The snake pit

In case you haven't yet been told by the staff who were involved in student enrolments on Thursday.... we had an interloper under Gavin's desk (now called by some wit - the snake pit!).

Whether it was camera flashes - recording him/her/it, the air-conditioning too cold or deciding to make himself scarce, the snake decided to duck for cover in the floor box.

On guard

For the next hour and a half our leaders (K and G) and the library staff guarded the floor box and waited for some intrepid rescuer. (Where's Crocodile Dundee when you need him?)

We weighed the lid of the floor box down and covered the cable holes. Believe it or not we had to put this much on it as the snake was a weight lifter!

At one stage it was reported that a rescuer could not come until 8pm.... but luckily Tim from Marapana Wildlife Park came to our rescue.

Rescue at last

Tim only just got hold of the dugite's tail! The snake had managed to slither under the floor box insert and his head could be seen on the on the right of the box. After turning off equipment, unplugging devices and unscrewing the insert, the snake was revealed wrapped around the cables!

Final Reveal
After a little struggle, Tim revealed our 'baby' dugite to the delight and disgust of Bev, Cheryl, Wattsie's twosome & Ann.

Thank You

The library would like to thank Tim and his friend, Keith, Greg, Marg and Donna and everyone who was involved in helping to corner and capture Dougy the dugite. A special thank you to Wattsie's two who recorded the events with numerous drawings.

Welcome back to 2007

Hope you had a great Christmas and New Year break.

This newsletter is the first post via a blog for the Peel Campus Library. We hope you like being involved in a new way of communication. Please submit comments, suggest new things that we can do OR even ask for clarification of news items.

News from the Library

Library staff came back to work on 8th January as we had to pack up 600+ Nursing books that needed to be sent to Rockingham for the first semester.

First and second year Nursing units will be held there due to Murdoch's new building being scheduled for completion in July.

The Library Staff for Term 1 comprises:

• Karen MacKenzie, Manager
• David Hixson, Librarian
• Natalie McCann, Teacher
• Jenni Williams, Library Technician
• Gavin Bennett, IT Technician
• Lorri Fallows, Library Officer (Mon - Thurs)
• Lyn Thomas, Library Officer (Mon, Tues, Thurs & Frid)
• Jen Holleyman, Library Officer (Mon - Thurs)
• Christine Page, Library Officer (Wed & Frid)

FYI -

1) Tania had a little girl called Abbey Anne Holland on Sunday 17th December just after midday. She weighed 3.14 kg (6 pound 14 ounces) and was 49cm in length. They visited us in the library on Thursday 25th on their way down south to visit family for the long weekend.

2) Helen MacCue has been seconded to Coodanup Community College in the library for Term 1 to help them start the year. She is scheduled to return to MSC for Term 2.

Library opening Hours

From Monday 5th February, the library will be open for the following hours:

Monday - Thursday from 8.00am to 6.00pm

Fridays from 8.00am to 4.00pm

Holidays from 9.00am to 4.00pm

Resources

A reminder that you have access, not only to resources in our library, but also to resources at the other Challenger TAFE campuses, other Murdoch University campuses and Rockingham Public Library sites.

Most resources may be re-located to Peel by request via the search catalogue or via the circulation desk. This may take between 1 and 3 days depending upon the home library. Ask at the library desk for more information.

Catalogues Online

1. Peel Education Campus, Murdoch University and Rockingham Public Library
http://prospero.murdoch.edu.au

2. TAFEWA
http://voyager.challengertafe.wa.edu.au

Loans

There is a limit of 25 resources that staff can borrow for a semester. Students of Mandurah Senior College and Challenger TAFE have a limit of 5 items for 4 weeks. Students of Murdoch University have a limit of 12 items for 4 weeks.

Reserve (overnight borrowing)

High demand items may be placed in reserve - please talk to library staff for more information. Reserve items are available for 2 hour loan periods during the day whilst an overnight loan commences at 2pm and items must be returned prior to 9.00am the following day.

Recording Television Programs

The library subscribes to free–to-air & Foxtel Education channels. Channels include History, Discovery, National Geographic, Lifestyle, Ovation, Animal Planet, a variety of News programs and for 2007 - The Weather Channel. Please note that there are teacher guides for most of the History programs.

Foxtel magazines are distributed to interested staff. Programs from both free-to-air and Foxtel which have been requested are placed on ClickView for use by MSC staff and students. Initially these are placed in the Review area before being moved into the correct teaching area/s.

ClickView

There are 1,200 + recordings on MSC’s digital system. These can be viewed simultaneously by 200+ students, copied onto Teacher’s laptops and/or copied onto USB drives for viewing at home.

Teachers may make their own programs and have them added to ClickView or make a compilation of different snippets from existing shows for use with classes. This involves simple drag and drop procedures.

If you wish to have a session about compiling your own program/s or how to copy programs onto your laptop and/or USB drive - please let us know by adding a comment to this post.