Swinburne Library Blog

ABS Stats for your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, official Australian Statistics at your finger tips!

Key Indicators Making better decisions is easy with access to key economic indicators, updated instantly when new data becomes available.  Census Data This app uses data collected in the 2011 Census, and provides access to fascinating facts related to people, families and dwellings.  Population There is also a population clock which displays the current population projection for Australia.  In addition, the app links seamlessly with the ABS' social media sites, the official web site and ABS BetaWorks.

 More about finding statistics on the Subject Starter Guide for Statistics

April's topic was 'Business Education' and presentations included:

What employers want from our graduates
Assoc. Professor Irene Tempone

Why the MBA is dead (not recorded)
Professor Eddie Blass

DataBlitz is the academic equivalent of 'speed dating' and an effective way of learning about the research that takes place at Swinburne. 

Each DataBlitz session involves a theme, three speakers for 10 minutes each and 30 minutes for questions, comments and discussion.

To find out about up and coming DataBlitz sessions, visit the Faculty of Business and Enterprise web site.

Henry VIII's second wife, Anne Boleyn was executed 19 May 1536.

Her betrothal, life with Henry and downfall is told in vivid detail in Hilary Mantel's novels: Wolf Hall and Bring up the bodies

After giving birth to a daughter (who would become Elizabeth I),
Anne suffered miscarriages. She failed to give Henry a son to secure the Tudor line.

But was it all Anne's fault? A recent article in Slate magazine
argues that Henry VIII may have had a blood disorder that caused his wives' miscarriages.

Today, all pregnant women are tested for the disorder.

Image credit:flickr/ lisby1

'Researchers from all countries, but especially from developing and least developed countries will benefit and capitalize on open access to knowledge', Janis Karklins, UNESCO's Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information, said at the announcement. 'Our new policy will enable us to increase the visibility, accessibility, and rapid distribution of our publications.'

From July 2013, hundreds of downloadable digital UNESCO publications will be available to users through a new open access repository with a multilingual interface. All new publications will be released under the new open license, and UNESCO will also look at the possibility of applying the new policy to works already published.

For more information, see the UNESCO's media release.

Image credit: MorgueFile

 He is on the Thomson Highly Cited list in the Business/Economics Field.

http://www.josephstiglitz.com/

For students wanting some practice in the lead up to this semester's exams, the library offers copies of past exam papers dating back to 2001.

Exam papers are available for higher education students in subjects such as accounting, engineering and physics. Solutions are not usually included.

Please note that only exam papers that have been authorised for release by the subject convenor are available. 

Image credit: Blue Square Thing (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Max Miedinger designed the now ubiquitous sans serif typeface Helvetica with Eduard Hoffman in 1957. The style emerged from the International Typographic Style
movement that emphasised a clean, readable objective look.

Originally called Neue Haas Grotesk, Helvetica was the traditional Latin name for Switzerland used on Swiss postage stamps.

By the 1960s and 70s the typeface was everywhere. In the 1980s more versions emerged as digital typesetting became the norm. One of those was Arial, still used today.

For more on Helvetica, watch Gary Huswit's documentary or read Helvetica: homage to a typeface

Image credit: flickr/ilovetypography.com

Today is Global Accessibility Awareness Day, so there's no better time to learn how to caption a video or prepare a transcript. 

In future it may be a legislative requirement to provide a text equivalent for all video and audio hosted on Swinburne web pages.

Having a text equivalent of a video or audio recording enables the content to be accessible to those who cannot hear together with ESL students, visual learners or those unfamiliar with the terminology of a subject.

Other benefits include:

• SEO (search engine optimisation). Search engines can index the transcript, not the video or audio;
  
  
• ability to double-check a point without watching the video again;
  
  
• ability to quote from the text file rather than trying to create one from the audio or video;
  
  
• option to read rather than watch/download the video.

Text equivalents can be in the form of:

• transcripts for audio and video;
• captions for videos

For further information visit our accessibility page or contact the Swinburne Commons team.

According to Crikey's Glenn Dyer "As debut programs go, Financial Review Sunday, Nine's new TV program in partnership with The Australian Financial Review, wasn't bad."

This might sound like faint praise, but the show could be a rival in terms of the numbers of viewers, to Alan Kohler's ABC show Inside Business.

 
Both of these shows and also ABC's Lateline Business are available on TVNews.

Crikey, and The Australian Financial Review and BRW are available in full on Factiva, as well as thousands of other quality news sources.

The Economist is available via  Gale.

Forbes is on Business Source Complete. So there's no excuse not to be well informed about the latest business and economic news.

Using these databases for finding past programs and articles on a company or industry you are investigating, is made easier too.

