New Titles - Top 10 - Week Ending Feb 22

Each week CSU Library adds hundreds of new resources to our catalogue, including books, DVDs, CDs, and electronic resources. The following selection highlights some of the new books added to the collection last week. Click on a book's title to read more information about the book, or click on 'Check Availability' to find the book in the Library Catalogue. Click here to view the complete list of new titles.

	Too close for comfort : contentious issues in human-wildlife encounters
	Edited by: Daniel Lunney Genre: Wildlife Management Year: 2008
Check Availability

	Zoo animals : behaviour, management and welfare
	Author: Geoff Hosey Genre: Zoo Animals Year: 2009
Check Availability

	Facing Armageddon : the First World War experienced
	Author: Hugh Cecil Genre: World War Year: 1996
Check Availability

	From Russia : French and Russian master paintings 1870-1925 from Moscow and St. Petersburg
	Published by: Royal Academy of Arts Genre: Art - Painting Year: 2008
Check Availability

	Green urbanism down under : learning from sustainable communities in Australia
	Author: Timothy Beatley Genre: Sustainable Development Year: 2008
Check Availability

	457 visa law : addressing Australia's skilled labour shortage
	Author: Maria Jockel Genre: Employment Year: 2007
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	Dragonflies and damselflies : model organisms for ecological and evolutionary research
	Edited by: Alex Cordoba-Aguilar Genre: Ecology Year: 2008
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	ABC of tubes, drains, lines and frames
	Edited by: Adam Brooks Genre: Surgery Year: 2008
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	Dogs : history, myth, art
	Author: Catherine Johns Genre: Animals Year: 2008
Check Availability

	Hammershøi
	Author: Troy Simpson Genre: Arts Year: 2008
Check Availability

New opening hours for Bathurst, Wagga and Orange from 23/2/09

The Library’s Opening hours have been reduced in response to the significant decline in afterhours usage of Library buildings and face-to face services.
The new Opening hours are available at http://www.csu.edu.au/division/library/about/opening/ these hours commence 23/2/09.
Students at each of these campuses have access to 24 hour computing and study spaces. Students and staff continue to have access to an extensive range of online resources and services including ejournals, ebooks, eReserve, self help, interactive training, online reference tools and much more.
Opening hours for the Orange Library will be extended when the new Learning Commons is completed in June. The Library team will continue to measure and monitor usage across the campuses during 2009 and will make adjustments to the opening hours for Residential Schools and exam periods as required.
For more information contact the Library’s ‘Ask a Question’ service at http://www.csu.edu.au/division/library/help/web-form.html

It's cold in Canada!

Students and staff at CSU's Canadian campus have been 'enjoying' very snowy conditions this winter. The current temperature at the campus is -3 C with an expected overnight temperature of -10 C. What a contrast to the heat, floods and bushfires in Australia!

Check out these photos sent by Nena Grandic, CSU's Ontario Librarian.

CSU Library Orientation Scavenger Hunt

We are celebrating O Week with a Scavenger Hunt, and every CSU student can join in.

Regardless of your mode of study - Offshore, DE or Internal - click on the Retr-O Librarian on the Library’s News feature and follow the clue to where he is hiding next. Follow all of the clues and the final one will tell you how to submit your entry.

You have until February 25, 2009 to complete the hunt and send us your entry. Five winners will be drawn on the 26th of February and notified by email. The Scavenger Hunt is open to all CSU students (except for CSU Library employees) and you can win one of five $20 iTunes vouchers.

Click here to return to the Library Home Page.

Welcome!

The CSU Library team would like to welcome all the new students!

Don’t believe the stereotypes about Libraries. Yes, CSU Libraries have books and journals to support your studies, but we also have novels; the latest films, docos and TV shows on DVD. Visit the Catalogue to find your favorites.

Online resources, such as journals, ebooks, online reference and subject support guides are all available through the CSU Library website, Your Library - Anywhere, Anytime.

For internal students, we have quiet places to study, discussion rooms for practicing presentations, laptops for loan, and plenty of space to just hang out and have a coffee with friends.

For distance education students, we can provide you with photo copies, or send out books and dvds to your home address.

We want you to do well in your studies, and while Google & Wikipedia are useful in everyday life, skilled information seekers, who can effectively utilise reputable journals, books, encyclopedias and multimedia, are more likely to succeed in their studies. To help you find your way, we'd like to present your Library Survival Toolbox - a one-stop shop to your Library.

