Starting your assignments

It’s week 4.

Lectures and tutorials are happening.  You’re taking notes and doing your readings.  Things are rolling along.  Great!

By now you will have started thinking about your assignments. For many units, assignment due dates will start around week 6 of the semester.  That’s only two weeks away.

Things you could do to get started:

Not sure about your assignment task?  Here are some suggestions:

  • Talk to your tutor or lecturer about what is required.
  • Ask someone at the Library Learning and Research desk to show you our online learning resources and help you find information.
  • Book a Study Solutions appointment for a 25 minute one-on-one appointment to talk about your assignment and how to do it.
  • Check out your faculty’s peer assistance program to talk to another student about your study.

Don’t put it off – time can slip away quickly.  For best results with less stress, start early and work consistently. Good luck!

Library opening days during the Ekka

Due to the public holiday for the Royal Brisbane Show (the Ekka):

  • Caboolture Library will be closed Monday 12 August. It will be open on Wednesday 14 August
  • The Kelvin Grove, Gardens Point and Law libraries will be open Wednesday 14 August but for a shorter day. GP and KG will be open from 9am to 5pm, Law will be open from 10am to 5pm. These libraries  will be open on Monday 12 August at their usual hours.
  • Chat to a Librarian will be normal hours on Monday (10am to 9.45pm) but only from 12pm to 5am on Wednesday.

See full Library opening hours at http://www.library.qut.edu.au/about/openinghours_all.jsp

New ebook collections

QUT Library now provides access to the following ebook collections. These ebook collections add more high quality ebook content to our existing ebook collection. All ebooks are available via Quick Find or the QUT Library Catalogue. Contact Ask a Librarian for more information or assistance to use these resources.

American Chemical Society (ACS) Symposium Series Online
American Chemical Society (ACS) Symposium Series Archive

CCH Ebook Collection 2012

Emerald Business, Management and Economics ebooks Series Collection

IEEE eLearning Library via IEEE Xplore Digital Library

IEEE Wiley Ebooks Library via IEEE Xplore Digital Library

IGI Global InfoSci Books (2012 Collection)

Institution of Engineering & Technology (IET) eBooks

Intersentia 2011 ebook collection

Palgrave Connect ebook collections:
Business & Management Collection 2011
Business & Management Collection 2012
Business & Management Collection 2013
Economics & Finance Collection 2011
Economics and Finance Collection 2012
Economics & Finance Collection 2013
Education Collection 2011
Education Collection 2012
Education Collection 2013
Language & Linguistics Collection 2011
Language & Linguistics Collection 2012
Language & Linguistics Collection 2013
Literature Collection 2011
Literature Collection 2012
Literature Collection 2013
Media & Culture Collection 2012
Media & Culture Collection 2013
Political & International Studies Collection 2011
Political & International Studies Collection 2012
Political & International Studies Collection 2013
Social Sciences Collection 2011
Social Sciences Collection 2012
Social Sciences Collection 2013

Royal Society of Chemistry ebooks (2012 Collection)

ScienceDirect ebook collections:
ScienceDirect Chemistry eBook Collection (2012)
ScienceDirect Computer Science eBook Collection (2012)
ScienceDirect Engineering eBook Collection (2012)
ScienceDirect Energy eBook Collection (2012)
ScienceDirect Environmental Science eBook Collection (2012)
ScienceDirect Finance Books 2012
ScienceDirect Forensics eBook Collection (2012)
ScienceDirect Materials Science eBook Collection
SpringerLink ebooks Professional and Applied Computing (2012)
SpringerLink ebooks Earth and Environmental Science (2012)

Springer ebook collections:
Business & Economics eBooks (2012)
Computer Science (2012)
Engineering (2012)

Woodhead Publishing ebook collections:
Energy and Environmental Technology (2008-2011)
Materials and Engineering (2009 – 2011)
Materials and Engineering (2012)

Please make use of these excellent resources to support your learning.

New Science and Engineering Resources

QUT Library now provides access to the following excellent information resources to support research and teaching and learning in the science and engineering subject areas.

Included below are databases and online journals. Contact Ask a Librarian or the Science and Engineering librarians for more information or assistance to use these resources.

Advanced Energy Materials
AIAA Journal
Biophysical Journal
Building Simulation: an International Journal
Biomedical Spectroscopy and Imaging
British Standards Online: Modules GBM48 and GBM51 (Construction in General and Civil Engineering)
Chemistry : An Asian Journal
Corrosion
Hip International
IBM Journal of Research and Development
Journal of Bone and Mineral Research
Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy
Knovel New Subject Area : Computer Hardware Engineering
Nature Physics
Nearmap (high resolution photo maps of Brisbane and other Australian Cities)
Proceedings of the Australian Society of Sugar Cane Technologists
Proceedings of the International Society of Sugar Cane Technologists (ISSCT) Congresses
Security and Communication Networks
SAE Digital Library

Image used with permission from Microsoft

The library’s Children’s Book Week Competition is now open!

Win a $100 book voucher for Children’s Book Week!

