Bradley Report

There is widespread news coverage accompanying the release of the Review of Australian Higher Education Report (search subscribed news sources via the Factiva database). The report is available as a download from the DEEWR website and I will have an entry and link added to the catalogue.

Words, words, words

I updated the ESL libguide today with a link both to the “Australian Word Map” and the Macquarie Dictionary “Aussie word of the week.” Both of these were mentioned in a recent post in the education.au blog. I have also added the Word Map to the tag cloud of curriculum resources for teacher education.

The Australian Word Map allows users from different regions to add their comments on word variations in different areas. I was confused recently when a friend referred to being “dinked” on a bicycle. Since I can only recall using the much more prosaic “double” we decided that it must have been a regional thing.

The word this week from Aussie word of the week is “bloody”.

The Library has subscription access to quite a few online dictionaries including the Macquarie and the big “multi-volume”  Oxford English Dictionary. After logging in the easiest thing to do is bookmark the site and then each time you return it should prompt you for your RMIT University login details.

Are you preparing an online course?

Just a reminder that if you are preparing course material and wish to create links from Blackboard to our e-resources there are instructions available when you log in to the Learning Hub under  ”LIBRY RMIT University Library and your online course”. I am also very happy to assist with these links.

The other thing to remember is that if you want to request readings be digitized then the earlier the better when submitting such requests to our Digitization Unit. The turn-around-times become longer the closer we get to the beginning of semester.

Naxos Music Library on trial

The Library has just organised a trial of Naxos Music Library which is a comprehensive collection of online music covering Classical, Jazz and World music. See the Library information for login details and don’t forget to provide some feedback if you would like the Library to subscribe to this resource.

Summer reading

The Library has a good range of novels that you can hold and have brought over from any campus. See for example:

• Darkmans by Nicola Barker
  

′Darkmans′ is a very modern book‚ set in Ashford (a ridiculously modern town)‚ about two very old−fashioned subjects: love and jealousy. It′s also a book about invasion‚ obsession‚ displacement and possession‚ about comedy‚ art‚ prescription drugs and chiropody. And the main character? The past‚ which creeps up on the present and whispers something quite dark − quite unspeakable − into its ear. (From Publisher’s website)

• On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
  

It is June 1962. In a hotel on the Dorset coast, overlooking Chesil Beach, Edward and Florence, who got married that morning, are sitting down to dinner in their room. Neither is entirely able to suppress their anxieties about the wedding night to come. ON CHESIL BEACH is another masterwork from Ian McEwan – a story about how the entire course of a life can be changed by a gesture not made or a word not spoken. (From Publisher’s website)

• Animal’s People by Indra Sinha

Ever since he can remember, Animal has gone on all fours, the catastrophic result of what happened on That Night when, thanks to an American chemical company, the Apocalypse visited his slum. Now not quite twenty, he leads a hand-to-mouth existence with his dog Jara and a crazy old nun called Ma Franci, and spends his nights fantasising about Nisha, the daughter of a local musician, and wondering what it must be like to get laid. When a young American doctor, Elli Barber, comes to town to open a free clinic for the still suffering townsfolk – only to find herself struggling to convince them that she isn’t there to do the dirty work of the ‘Kampani’ – Animal plunges into a web of intrigues, scams and plots with the unabashed aim of turning events to his own advantage. Compellingly honest, entertaining and entirely without self-pity, Animal’s account lights our way into his dark world with flashes of pure joy – from the very first page all the way to the story’s explosive ending. (From Publisher’s website)

• The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

Changez is living an immigrant’s dream of America. He thrives on the energy of New York, his work at an elite firm, and his budding relationship. For a time, it seems that nothing will stand in the way of his meteoric rise to success. But in the wake of September 11, Changez finds his relationship crumbling and his exalted status overturned. Allegiances are subsequently unearthed, proving themselves more fundamental than money, power and maybe even love. (From Publisher’s website)

• The Gathering by Anne Enright

THE GATHERING is a family epic, condensed and clarified through the remarkable lens of Anne Enright’s unblinking eye. It is also a sexual history: tracing the line of hurt and redemption through three generations – starting with the grandmother, Ada Merriman – showing how memories warp and family secrets fester. This is a novel about love and disappointment, about thwarted lust and limitless desire, and how our fate is written in the body, not in the stars. (From Publisher’s website)