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September 2012

29th September, 2012 ~ 1 comment

There is a comment by a library services user titled “Opening hours for SSH are ridiculous …” posted on the libraries site here dated Monday 10 May 2010. I could not see how to further comment on that post, so I am submitting this post to second that sentiment. The SSH Library at St Lucia was closed on Wednesday 15 August 2012 (People’s Day Show Holiday – i.e. for the ‘EKKA’) and will only be open on Monday 1 October 2012 (newly affixed Queen’s Birthday public holiday) from 1:00pm to 5:00pm.I am so disappointed by this that I was motivated enough to make this post.

Public holidays represent a rare opportunity for students like myself to catch up, maintain and otherwise manage their workloads. A ‘student like myself’ is working full-time and struggling to complete their degree in large part due to UQ’s wholesale adoption of a narrowly focused model for the delivery of curriculum in a rigid, inflexible and uncreative fashion that does not reflect the realities of student life.

I would place QUT’s approach to the provision of resources to its students in direct contrast to UQ’s – a simple example being the availability of a large bank of computers in ‘24/7’ computer labs, and other facilities that are unmanned and available for students to access at their convenience (I am mindful the absence of, or greatly reduced, opening hours on public holidays may reflect industrial agreements and/or employment conditions for library staff, or other mitigating factors unique to UQ). I am studying Humanities (a particularly ‘wordy’ course – books, books, books, journals, journals, journals), so when resources are unavailable (locked behind closed doors) this represents a lost opportunity of considerable impact on me as a student.

I would strongly urge UQ to consider expanding the operating hours of its libraries, with SSH being the prime target.

26th September, 2012 ~ 1 comment

Hi,

I recently borrowed out a book from the UQ library, and forgot to return it on time. Despite not receiving any emails or other forms of reminders from UQ about the book being due, I finally received a letter in the post last week telling me that I needed to return the book or pay for a replacement. In addition to this, even if I return the book, I STILL need to pay a $20 "administration fee".

Obviously I should have remembered to return the book myself - the state-of-the-art technology that is a printed piece of paper tucked inside the front cover of the book that fades in heat should have been enough to tell me that. I also put a reminder in my phone, which was subsequently damaged and replaced - losing the reminder along with it. Perhaps the automated reminder emails that never came should have been the tipping point? Regardless, I accept the responsibility for not returning the book on time, it was merely a mistake on my behalf. My issue is with the $20 fee.

As a full time post-grad student, I spend a significant amount of time working on my studies. Unfortunately, due to Government policy, my Masters degree does not qualify for any form of Centrelink support, which means that I am also required to work to pay for my rent, food, and university supplies myself. A $20 "administration fee" does not fit into my budget. Actually, I assumed that most of the fees for administration would be payed for with the ~$7000 per semester in other fees payed per semester. Perhaps not.

$20 for "administration" for not returning a book on time is ridiculous. All that I received was 1 piece of paper, sent to me in the post, telling me that I owed a $20 fee. No paper reminders. No email reminders. Nothing else. $20 for a bill. $20, which was only $0.05 above the 'waved administration fees' that we are allowed each semester. That last part was particularly delightful to hear about.

In anticipation of the likely responses to this feedback:
- No, I did NOT read the 'terms and conditions/responsibilities for borrowing books'. You show me a student who reads those things, and I'll show you a student not spending enough time on their studies.
- Yes, I realise that the fee could possibly be used as encouragement for students to return books on time so that they can be borrowed by other students (despite the fee being noted as "administration", not "late fee"). It doesn't though. All it encourages me to do is to avoid hiring books as much as possible, because god forbid I should forget to return them on time again, in which case I have to pay another $20 fee. Fining students who are already living on very small budgets that much money for such a small thing as forgetting to return a book on time is just cruel.

Thanks UQ.

25th September, 2012 ~ 2 comments

Dear Sir/Madam,

I wish to make a recommend a purchase for the library's collection. The name of the book is "Statehood and self-determination : reconciling tradition and modernity in international law".

