Scholarships for 2012

Posted on December 8, 2011 by anne

I have some really exciting news! Despite becoming a voluntary society next year, with a vastly reduced fund, EXMSS has been able to secure enough for a limited number of scholarships – so get those applications in! These are for study in 2012, from Semester One.

• The Academic Excellence is our long-standing scholarship where we have up to $4,000 available for up to five people who have achieved amazing results for at least 15 undergrad papers (or most of a postgrad qualification) despite the challenges of extramural study. Your reward for excellence is cash in the hand – or payment for fees. So if you have a string of A grades and a story to tell in our on-line Off Campus magazine.

The other three scholarships are worth $650 each – enough to cover the fees of one Massey undergrad paper, or part of a postgrad paper, and will be paid directly to your Massey account:

• The Bicultural Scholarship supports those with Maori descent;

• The Scholarship for Disabled students is offered to students who have proven success in academic achievement at Massey so far;

• The second-chance scholarship is to encourage students enrolling for the first time, branching into a new career after some time away from study, and is well-worth looking at.

 

Find them here: http://exmss.org/services/scholarships/

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The Exam means another paper towards your goal!

Posted on May 31, 2011 by anne

Looking forward to exams? They need not be a dreaded barrier to your success. If you are prepared and have read the study guides and readings, asked the questions of the lecturer, and consulted  OWLL then you will be well on the way to fronting up to an exam with confidence.

Previous exams:
You may find that your study material does not include copies of previous exam papers that would give you an indication of the sort of document you can expect. Mine doesn’t, so I have found a previous exam on line at the Library website. Its very easy to find: the LIBRARY QUICKLINKS will give you EXAM PAPERS. Then follow the directions to choose the paper number, year and semester, and have a look at a few years’ worth if they are available. This is essential in planning what you need to focus on to study effectively.

Study material:
If you have, say, 10 topics in your material, but know that you have to answer 3 or 4 essay-style exam questions, then it is possible to concentrate of 5 or 6 of the topics to ensure you have a good range of focussed study to go into the exam with (not actually TAKE into the exam of course – better to hold 6 topics in your head than 10!). Any clues that your lecturer has provided are IMPORTANT to note, like terms, technical words, important theorists, etc.  Don’t forget that if previous exams have asked an “overall” question, or your lecturer has indicated that one will be asked, then you will not be able to skip whole topics.  Look for links between the topics, the overall theme, that will be useful for an overall question that may be asked.

Assignments:
Check that your paper allows you to write exam answers that you have already addressed in your assignment essays. Most do. The question won’t be the same, and you will have to draw material from a different angle in most cases, but the notes you have used for your assignment, the assignment itself, and the lecturer’s comments on that assignment will provide some helpful tips to write an exam answer on the same topic.

Your lecturer’s tips:
These are especially important, if your lecturer says it, then do it. They have the overall say over what they want or expect to see.

See OWLL:
The exam tips given by the experts are priceless.

In the exam room:
When you are sitting in the exam room make sure you have: (1) some good pens that are easy and stress-free to write with – something with an easy flowing ink. (2) Always put your hand up for extra note paper. When you are allowed to begin writing, spend a few minutes (3) planning your time (4 answers = 45 minutes per essay (or 40mins each allowing for planning time), 3 = 1 hour each, and so on), divide your spare paper between each answer (you should have already chosen what you will attempt to answer in your reading time), and jot down some quick key words for each of the topics. (4) Then BEGIN to write (follow directions of your lecturer and the exam cover sheet). Sometimes just beginning can be daunting, but put pen to paper and write. Its amazing how just that action can bring it all back to you – all those essay writing skills and notes and readings … (5) Write something for each question that you are answering. Don’t think that if you have 4 to answer, writing 3 will be enough! That will only give you a mark out of 75%, and therefore harder to get a good grade. A marker cannot give points if you have not written anything, but you can gain points for answering with something – key words, using a theorist’s name from your readings, even bullet points at the last minute will be better than leaving a blank. (6) Its hard to say how much to write for each answer. I use double spacing and can handle about 3-5 pages with medium sized writing in 40 minutes. (You may write a whole lot faster than me!) At undergrad level, if your answer (if essay) has an intro, a middle of 3 or 4 paragraphs, and a conclusion, that is pretty good. But always follow the directions given by your lecturer and the cover sheet of the exam. (7) STAY till the end of the exam time. You have paid a lot of money for the privilege of sitting this exam. Get your money’s worth to the very end. You can always see something to tidy up or add, or something could suddenly come to you at the last minute. You just never know. But if you leave the room before time is up you will lose the chance to make a difference.

