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Short Story Competition winner!
Congratulations to the winner of our short story competition - John Hawkins of WA. His story, Dad's Last Words, was our competition winner and for his efforts John receives a $200 iTunes card. Well done John!
Thanks to all those students who entered the competition! We were pleased to receive many great entries.
Read the winning entry, Dad's Last Words, below.
Dad's Last Words - by John Hawkins
When my father was dying, I sat there in the darkened room holding his hand. The TV glowed busily, but was silent. And the monitor shot his progress across the screen in regular intervals, like tamed lightning in a cage. Otherwise, it was dark and quiet, except for the sound of my own heartbeat, which grew louder between thoughts like the automatic gain of a microphone. Other objects in the room seemed unreal, amorphous. Looking at the tube coming out of my father's mouth, it reminded me of the time he'd taken me to an opium den and lay there almost imperceptibly drawing on a hashish hookah, eyes closed, smoke strands drifting upward in the candle light like question marks in no rush for answers.
And then I recalled the time he talked about his pilgrimage to Gallipoli one Turkish summer with his dad, when the chill and monotony of life in Prahran, the ding-a-ling and electric sizzle of streetcars outside his window, drove Papa "half-mad" and made him restive. Papa circled the bluff, stopping in thoughtful intervals to gaze out at the sea below. A lone gull luffed overhead in the salt seasoned wind, and about a dozen compatriots chatted amiably and respectfully over by the monument that connected two worlds and cultures, now inexorably linked in time by the weird afterglow of survival and courage which binds diggers everywhere. Dad said that while Papa sighed and silently reminisced, he went trudging through the trenches, looking for a place to take a piss, almost falling over the escarpment and tearing his jeans on the rusted barbed wire, which caused him to let out a "Fawwwk!" That night, Papa told stories of gripping fear, of artillery shells strobing the night, dread dancing in their stomachs, while fireflies went on and off in an open field. Overhead, Dad said, the stars didn't seem to so much glow as well, like the sad appeal in our dog Harry's eyes, which turned out to be glaucoma.
Dad told me about this time with Papa during our own trip to Gallipoli many years later. I don't recall many details of that visit, except that there were many Aussies there, circling the monument, like the way you see them do at the Haj on TV. Dad knew one guy in the crowd who he was trying to avoid because he'd lost a bet over the Melbourne Cup and hadn't paid up yet. All I remember of that trip was the long bus ride back to Istanbul, civilians quietly chatting, the diggers all united in something, looking straight ahead; although one old soldier two seats down and across wept silently. Outside, past my reflection in the glass, the landscape rolled by without any real shape or form, like a hologram or mirage. Back at the hotel, in picturesque proximity to the Aya Sofia and the Blue Mosque, Mum sat polishing a samovar she'd bargained for at the Bazaar ("Look what I found!" she beamed), and regaled us with tales of carpet shop come-ons and archaeological digs in the ubiquitous Ottoman op-shops. Outside the underground Roman cistern, where our gasps had echoed together as we beheld the marble Medusa's head glaring up at us from the wet depths of the dim cavern, Mum and Dad had a fight, which ended with Mum storming back to the hotel while Dad and I stood there in the heat, cars whooshing by.
We walked, going over a bridge that crossed the Bosphorus, as night fell, and found ourselves in Taksim and the red light district. Cops patrolled with machine guns, looking for terrorists. We came to a booth, where Dad forked over ten lira and received two tickets, which allowed us entry to an alley filled with the sounds of disco music and rap, cigarette smoke and flashing lights. Lip-sticked girls from Romania gestured with their bodies and beckoned us with promises of bliss. It felt like we were caught in a Fellini film, or a cinema playing Fellini, the strands of projected light shifting from frame to frame like currents in the river of Heraclitus. Dad was fond of saying we lived in a world ruled by unseen forces "too big to fail."
On the telly in the hospital room, they were showing images of the golden catfish of the Kalahari, blind and unseen, streaming through the underground sluices beneath the desert's emptiness, like dharma monks in pilgrimage.
As Dad's life left him, I could feel his blood flow seemingly recede like a river going dry with time-elapsed precision. I sat in the silence, the moment's Big Bang, before the alarm sounded and the nurses bustled in, and the darkness was gone in a blink.
Second stage now live!
Looking for information on how to make your research openly accessible? Not sure where to start? OPAL can now help you!
What is OPAL?
Open Access and Licensing (OPAL) is an online resource designed to help you understand and manage your rights and responsibilities as users and creators of information and learning resources.
OPAL has been developed by specialists in the Library and Deakin Learning Futures. They have distilled the key information in this complex area to help you maximise your research time.
OPAL can help you:
- understand options for providing open access to your research
- manage your rights when you publish and share your research
- make informed and responsible choices when using other people’s copyright material
- discover open research, data and educational resources.
Where to start?
Explore OPAL now and discover the updated range of resources, tools, links and more!
Need help?
Contact your Liaison Librarian for more information or to provide feedback to improve future versions of this resource.
Your Library is being enhanced!
The Geelong Waterfront Library will soon be transformed as part of the current refurbishment to support the increased campus academic profile, following the relocation of Business and Law from Waurn Ponds.
