Website Review – Resources & Search Tips

Rating Biographies of the Presidents

General Information, History, Website Review / By Lori Koetters / March 26, 2018

There are many, many presidential biographies. Now someone is reading many of them for you, rating them, and providing reviews on his blog. Stephen Floyd is an investment banker and an “avid fan of American history.” He has merged his love of American history and great biographies to focus on finding the best biographies of each president. In 2012, he started with George Washington and is now working on biographies of Richard Nixon. See his blog for the list of biographies and his reviews.

College Student Resources – Icecream Apps Website Review

Student Resources, Technology, Website Review / By Diana DiPierro / September 7, 2016

“The Internet-based world we live in means that common web-based homework tasks need easy and fast solutions. Ice Cream Apps fills the bill by providing students the software to take care of tasks like capturing screenshots, converting video formats, making slideshows and all kinds of stuff that college students’ coursework can require” (Mooney).

The company’s “mission is to provide millions of users all over the world with great and still free analogues to the popular paid applications for Windows systems. . . .Some of our products are absolutely free, some free versions have limited features with an upgrade possibility to PRO version which have special features and no limitations” (Icecream Apps).

As a former Master’s degree student, what I like about the Icecream Apps website is it is like a “one-stop shop” for applications that most college students will eventually need to use.

PDF Converter – a PDF format of a document is easier to access and use especially if an instructor does not use Microsoft Word; I have also used this feature many times responding to job applications when a PDF is required. Converts a file to (and from) PDF.
Screen Recorder – I had to create a presentation for one of my online classes showing a demonstration of something on-screen.
Ebook Reader – this could come in handy if a student is researching and saving online articles that are in an EPUB format.
PDF Split and Merge – could be useful if a student is saving an article they found in an online database, but only wants to keep specific pages of pertinent content.
Slideshow Maker – could help a student create a presentation or just a slideshow of personal pictures.
Image Resizer – I tested this to resize a background photo for my LinkedIn page and it is very user-friendly.

All of the above software applications work on Windows-based systems; only two (Screen Recorder and PDF Split and Merge) work on Mac based systems so far.

Other features that I like about this website are: there is a “Help Center” drop down menu which offers *manuals and how-tos on using the software; on each separate software product page there is a short video presentation highlighting features of the software; and all the software products offer translations into many different languages for people all around the world.

*Screen shot of the on-screen manual. I created this using the software and added the arrows and the text. Very user-friendly for not having read the manual.

Check out Icecream Apps and let us know what you think!

Mooney, Paula. “Articles. Technology: 21 Most Useful Websites Every College Student Needs to Know.” n.d. Lifehack Website. Document. 7 September 2016. <http://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/21-most-useful-websites-every-college-student-needs-know.html>.

Citing Research Papers Using The Purdue OWL

Reference Desk Questions, Student Resources, Website Review / By Diana DiPierro / September 1, 2015

Preparing research papers can be tough; citing them can be tougher, especially with different citation styles. APA, MLA, Chicago Manual of Style, oh my! Do I have a resource for you! Check out Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab (OWL). This was my go-to resource after having returned to graduate school after a twenty year absence from college. The link above takes you to its home page; once there, you can click on “Research and Citation” or click here. One of the reasons I like this site is it explains the difference between the three (3) most commonly used citation styles: APA ”(American Psychological Association) style is most commonly used to cite sources within the social sciences;” MLA “(Modern Language Association) style is most commonly used to write papers and cite sources within the liberal arts and humanities;” and Chicago Manual of Style. Remember to always use the style your instructor has requested in the syllabus!

Another part of the site I like is the individual “Formatting and Style Guides” under each citation style. Screen shots are given of how certain parts of the research paper are supposed to look using that particular citation style. For example, in-text citations, footnotes and endnotes, reference list, and an actual sample paper. Check this site out, and refer to it often!