Afterwards:
Something has gone terribly wrong. You are sick, your family is in crisis, YOU have a crisis that has completely distracted you from doing your best. After the exam you can apply for IMPAIRED PERFORMANCE. Or worse – you were not able to sit the exam at all, apply for an AEGROTAT -  and be granted (under strict conditions) a mark based on the the assignments you have already submitted. (Yes, it is the same form!)  If you would like further advice, or support from us, please contact me at EXMSS anne@exmss.org.nz
There is no CFCW (carry forward of coursework) with Massey University. Fees appeals (which are really “deferment of study”) are only considered BEFORE the paper has ended, not AFTER the exam, and almost always for reasons of illness or critical circumstances beyond your control.

Moving on:
You’ve done it! Put that study guide away. File away your essays and notes, rest, relax, and reward yourself! Look out for results about 6 weeks later, on line and emailed to you.  Then open your new study guide for next semester, and another one will be ticked off the “to do” list before you know it!

 

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Study incentives needed here!

Posted on March 30, 2011 by anne

Hi everyone, its been a busy year so far and its only March. What are YOUR study tips?  Please share – especially pertinent to your study load.  I thought I would share some of my tips for motivating study habits, just when you feel like its just too hard, the goal seems a long way off, or you’re just having a bad day.  This question  came in today:

“I was about to phone Massey to ask for help. I feel so overwhelmed right now that I feel I need some sort of counselling. Everything is just happening this month and I haven’t done much for my two double semester 200 level papers but I don’t want to give up and want to finish these last  papers to complete the qualification.  I seem to have lost the drive to study but I have to.  I’m working full time, have family & buying a house this month so feel so harassed & stressed.  Please advise me what to do please.”

Firstly – I really do know exactly how you feel.  I am in the same boat – except the house buying is over with, now I just have to paint it!  But with working full time, family commitments, 2 papers, final year to the degree, sometimes I feel that same lack of motivation at times and am overwhelmed by assignments.

So I have a few tips and hope they will help (and I keep “my words” in front of me when I am feeling down too!)

1.         Can you take the odd day as study leave from work?  This is the time to use annual leave days (one or two at a time), especially at around assignment writing deadline. Use that time for serious, planned and timetabled study/reading/assignment writing/research, whatever you need, but NOT washing, shopping, or other things that take you away from the books.  Make the day worth it.  Call it a STUDY day.

2.         When are the assignments due?  Can you ask for EXTENSIONS?  Most lecturers will be generous if you ask before the due date, and as both papers are double semester there will be plenty of time to catch up.

3.         That’s the good thing about double semester papers – each should take 6 hours a week to complete a topic or task, so the study guides can be broken into sets that spread out throughout the year.  E.g. 10 topics, 1 per fortnight = 20 weeks.  A double semester is 8-9 months, 40 weeks, so you can see there is time up your sleeve.  (sounds like a pregnancy!)

4.         When I did the two double semester papers I split time with one week on one paper, and the next on the other (hence 1 topic per fortnight), coinciding with assignments where I could, and maybe as extra week then to put in extra work (you should plan to double the amount of time for an assignment).  12 hours of study per week/study/notetaking/reading on one paper, then 12 hours on the other.  Add more when you need it.

