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August

Saturday 30 August, 9.30am-4pm: Sydney Uni Live! Courses and Careers Day 2008

Discover more about study opportunities and Sydney Uni life and visit one of the many libraries open this Saturday: Badham, Conservatorium, Fisher, Health Sciences, Law, Medical, SCA, and the new SciTech Library. Opening hours vary so please check the opening hours website.

Find out what's happening at the University this Saturday on the Sydney UniLive website.

29 August to 29 September: Pauline McLeod Awards for Reconciliation - Reconciliation Week Art Competition 2008.

Visit the SciTech Library to see exhibited student artwork entries. The competition titled 'Reconciliation in Our Neighbourhood' aims to raise awareness of the importance of reconciliation and encourage children's consideration and expression of what reconciliation means for them. Artworks displayed at the various sites across the University are taken from entries from 22 Sydney schools.

20 August: Pre-service teachers, we would like to know more about your needs!

A quick survey for Pre-Service Education students from the Faculty of Education and Social Work.
Start survey

6 August: My Reading History

Log into MyLibrary to set up My Reading History. Once you have 'opted in' the system will keep a list of all items you borrow.

You may 'opt out', or irreversibly delete some or all items at any time.
In order to completely secure your privacy, you must delete your reading history before you leave the University.
Library staff will not access or disclose your reading history except where in accordance with university policy or legislation. See Section 8 of the University's ICT Resources Policy for more information.



July

30 July: Book for a library class!

We are running library tours and a range of classes, particularly on EndNote, using the library catalogue and searching databases effectively.
See our library classes page for more detail.


28 July: The SciTech library is now open!


24 July: Access to some issues of electronic journals from Wiley and Blackwell-Synergy

is unavailable due to circumstances beyond our control. Apologies for the disruption.
Contact your Faculty Liaison Librarian for assistance


23 July: After-hours book return shutes at Architecture, Engineering, Madsen and Mathematics libraries are now closed

Please use any other University of Sydney Library to return your books.




June

23 June: Miles Franklin literary award

Did you know Fisher Library has the winning novel by Steven Carroll and the other 4 shortlisted novels?
The time we have taken / Steven Carroll
The fern tattoo : a novel / David Brooks
Love without hope / Rodney Hall
Sorry / Gail Jones
Landscape of farewell / Alex Miller



23 June: New web pages for clients with a disability

The Library has centralised its information for clients with a disability into 4 web pages outlining the services offered, facilities in the library buildings, by library and by facility, and the assistive technology available. There is a link to this information from the 'About the library' heading on the navigation bar at the top of all our web pages.



10 June: Secret Vatican archive material

Recent University of Sydney purchase now in Rare Books Library



6 June: Conservatorium Library

The Sydney Conservatorium of Music Library is now known as the Conservatorium Library.
You'll find it under the letter 'C' in our lists of libraries and our other information resources on the Library's web site.



1st June: Preparations for the SciTech library move

In preparation for the move of the Architecture, Engineering, Madsen and Mathematics libraries to new Scitech library in late July 2008, library staff are currently relabelling books in these libraries.

While the books will have the "Scitech" location on their spine labels, they will still be listed in the catalogue under their current location until the move takes place.

They can be borrowed and returned from these libraries as normal.



May 2008

12 May: ARROW service from the National Library of Australia now available

Provides access to the research outputs of Australian universities, including the University of Sydney. The majority of items are available online, covering unpublished theses, preprints or postprints, as well as published journal articles, images, working papers and technical reports.

It currently contains more than 137,000 records harvested from 23 university repositories and 12 other research collections, including the Australasian Digital Theses program, and several e-journals.

Recent improvements include a more intuitive search interface, faceted browsing & tag clouds and more access to statistics, including tables of the most popular authors and institutions.

As an example of how it works, a search on "climate change" returns a relevance-ranked result set of 722 records from 21 different university repositories, plus the Australasian Digital Theses Program, an e-journal from UTS, and two other collections. Faceted search refinement allows this result set to be narrowed by institution, subject, resource type, date or creator. In this example, it is possible to refine to climatology resources, or to those dealing with conservation and biodiversity. The resource type facets in this example indicate that the result set includes 296 theses, 206 journal articles, 55 conference papers and 48 reports.

Try ARROW now.



March 2008

5 March: Using your mobile phone in the Library

You can use your mobile phone in a designated group study area or any general public area.

