]

Employees 3: "Flip-flops."

"What, oh yeah. Same thing."

"[Sign of relief.] Oh, yeah. I was wondering what you were talking about for a minute. I thought you were talking about the other thing."

[Laughing by 2 and 3.]

"What? [Puzzled.] Oh! [Realization.] I guess. It goes to show how words can change over time."

Canada Day 2010

To celebrate Canada Day, there are many fictional heroes of the nation: Nelvana of the Northern Lights, Captain Canuck, Alpha Flight, etc. Few are more bizarre than Mr. Canoehead though. Checkout this skit from Four on the Floor, where the hero hides in a department store, disguised as a beaver to prevent the theft of furs:




Have a great Canada Day! Cheers.

A New Look

Well it has been some time since I made a post of my own. I do not know if I have recovered from my bout of "Facebook fatigue," but here it is, the first post under a new look. The new look is employing Blogger's new template designer. I have to admit that it is significantly better than the old ones, which were not bad, but getting kind of stale. I have plans to employ blogger for a certain community group, so stay tuned. Cheers.

APA 6th Ed. Beefs

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:

• The two spaces after a period rule returning definitely ignited the passions of many (http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2009/07/on-two-spaces-following-a-period.html).
• 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:

• Boycott the APA Manual (Facebook Group)
• APA Style Blog (official blog)
• APA Publication Manual (an independent blog)

Host a Windows 7 Launch Party. WTF?!

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.

MHC Library Blog Traffic: A Real Head Scratcher

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.

It worked!

Cool. The posting worked and went off without a hitch. Not entirely sold yet, but definitely pleased.

Windows 7

I loaded the 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.

Relais Post-to-Web Nearing Fruition

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!

MHC Library Quotes #9

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."

MHC Library Quotes #8

As one employee passes another...

"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."

Library D'oh! Moment #2

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.

MHC Library Quotes #7

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."

"Okay. I’m going to go now."

MHC Library Quotes #6

When peering over the should of a cataloguer, another employee expressed interest in what she was cataloguing, but was soon disappointed.

"Oh, that looks interesting. [Pauses.] Oh... [lamentingly], too bad it's in French."

Facebook Accounts - Deleting

Do you have a Facebook account? Have you thought: "I do not feel secure using it."; "Why did I join this? "; or "I want to quit Facebook, so I will deactivate my account - that's the same as deleting." If you think that deactivating your account is the same a deleting it, you would be wrong.

When you deactivate your account, you are only putting your account into "hibernation". All of your account's information is retained in this deactivated mode. A deactivated account can be "awoken" at any time you want; to do this you simply log in using your account's user name/password set.

If you want to truly delete your account and have your information removed from Facebook, perform the following steps:

• log into Facebook
• go to the Help section
• select Account Settings
• select Privacy
• select "I want to permanently delete my account." (under the General heading)
• select the "this form" link in the second paragraph
• select the check box fill in the form and click Submit
  

Facebook will e-mail you and give you time to think about the account deletion. They should send a confirmation that your account is deleted in two to three days. There might be an easier way to do this, but I have not found it. When it comes to Facebook, "delete", "erase", and "remove" are not terms commonly associated with terminating an account.

Please do not misunderstand me, I am neither a proponent (for which there are many benefits) nor a detractor of Facebook and other social networking sites (e.g., hi5, MySpace, Orkut, Second Life, etc.). I am simply more cautious about the social networking bandwagon. My experience with them has been less than satisfactory and the principles are so contrary to my education in Internet security that I am unwilling to participate at this time.

OMG, Did they actually do that...!?

Most, if not all libraries, offer and participate in a service known as interlibrary loans (ILL). Since no one library can house absolutely everything, the idea is that libraries will loan materials to other libraries. The borrowing library will, in turn, loan that material to their patrons.

Our ILL department switched to a Relais hosted ILL system last September. Due to firewall issues, our automated overdue notices were not being issued. The ILL staff was, with a good deal of success, trying to stay on top of things manually. This all changed when the college replaced its firewall about three weeks ago. An unexpected result was that the queued overdue notices were released – they were sitting there like water behind a dam, which finally burst.

The consequence was some kind (and not so kind) panic calls and e-mails being placed to our ILL staff. The staff calmed most of the patrons and assured them that this was a onetime occurrence. One of the borrowing institutions, which will remain nameless, did decide to follow-up on the overdue notice. As it turns out, it appeared as though the patron did not return it to them.

Now the funny part, the item was returned to us but sloppily stripped of all MHC Library Services’ markings. It appears as though the borrowing library shelved the item in their collection. It gets better though; the item was not the original we loaned out – it was a facsimile of the original. The coil binding was gone and replaced by a stapled version that used black book tape (not unlike thick hockey tape) to bind the spine. The tape was even sloppily placed on the book (it was off center and crooked). Unfortunately there is not much recourse that we can take for trying to locate the original, which either resides in the office of the borrower or the stacks of the borrowing institution. By the way, the item is The Ecology & Zoogeography of Fishes in the Missouri (Milk River) Drainage of Alberta by Thomas Andrew Willock, published in 1969.

This is a practice that was allegedly done by the original Library of Alexandria. It was suggested that they would “borrow” copies from other libraries, passing ships, and traders; the owners would, however, have copies of varying quality returned to them. It is good to see that another 2,300 year old library tradition remains alive and well.

O Canada!

Yes, it is a beer commercial, but it is all too Canadian! Presenting a classic Canadian commercial that features "Joe the Canadian" (a.k.a., Jeff Douglas).



Have a happy and safe Canada Day! Cheers!

St. Patrick's Day - "My Drunken Irish Dad"

Sorry, it has been a while since I made a post, but it really has been hectic around here. In the meantime, in honour of St. Patrick's Day I decided to post a little ditty that plays on Irish stereotypes - for which, despite my name, I can claim 1/8 of my ethnic heritage.

Without further ado (ignoring the 20+ seconds of a "talking" stuffed bear at the beginning), from Seth MacFarlane's Family Guy, "My Drunken Irish Dad":



Enjoy it while it lasts, YouTube is sure to pull it soon - the clip is really hard to find.