Smartphone App Makes Book Citations a Snap

Good idea, but so far a bad implementation. Both example citations are riddled with errors. Here are the ones I found:

According to the APA manual, “Robert” should be “R.” (see section 6.27), the book title should be italicized (see 7.02), and “Cambridge Univ Pr” should be written as “Cambridge University Press” (see 6.30.)

For the MLA example, the title is not capitalized properly (see 3.6.1) and should be italicized (see 3.6.2), “Cambridge Univ Pr” should be “Cambridge UP” (see 7.4), a city of publication is not provided (see 5.5.2), and the citation does not provide a medium of publication, “Print” in this case (see 5.4.1.)

Probably a helpful app for quick finds at bookstores but not much more.

I echo Christopher Galluzzo’s post and add the following:

In APA format the title of a book (or article) is not capitalized. Also, in the case of a book, the city should be included (not just in MLA). Generally a first and middle initial is used for the author.

But I agree a good idea…though the “teacher” in me thinks that they should learn the rules to citations and not just rely on technology!! Then again, how many of our students today can do math without a calculator…the forward march of progress I guess…

You should fix the typo – “Chigaco” should be Chicago. I fixated on that more than the article.

Great tool for academicians … thank you for sharing. Kind regards, Nicola Ziady

Please remember the BlackBerry users. You too, ProfHacker!

I was thinking the exact same thing when I composed my original post! Nearly all the research my students are doing is with academic journals now.

Endnote now imports using DOI’s on PDF files. It would be great if this app could do that too either by taking a picture of the number or by entering it in manually.

It won’t work with my iphone. You need the 4.0 Software. : /

I am SO happy to see someone tackling this! I believe that students should learn proper citation formats much earlier in their education than they currently do (and I’m no master of citation – I curse every time I have citations to reformat and was probably lucky not to have professors who were true sticklers on citation Ps and Qs). However, I firmly believe that we need technology that simplifies citation. For an academic researcher, the ability to automate the citation process would liberate massive amounts of time that are much better spent on the creative process.

either of the two basic law citation formats would also be popular–Blue book or Maroon book.

After 30+ years in the classroom, I have witnessed a steady slide into laziness on the part of students where citation and documentation of sources in academic is concerned. Short of doing it for them, my students have been provided with where to find information regarding source documentation. All of the gifts in the world is not going to help if the student has little or no clue in terms of what, when, where and what documentation style to apply –the last time I counted, there were some 20 documentation styles. I think I will forward the above article to my students. (My courses blended and/or online)
As distance (online) courses are student centered as opposed to instructor centered, my 13 years with this form of education is the source of my views of today’s students and their failure to take what is provided and apply it. I hope I am proven wrong–time will tell.

Yet again the citation as vehicle for knowledge building gets crushed by the tank treads of the policing drive. If the scan encourages the former, it is good, if the latter, less so.

New app uses smartphone 2 scan bar code on back of book. It e-mails u a bblgrphy-rdy citation in APA, MLA, Chigaco, or IEEE #edtech

The citation does not provide the year of original publication. Thus, the citation for a 2009 edition of a book first published in 2001 appears only with 2009.

The app may be useful for scanning books at conference displays, but I would not recommend it to my students.

Critical mass in every classroom, eh? So to teach a decent graduate level quantum mechanics class, I need some representation of every American minority group, according to the Department of Education approved minority classification scheme?

Presumably this is so we can appreciate the important contributions of Pacific islanders, African Americans and Aleuts to the development of modern atomic and molecular physics?

That’s great that 4 people liked Harbison’s racist comments. First of all, I do not believe a classroom “critical mass” requirement is the way to achieve academic equality in this society but at least it is an attempt to address a legitimate social issue. Gertard, you need to be less obtuse and concrete in your thinking.  Being clever and racist is still racist, you think you are funny? Well you aren’t. Why is it that the groups you are insulting aren’t represented more in the sciences?  Because they are stupid “ethnics” and shouldn’t be taking up spaces needed for the privilileged white students? Or is it because historically they have been treated as second-class citiizens and denied access to professional career paths? I guess it is because their brains are less advanced, eh? And who cares what ethnic group made past contributions to a field of research? What is your point? These minority groups should know their place and keep out of the research lab in the future. Piss off.

