The last post....

for 2011, that is.

It's been a crazy and exciting year for your library, but the time has come for a bex and a good lie down. 

Your library will be closed from 1pm, Thursday 22nd December 2011. 

In 2012, Fulham campus library will return to normal business hours from 16th January.

Limited services will resume at Forestec from 3rd January 2012, with a return to normal business hours from 30th January.

Bairnsdale campus will be occupying it's new space from 3rd January. Limited services will be in operation from approximately 23rd January.

Until then, happy holidays and thanks for helping us make your library what it is.

Peter, Ruth, Anne, Emily, Helen, Barb and Jannelle

Exciting times ahead

Advance TAFE is revamping our services to students and here’s a couple of ways we’re doing it: 

1. Whether you visit, phone or email, the brand new Bairnsdale Learning Common will be your one-stop-shop for advice, enrolment, support and library access.

2. All Advance TAFE students will be able to use the new online catalogue system, featuring improved ways to search, research and collaborate with your library.

To support all this, we’re building a brand new student computer network. Between 19 December 2011 and January 31 2012 you won’t be able to use the:

• library and FLC student computers
• student labs and loan laptops
• student email and network storage
• student on-campus Wi-Fi.

You’ll still be able to log in to Online Campus from any computer with internet access so you can view your online grades and finish any work you might still have to do.

We’re sorry we have to shut down for so long, but if you need help to deal with the outage, contact your library.

If you are currently using your student email account, e.g. 'ABC12345678@student.egtafe.vic.ed.au', you should:

• get an alternative email account, e.g. G-mail
• advise all your contacts to use the new email account
• change your email address in your Online Campus profile

As happens every year, your student account will expire on 19 Dec. so you should copy any files you may have on H:\ drive to a memory stick, etc. 

If you are returning to study next year, you will create a new account and email address on the new Advance TAFE network. 

Have a great holiday and a happy new year!

From the rubble...

The most recent view of the almost learning common at Bairnsdale campus, as captured by a passing librarian with a smart phone.

Champagne across the bow

From the Bairnsdale Advertiser, 18 November 2011

Obssession, information, the internet, learning, and the whole damn thing

Improving your library service

There will be a minor change to our hours of operation Tuesday 15th through Thursday 17th November as we undertake training to improve the service we offer.

Fulham campus will be closed between 1 and 1.30pm. 

Forestec campus library will remain open - please see reception if you have any issues. 

If you intend to visit Bairnsdale library, please ring ahead for confirmation on the days mentioned above.

More than just hard copy

Journals are great; they can give you recent and relevant information; many are peer reviewed and add scholarly weight to your essay or research.

Journals are also more than hard copy; they are online, full-text, indexed, and available through your library. They can be accessed on-campus or from anywhere with an internet connection.

A publication search through the library’s subscription databases turned up any number of full text journals, including Australian Nursing Journal, Harvard Business Review, Architecture Australia, Image, Contemporary Nurse, Modern Painters, Australian Journal of Early Childhood, Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing, Gourmet Traveller, Camerawork, and Australian Geographic.

Access them online, wherever you are, whenever you want.

Brave New World (in the best possible sense)

BLOW YOUR MIND

Google down the gurgler..?

Well, not quite.

Mary Ellen Bates recently drew attention to statistics from a Hitwise press release in her Web Search Pacific newsletter:

Most people have assumed that Google will always be their go-to search engine. In fact, the verb "to Google" suggests that, for many of us, Google defines what a search engine is. I'm reminded of Velcro, Kleenex and Escalator, all brands that have come to represent the generic product because they were the first and the best in their field. (OK, Google wasn't the first search engine, but it was the first to use link analysis to calculate relevance.) .

I recently saw a press release from Hitwise, a firm that studies web market share and consumer activity. According to Hitwise, Google's share of the search engine market is down to 66%, from 71% a year ago, with Bing its nearest competitor at 28%, up from 25% last year. Even more interesting to me was that, based on Hitwise's analysis, the "success rate" of searches was significantly higher for Bing (80%) than Google (68%). Wow! [cue the music from "Jaws"]

Google earned the market share it has by consistently delivering better, more relevant search results than its competitors. While it still owns the lion's share of the market, that percentage is inexorably dropping, and Bing-powered search is gaining. (Since searches on Yahoo are actually powered by Bing, Hitwise combines the market share of bing.com and search.yahoo.com.) And the fact that Google has a relatively poor success rate compared to Bing means that we may start talking about "Binging" a question rather than Googling it.

Google has made its search results page attractive to info pros and researchers; the left margin is full of ways to filter or spin your search. Try it on blogs! Search discussion groups! Limit to the last six months! Narrow it to your local area! It's hard to resist the impression that you are conducting a comprehensive search as you work your way through all of Google's search options.

Bing has some search features worth considering, though. In addition to the usual specialized searches -- news, images, video, map and shopping -- it has an interesting Visual Search feature. Right now, there are 90 "galleries", collections of information on topics ranging from world leaders to the top Twitterers. Within each gallery is a browsable collection of images representing each item in the collection; in the World Leaders gallery, for example, there are close to 350 photos of heads of state, each linked to a profile compiled from the CIA World Factbook. You can further filter the gallery by region, title or type of leader, or skim the images to identify a particular person. These galleries may turn into valuable tools for quick answers, particularly if info pros could create their own galleries.

I have just switched my default search engine on my browser to Bing and I'll report later on how it works with research queries. So long, Google. We'll still be friends, but we're no longer dating. I've got my eye on a good-looking search engine over there who just might make me happier than you do.

Published in Web Search Pacific newsletter.

An ongoing exploration of contemporary cinema...

In the mood to stay out of the out-of-doors over the winter weekend? Could we suggest a evening with a DVD?

Blue Valentine

Director Derek Cianfrance’s unflinching observation of the first flush of love and the devastation wrought when it slowly comes apart.

See what David and Margaret think. Hard to watch, but highly recommended by this librarian.

True Grit

The Cohen Brothers remix and remake the 1969 classic starring John Wayne.

Rabbit Hole

Something different from the director of Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Shortbus.

How do Margaret and David rate it? Find the trailer here.

Me and Orson Welles

Before things got all crazy with Citizen Kane, Orson Welles cut his creative teeth on New York theatre. Me and Orson Welles tells the behind the scenes story of the 1937 Welles directed, Mercury Theatre production of Julius Caesar.

A Single Man

Adapted from Christopher Isherwood’s novel of loss, the burden of love, outsiderdom, and loneliness and the will to life. Watch the trailer.

Winter’s Bone

I couldn’t write anything better to describe this film than the good people at Wikipedia:

“It explores the interrelated themes of close and distant family ties, the power and speed of gossip, patriarchy, self-sufficiency, and rural poverty in the Ozarks as they are impacted by the pervasive underworld of illegal methamphetamine labs”.

Enough said.