Academic Search Complete is now @ Your Library

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Academic Search Complete is updated daily and will replace Academic Search Premier.

Social inclusion in Australia: How Australia is faring

While most Australians live well, there are some groups who are doing it very tough, according to this Australian Social Inclusion report. Approximately 5% of Australians aged 15 years and over experience three or more types of disadvantage. (Text adapted from AustralianPolicyOnline). Read the full report

here

Bandwidth to your brain

If your brain was a hard-drive, how long would it take to fill?
How much information do we process each day?

These are the questions being answered by the How Much Information project being run by the University of California. In a recent press release, it has been calculated that the average American consumes 34 gigabytes per day! In 2008, the population of the USA consumed 3.6 zettabytes - thats 3,600,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes!

This yearly consumption of information is roughly 20 times more than the combined capacity of every hard drive around the globe.

According to the report, television, computers and video games make up the bulk of the information intake, with the average American diet comprising of 4.91 hours of TV per day, and a further 2.86 hours on a computer or playing video games.

For more information see the How Much Information press release.
Or download the full report.

Australian Government assistance to refugees: fact v fiction

This short background note written by Luck Buckmaster from the Parliamentary Library outlines the facts and errors used to describe the benefits received by refugees in Australia. (Test adapted from AustralianPolicyOnline). Read the full report here

Trial of lending to Overseas DE Students

As part of CSU’s commitment to Distance Education students, from 2010 DE students living overseas are now able to borrow books from CSU libraries, excluding Dubbo, Ontario and St. Marks.

This service is a trial and will be reviewed at the end of 2010. This service does not extend to students studying through CSU Offshore partner and affiliated institutions.

Lending is limited to lending book material only, all Audio Visual material, Videos, DVD and short term loans is not included.

Borrowing privileges are similar to domestic DE students with 4 week loan periods. All outgoing postage is paid for by the Library and return postage will be paid for by the student.

Help guides about this service can be obtained from the following webpages: Information for DE Undergradates & Postgraduates students and Information for DE Higher Degree students under the I Need Help menu of the Library Homepage.

Changes to fines and overdues

Lending services now cease at $100 of fines/charges rather than $10. Any Library charges can now be paid the day after Library items have either been renewed or returned. There are a variety of options for paying overdue fines. Cash payments can no longer be made in the Library. Further information can be found on the Student Payment Methods page.

Note: Ontario students need to contact their campus Librarian. For any fines accrued on St Marks items please contact St Marks.

Loans can now be renewed even after they have accrued fines - Fines are still payable but you can now renew overdue items. Go to My Library Record via the Library Catalogue. Items with hold requests for another patron still need to be returned.

Library notices
- Overdue notices will be sent by email when items are 1 day and 7 days over due.
- A bill to replace the item will be emailed at 14 days overdue. New charges to replace items in 2010 can be found on the "2010 Other Fees and Charges" document on the Student Fees Page.

Touching the future: building skills for life and work

This book witten by Johanna Wyn is an exploration of the goals of Australian education and of how schools should prepare young people for work and life. (Text adapted from AustralianPolicyOnline). Read the full text here

Image: ambrown/flickr

Swinburne National Technology and Society Monitor

The Swinburne National Technology and Society Monitor (SNTSM) provides an annual 'snapshot' of public perceptions of new technologies, science and technological change. An interesting examination of some attitudes toward controversial technologies (e.g., stem cell research, DNA paternity testing) and emerging technologies with important social consequences (e.g., the digital divide, internet relationships) (Text adapted from AustralianPolicyOnline). Read the full report here

New Procedures for Library Fines

As of January 11th 2010, the Library System will be linked with the CSU's financial system. This means that all library fines will automatically appear in your CSU finance account.

Payment of fines continues to be available through my.csu and the cashier. Fines information is accessible at: http://www.csu.edu.au/division/library/how-to/faq/borrow.html

All library notices generated will be sent via email.

Is Everything Old New Again?

Triple J has recently been broadcasting “Acceptable in the 80s,” a fascinating series of programmes looking at the 80s-revival we’ve been experiencing in recent times (love it or hate it!) Here’s what the Triple J website has to say:

“… why, now that we live in the future, does everything look and sound a bit like it's from 1986? Has the fabric of time been altered somehow? Have we run out of new ideas? Or does our new-found fondness for synth-pop and shoulder pads have some deeper significance?

"To find out, author and triple j culture guy Craig Schuftan dons a pair of stupid 80s sunglasses, soups up his sports car with one of those flux capacitor things, and risks further damage to the space-time continuum by travelling back to the origin point of the current crisis - the 1980s. There, he finds himself in a strange world - a world where people listen to futuristic robot-pop while spending money they don't have on ridiculous clothes so as to take their minds off the impending apocalypse. Yes, all very strange - and yet at the same time, eerily familiar…”

Below is the first episode in the series – hit the play button to listen to it here, or follow the links below to catch the whole series on the Triple J website.

Check out ‘Acceptable in the 80s’

Subscribe to the podcast

Interested in other great resources looking at music culture? Try some of these books and DVDs in the Library's collection, or search for ‘popular culture and music’ in the Library Catalogue Advanced Search.

Beethoven or Britney : the great divide in music education by Robert Walker. Check Availability

Listening to popular music, or, How I learned to stop worrying and love Led Zeppelin by Theodore Gracyk. Check Availability

Sex’n’pop : complete series. [DVD] Check Availability

Girls gone skank : the sexualization of girls in American culture by Patrice A. Oppliger. Check Availability