5.         KEEP THE END GOAL IN SIGHT.  Write it everywhere – a poster in the loo, on the fridge and noticeboard, at the desk sellotaped in a prominent position so it is always in front of you. Even on a bookmark tucked in your leisure-reading book. And at work. Then it will always be in front of you and the bonus of that is it is also in front of your family.

6.         GET THE FAMILY ON SIDE.  Talk about the goal, what you will wear to graduation, how you are going to celebrate, bribery and corruption if necessary, how much extra money you might make – whatever spins your wheels.  Put a wall planner (the one in the Off Campus magazine you would have received by now) in a prominent place with your due dates of assignments.  Let your family see this.  With do not disturb signs for assignment due dates.

7.         Really important – ALLOW FOR EVENTS, like moving house.  But if some boxes don’t get unpacked till after that final exam then so be it.  Stack them neatly out of the way.  They will be your REWARD when you have finished exams :-)

8.         And ALLOW FOR BREAKS, once a week, rewards for finishing a topic or an assignment, all the strategies you used over previous years to motivate yourself.  And know that March and April will be over soon and the house moving will be over soon.

9.         START WITH A PLAN for your study, and ask for extensions for those first assignments.  If you have any grief about that, then I can ask on your behalf (lecturers have never said no to me!)

10.       Oh, and handing in the assignments.  Extramurals in NZ cannot email assignments, but you could if you need to – at the last minute – email to me, then I can date stamp and get over to the NSATS office, so that you will not miss a deadline, and have the chance to work on the assignment till the last minute.

11.       Lastly, make use of the class lists for a STUDY GROUP.  See who else is nearby.  Arrange a study date. Motivate each other?

I hope this helps.  If you would prefer to talk to someone you can by just giving me a ring.  Extn 81182

Use the freephones: Auckland 414088, Wellington 8015799, Palmerston North 3569099, cell or elsewhere 0508 4EXMSS

Anne @ exmss

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Studylink changes might affect YOU

Posted on October 7, 2010 by anne

STUDYLINK was invited to hold a workshop last week at the NZUSA conference, explaining clearly what changes the government has implemented to the loans and allowances scheme.  You may have seen the press releases from Minister Joyce, or read the website with perhaps some trepidation.  The changes will effect all students who have drawn down student loans or allowances since 2009.

EFT: Because of the wide variety of institutions and types of courses, a student is referred to as having an EFT value – Equivalent Full Time.  For Massey, which has a full time undergrad year of 8 papers, each paper is worth 0.125 of an EFT.  8 papers = 1 EFT.  If you do 4 papers in a year you have used half an EFT – that’s just the first bit to help explain the new changes.  They have six basic points, which I will go into in detail as follows, just as a ‘heads up’ for you:

  1. a 92 week lifetime limit for student allowances;
  2. no retired or superannuants can receive an allowance at the same time as the super;
  3. The $50 Admin fee for your loan/allowance with Studylink is now going to be called an “Establishment fee” for $60 (that doesn’t seem to be a big deal in the grand scheme of things);
  4. Permanent Residents and Australian citizens will have a two-year stand down period before they can have either a loan or allowance;
  5. The student loan will be limited to 7 EFTs in a lifetime;
  6. There will be a performance element to receiving a loan.

1. The 92-week limit.  This will be back dated to January 1999.  Studylink have already identified 400 students who will be affected by this and have written to them to establish assistance, plans and options.  This probably does not affect any extramurals from Massey.

2. Superannuants:  The government is removing access to a student allowance by superannuants if they are already receiving the super or a veteran pension as of January 2011.  They suggested that people will be better off with the super.  If you are affected here, then contact your local Studylink office for more details.  Basically, a student cannot receive both an allowance AND the super/pension.