Most importantly, the Library is accessible. If you need help with a library-related issue, don't hesitate to contact us. Call us on 1800 808 369, instant message using our Live Chat, drop in and see us at an Ask Us! desk, or fill out a Web Form and we'll get back to you.

Victorian Bushfire Appeal 2009

The The 2009 Victorian Bushfire Fund to assist individuals and communities affected by devastating bushfires in Victoria set up by the Premier John Brumby in partnership with Red Cross and the Federal Government has raised millions of dollars for fire ravaged communities.

More details about the appeal are available on the Red Cross website.

This image taken by Stuart McEvoy published in The Australian 12/02/09, shows the proximity of the Kinglake West fire to the city of Melbourne.

2 Centuries Later...The Missing Link Found?

The father of Evolution, Charles Darwin turns 200 tomorrow. Darwinians all over the world are ramping up to celebrate the life and work of Darwin as Darwin Day hits a city near you.

In honour of Darwin, CSU Library has compiled some great evolution resources, a natural selection if you will:

• Charles Darwin : an Australian selection (2008) by TR Frame. Check Availability
• The caveman mystique : pop-Darwinism and the debates over sex, violence, and science (2008) by M McCaughey. Check Availability
• Big brain : the future of human intelligence (2008) by G Lynch & R Granger. Check Availability
• Evolution : a historical perspective (2007) by B Brown. Check Availability
• Baboon metaphysics : the evolution of a social mind (2007) by DL Cheney & RM Seyfarth. Check Availability
  

And just to play devil's advocate, lets look at the other side of the evolutionary coin with a classic anti-evolution film:

• Planet of the apes (1967) directed by FJ Schaffner. Check Availability

So whether you believe in evolution or not, I'll just ask you to gaze your eyes back over the image at the top of this blog, and then look at the image directly below, and ask yourself 'Have we found the missing link?'

Awareness, perceptions and needs of first year teachers: market research report

EDNA (Education Network Australia) commissioned market research with first year teachers about how they currently use ICT in their teaching, and how their pre-service training prepared them for using information technologies.
The focus group participants:
Were 'digital natives' with much greater reliance on ICT than their more experienced colleagues:
Use the web much more in planning than in teaching – Google and Wikipedia predominate:
Described their pre-service ICT training as patchy and inconsistent:
Experienced similar barriers to previous teachers & ICT market research – limited school infrastructure, site blocking:
Advised owners of websites to 'keep it simple'.
Read the full report here

Fires devastate Victoria

Keep up to date with the news on the bushfires devastating the state of Victoria at these sites.

• CFA (Country Fire Authority)
• ABC news (Twitter updates available)
• The Age Bushfire emergency site - including video, photos, audio, maps and updates
• Google map of the fire areas (based on latest CFA data)
• Twitter (Bushfires)
• Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's Twitter page
• ABC Local Radio - check for your local frequency
• The Australian newspaper
• ABC News Radio - continuous news
• Victorian bushfires death toll (Google maps)
• Photos of the Bushfires on Flickr
• Applaud the CFA heroes & empathise with the victims of the 09 Vic bushfires - Facebook (requires a Facebook account to access)
• CSU Library's News site.

Satellite image shows extent of bushfire devastation in the Eastern half of Victoria.

Building an Education Revolution

The Federal Government has announced and 'Education Revolution' worth $14.7 billion, in an effort to boost the economy. This project involves:

• Build or upgrade large scale infrastructure, such as libraries and multipurpose halls in every primary school, special school, and K-12 school in Australia.
  
• Build around 500 new science laboratories and language learning centres in high schools with a demonstrated need for upgraded facilities.
  
• Provide up to $200,000 to every Australian school for maintenance and renewal of school buildings and minor building works.

For full details of this package are outlined in a press release from Federal MP Julia Gillard.

Chinese New Year @ CSU Library

CSU Library is celebrating the Chinese New Year. And what better way to bring in the Year of the Ox, than by immersing yourself in Chinese culture with these fantastic books and DVDs from CSU Library.

