This page will contain a list of links that I have found helpful in areas of concern to me.  They will be indexed topically, and a click on a topic should take you to the links relevant to that topic.

TOPICAL DIRECTORY

APA STYLE - These links will lead you to tools that may be helpful as you write papers using the formatting and citation style of the American Psychological association (APA).

FIREFOX ADD-ONS - Firefox is an alternative to the Internet Explorer web browser. For a number of reasons it is my preferred browser on both my computer at work as well as at home. One of the big advantages of Firefox is that many "extensions" or "addons" have been developed so that you can configure the browser so that it is tailored to your needs and preferences. This is a list of my favorite Firefox add-ons.

SEARCH ENGINES - These links are to search engines that I've found particularly helpful for doing searches of various types.

VENNARD COLLEGE FACULTY & STAFF - The links in this list will point to the websites of members of the faculty/staff of Vennard College .

NEW LINKS

These links are those most recently added to this page.

APA STYLE

APA Template: This site provides a free document template for use with Microsoft Word. If you use a another word processor you can download the template as a Word document, open it in your word processor, and then save it as a template for your word processor.

Bedford Bibliographer: The Bedford Bibliographer is an very valuable web-based tool by which students can create virtual source cards on which they can record bibliographic information, write annotations, evaluate sources, and even save text from electronic sources such as news articles that might be changed or removed. Bedford Bibliographer will format citations, store them, and organize them alphabetically to create a final Reference List.

BibMe: This site describes itself as "your one-stop source for all your bibliography needs!  Don't remember all the information for the source you cited? No problem! BibMe allows you to search from a database of millions of entries to find your source and AutoFill in the information. Or, if you have the source in front of you, you can enter your entries in manually. BibMe also offers resources to help you cite your work properly in the 'Citation Guide' section." An extremely valuable tool!
 

Citation Machine: Citation machine is a web-based tool that will assist in formatting citations in APA style.

APA Documentation Guide: This APA documentation guide is made available by St. Mary's University and gives an abbreviated version of APA documentation. After a brief discussion of rference list formatting there is an extensive list of examples of how different types of sources should be cited.

APA Research Style Crib Sheet: This is a helpful summary of the rules of APA style. The site also For most questions about APA style the answers can be found quicker here than in the APA manual. The site also includes an self-instructional course on APA style (APA100 Online Course) as well as a useful quick reference guide to download (APA Quick Reference). The crib sheet can be downloaded  as a PDF file for printing.

FIREFOX ADD-ONS

Firefox - You can download the alternative to Internet Explorer from this site.

Add to Search Bar - One of the Firefox features I particularly like is the search bar which can be loaded with the search engines I want quick access to. This addon makes it simple to add any search feature from any webpage to your search bar. You simply right click on the search box and choose "Add to Search Bar".

All-in One Sidebar - A very useful tool for managing Firefox. It enables you to see at a glance and manage: extensions installed, themes installed, downloads, web history, bookmarks, as well as indepth details about pages being visited.

Clipmarks - Clipmarks makes it easy to clip and save content from webpages without needing to save or bookmark entire pages. Your "clipmarks" are saved online, a feature I've found helpful when I've clipped things at home that I want to access when I get to work.

Colorful Tabs - This extension simply makes each tab a different color. Mkaes it easier when looking through open tabs.

Cooliris Previews - Cooliris Previews gives you the power to browse and share Web links and rich media faster. Just mouse over any link, and the Cooliris preview window immediately appears to show you the content. To email it, just click.

Fast Dial - With Fast Dial installed, when you open an empty tab, the page will open with thumbnail views of webpages you assign to it. Think of it as a visual bookmark system. I find it quicker and easier to use than navigating through my bookmarks.

Forecastfox - Forecastfox gets weather forecasts and displays the information in the status bar. (As I type this I look down and see that right now it's partly cloudy and 26 degrees,  today  the forecast is for partly cloudy and 42 degrees, and tomorrow it is to be partly cloudy and 45 degrees.)

FoxyTunes - If you listen to music while you are online you'll love FoxyTunes. It makes it easy to control your media player right from the status bar in your browser.

IE Tab - This extension enables you to open a webpage within Firefox as if it were opened in Internet Explorer. This proves useful for the occasional site that will not open properly in Firefox.

MISCELLANEOUS

ZAMZAR - This site enables you to convert files from one format to another. It works for document files, music files, image files, video files, and some "other" file types that I don't even understand.

SEARCH ENGINES 

GENERAL PURPOSE SEARCHES:

KoolTorch: KoolTorch returns results in thematic clusters presenting them graphically in circles. Their website describes it this way: "KoolTorch’s taxonomy overlay takes traditional search engine results and displays them in a useful and intuitive Graphical User Interface."

Clusty: Clusty combines the results from several search engines and organizes them into clusters by topic. It has a toolbar download for Firefox that lets you use Clusty to search a specific site - a feature I've found quite useful.

Dogpile: Dogpile is my search engine of choice. Dogpile combines the results from a number of the major search engines including Google, Yahoo! Search, Live Search, Ask.com, About, MIVA, LookSmart, and more.

FOCUSED SEARCHES:

Google Scholar: This search engine is Google's attempt to provide a search engine that focuses on academic and scholarly sources.

Windows Live Academic Search: This is Microsoft's attempt to counter Google Scholar. It focuses mainly on peer-reviewed journals with most of the hits linking to a fee-based service provider for article recovery.

Search EDU: This is a Google-based search that searches websites with the edu extension.

ABHE Institutions Search: This is a Google-based search that searches websites of institutions related to ABHE (Association for Biblical Higher Education).

Religion Explorer: This engine focuses its searches on religious sites. Also includes a helpful directory of religious sites.

Creedopedia: Creedopedia describes itself as "an encyclopedic search engine on religion." Results listing include a helpful summary of the content on sites found.

VENNARD COLLEGE FACULTY & STAFF

Dr. Bruce Moyer - President.

Dr. Brad Penn - Professor of Psychology.

Prof. Debbie Penn - Professor of Youth Ministry & Bible.

Pastor Duane Roth - Campus Pastor and Professor of Pastoral Ministry

Mr. Jeff Strong - Vice-President of Business and Chief Financial Officer.

Prof. Jerome VanKuiken - Professor of Bible, Theology, Philosophy, & Church History