4.  Two-year stand down for PR or Australians:  This affects both loans and allowances.  A student needs to be a permanent resident and ordinarily living in New Zealand for a minimum of 2 years in order to receive study support.  There will be grandparenting provisions if enrolled in the same qualification in 2010, for a maximum of two years.  Once again Studylink have received details of who this will affect from this year and the affected students have been personally advised.

5. Lifetime limit of 7 EFTS for a student loan:  This will take effect from this year (1 January 2010).  The thing to watch here is in the case of withdrawing.  Check the dates really carefully of when the financial penalties are imposed because even if you get your tuition fees back and the university withholds any of the non-refundable fees, if its part of your loan you lose the EFT for that semester/year.  And even if you pay back the loans in good time, you cannot “buy back” the EFTs.  The 7 EFTs lifetime can be extended in the case of doctoral study (3 EFTs) and finishing off a post grad qualification (1 EFT),  but 10 EFTs is the absolute maximum.  See above if you are still unclear what an EFT is.  Students will receive a letter from Studylink when they get close to the end of their allowable loan.  Check the Studylink website for any clarification.  After the 7 EFTs (or extension) students will be expected to self-fund their tertiary study.

6. The performance element: This counts from study completed in 2009 up to the present.  If you have a loan, then once you have completed a minimum of 1.6EFTs, you MUST pass at least half of all you papers that you have enrolled in to continue to receive a student loan.  A 5 year gap in your study will cancel out the “count” and you can start again.  Student results will be monitored by the Ministry of Education.  this is an indication that the Government is concerned with the level of borrowing by students.

If there is anything else you need to know log onto the Studylink website.  Hopefully what I have said here is helpful in explaining what is happening.

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Scholarship winner: When is a turtle a community project?

Posted on September 27, 2010 by anne
 

Students attend conference in Fiji

 

A+ Group Assignment Lands EXMSS Scholarship for Turtle project: Media release 15 September 2010  

Project Title:  Nga Haerenga o Le Laumei: Pathways to cultural protection through language preservation   

EXMSS congratulates Tanya Koro, Nikki Walden, Tristan Smith, Adrienne Dewar, Kaylum Muller, Advent Ndeke and Lena Kenny in the Massey University Maori and Pasifika Focus Group.   

 ”He toeaina i te mulivaka”
Utilize the wisdom and knowledge of your ancestors to guide your journey   

Litea Meo-Sewabu and Helen Simmons (Lecturers), Anne Moretti of EXMSS and Scholarship recipient Tanya Koro, at the EXMSS offices

   

A group of ethnically diverse third year community development students from Massey University Aotearoa connected through a shared interest in the well-being of Maori and Pasifika peoples in Oceania. They identified the critical importance of preserving indigenous languages as a vehicle for maintaining cultural heritage and linguistic rights. Diasporic Pacific populations experience vulnerability in maintaining cultural heritage. One of the fundamental elements in retaining cultural heritage is the preservation of indigenous languages. Their presentation to the Conference in Fiji (as below) explores a structural analysis and ‘development from below’ process which identified a unifying metaphor as a powerful tool to assist social change around this issue. Rather than employing a hegemonic view on the status of indigenous languages, this presentation offers solutions from a Pasifika perspective formed within a post-modern New Zealand context. This framework and the process that the students undertook offers a valuable contribution to social and cultural protection and human security policy development as it pertains to language preservation within Oceania.   

 “Ko toku reo, toku ohooho   

Ko toku reo, toku mapihi maurea”   

My language is my awakening   

My language is the window to my soul   

     

A turtle moves a community project forwards 

Massey University Extramural Students’ Society have stepped in to assist this group of Massey Social Development students who produced a Social Development tool that impressed their lecturers so much they have been invited to present their work at the October Conference of Social Policy, Social Welfare and Human Security in the Pacific, hosted by the University of South Pacific in Suva, Fiji.   