To celebrate Children’s Book Week (17-24 August), QUT Kelvin Grove and Caboolture Libraries are holding a competition.  Current QUT students can win a book voucher valued at $100.  All the shortlisted books will be on display from 2 August, with the competition closing 15th and winners announced Wednesday 21 August.

How to enter:

  1. Competition entry forms will be available between 2 – 15 August.
  2. To enter the competition, guess the winners of the 2013 Children’s Book Council of Australia awards in the following categories: Picture Book; Early Childhood; Younger Readers; Older Readers; Eve Pownall Award for Information Books.
  3. Place your completed competition entry form in the Children’s Book Week competition boxes near the displays.
  4. Entries close Thursday 15th August.  The winner will be the first entry drawn that correctly guesses the winners of the highest number of categories.
  5. All entrants entrants who correctly guess at least one category winner will win a coffee voucher for the respective campus venue.

Click here for competition terms and conditions.

Image courtesy of artist Bob Graham and the Children's Book Council of Australia.

Four ways to rock your next talk

Photo courtesy of Spark CBC - via Flickr

Adapted from The Thesis Whisperer – Four Ways to Rock Your Next Talk

All around Australia PhD students are preparing for the 3 minute thesis competition, so it seems like a good time to be talking about presenting skills!

You have a great research question, cool data and a spot at the next conference. That means you have somewhere between 15 and 30 minutes to impress a bunch of people who know your field just as well, if not better than you do. If you’re a PhD student, some part of you hopes that this talk could be the gateway to a job. You want to do the kind of talk that makes people think that working with you would be a good idea.  So here are four tips for great academic talks:

Forget normal (everyone else already has)
While everyone remembers the great talks and the awful talks, few people remember the “normal” ones. Perversely, it is precisely those “normal” talks that we often use as the guide for our own work.

The talks that really stand out for being great are a much better model. How did those speakers make their work seem interesting and engaging? What did they do that set them apart? Take note of the little things that make talks look and sound great.

Know your audience
Unless you have been to a conference before and/or know the field especially well, do a little recon on the kinds of people who will be there and the kinds of research they are doing. Find out who the “big names” are and how they present their work. In short, do your homework.

If they expect really tight data analysis, do that and present it with flair. If they expect you to deeply engage with theory, do that and engage with the audience too. In short, do what they expect and even more! Remember no one remembers normal.

Throw out some stuff
How do you know what to present and what to leave out? The first rule is simple: keep it simple. A good rule of thumb is to attempt to summarise your presentation in one sentence that is short enough to fit on a t-shirt and only include material that says something about that sentence. That way, you keep to the most important ideas and facts and let the audience ask you if they want more info.

The second rule is this: either it flows or out it goes.  There is nothing worse than a talk that consists of several bits of information with no links between them. It confuses your audience and you at the same time. Rehearse it a few times – doing that will soon tell you what works and what doesn’t.

Be helpful
Every audience member is silently asking “why should I listen to you?” The only answer that ever works is “because I can help you.” If your study is as good as you think it is, it should say something about a larger process, a wider problem or a bigger issue. Make the most of that link: it is not just a vital part of doing a good talk but it is an important building block for your future career.

The QUT 3 Minute Thesis competition is coming up in August with the final being held in September.  Details are at http://www.student.qut.edu.au/about/events/research-events/three-minute-thesis

Find more resources on presentation skills via –

Research Students Training Resources
Studywell > Presenting

Getting started with study

New in semester two? Awesome, welcome.

You’re enrolled, you’ve got your student card, your password and email is set up, your tutorials are organised, and you’ve found the Library, the Student Guild Bar and the best coffee on campus…

So, what next?

Now is when you have time – time to plan your weekly schedule, organise your readings, and to learn some important new skills so you can stay ahead with your study all semester.

Then here are some things you can do now:

These are our suggestions but, just in case you need more convincing, check out the top ten tips of QUT students who are almost ready to graduate.

But most importantly … welcome to QUT!

Photo courtesy of Johnson Cameraface, via Flickr

 

Online videos available for you!

The Library has a wide range of online videos, including videos for education, dance, theatre, counselling and nursing.   Access these via QUT Library’s collection.

Recent additions include ArtFilms Digital, Health and Society in Video, and regular additions to Kanopy.

Video clips and play lists can be created – links to these can be added to BlackBoard pages.

There is also a large selection of popular films and documentaries available. Check out some of these –

Need more info?  Check out the subject guide Accessing Video for Learning and Teaching.

NAIDOC: A week of celebration

Dates: 7-14 July, 2013

Theme: We value the vision – Yirrkala Bark Petitions 1963

NAIDOC stands for the National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee. Its origins can be traced to the emergence of Aboriginal groups in the 1920s who sought to increase awareness in the wider community of the status and treatment of Indigenous Australians.

Today, NAIDOC is a celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and an opportunity to recognise the contributions of Indigenous Australians in various fields.

The 2013 NAIDOC theme marks the 50th anniversary of the presentation of the Yirrkala Bark Petitions to the Australian Federal Parliament. Find out more at the NAIDOC website.

Activities take place across the nation during NAIDOC Week in the first full week of July. QUT encourages all staff and students to participate in community celebrations, to find an event near you visit the NAIDOC events calendar.
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