2. Find the library on the web, just type chec library into Google, or on campus, click on the Library icon on the student PCs.

3. Carry your student ID on campus because it enables you to borrow books and DVDs, print and photocopy.

4. Avoid library fines, by returning borrowed items on time, or tell us your email address, so we can send reminders before your loans are due. Renew your loans before they are due by signing in to OneSearch. If your total fines are  under $20, they’ll be waived at the end of the year.

5. Learn how to power search Google, courtesy of Hack College.

6. Take advantage of these great eResources.  Just sign in with your DET username and password.

See how it’s done.

Not sure which reference style to choose? Ask your teacher which one they require.

The Library will close on Friday December 23 and re-open on Tuesday January 3.

Jon Bauer – Rocks in the belly
F BAUE
Written in two startlingly original voices, Rocks in the Belly is about the effortless destruction we wreak on one another in the simple pursuit of our own happiness, and a reminder that we never leave our childhood behind. A fast-paced, powerful, yet often beautiful and funny novel.

Cath Crowley – Graffiti moon
F CROW
An intense and exhilarating 24 hours in the lives of four teenagers on the verge: of adulthood, of HSC, of finding out just who they are, and who they want to be.

Sonya Hartnett – The midnight zoo
F HART
Two gypsy boys are fleeing through a war-ravaged countryside during the night carrying a secret bundle. The boys stumble across a town that has been reduced to smoking rubble, and a zoo that is still intact. When the boys take shelter in the zoo, they discover a menagerie of talking animals. Both the boys and the animals tell their tales and their desire for freedom.

Malcolm Knox
The life : a novel
F KNOX
Now bloated and paranoid, former Australian champion surfer and legend Dennis Keith is holed up in his mother’s retirement village, shuffling to the shop for a Pine-Lime Splice every day, barely existing behind his aviator sunnies and crazy OCD rules, and trying not to think about the waves he’d made his own and the breaks he once ruled like a god. Based on the life of legendary surfer Michael Peterson

Barry Maitland – Chelsea Mansions
F MAIT
A deadly virus, a vicious killer and a long-buried mystery push Brock & Kolla to the limit – Publisher.

Melina Marchetta – The Piper’s son
F MARC
“Thomas Mackee wants oblivion. Wants to forget parents who leave and friends he used to care about and a string of one-night stands, and favourite uncles being blown to smithereens on their way to work on the other side of the world. But when his flatmates turn him out of the house, Tom moves in with his single, pregnant aunt, Georgie. And starts working at the Union pub with his former friends. And winds up living with his grieving father again. And remembers how he abandoned Tara Finke two years ago, after his uncle’s death…” — Publisher

Roger McDonald – When colts ran
F MCDO
“…In the shearing sheds of Eureka Station, across the sweeping hills and lagoons of the Flintlock district and the fleeting camaraderie of the Five Alls pub, …men play out their fates, conduct their affairs and hope for the best. In this sweeping epic of friendship, toil, hope and failed promise, …Roger McDonald follows the story of Kingsley Colts as he chases the ghost of himself through the decades, and in and out of the lives and affections of the citizens of ‘The Isabel’, a slice of Australia scattered with prospectors, artists, no-hopers and visionaries…”–Publisher.

Kim Scott – That deadman dance (2011 Miles Franklin Award Winner)
F SCOT
“Told through the eyes of black and white, young and old, this is a story about the fledgling Western Australian community in the early 1800s known as the ‘friendly frontier’. Poetic, warm-hearted and bold, it is a story which shows that first contact did not have to lead to war.”–Back cover.

Steve Toltz – A fraction of the whole
F TOLT
Meet the Deans. After an injury which cut short a golden sporting career, Jasper’s uncle became Australia’s most beloved murderer. After a lifetime of impossible ideas and a brief stint as the country’s saviour, Jasper’s father became Australia’s most loathed philosopher. This is Jasper’s attempt to make sense of it all.

Chris Womersley – Bereft
F WOME
“It is 1919. The Great War has ended, but the Spanish flu epidemic is raging across Australia. Schools are closed, state borders are guarded by armed men, and train travel is severely restricted. There are rumours it is the end of the world. In the NSW town of Flint, Quinn Walker returns to the home he fled ten years earlier when he was accused of an unspeakable crime. Aware that his father and uncle would surely hang him, Quinn hides in the hills surrounding Flint. There, he meets the orphan Sadie Fox — a mysterious young girl who seems to know more about the crime than she should. A searing gothic novel of love, longing and justice, Bereft is about the suffering endured by those who go to war and those who are forever left behind.”–Publisher

Peter Carey – Parrot and Olivier in America
F CARE
“Olivier is a young aristocrat, one of an endangered species born in France just after the Revolution. Parrot, the son of an itinerant English printer, wanted to be an artist but has ended up in middle age as a servant. When Olivier sets sail for the New World – ostensibly to study its prisons, but in reality to avoid yet another revolution – Parrot is sent with him, as spy, protector, foe and foil. Through their adventures with women and money, incarceration and democracy, writing and painting, they make an unlikely pair. But where better for unlikely things to flourish than in the glorious, brand-new experiment, America? A dazzlingly inventive reimagining of Alexis de Tocqueville’s famous journey, Parrot and Olivier in America brilliantly evokes the Old World colliding with the New. Above all, it is a wildly funny, tender portrait of two men who come to form an almost impossible friendship, and a completely improbable work of art” — Publisher’s website.

N.B. If you don’t have a MAC, use the Ctrl key for the Command key and it will work for you.

Created by: HackCollege

Sample the voices first to find one you like to listen to. Then copy and paste the text (journal article, book chapter) and the software will generate an MP3 or WAV file for listening while you’re travelling, commuting or anywhere on the go.

Slide to the bottom of the page to see ‘text to speech’ apps for smartphones and ipad.

It’s loaded with study tips – how to study, take notes, do research, analyse your topic, brainstorm ideas, compile a bibliograhy in the correct referencing style – and a lot more.

And if you sign in (it’s free), you can download the Research Safari Study Guide.

Good luck to all students sitting the exams now.

October is Mental Health Month so here are 10 great tips to stress less.

Graham White
Room B.1.23
Phone 6659 3123
Email graham.white@tafensw.edu.au

David Prosser – Monday, Tuesday and Thursday 9am-3pm
Aboriginal Teacher Coach
Room B.1.23
Phone 6659 3101
Email david.j.prosser@det.nsw.edu.au

Can’t get to campus, check out these online study skills hints.

Files may be documents, photos, assignments or videos and they are available from the Dropbox website, your computer, ipad, tablet or phone, even if you’re not connected to the web. Dropbox works with Windows, Mac, Linux, iPad, iPhone, Android and BlackBerry. Files once updated are available in the updated form from all devices.

Share files and folders with friends and colleagues, so they can get access to documents you want them to view or collaborate on.

Still not convinced? Check out Dropbox features and learn how easy it is.