 “This prestigious international conference will have representatives of United Nations agencies, non-Government organisations, Faith and Community-based organisations and private sector organisations attending and is the perfect opportunity to get this work known,” says the 300-level Community Development lecturer, Helen Simmons. “The difficulty has been getting financial assistance for our students to attend.”   

 In recognition of their academic excellence, EXMSS has offered a $1,500 travel scholarship to Tanya Koro who will co-present the work along with two others from the group of seven who submitted the project: Nikki Walden and Adrienne Dewar. “The scholarship is possible due to an under-subscription of regional scholarships at the beginning of the year but is also supported by some of the Council meeting fees that the EXMSS President puts aside for scholarships each year,” says Anne Moretti, Student Services Manager at EXMSS.  This was the stand out piece of work from this year’s course in the School of Health and Social Services at Massey University.   

 Their presentation to the conference is entitled “Nga Haerenga O Le Laumei: pathways to cultural protection through language preservation” and focuses on using a turtle metaphor to encourage community development of indigenous languages. “This framework and the process that the students undertook [using the shapes, shell and flippers of a turtle as a culturally-adapted tool], offers a valuable contribution to social and cultural protection and human security policy development as it pertains to language preservation within Oceania,” says Tanya.   

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Another year almost chalked up

Posted on September 2, 2010 by anne

Its Spring again – there are tuis in the bush areas around Massey and in the flowering Japanese cherry trees, whose calls are a loud reminder of what the New Zealand bush would have sounded like 100 years ago. 

Its a lovely start to each day walking up the hill to the EXMSS office as I am reminded of ancient bush.  Native birds flourish in the Massey gardens, but the welcome swallows aren’t back yet – when they are, then I will know its nearly exam time.

The reality of each day kicks in with lots of student issues to hand, requests for hardship monies, and this week, lots of contact with the extramural student membership on contact courses and at our AGM meeting.  I’ve attended my own contact course, and feel the same buzz as other students when they can concentrate on learning, without the distractions of work and family.  One student I spoke to comes all the way from the bottom of the South Island for a “holiday” (from those distractions) every year, and becomes fully emersed in her studies, loving every minute. 

 

She is among many who enjoy the student experience, staying on campus and attending every EXMSS event she can, and takes advantage of plenty of library browsing.  In class, we all have excellent OHT skills – the OHT or powerpoint goes up on the screen, we write down everything we can capture and take in everything the lecturer gives us, like sponges.  The debate and questions are not recorded though, so that is the difference between attending or not. We have opportunities to talk face to face with the lecturers , and are grateful that they are there even if they are not well (as ours was)!  Other students are here because its compulsory, and the cost of this is enormous for some, but the value is equally enormous in most cases.  Its not a holiday, its stressful, but a hoop that must be jumped through to get the paper completed. They are concentrating on their qualification one paper at a time and are frustrated by road-blocks along the way – financial, administrative, or temporal (not enough time in the day to do everything to understand the material that one needs to). What’s your experience of contact courses?  Love them or hate them, EXMSS would love to hear how valuable they are to you.

In answer to the student enquiring about wanting CD roms for study material – the university is trialing this as we speak, and many papers already have this option (computer science, business).  There are two sides to the debate though – some might consider it poor value for money to receive a CD Rom in the mail for their course material (for the same cost as the paper version).  What do other students think?  Digitization is the mode of the future, and Massey is advancing this way very quickly.  Does this disadvantage some extramurals, who may prefer to take their study guides away from the computer screen, or who do not have very good equipment ,or any equipment at all, to view digitised and web-based teaching materials?  I am in that situation at home.  My study guide is split between several easy-to-handle folders on a large table, where I hand-write notes and scribble all over the topic pages in the guide.  There is no computer to hand until its time to type up the assignment, and then I have to do that after work on the machine in the office because the home one is too incredibly slow.