Jian gui [videorecording] "Wong Kar Mun, a Hong Kong woman who has been blind since the age of two, receives a corneal transplant that now allows her to see. But as she adjusts to being able to interpret the world visually, she also notices figures that no others can see. As these figures become more sinister and threatening, she realizes that she is now able to see the dead. The inability to stop seeing these figures drives her to the point of near insanity. In trying to help her, her therapist takes her on a journey to Bangkok to find the donor of the corneas, a woman who was psychically gifted but ended up being driven to suicide." Check Availability

Farewell my concubine As sprawling and colourful as China itself, this awe-inspiring drama centres on the incredible lives of two stars from the Peking Opera, who find themselves hopelessly entwined in the turbulence of 20th century China. Check Availability

Crouching tiger, hidden dragon Set in 19th century China, this film follows two martial-arts masters Li Mu Bai and Yu Shu Lien as they battle against evil forces to regain the stolen Green Destiny sword and defeat long-time foe Jade Fox. To succeed they must overcome an unknown warrior, the supremely-skilled Jen, who is fighting against an arranged marriage. In the process Li is torn between his deep and long-denied feelings for Shu, and his wish to tame and teach Jen. Check Availability

Raise the red lantern The story of a wealthy man in 1920’s China and his four concubines. Check Availability

The Living festivals video series Contents: Programme 1 - Chanukah (10 min.) - Christmas (10 min.) - Chinese New Year (10 min.) - Passover (10 min.) - Easter (10 min.) -- Programme 2 - Succot (15 min.) - Divali (15 min.) - Guru Nanak’s birthday (15 min.) Check Availability

Wild China "For the first time in a century, China is opening up to the world. This new six-part series gains unprecedented access into a most enigmatic of countries, to reveal a land of astonishing complexity. High definition cameras capture unique images of mysterious creatures and diverse human communities that live in China’s varied landscapes. The glittering peaks of the Himalayas, the world’s highest mountain range, tower over the desolate Tibetan plateau. Deserts range from searingly hot to mind-numblingly cold. Rivers roar through steep-sided gorges and cascade down forested waterfalls. Emerald rice paddies form a glistening patchwork between clusters of egg-box hills. Flocks of cranes migrate along a coastline studded with bustling high-tech cities. Steaming jungles harbour wild elephants, colourful birds and strange tropical flowers. Journey through this breathtaking place, from the Himalayas to the barren steppe, the sub-arctic to the tropical islands, and discover the cultural diversity of China and the mysterious, beautiful, wild and rare creatures which live there". Check Availability

The road home Telling the love story of a beautiful girl and a humorous teacher. After the husband dies, the wife recalls their merry days. Check Availability

Chinese New Year : festival of new beginnings / by Terri Sievert. A brief description of what Chinese new year. Check Availability

The fisherman and the cormorants / by Gerald Rose. A fictional explanation of why the chinese use cormorants to fish with on the Li River. Check Availability

Jung Chang Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China. Through the lives of three generations of women, this book tells the story of 20th-century China. The book begins with the author's grandmother in 1924, continues with the experiences of the mother and finishes with the daughter - who grew up during the Cultural Revolution.Check Availability

A Golden treasury of Chinese poetry / translated by John A. Turner, with notes and Chinese texts ; compiled and edited by John J. Deeney, with the assistance of Kenneth K.B. Li and Chu Chiyu. Check Availability

The Columbia book of Chinese poetry : from early times to the thirteenth century / translated and edited by Burton Watson. Check Availability

Life and death are wearing me out : a novel / by Mo Yan ; translated from the Chinese by Howard Goldblatt. "Life and Death are Wearing Me Out opens in hell on January 1, 1950, nearly two years after Mao Zedong’s Land Reform Movement overturned the traditional order of rural China. For those two years, Lord Yama, king of the underworld, has submitted Ximen Nao, a landowner known for his uncommon kindness to all who worked his land, to every possible torture to make him admit the charges that led to his execution at the hands of newly empowered peasants. But even after being fried alive - the ultimate torture in hell - Ximen Nao continues to proclaim his innocence."Check Availability

Red Sorghum / by Mo, Yan "Red Sorghum is a novel of family, myth, and memory, set during the fratricidal barbarity of the 1930s, when the Chinese battled both Japanese invaders and each other. [It is] narrated by a young man at the end of the cultural revolution who tells the stories of his father, Douguan; his granddad, the most ruthless and infamous bandit and guerrilla commander in the region; and his grandma who fell in love with the commander when he raped her in the sorghum fields, only three days after her arranged marriage."
Check Availability