Ivory Tower

This film is now available from Amazon and other online sites.

New Tools to Simplify Library Research

When I was a college student, we used to have to look through Reader's Guides to Periodical Literature in book form and then go to the Card Catalogue(!) to find articles and books.  And we used to have to walk miles to school, in the snow, of course -- and they never gave us snow days....  Thank goodness things have changed.  Here are three new tools to make your research easier:

Flow.  Flow helps you collect, cite, manage, and organize research for college papers.  It works like an app, and once you install it you can use it whenever you need it.

Articles+.  This search page gives you some interesting functionality, especially for doing broad searches across several databases.  "Introducing Articles+, a new way to search for articles" explains how it works.

Those looking for free help in putting their citations into proper MLA format should check out "Son of Citation Machine," which is a free (ad supported) internet app that guides you through the process and generates MLA format by just having you fill in a few blanks.  It even tells you how to cite the work properly for in-text citation.  So no excuses! 

The Atlantic's "Fraternity Problem"

The Dark Power of Fraternities by Caitlin Flanagan (The Atlantic, February 19, 2014) may not be the most positive portrait of fraternities, but it offers a lot of critical insight into the history and increasing prestige and power of these venerable college institutions.  It should also be required reading for anyone who joins a fraternity or attends a fraternity party, as it reveals what the insurance industry has long known: that fraternities are often the site of accidents and injuries--and all of the very costly legal and insurance-related issues associated with them.  The historical and financial details offered by the article make it a must-read, especially for the many members of this class who belong to Greek letter organizations.