How do I add macrons ā ē ī ō ū for the Māori language in my documents?

In CPIT campus all windows computers will have the option to type macrons over the vowels, especially useful if you want to type Māori correctly.

To activate the Māori keyboard

1. Click on EN  in your bottom tool bar to change this from:

      EN  English (New Zealand)    to

     MR  Māori (New Zealand)

2. To macronise a vowel now, on your keyboard, press the top left key ( it has these symbols on it  ~ and `) followed by the vowel.

3. To macronise an uppercase vowel , press ~ , then hold down the shift key and select your vowel.

Steps to take to add the Māori keyboard to your home computer.

First you need to be able to see the language symbol.  For English speakers this looks like EN or ENG in the bottom taskbar.

Check that Control Panel / Region and Language /  Keyboards and Languages / Change keyboards / Language bar / Docked in taskbar has a dot next to it as in the image below.

Check that Control Panel / Region and Language /  Keyboards and Languages / Change keyboards / General has English (New Zealand) – US as default input language and then click Add to add the Maori (New Zealand) Keyboard.

Now when you click on EN in the bottom taskbar you should have the option to change to MR Maori New Zealand.

You should now be able to follow steps 1 to 3 above to add macrons to your documents.

See a librarian if you need further assistance.

How to use our self issue machines

We have two self issue machines.

They are fun and easy to use, and what’s more you can issue multiple books at a time.  Watch the short video to see just how straight forward it is.

How to use the new self check:

To borrow:

To change settings or language

See a librarian for a personal tutorial if you like.  We are always happy to help.

Burns Night and a busy weekend

I am now going to make the cardinal sin in blogland and post about several things in one single post, but with so many things going on this weekend it is difficult not to! 

 

 

CPIT are holding their annual Community Open Day from 11am til 2pm tomorrow (Saturday 26th January) at the Madras Street Campus and the library will be OPEN for you to come and find out what we have to offer.  Click here for the full programme which includes learning how to make pasta, have a go on InfraTrain’s mini digger simulator, take a personality test and find out which business profession suits you and pony rides and face painting for the kids.  So come along and pop your head into the library where Lorna and Jon will be more than happy to answer your questions about what the library can do for you.

The open day also have a selection from Christchurch’s 2013 Worlwide Buskers Festival (17-27 January).  Head over to E Block this Saturday to check out Mim and Danny at 11.15am, Nigel Blackstorm at 12.15pm and Becky Hoops at 1.15pm.   CPIT are also hosting a stage at the Festival, CPIT Arial Stage, showcasing some of CPIT’s best CircoArt’s graduates, so please go along and support our graduates.

 

 

More importantly today is “The Bard’s” birthday…Happy Birthday Robert Burns!  Tonight all, over the world, Burns night will be celebrated with a dram of whiskey, a plate of haggis neeps and tatties (yum yum yum), and a celebration of his work with recitals of his poems and songs.  Here is one of his most famous poem’s Tam O’Shanter to wet the whistle.

 

…and being as it is Friday…Bookriot remind us how libraries have a staring role in the movies! 

Whatever you get up to this weekend we hope it’s a relaxing one.

What is it?

 

 

Google and the future of search and other tech stuff

  If you want a bit of a technofix read this article from last Saturday’s Guardian News on Google’s knowledge graph, a database of the 500 million most searched for people, places and things in the Google world which leaves us to wonder – “where will search go next?”

“When John Battelle wrote his book The Search ( How Google And Its Rivals Rewrote The Rules Of Business And Transformed Our Culture, 2006) … he concluded by imagining a future directly out of Isaac Asimov’s science fiction. “All collected data had come to a final end. Nothing was left to be collected. But all collected data had yet to be completely correlated and put together in all possible relationships. A timeless interval was spent doing that…Knowledge Graph, you might say, is the beginning of that “timeless interval”. ”

 

 

If you are a bit of a technology junkie then you might also like BBC World’s “Click” – You can record it if you have Sky or cable TV or you can view some of the latest tech video shows online e.g. The tech highlights of 2012

• Do ultrabooks spell end for desktop PC?(04.46)
• Will 4G be faster than home broadband?(10.22)
• How can 1.2bn people be identified?
• Can a phone replace the doctor?(06.21)
• The low-cost tablets battling Apple(04.28)
• Amazon rainforest gets mobile internet(08.51)
• How buildings could come to life (07.25)
• Bakery ‘recognises what you are eating’(04.05)
• Car that finds own parking space(01.14)
• Is plastic the new digital paper?(04.22)
• The wireless charging revolution(05.30)
• Will self-driving cars become a reality?(07.28)

 

 

How do I change a PDF to Microsoft word?

This is a perennial question that comes up from time to time.

It is quite a simple process when you use Adobe Acrobat Pro.

