DOI's and URL's in APA

Wow that's a lot of acronyms!

If you're following any academic library listserv, you've seen a lot of discussion and frustration regarding the APA 6th edition's treatment of electronic articles, DOI's, URL's and the like. A recent post to ILI-L linked to the APA Style Blog, which I plan on adding to my Google Reader. Today's post provides a flowchart (I kid you not, this is what citation has come to!!) for when to use a DOI and/or URL. I haven't pored over it, but it will probably be a useful resource to have on hand at some point.

Google Fast Flip

Like many of Google's products, I'm not sure of the value in this...but it seems like there would be some value somehow in some future circumstance that I just can not imagine at this point in time....

Google Fast Flip http://fastflip.googlelabs.com/

"Google has partnered with three dozen diverse publications including the Atlantic, New York Times, Cosmopolitan, Christian Science Monitor, Washington Post, Slate, Seventeen and Good Housekeeping . The publications will get revenue from ads on the site which will hopefully help the struggling industry. Searching by key word, publication, topic or those most viewed you can browse the beginning of recent aricles, literally flipping page by page with instant loading. " (Points of Reference blog, 9/16/09)

Update to opening ZIP files in Lion's Den

I just tried the instructions for opening files in Lion's Den that want to open as ZIP files. (I posted here last week and that process did not work this time, of course!). I did find another work-around however, and will try to describe that process.

In Lion's Den, click the file and select to SAVE it. Save to Desktop or My Documents.

Go to the Start menu on the computer, and select Search, then "For files of folders". Search for the name of the file you just saved.

Right click the file when it appears in your search results, and mouse over Open With. From the next sub-menu that appears, select "Choose Program," then select the program the file was made in (MS Word, MS Powerpoint, etc.). The file should open properly in that program.

Free foreign language resource

BBC Languages offers lessons in a number of foreign languages for free for beginners. The lessons appear to be mostly video based and to help beginners learn things like how to order in a restaurant and such. This could be a great resource to point users to, and they offer free "12 week courses" online as well. I found about it from Librarianinblack.net, who said this:

I was astounded by the amount of language learning material available on their website for free. The full beginner’s courses (12 weeks long) are available in 4 languages. The site also provides audio & video courses for learning Spanish, French, Chinese, German, Italian, Portuguese, Greek, Gaelic (!), and so on. And, finally, the site covers essential phrases in 36 languages. It is easy to use and the language materials are practical, rather than esoteric. Congrats BBC on yet another top notch resource.

The Medieval Help Desk

I know you won't be able to get the sound at the reference desk, but it's subtitled. Very amusing! Fun stuff for a quick break.