So. . . me get this straight.  Once the remedial rationale was no longer a valid reason to discriminate on the basis of race, the left came up with diversity as a replacement?  Now that we’re seeing diversity without the help of government or you geniuses on the left, you’re going to have to come up with some other rationale to perpetuate racial and ethnic discrimination?  And you’ll do this by switching from race as the problem to class? 

Justice is justice.  If there is a modifier, it ain’t justice.  Based upon the leftist concept,  “economic justice” for one person means stealing from another – and stealing is never justice.  “Racial justice?”  As Chief Justice Roberts famously said, “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.”

What is that supposed to mean?  If you have a point to make, make it. I think Harbison and my  comments are coming from two polar opposite places so your comment seems confused. Would you prefer I laugh at racist comments? Explain what you mean and I may be in a better position to say what you deserve.

Hey, I need to get something straight, where did you ever come up with the idea that justice can’t be modified by an adjective?  You state, “Justice is justice.  If there is a modifier, it ain’t justice.” Really, did you just make that up? That is a ridiculous statement. The International Court in the Hague deals with issues of international law and justice, are you saying that can’t be true because of the modifier “international”? And, yes, if people were to stop discriminating on the basis of race, then there would be no reason to lessen the impact of said discrimination. Here is a news flash, people continue to discriminate against others on the basis of race.But I understand you are not for racial or economic justice so please continue to enjoy shoving that unequal piece of “social resources” cake into your pie hole. I am sure you deserve it more than others. 

This argument has gone on too long and wasted too much money.   I am old enough to see the changes in classroom decorum and intellectual tenacity and I tell you they have both deteriorated beyond recognition.  In my archaic  opinion, the only students seated in a university should be intellectual elitists.  The other “wannabe” students can go to community college, join the military or get a job.

PS:  The military is complaining that one third of it’s applicants can not pass the test for admission.  When the general population lacks the necessary IQ to get into the military you should…..

The original purpose of AA was to identify blatant discrimination in the workplace and then take “affirmative action” to remedy the situation.  Extensions of AA since then have come about through tortured judicial decisions. 

I support AA as long as it applies to all of us whose names are not Forbes, Carnegie, Rockefeller, etc.

I see Socratease2 has found his level. Argue against the status quo, and the left will call you a racist and then throw in an obscenity or two for good measure.

Easier than arguing your point, I suppose.

People who use the tired old “yawn” response to indicate that they are dismissive of what others have to say are the most  pathetic of the lot. You are now super clever times two! What a bright little boy you are. Obviously you have no ideas worth communicating. Why don’t you go watch fox news and stay away from the CHE. Yawn yourself tool.

The status quo is Affirrmative Action, which is certainly racist in any objective sense. In contrast, neither of my points was remotely racist. If ‘diversity’ in the contemporary American sense were necessary to teach a graduate QM class, one could number on the fingers of one hand the successful QM classes that have ever been taught. Of course, the very idea is asinine. And the contributors to the development of modern QM are a matter of record. Socratease2 is invited to identify all members of designated American minority groups among that set.

People should actually read the Michigan decision.  The basic point, which is surely correct, is that the state constitution has been changed to make it impossible for advocates of affirmative action (but no other admissions idea) to have any possibility of influencing officials running public universities to implement the only policy likely to provide decent access to the public institution most important in training the state’s leaders.  (This is in a state with extremely segregated and intensely unequal public schools). 

If you think this reasoning is tortured, what about the reasoning that assumes that racial inequality has been solved in a society where we are flooded with data showing ongoing segregation and discrimination in many aspects of life–often not as blatant as in the past but still very powerful. 

Proponents of AA such as orfield seem to think that the situation (“a society where we are flooded with data showing ongoing segregation and discrimination”) justifies practically any means to change it.

One could do the same with, say, crime: the situation (a high crime rate in a given state or city) justifies practically any means to change it (ratcheting back of Miranda rights, allowing ill-gotten evidence if it turns out to be true, etc.). But we don’t do those things because they’re not Constitutional. Some people argue, however, that they should be declared Constitutional by the courts, and so there’s always new legislation proposed, or a case going to court, trying to mitigate Miranda or loosen the rules of evidence.

Many if not most proponents of AA have abandoned, or at least put on the back burner, both the “reparations” argument (i.e., that past discrimination, even if it’s more or less ceased, requires the assumption that members of certain racial groups be a priori considered unfairly disadvantaged) and the current discrimination argument (i.e., that every and any member of certain racial groups is to be considered unfairly disadvantaged) in favor of AA.