 Adobe Acrobat Pro is currently installed in the following locations for student access on campus :

X307, X305, X303, X205, X203, S255, L130, L131 The pod, L249, C236, C226, C220, B109

Instructions for converting PDF to Word are as follows:

1.  Open your pdf using Adobe Acrobat Pro

      2.    a. Click “File”

         b.Click “Export”

         c. Select “Word document”

3. Type a name for your document into the Filename field

4. Navigate to a folder you would like to save it

5. Click “Save”

Note: In my experience  it is not always a beautiful transformation particularly if there are images but it is certainly an editable document that can be tidied up.

Need more assistance with this? Just ask at the Library Service Desk.

Nursing tutorials

 Find here tutorials in PDF format for nursing students:

Databases:

CINAHL – Printing references and abstracts

CINAHL – Search tips

Proquest – Printing references and abstracts

Proquest – Search tips

Science Direct – Search tips

Primo Library search: Use this to –

 Find and print from an e-book

Renew your books

Request a book

Other resources

LiteratureSearching

A checklist for evaluating your resource – The CRAAP test (adapted from the original resource created by Meriam Library at Chicago State University.)

For more nursing resources check out the Nursing Subject Guide.

Board games for the bookish

Ever wondered what was missing from your bookshelves full of your favourite classics?  Well look no further… Flavorwire give you the ultimate top 10 literary based board games to wile away a quiet evening.  My particular favourite is the one based on Stephen King’s The Shining, which the author himself had some input on.  Sounds a bit freaky to me and you can even download it online!

Photo credit: Board Game Geek

The Bad Old Days

  Students studying at Wellington Public Library. Negatives of the Evening Post newspaper. Ref: EP/1958/3627-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. http://natlib.govt.nz/records/23257782

These library rules date from about 1913 – the very early days of CPIT’s library. They’re an interesting insight into a different way of doing things.

Rules:

1. Each pupil may have out of the library one book and no more at one time. So, obviously, no assignments calling for ‘at least 10 sources’…
2. Inclusive of days of delivery and return, one week will be allowed for each book. Such lending may be renewed. One week? What can I read in one week?
3.  If a book shall not be returned at the proper time, the borrower shall be liable for a fine of one penny per day for each day over date. For comparison, a penny would buy you a sandwich or a cup of tea in 1913 – so about $4 per day in today’s money.
4. Books are not transferable.
5. Books cannot be changed twice on the same day. Tough luck if you chose the wrong one.
6. If a book shall be written in or torn, or otherwise damaged, the borrower may be required to pay the value of the book or to replace it. Some things never change!
7. Until a pupil shall have paid the School charge, and also all fines and moneys due by him on account of books detained, lost or damaged, he shall not be entitled to use the library.

I’m sure there were also rules about quietness in the library, and about eating and drinking. I hope we’ve moved on a bit now!

CPIT Library, 2012

We try to keep our rules to a minimum, but sometimes we can’t please everyone. To avoid the dreaded late fees, keep an eye on the date your books are due, or try electronic books – they return themselves, always on time.

For a complete run-down of the library’s user regulations, see the library homepage, or pick up an ‘Everything you want to know about borrowing from the library’ pamphlet from the library desk.

Open Education – what is it all about?

Open Education

What is it? ….Is it free? ….  Are we there yet? …… What is it all about?

There is a wealth of information being made freely available via the internet, challenging traditional copyright law, and promoting the open sharing of resources, information, and knowledge. Interest in open access, and a corresponding rise in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) and Open Educational Resources (OER)  highlights the changing face of education and will inevitably impact on all learning, teaching and research. I listened to an interesting interview with Dennis Viehland, an associate professor at Massey University, on National Radio at the weekend, discussing the significance of open content to online learning.

A recent report about the role of Academic Libraries within an open access future, looks at the changing nature of academic research. The focus is on the university environment, but the findings are relevant to all academic institutions. The report concludes that we need to “…evolve and be prepared to be creative, as the ways that researchers and students use information are changing and will continue to change.”(Harris, S. (2012). Moving towards an open access future: the role of academic libraries: A report. Retrieved from http://www.uk.sagepub.com/repository/binaries/pdf/Library-OAReport.pdf).

If you want to know more about the creation and sharing of resources check out Creative Commons Aotearoa  

To see what is freely available in terms of resources and content WikiEducator has an extensive list of repositories which hold open education resources. Check out the Kahn Academy , and Merlot, or browse the DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals).

Content without Borders and OrangeGrove  are two good examples of publicly accessible repositories which promote and provide access to resources contributed by academic institutions and repositories from around the world.

And if you are looking for images, browse the National Gallery of Art or Free New Zealand Photos both of which include images which are in the public domain, or try Open Clipart.

There is a geat deal of interest and activity in the open education movement in New Zealand, from schools through to tertiary level education. Rather than a threat, open education is seen as an opportunity to transform the way we create, share and deliver learning.