This new Library will represent the global nature of information access, providing a high-quality environment to work, learn, research and connect with a strong focus on e-resources and ready availability to a collection of core and high-use Library print and audio-visual materials. The Library will increase in size but space will be limited.
The refurbishment will result in an exciting, new, inviting Library that will:
- Showcase Health, Business & Law, Architecture & Built Environment through zones, drawing together electronic and physical information resources.
- Ensure students and staff can better access our expert Library staff from a new service area.
- Enhance study, research and connectivity using the latest technologies and equipment.
- Provide saturated WiFi coverage, power and data - strongly supporting use of portable and mobile devices.
- Offer zoned quiet and active collaborative learning spaces.
- Offer additional technology-enabled group study rooms, accommodating both small and large groups, as well as individual study pods.
- Incorporate a conveniently located café at the entrance.
- Provide faster and easier borrowing capability using new equipment fitted with the latest technology.
- Allow for improved access with the significant expansion of the main entry and a new second entry.
- Maximise the Geelong Waterfront location and views with significantly improved amenities.
What’s happening with the building works?
Building works have already commenced and the first stage of development will be completed, with new spaces available, by mid-year.
Works on the current Library space form the second stage of development and will commence by mid-year, resulting in the Library relocating to the newly completed area.
The Library project is due for completion by the end of 2013.
What will be available during building works?
- The Library will remain operational throughout building works.
- All existing Library resources and services will be available.
- Construction will be staged to minimise disruption, however it is inevitable that each stage will require temporary movement and relocation of specific services, or facilities, until they are permanently relocated.
We apologise in advance for any inconvenience during the refurbishment.
What other spaces are available to you?
-
New learning and student spaces
There are many new learning spaces available on levels 2, 3 and 4 of the John Hay building, Building D at the Geelong Waterfront Campus. Our staff can help you find a space to suit your needs so just ask at the Library Service Desk.
You can also make use of the free Geelong inter-campus bus service, which travels between both campuses, in order to find a space that suits you at the Geelong Waurn Ponds Campus.
-
Quiet research spaces
You can access the Alfred Deakin Prime Ministerial Library, located on level 1 of the Sally Walker Building, during and after refurbishments.
Keep up-to-date on the building developments:
Keep informed about what’s happening and when through the Library website, our social media channels and relevant building signage and updates within the Waterfront and Waurn Ponds Campus libraries.
To find out more about the building refurbishment and see the interactive tours of the new Library, visit the Deakin Facilities Services website.
Contact us
We’re always interested to hear from you regarding our services, or this refurbishment, in order to address your needs or concerns.
Phone: +61 3 5227 1200
Email: libinfo@deakin.edu.au
Facebook:facebook.com/deakinlibrary
Twitter: twitter.com/deakinlibrary
Early Experiences in Australasia is a database collection of eclectic Australian history resources comprising of anything from domestic records to material from early explorers.
With over 1,600 maps, letters, photos and documents, covering the period between settlement and Federation, you'll be able to discover items to help you map major events as well as personal experiences.
This resource is perfect for students and staff in the areas of history and Australian studies as well as creative writing and sociology.
Want more information about this resource?
Contact Christine Oughtred, Liaison Librarian – Arts and Education
christine.oughtred@deakin.edu.au
+61 3 52271441
Need answers about finding and using resources responsibly in the increasingly complex digital environment? Introducing OPAL.
OPAL is a new resource developed by the Library and Deakin Learning Futures to assist you in:
- understanding the basics of copyright, licensed resources and open education resources
- sourcing engaging learning resources to use in cloud and located learning environments
- managing your rights as a creator of learning and information resources.
The first release of OPAL is now live. This resource is focused on teaching and learning, and provides guidance in using the rich array of library and open education resources available to refresh and revitalise courses to support LIVE the Future: agenda 2020.
Additional content on using resources in research, publishing and managing your rights as a creator will be added in coming months.
Start exploring OPAL now to discover the great range of resources, tools, links and more! You can contact your Liaison Librarian for more information or to provide feedback to help further develop this resource.
Introducing our new e-book platform, OverDrive.
OverDrive gives you on-the-go access to a great range of recreational e-books. You can browse through hundreds of fiction and non-fiction titles, including graphic novels and Lonely Planet guides.
It allows you to access and borrow a large selection of titles in a variety of disciplines, including business, health, history and performing arts.
This new, easy-to-use platform means you can take your latest read with you, to access when you like.
The collection includes practical titles on cooking, decision-making and studying, as well as some light relief titles including a humour selection by authors like Zach Braff, Corrine Grant and Charlie Pickering.
Jump in and get started by visiting deakin.lib.overdrive.com.
Get the best advice and information on how to use this platform by viewing our specially designed Library Resource Guide.
Licensing and resource information: http://encore.deakin.edu.au/iii/encore/record/C__Re1001401.
The new level 3 is now open!
You can start exploring and using your new learning spaces now.
You’ll find:
- 217 powered individual workspaces
- nine lounge spaces
- eight group study rooms
- five study booths
- saturated Wi-Fi connectivity
- new toilet facilities.