The book is easily the most updated in the library's collection with respect to statehood in international law. It is available at a number of online bookstores.

Particularly, the book is of particular importance to the UQ Jessup team. It deals with statehood in much depth which is the major topic of this year's Jessup problem. Students of Public International will also benefit from having this book, as statehood is always a topic that is covered in each years Public International Law class.

Book: Statehood and self-determination : reconciling tradition and modernity in international law
Author: edited by Duncan French.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press.
Place: Cambridge.

Kind regards,

Ben.

23rd September, 2012 ~ 1 comment

Dear Sir/Madam,

I write to you requesting that the UQ Library purchases the book "Foundations of International Migration Law", edited by Brian R. Opeskin and published this year.

The book is a current, up to date account of the international legal framework that governs the migration of asylum seekers and refugees between countries. Furthermore, it examines the relevance of other discrete areas of law that are tied in with migration law, such as statelessness and causes of migration.

This book is particularly relevant to the UQ Jessup Moot team for 2013. It deals with important issues in the moot problem we are researching, so on behalf of the team I have made this request. It will be greatly beneficial in harnessing our research to the relevant issues of the moot problem.

More broadly, this book will benefit students of the public international law course as well as the refugee law course that is run by the Law School.

The book is published by Cambridge University Press, in Cambridge.

Kind regards,

Ben O'Sullivan.

15th September, 2012 ~ 2 comments

Dear Sir/Madam,

Please note that the following book encompasses economics and business areas and it can be regarded as the only comprehensive resource in the literature and to no surprise it is in high demand which can be seen from title's history.

If feasible, kindly make this resource online which would immensely help us in the coming examination period.

Regards,

Record summary
Author Perkins, Dwight H. (Dwight Heald), 1934-
Title Economics of development / Dwight H. Perkins, Steven Radelet, David L. Lindauer.
Publisher New York : W.W. Norton, c2006.
Edition 6th ed.

Location/Holdings
Location Call Number
SSAH HC59.7 .E314 2006

14th September, 2012 ~ 1 comment

Hello Library services,

I am currently embarking on a DPsyc research on Mindfulness.
There are two journals which I could not find in UQ database:

1) Journal of Clinical Mindfulness and Meditation
2) Mindfulness

It would be useful if UQ can subscribe or incorporate this to the UQ database. Look forward to hearing from you.

Please let me if this is right way to request for new journals.

Thanks so much,
Jessie

14th September, 2012 ~ 1 comment

Hello,

Is it possible that a copy of this book be ordered for the Engineering Library.

Author Brown, Thomas, 1972-
Title USMLE step 1 secrets / Thomas A. Brown, Sonali J. Shah.
Publisher Philadelphia, PA : Saunders/Elsevier, c2013.
Edition 3rd ed.

Is there a link to suggesting books that the libraries should purchase?

Thanks

Yemi

14th September, 2012 ~ 2 comments

To whom it may concern,

I am a postdoctoral research fellow at UQCCR. I am an anthropologist in the addiction neuroethics team.

I recently published book has come to my attention and I am keen to read a copy. The book reference is:

Lende, D and Downey G (eds) (2012) The enculturated brain: an introduction to neuroanthropology. MIT Press.

If you cannot purchase the book I would be interested in receiving this via document delivery.

Best wishes,

Carla

12th September, 2012 ~ 3 comments

Hi, could you please tell me the email of the staff who's in charge of purchasing of a new database.
Or could you please forward my mail to the responsible member? The database I want to recommend is 'cnki' , which is China's largest and most influencial academic database. From time to time, I need the Chinese literatures, but just find that we UQ don't have the access to this database.Here in UQ we have many Chinese scholars, I think it would be applausible if we have access to this.

11th September, 2012 ~ 2 comments

Dear sir/Madam,

I found the library at PACE (level 6) is extreamly noisy especially around 12pm-2.30pm. The study places including the group study rooms are severely disturbed by the noise. I will highly appreciate it if you can pay some attention to this issue.

Best regards,
Samuel