Affluenza Resources Online

This week, instead of my regular-style post, I thought I'd help out those of you working on your mid-term research assignments (or final assignments for 8-week classes - where did the time go?) and point out some Affluenza resources you may have missed. They're all available through the library's Common Reading Project website. There's a link to the site on the right-hand side of the Longview Library homepage also.

After reading a short description of the Common Reading Project and a one-paragraph summary of the book, you can click over to the schedule of Affluenza-related events on campus, read the rules of the 2010 Multimedia Contest, and even check out a certain discussion blog that you're probably already familiar with if you're reading this post...

But the section I want to focus on here is the Resources page. Three of the seven links here go to pages from the website designed to accompany the original 1997 broadcast of the Affluenza documentary. There's a link to "The Show", which in turn leads to a short overview of the documentary, four profiles of people and groups presented in the show (they all make return appearances in the books, too), a list of production credits, and information for buying your very own VHS copy of the show (very high-tech!).

After that introductory section, the PBS website follows a structure similar to the book with sections on Diagnosis and Treatment. My favorite part of the Diagnosis section is the list of Internet shopping sites that the authors must have thought represented the worst of online consumerism in 1997. Thirteen years later, only two of the nine links still work - but the Affluenza site is still up and running!

The Treatment section includes a fairly lengthy bibliography of books, periodicals, websites, and organizations. Unfortunately, it - like the rest of the site - is thirteen years old, so many of the hyperlinks are broken, several of the organizations aren't around any more, and there's certainly more current research out there than that found in the books and journals listed. There's an updated set of resources in the section of the website devoted to the sequel documentary, Escape from Affluenza, but it came out in 1998, so the same issues still apply.

Back to Longview's Common Reading Project site, there's another bibliography of Affluenza-related books, journal articles, and websites. It's a little hard to find, but I know it's there - because I wrote it! You can get to it on the Resources page by clicking the "Affluenza Resources" link, but somewhere between here and there, the MCC web-monkeys messed up my pretty spacing and formatting. So if you want the beautiful original, just click here.

A couple of notes on my bibliography:

1) All the books are available on the shelf at Longview Library. If you're not finding exactly what you need, don't forget to look for books at other libraries using the WILO or MOBIUS online catalogs.

2) Most of my articles came from the Academic OneFile, ProQuest Research Library, and Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center databases. Don't forget that those are only three of the databases MCC subscribes to. There are over 70 other databases you can search for articles on your specific topic.

Hope that helps! I don't want anyone going to their instructor the day before their big paper is due and saying "I can't find any information on my topic"...