If you are in a designated quiet area, set your phone to 'silent' and please move out of the quiet area to have your conversation.

Thanks for your cooperation!



February 2008

29 February: First year students - help us to help you!

The Library is creating a range of multimedia learning tools and is seeking first year students to help in the testing phase, which is week 1 of semester.
Thank you for your offers of help - we've reached our quota of participants and we've started testing.

Look out for our new online learning tools coming soon!



13 February: Harrison Bryan (1923-2008)

Former Librarian of the University of Sydney, Harrison Bryan, died on Tuesday, 12 February 2008 after suffering a massive stroke. Harry had been in ill health for some time.

During a very long career, Harry was University Librarian at Queensland (1950-1963) and Sydney (1963-1980) as well as being Director-General of the National Library (1980-1985).

Harry will be remembered for the passion with which he approached life and his interest in a broad range of issues including education, librarianship, naval history and printing. Harry was a keen reader of naval history and was something of an expert on the novels of C. S. Forester that featured Horatio Hornblower.

Harry was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1984 and was awarded honorary doctorates from Sydney, Monash and Queensland. In addition to being a Fellow of the Library Association of Australia, Harry was also a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Social Sciences.

During his reign at the National Library of Australia, Harry provided a period of calm after the turbulence of his predecessor. It was during Harry's reign that the Australian Bibliographic Network was established. ABN provided the foundation for online library services to the nation.

Harry could be feisty when the occasion warranted but he was also very generous in his support and encouragement of friends, staff and colleagues. He never hesitated to express his views and was an effective advocate of librarians and librarianship. His academic prowess, his innate common sense and his force of personality gained him a respect from which his many successors have benefited. He will be missed by those who knew him.

John Shipp, University Librarian



January 2008

16 January: Having trouble logging into MyLibrary, requesting Document Delivery or paying fines online?

2007 student cards have expired and whilst you wait to receive your new one, you can get your 2008 borrower number by:

Don't forget to give us your full name and student number



Discover newsletter out now.

The summer edition of the Library newsletter is now available, sporting a new look. It is the result of extensive collaboration between Library staff and members of the University's Marketing and Communication Unit.
Read it online in pdf format or pick up a copy from any of our libraries.



December 2007

Spellcheck feature introduced on the library catalogue

The Library has purchased an add-on product which offers a spelling checking option when using Keyword or Advanced keyword search options.
When a search term is incorrectly spelt resulting in 'No records found' message, you'll be presented with a suggestion of the correct spelling. If this is not what you meant, then clicking on the 'more' option will enable a display of other suggested terms from the dictionary.

Spellcheck is based on an American English dictionary, however the Library maintains an extensive list of synonyms which is consulted before Spellcheck comes into play. For example, a search for "color" will find "colour" and vice-versa. This list should alleviate any bias in American spelling.

If you'd like to let us know what you think of this new feature, please email us at ocg@library.usyd.edu.au



November 2007

On Monday 19 November 2007, work begins on the redevelopment of the Fisher Library forecourt. This is stage 3 of the Camperdown Public Domain revitalisation (stages 1 and 2 being Eastern Avenue boulevard and its gardens).

The renovations for the sunny square in front of the Fisher Library include new lawns, plazas and ample seating. The ramp access to the library will be enlarged to fit better with the building's entrance and the historic Moreton Bay fig tree will continue to provide shade. The work will be completed by 4 March 2008, in time for semester one.

Pedestrian access to the library, including disabled access, will be maintained at all times.

The existing carparks for disabled drivers in front of Fisher Library will remain throughout the redevelopment. There will be no changes to carparking in front of the Quadrangle.

Road closures: University Place will be closed between University Avenue and Eastern Avenue. Manning Road will be closed between Eastern Avenue and Fisher Road.

The security bus route will change because of the road closures around the site. While the forecourt is being redeveloped, the bus will not stop outside Fisher Library or travel along University Place. The run will start and finish at the Manning Rd carpark on the corner of Manning and Fisher Roads. The amended route is detailed on Security bus website

The Moreton Bay fig tree is unaffected by the works. The other trees on the forecourt will be replaced by new landscaping.

The USU's coffee cart outside the library will close during construction. However, the coffee cart between the Eastern Avenue auditorium and Carslaw building (by the water feature) is open for business during the summer break.

For drawings showing the location of the works and paths around the site, please visit the Campus 2010 website.





2007 News items