Happy Christmas!

A very happy Christmas to everyone who is finishing up today!  Best wishes from all the staff in the Library and Student Information Desk.

 

 

 

And for those of you who aren't finishing up just yet we'll be open until 5pm today, and we'll be open from 9.15am - 1pm on Monday.

 

 

 

(image: "Catching the christmas tree" by Frits Ahlefeldt-Laurvig via Flickr)

Have you signed up for password recovery yet?

Forgotten and expired passwords can be very frustrating!  

Why sign up for password recovery?
Passwords expire after 100 days and must be changed before they expire to maintain access to your email and Moodle accounts.

Passwords set in September are likely to expire in December unless they have been reset!
 
You must register for password recovery before your password expires.
When the college is closed, password recovery is the only way to reset your password.
You may need to reset your password if it expires, if you forget what it is or if you enter it incorrectly three times.

Read more about signing up for password recovery here.

Our opening times

The Library and SID opening times over Christmas are as follows:

• 9.15am - 1.00pm: Monday 23rd Dec
• Closed: Tuesday 24th Dec - Wednesday 1st Jan
• 9.15am - 5.00pm: Thursday 2nd Jan - Friday 3rd Jan
• Normal hours resume: Monday 6th Jan

Your Christmas list

Students finish up for the holidays this week and head into revision week after that. 

Some of you may not be on-campus for over 3 weeks! Before you finish up on Friday make sure you have all you need to revise for the end of semester exams.

Here is a list of things you might need.

• Access to previous exam papers (learn more here)
• Borrow books from the library (learn how to renew them here)
• Your network password expires every 100 days; change your password before the holidays to ensure it doesn't expire when the college is closed!  You use your network password to access Moodle and college email, as well as to log into campus PCs. You can change your password at any ITB PC: log in and press CTRL-ALT-DELETE and select the option to change your password.

Understanding as you read...

 

Are you reading a lot of difficult texts for your assignments and exams?  Do you ever feel like the information just isn't going in?  Sometimes, you just need to break the information down into a series of steps...

Read more here: Reading and understanding difficult material:

Departmental referencing guidelines

Did you know that three ITB Departments have their own Referencing Guidelines?  The Business, Horticulture and Humanities departments each have an adapted version of the Harvard Referencing System.

See here for the guidelines in full:

• Department of Business (ITB) Referencing Guidelines
• Department of Horticulture (ITB) Referencing Guidelines
• Department of Humanities (ITB) Referencing Guidelines

Please note: if you use RefWorks, the guide has been added for each department.  

For students in other departments, the following referencing guides are also available to you:

• ITB Library IEEE Referencing Guidelines
• ITB Library Harvard Referencing Guidelines

Past exam papers

Did you know that you can now access past exam papers from your laptop and from off-campus?

If you are using an ITB PC: click here for access.

If you are using a laptop or if you are off-campus, you will need to log in via the ITB Portal.  Click here for a step-by-step guide.

The exam papers are organised by course code.  Within each course code, click on the year you require and browse by semester.  Usually, for instance, semester 3 will be the first semester of the second year of the course...

Here are some reasons why it's a good idea to look at the exam papers now!

• They show how much time is allowed for the exam
• They can help you to work out how much time to allocate to each question
• They give examples of how many questions have been set in the past, and how many questions you may be expected to answer
• They can help to identify the style of question asked (essay,  multiple choice, compare and contrast)
• They can help you to  practice exam techniques 
• They can help you to identify key revision topics

(Image: "Relation scheme 86/366" by Blue Square Thing via Flickr)

Prezi: are you preparing for a presentation?

Are you preparing for a presentation this semester?  Have you considered using Prezi?

So, what is Prezi?  According to their website:

One of the greatest innovations in education was the blackboard. For the first time in history, teachers could present their lessons visually and engage students to participate in the conversation. The whiteboard has done the same for business—helping us to explore and share ideas more effectively.

Prezi is a virtual whiteboard that transforms presentations from monologues into conversations: enabling people to see, understand, and remember ideas.

Explore today's 15 most popular prezis to get inspired!  Or have a more indepth look at how to get started.