Share a picture book this summer

Posted by Jennifer on 29 November, 2011

International Picture Book Month is an exciting initiative to remind us about the value, creativity and importance of children’s picture books.

Organised by a group of authors, storytellers and illustrators (Founder, Dianne de Las Casas and Co-Founders, Katie Davis , Elizabeth O. Dulemba, Tara Lazar and Wendy Martin), over at their website (http://picturebookmonth.com) there is a post for every day of November reminding us of the importance of picture books.

It reminded us of some of our childhood favourites tucked away in the Curriculum Collection…

Everyone has a favourite Alison Lester (whether you read it to someone, or someone read it to you) My absolute favourite is the Journey Home with Wild and Woolley. Closely followed by Magic Beach. And Yikes. And Alice and Aldo. And Are We There Yet?

I was obsessed with the detail of Graeme Base’s The Eleventh Hour and Animalia. Have fond memories of Max from Where the Wild Things Are, Meg and Mog & The Velveteen Rabbit. And I was immediately transported back to my childhood by Robert Sabuda’s amazing pop-up edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

The Curriculum collection includes a wide range of Australian picture books and some international classics, so you can discover your favourites.

All QUT Library users can borrow from the Curriculum Collection. If KG Library is not your home library, but you have chosen a title, you can also place an intercampus request online.

So why not share a picture book this summer? As Picture Book Month highlighted, picture books are not only important for literacy and learning to read, but they are an essential part of the imagination and wonder of childhood.

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Summer Hours at Caboolture Library

Posted by Tanya on 23 November, 2011

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/29998767@N07/2807176376/

Now that summer is here, there will be a few changes to the Caboolture library’s opening hours. From November the 20th until February the 19th, the library will be open, for your borrowing pleasure, from 8am to 4pm, Monday to Friday. The library will be closed on weekends.

The library will be closed over the Christmas and New Year period, from Saturday the 24th of December until Tuesday the 3rd of January.

For more information on opening hours, plus the opening hours of other QUT Library branches go to http://www.library.qut.edu.au/about/openinghours_all.jsp

TV on DVD

Posted by Jennifer on 22 November, 2011

An annoying thing about summer television is the rating season seems to wrap up about the same time as exams. However, if you’re taking a break this summer holidays or you missed 2011’s hit shows, you might find something at QUT Library to help…

Julian Fellowes’ Downton Abbey was a big hit in the UK and Australia this year. You can catch up (or relive) all the melodrama of series one on DVD. If you’re a fan of Downton, you might like other period pieces such as The Forsyte Saga, House of Elliot, Upstairs Downstairs or Mad Men.

Among our millions of catalogue entries for Physicists – Drama (Bazinga!), The Big Bang Theory is a lot of fun. There are lots of new comedy DVDs hitting the shelves soon, including Modern Family, Ab Fab, Laid, and One Foot in the Grave.

Doctor Who was not Steven Moffat’s only hit last year. Sherlock is a beautifully shot, edge-of-your-seat-exciting, modern and intelligent retelling of Conan Doyle’s detective written by Moffat (yes, the guy that wrote Press Gang) and (The League of Gentlemen’s) Mark Gatiss. Other sci-fi/fantasy titles include: Being Human, Stargate Universe, or (the more family orientated) Merlin.

In recent documentaries: there’s SBS TV’s Go back to where you came from, season eight of Grand Designs or collection six of Dirty jobs.

Or if the summer holidays are a time for kids’ TV, browse our selection of children programs on DVD. (It’s amazing what you find. Who knew The Tings Tings played on Yo gabba gabba!?)

If a DVD you would like is not at your campus library, you can place an intercampus request for an item. DVDs from the general collection are available for the same length of time as other library items, unless recalled.

Happy viewing!

Sanctions: what are they and do I want one?

Posted by Philippa on 16 November, 2011

Short answer: no, you don’t want one.

Around exam time, the Library sends out hundreds of emails to students and staff who have one or more items overdue – by at least four weeks. If you get one of these emails, you’ll notice that you’ve been asked to pay a $73.00 replacement cost for each item. Don’t panic! If you return the item(s) you borrowed we’ll happily waive the fine.

If you’re unlucky enough to get that reminder email, then you will also have had a sanction added to your record. A sanction is like a block. If you have a sanction and don’t do anything about it, you will be blocked from borrowing. To remove the sanction, all you need to do is contact the Library and it’s all good.

But there are more serious consequences if you don’t contact us: your exam results are withheld, you won’t be able to register for graduation and you won’t be able to enrol in any QUT units or other tertiary courses.

So, phone us, come in and see us or send an email and we’ll remove your sanction. Sorted!

Need a quiet place to study?

Posted by Jennifer on 16 November, 2011

Needing a quiet getaway? All QUT branch libraries have a variety of places and spaces for group and individual study.

At KG Library, levels 2, 3 and 4 of the library are designated zones for collaborative group work. Levels 5 and 6 are designated as zones for quiet, individual study. Basically the higher up you go, the quieter the spaces (and the more spectacular the views) become.

It’s a similar setup at GP Library, with levels 2, 3, 4 and 5 designated zones for group work, and levels 6 and 7 designated for quiet, individual study.

Lounge and readings areas and study carrels are available at all campuses, as are bookable study rooms. Visit the library website to find out what multimedia- equipped study rooms are available in your branch library, then use the online booking system to book in. Or come and ask at the Learning and Research desks.