Most proponents of AA have fallen back on the “diversity” argument–that predominantly white college student bodies deprive every student at the college of the education benefit of a student body that “looks like America” at large. The trouble is that this argument is getting weaker with such phenomena as the influx of Hispanic students into the UC system, and the percentage of Asians which would have to be cut back as well by AA in order for the student body to “look like America” at large.

So we have, with orfield and others, a redux of the current-discrimination argument. The holes in it are obvious: Each and every member of certain racial groups is *not* discriminated against in ways that should automatically entitled them to special consideration in college admissions; racial preferences fly in the face of the Constitution and the Amendments pertaining to equal rights (thus the tortured reasoning, and resort to legal technicalities to deny or at least obscure this obvious fact).

The solution, as many reasonable detractors of AA (no, we’re not racists) point out is to make AA socioeconomic instead of racial. If it turns out that there is–as there probably is–a disproportionate percentage of African-American applicants for college admission among the socioeconomically disadvantaged, then they should be served. But so should the poor white kid from a bad home who went to a terrible high school, and the Asian whose hardscrabble situation isn’t typical of the “model minority.” That method would be fair, and it wouldn’t assume that “racial inequality has been solved.”

This farm is a joke, no one in the school wants to participate and actually the company who brought the farm to PQC has pulled out and the college is stuck with a huge bill.  None of the students want to work on the farm the school tries to force students.  The president is trying to land a big break from some source to get money but he is not concern about the community.  The community cant access the campus unless they have an appointment with a person on campus. Also Mary is a close friend of Michael and he is using her clout to land him a chance on getting money.

Response to goxewu… Paul Quinn has also lost membership with the UNCF school, there are now 38 schools.

My apologies for misspelling Prof. Gasman’s name.

I’m sorry, but I have a startled question: is the illlustration that you give of the student and the suicide experience a hypothetical one?  Or is it really something you read this past week?

Because if it is, isn’t it possible that he might not feel comfortable sharing it quite so widely?

(This is my answer to your question, by the way.)

And if it’s not a cry for help, just something the student felt was interesting, then the shortest way to back on track is probably a long conversation, in which you need to be prepared (mostly by being relaxed and open-minded) to deal with an immense range of possibilities.  The student may have been taught or believe (or not been taught or believe) all sorts of things to produce that particular behavior; in general, because most students want to do well and want to understand how the world imposed on them works, if you can figure out the incorrect thought/belief/idea behind this, which might be anything, you can talk about it with the student and move them along.  (This is one more reason why comp classes need to be small).

But first establish the student is out of danger.  (As a side benefit, if the student is not, the student will at least be able to see that you care about the student: once you have gone to some effort to know he’s doing better, the request to redo the assignment is less likely to appear callous).

This was my exact thought too. This is a public forum.

Oh, the irony.

It’s OK for you to live “in” the world, but they get uncomfortable when you start living in “their” world.

Then there is that scene from Grounded for Life, where the mother insists she is cool — until someone asks, “is that a kleenex up your sleeve?” 

As a counselor on our community college campus, I can say that we get frequent referrals from faculty based on just this kind of scenario.  Although I agree with many of the previous commenters in terms of being thoughtful about how assignments are structured, I also believe that there are students who are so troubled that this would happen nonetheless.  Sometimes all it takes is a kind-hearted person that the student looks up to, and all the troubles come pouring out.  Please try to connect this student with the counseling center on your campus (if you haven’t already!).

I can identify with the phenomenon, but when you live in a town of under 15,000 locals and approximately 10,000 students (in season), it happens all the time, and soon enough people on both sides get used to it.  Every other store clerk-waitress-bartender-pizza delivery boy-etc. seems to be one of your students.  It gets a little awkward when the ones who aren’t exactly working themselves to death in your classes are also servers at your favorite restaurant/watering hole, but you both learn to wear different hats at different times.

Chaz, who you are calling adults? The faculty, the students or the administrators? In the early days of residential, liberal arts colleges, the ideal was to create a 24/7 living/learning environment where faculty, and students (and the one or two admiinstrators these small institutions had) would live, eat , study and play together. If you want ot see what this looks like watch any of the Harry Potter movies. This was the model of the earliest colleges in colonial America. It was selected as a model of higher education for colonial America by the two groups that founded these early colleges–the colonial political leaders and the leaders of the established churches. The stated intended purposes of thes colleges was to provide leaders for government, society and the church. Why a 24/7 residential model? It seems that the political and church leaders didn’t want wild, drunken students running through the streets of the towns and villages and partying like they saw in continental Europe where the colleges permitted students to live off campus in any type of arrangement.If students lived on campus they thought they could exert some control over their behavior.