More information on the Subject Starter Guides; Companies, Industry and market analysis. More business media Sources.

 
Ettore Sottsass was one of Italy's best known and admired architects and designers.

He said that design should be 'sensual and exciting.' His designs certainly were. Sottsass worked for Italian firm Olivetti. He created many innovative and aesthetically appealing products, including a typewriter in bright red plastic. It was called Valentine.

Sottsass founded the Memphis collective in the early 1980s. Memphis encouraged the use of bright colours, kitsch and cheap materials like plastic laminates. It influenced many young designers of the era.

For more on Sottsass check out Ettore Sottsass and The work of Ettore Sottsass and Associates plus more at Swinburne Library.

The Hollywood costume exhibition opened last week at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) in Federation Square.

The exhibition features more than 100 costumes from numerous films including Elizabeth and Batman to Kill Bill
and The Wizard of Oz

It was put together by costume designer Deborah Nadoolman Landis. She was interviewed recently on Radio National's Books and Arts Daily program.

Image credit: flickr/Sevi_Lwa

Did you know that the Library has a large selection of online videos available for educational use including many Australian and international films?

Following is a just sample of some of our recently acquired online titles:

Rosemary's baby

Cape fear

Jaws

The virgin suicides

The wild one

King Kong

You can find many more online films by searching the Library.

These films are made available for educational purposes under Part VA of the Copyright Act 1968 and access is restricted to Swinburne staff and students only. You will be asked for your Swinburne username and password to login. The material is subject to copyright. Any further copying or communication may be the subject of copyright or performers' protection under the Copyright Act 1968.

Teaching staff - you can link to any of these films from your Blackboard unit.

Image credit: colinwood0 (CC BY-NC-SA)

Videos of the March 2013 graduations held at the Melbourne Convention Centre are now available online via Swinburne Commons, iTunes U and YouTube.

The free online graduation videos replace the previous option of buying a DVD and provide a more accessible way for families and friends to experience the ceremony no matter where in the world they may be located.

Videos of all Swinburne graduation ceremonies from late 2009 onwards are all freely available through Swinburne Commons, iTunes U and YouTube.

Husband and wife team Charles and Ray Eames designed some of the most influential furniture of the late 20th century, including this 1956 lounge chair.

Working in different day jobs, the pair started experimenting with plywood in their LA apartment, producing everything from sculpture to tables and chairs and toys. Eventually they branched out into other materials, creating pieces using fibreglass, plastic, aluminium and leather.

Charles and Ray collaborated with Hermann Miller and Vitra who still sell their products today.

For more on Eames, check out An Eames primer and
Eames design: the work of the office of Charles and Ray Eames

Image credit: flickr/ChrisM70

Given that ANZAC day is almost upon us, we thought we'd share Miss Drake's recipe for Soldiers' Pound Cake. 

Miss Lucy Drake taught domestic science at Swinburne from 1913 up until to her death in 1923. During her years at Swinburne, she trained a large number of young women on plain and specialised cookery. Miss Drake also published many excellent text books on the same topic.

Many thousands of these pound cakes "were made by cooks in their own homes and were also made by Miss Lucy Drake and Miss Giles to order to send to France during the Great War, 1914-1918. They cut quite fresh and soft after 12 months. Ladies, bear this in mind during the present war and send them to wherever our boys are located. N.B. One welfare worker who sent to France many cakes made from this recipe remarked that this one recipe alone was worth more than the price (2/6) of the book." (p. 1a)

It is this cake which, for the soldiers, brought back memories of home, of mothers and sisters, wives and aunts.

The making of the cake can be a poignant reminder to us about sacrifices made by the Swinburne community participating in their own way to the first and subsequent ANZAC days.

While the females were in the kitchen working to provide comforts of home to the soldiers 'over there', their sons and daughters were in class doing their best to help as well. Ironically it was during the early years of WW1 that the Junior Technical School for Girls was established. It had been Ethel, George's wife, who inspired this, stating the need for technical education to be equally available to girls.

Those who returned continued their courses with generous and patriotic support from the Swinburne Council and senior staff, especially for those with injuries. Staff positions were kept open, fees were reduced or students were admitted free to the rest of their course. Returned servicemen from all over Victoria enrolled at Swinburne in specialist courses funded by the Government Department of Repatriation.

Returned soldiers from WW1 being taught electric wiring at Swinburne Technical College.

(Image source: Australian War Memorial)

Returned soldiers from WW1 in a ticket writing class at Swinburne Technical College

(Image source: Australian War Memorial)

For further information on Swinburne's role in the two world wars, see Practical Measures: 100 years at Swinburne by Peter Love.

Written by Sara Jervis and Helen Wolff