We’d love to hear what you think of your new spaces, so feel free to drop us a line at deakin.edu.au/library/help or via our social media pages:
Reminder: The Library Refurbishment at Melbourne Burwood Campus continues with the closure of level 1, as well as construction disruptions on level 2. The refurbishment is due for completion in late 2013. To find out more, visit the Deakin Facilities website.
Video presentations from the event are now available.
As part of international Open Access Week 2012, the Library was pleased to host the Open Scholarship: Research and Publication symposium on October 25. The event was one of three major Open Access events in Australia.
Our guest speakers included:
- Professor Christoph Antons, School of Law, Deakin University
- Professor Anne Fitzgerald, Creative Commons Australia
- Mr David Tempest and Ms Macy Lee, Elsevier publishers.
The event enabled University staff, students and the broader education community to explore open access practices from the perspective of academics, researchers, and publishers.
Held at the Melbourne Burwood Campus, the event attracted an audience of more than 90, with an additional 81 connecting online through live streaming. The hash tag #openscholarship allowed for the conversations to be continued in Twitter.
We recorded the presentations and they are now available through Deakin Research Online.
The Library recently ran a student poetry competition, as part of the National Year of Reading.
We were impressed with the number and calibre of entries we received and we know our academic judges had a tough job selecting our winners.
Congratulations to our two winners - we hope you enjoy reading their poems as much as we did!
WINNER first prize - Dave Harris for his poem “Aquamemoria”.
WINNER second prize - Pete Mawhinney for his poem “My own worst enemy”.
Aquamemoria
Astern
A wafer thin gull dives in vain
Surfacing with no more than a glare
I mutter a cold shanty to her;
of graveyards of crooked coral teeth
standing sentinel over un-shoaled channels
of heavy anchored piles of
cetacean ribs swaying relentlessly:
the lost arches of some great white unmade bridge
of a body flowing constantly back into itself
licking at its gathering wounds
as we cut swathes,
wrench open liquid space
sink our sins into this deep though limitable main
‘til sun-creased sailors sing out ‘she can bear no more’.
Steering west, skating over the surface,
Sun dying off the prow, songs behind us
Sea-mist gathers red on the brim of my sou’wester.
My own worst enemy
defeated before
the battle begins
nearest and dearest
collateral cost
amongst things that are lost
to my mind
possessed
my psyche
depressed
and nothing
turned on
but anxiety
no variety
my mind in matte.
flat.
eggshells
on edge a
collapsible ledge
i could fall in a breeze
stuck in the sludge
struck in the gut
i can't breathe or wheeze
forced to fight
or face
the finish
ego no more
false strength
i relent
a defence must i
mount
the couch where i speak
the unspeakable
rummage and peek
i seek
dark corners
with soft spots
exposed nerves
are disturbed
for purging and cleansing
slowly
i emerge
We know you come to the Library’s website to search for, discover and find important information - our team has done all the hard work to develop a new site to ensure you succeed.
Our new site is designed to make things simpler and easier. The result is a website that is fresh and engaging, with clear pathways that lead you to the valuable information you are looking for.
Search and Discover – you have the power
We know you come to our site looking for quality information that you want to find quickly. We have made our new search bar persistent on every page, so you can search at any time without having to stop what you’re doing.
- Search effectively and discover the information you need. Whether it’s for your study, teaching or research, access the information that supports what you do.
- Get access to millions of resources - now within easy reach via our extensive search options, including our ‘Discover More’ search function.
- Link to the content of our partner libraries through BONUS+, which gives you access to thousands of additional resources otherwise unavailable, and extends your reach to quality information.
- Access our expert staff who are available to help you at any point.
The new homepage icons
The main focus on our home page is on our key service areas - Study, Teach, Research - supported by other useful links and information. The combination of icons and key words means you can find the information you are looking for, or you might learn something new about a service or resource you didn’t know we offered.
Navigate without getting lost
Do you hate clicking the ‘back’ button for those things you always need to do? Now you can find your way around the site without getting lost, with links placed consistently throughout the site.
A common tasks bar with links to My Library, Help, and Contact is featured toward the top right hand side of every page. The styling is consistent with the look and feel across the University website and means you’ll always have these useful clicks within easy reach.
You'll also see the links you need the most featured down the right hand side of every page, ready for you to get to at any time. A Library breadcrumb trail at the top of the page provides additional navigation.
We have kept some of the features you already enjoy, including:
- The colourful banner, which brings you all the latest promotions, events and activities - including resources and services new and existing.
- The Library opening hours feed will remain on the homepage, so you can see your campus Library hours at a glance.
- A simpler search box - that puts what you are looking for right at your fingertips.
- Our popular scrolling display of new print and electronic books - so you can browse a range of new titles with ease on the homepage.
- Easy access to Library news, which is now relocated at the bottom of the page.
We value your feedback
We have shaped the new website with the help of students and staff, but it doesn’t stop there.
We need to hear how we are doing so we can continue to shape our Library website to suit your changing needs.
Our 'feedback' tab, on the far right of the new homepage, gives you an opportunity to continue to provide comments and respond to the changes we are making.
Feedback