This model lasted about 80 years, before students started to demand the right to live off campus? Why? They found out that it was cheaper living off campus than paying the room and board charges that the colleges were charging? For those who are trying to maintain residential campuses today, does that sound familiar? About the same time the students moved off campus, the faculty started moving off campus also. Why? Two reasons. !) They wanted to get married and raise families which was difficult to impossible if they were living in residence halls with students. 2) They found it difficult to live in a fish bowl with every thing they did being watched by students, other faculty and administrators.  

Referring back to Sweeney’s essay, I remember one dinner that I had with students when I was applying for the Chief Academic Officer’s position at a small church-related liberal arts college. The answer, that I gave to one if the questions that I was asked, startled many students at the table. I was asked what music I listened to. The first answer that I gave was one of the expected answers. I said I liked Southern gospel music, Beethoven, and Stravinsky. One student pressed me with the question, “Anything else?” At which point I think I shocked the whole table. I said I liked Moody Blues, The Eagles, and Creedence Clearwater Revival. They all knew the Eagles and CRC, but some of them were not familiar with Moody Blues, until I mentioned Nights in White Satin and Tuesday Afternoon. They had all heard the songs, but they didn’t know the artists..So who doesn’t have a life? Four years later, I had dinner with the officers of the senior class the evening before they graduated. One of the students at that interivew table said one of the most important things he learned in his four years in college, he learned at that interview dinner. He said he learned that academics could have a life outside the academy. He went on to graduatate school in music and is teaching in a large university. The last time I saw him, he told me he still has a life outside the academy.

This is a fine line. Students should know you “get” their world, but if they are TOO familiar with you, you lose a measure of authority.
I teach popular culture classes and studio art. I couldn’t teach effectively if I didn’t keep up to some extent, and I like a measure of informality in my classroom, but I always keep a little distance.

I totally agree about making a balance; keeping a little distance goes a long way. For those trying to flaunt their inner hipster by carrying A & F bags and throwing out catch phrases (”chilling in the faculty lounge”–NOT!),  go easy as that can easily backfire and give the impression that you are trying too hard; students see through that right away. What I found interesting this past term was that several students ”Googled” me and were momentarily ”impressed” by my songwriting credits and a photo of me from my fledgling years as a rock photographer. Let them discover you without reinventing yourself for street cred, which is very ephemeral in these Twitter times.

That’s a tough one, although I would focus on the task first and tell the student why s/he did not meet the expectations of the assignment. Those are different issues. Then, I’d add that, nevertheless, the content of her work had made me worry and, while I’d love to help, she should ask someone more professionally prepared to help. I would then try to help her/him find help within the school (student support, social work staff member, if available, etc.). I don’t think I would just wash my hands and tell her “good luck with that”. If the school cannot help, then the “professional” on staff would refer her to the services of a medical/pshych doctor.

On another note, I once had a student who told me her assignment was late because she had had intestinal problems a few days before her work was due. I’m using an euphemism here; she actually described her intestinal experience in gruesome details. I’m just not paid enough to hear that kind of thing. :-)

I am sorry that I missed your comment and did not reply sooner. 

In our area, to conference a paper is a common way to refer to one-on-one meetings with students.  I first encountered the term in the late 1970s and have seen it commonly used at the one unversity and three colleges at which I have taught.  Unfortunately, regional expressions can cause unintended confusion.

What the H—!  What were the sanctions? A game or 2 in the stands.  This was an embarrassment to the entire city of Cincinnati and two respected universities.  This should never happen and if we can’t play with control we should not play.  I am sure that we can someone who wants to represent our university without being violent. 

I loved the post game interview(s).  Considering that both schools are considered to be relatively good academic institutions, I am sure that the players on both teams are there for the academic excellence and are majoring in BioChemistry or Physics.  Yaknowhaddeyemean?

I assumed the motivation was to point out that this kind of misbehavior has no serious consequences.  The NCAA seems either uninterested or powerless to restore something resembling “sportsmanship” to college athletics.  Had this happened on the street, arrests and criminal charges would have been real possibilites.  Why is assualt legal on the basketball court?  Where were the police?