Reading library ebooks on your smart phone or tablet

Posted by Emma on 14 November, 2011

If you have an iphone, ipod touch, ipad (iOS) or an android based device (many other smart phones and tablets) then you can borrow and download 1000s of ebooks right on to it from QUT library.

The advantage? You can read the books even if you are offline and they look real good that way – turn the pages, bookmark, search and highlight like it was your own.

How do you do it? A few simple steps.

1.   Download the Bluefire reader app http://www.bluefirereader.com/bluefire-reader.html
2.   Register for an Adobe id – very simple, very fast
3.   Use the browser on your device (e.g. safari) to navigate to the ebook in our collection: try searching our green QuickFind box
4.   Connect to the ebook and download the ebook from the tab or button provided
5.   The ebook will be automatically downloaded to the Bluefire reader app where you will find it – downloaded ebooks look just like the ones on the Kindle or iBook apps with similar functionality

However, this only works for ebooks on EBL and Ebscohost (the main platforms used at QUT library) . Ebscohost will prompt you to log in. Many publishers will only allow ebooks to be read online so you’ll have to check.
More detailed instructions on how to do this and a comprehensive guide to using ebooks on a variety of devices including Kindles and Kobo are on our amazing subject guide: QUT Library Ebooks and Reading Online/Downloading to Computers/Smartphones/Tablet Devices/Ebook Readers

Photo by jblyberg from http://www.flickr.com/photos/jblyberg/4505413539/sizes/z/in/photostream/

Exam Checklist

Posted by Jennifer on 9 November, 2011

It’s a fact of study: exams can cause stress. Here are a few things to do the night before to maximise your concentration and performance.

Double check the location of your exam the next day.
Check you have got transport sorted out, which leaves a bit of extra time e.g. to avoid panic if the bus is running late.
Make sure you have the correct stuff for the exam e.g. racing to the bookshop for a 2B pencil or frantically trying to find a spare book for an open book exam will only add stress.
Have an exam plan (or a time budget). Basically, it’s a plan of what to do when you get into the exam to avoid panic. Use any info provided in your unit (e.g. 2 hour exam, 10 mins perusal, exam type, 1 essay responses, 5 short answer questions) to know that as soon as the exam begins you can read the whole paper (10 minute perusal); write the essay (40 mins); write the short answer (70 mins); and proofreading (10 mins) or how many minutes you can roughly spend on each multiple choice question (no of questions/no of minutes) to avoid running out of time.
Get a good night’s sleep. There’s only so much cramming you can do, before your brain will be too tired the next day. If revision is last minute, at least have an effective plan to make the most of your time.

There are lots of resources available for preparing for exams and dealing with exam stress.

The A, B, C, D of multiple choice

Posted by Jennifer on 8 November, 2011

Multiple choice exams are:

(a) not a worry
(b) look easy, but can be deceptively tricky
(c) require a different sort of exam approach; or
(d) all of the above.

Whether you love them or loathe them, multiple choice is a very different type of exam experience.

Studywell has an easy guide on multiple choice questions and how they are structured. As understanding how the questions work, helps maximise your success with this exam type.

It also includes heaps of useful tips to help you in the actual exam. Our top three are:

1.       Cover the choices and answer the question yourself first. Then look at the alternatives. If you have prepared for the exam, your initial answer will most likely be correct.
2.       Don’t skim a multiple choice test. Read the questions and answers carefully. Many questions have pairs of answers that are very similar.
3.       Underline the key words in the question. This helps you focus on what exactly is being asked.

But you can also find out what key words to look out for, what to do with double negatives, or how to prepare for the different types of questions.

Good Luck!

Quick tips – revising for exams

Posted by Jennifer on 3 November, 2011

Create mind maps of the whole subject and each topic. Memory works better if the information is in a context
Draw diagrams. Use colour and symbols. Visual memory is the strongest for most people.
Reduce whole topics down to key facts, definitions, forumulas on one A4 sheet. It helps you work out what is important and what is detail.
Use flash cards or post-it notes and revise often. A key to memory is repetition.
Don’t just read your notes. Write them out and say them out loud. It’s called multiple sensory input where your brain does not just get visual input but auditory and kinaesthetic input as well.
Write your own exam questions and then answer them. Information framed as a question means your brain immediately thinks about the answer. Ask questions of the same type as the exam.
For essay exams write an introductory paragraph for each topic that you can adapt in the exam. Include key facts/ theories/ideas/arguments.
Use memory aids – acronyms, acrostics, peg-words. Information is remembered better if linked to something:

Acronyms – words created from first letters of a string of terms, e.g. ROYGBIV are the seven colours of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet

Acrostics – sentences where the first letter of each word in the sentence is the same as the words you are trying to remember, e.g. “My Very Educated Mother Just Sent Us Nachos” have the same first letters as the planets of the Solar System: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Peg Words – this technique combines a word that rhymes with a number and a word or picture related to the term to be remembered. It’s useful if you have to remember terms in order or precise numbers, e.g. words related to numbers could be 1-gun, 2-shoe, 3-tree, 4-door, 5-hive, 6-bricks, 7-heaven, 8-plate, 9-wine, 10-hen

For more exam revision tips, check out Studywell