Whichever way the university proceeds, we have been assured that there will be choice.  A student whose course is digistized, can request a paper-based version.  So look out for those options, and let us know if there is anything you are puzzled or unhappy about.  EXMSS is your watchdog.

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Is twelve and a half hours enough?

Posted on April 28, 2010 by anne

How much time do you take per week to effectively study for a paper?

The old rule of thumb (when papers were worth 12 1/2 points) was a student needed 12 1/2 hours per week to study for one paper in a single semester, so full time was 50 hours or 4 papers per semester. That is MORE than a full time job for most people! Does this rule depend on the level one is studying at – does a 100 level paper require more or less time than a 300 level? We can take it as read that postgrad papers would require double.

I have heard from an extramural student who feels that the 4 double semester papers (4 x 6hrs = 20 hours/week) this year are taking far more than that rule of thumb (i.e. heaps over 20 hours per week). A student can set up his schedule to fit 20 hours of study, but it is so close to the edge that any little timetable adjustment can make or break the feeling of being avalanched by readings and assignments and due dates, plus needs of children, need for sleep, need to work to pay the bills, spouse working extra hours to make ends meet, and the endless pressure of making sense of the readings.

So hence the question – what do YOU think about the Massey rule of thumb?  Are your lecturers under-estimating how long it takes a student to complete readings, write an assignment, study for a test, come to grips with the extra material, textbooks etc?  Or are you at the other end of the continuum – struggling to see what needs to be done if you have 12 hours a week but can easily complete the week’s work in half that time?

Please get back to me – I would love to be able to take your thoughts to the next academic meetings or the student learning and development services so they can put realistic expectations onto their website and in their teaching tools.

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Do you want to be associated?

Posted on March 31, 2010 by anne

I am a student as well as a full time worker for a students’ association.  I pay insurance for my house, car and contents, and I pay insurance for my studies – the students’ association fee.  I may never need any of these, and sometimes the bill comes at the wrong time of the month, but when my car was stolen, and my carpet ruined with sudden water damage, and a windscreen cracked, I was sure pleased I had paid up my insurance bill.  When a lecturer seemed to be picking on students and specifically grading me lower than I thought I deserved, I am equally glad I had someone neutral to talk the problem through, get advice for the best way to complain then get a reasonable response from the lecturer in the end.

EXMSS has been busy with submissions to government on the Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill, fighting for your rights to remain a member and therefore receive help when YOU need it, like these students:

Dunedin student, March 2010: Any help you can give me would be much appreciated.  At the beginning I didn’t think I needed the extramural students’ association, but now I realise just how incredibly valuable the service is!

Lower Hutt student, March 2010: I just wanted to write a quick note to thank you and the staff of EXMSS for all your help.  This is the second time I have received financial assistance through EXMSS … I do not believe I would have been able to continue studying if I didn’t receive your help to buy the textbook required.

Nelson student (to the Nelson EAR),  January 2010: I totally support you and EXMSS, without the representation it’s almost impossible at times to get your grievances heard if you run into a difficult tutor.

Whenever a student contacts me as their advocate, it counts as one who is opposed to this amendment bill, whether they are aware of the politics or not.  It is our job to represent them/you, so that you can concentrate on the things that are most important to you – your essays, your readings, your degree, as well as family, work and life.  I have been a student for 30 years and have paid subs for all of that time, but have received back far more than money can buy.  If you want to be associated, then really you don’t have to do anything.  We’ll do it for you, because your welfare is our highest priority.  If you don’t, then you probably are not reading this :-) and you can opt-out.

Contact course season begins next week.  The supershuttle will be running as usual – make sure you have your $20 shuttle voucher, and then come and see our staff at the help desk to organise your return one.  Fill in the “Rate your Contact course experience” form, available from our help desk or your lecturer, and help us ensure that the universitys and our services continue to improve.  And good luck with your first assignments – they should all be pouring into the university now.  Let me know if you strike any problems. I know who to call :-)

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Health and Safety matters …

Posted on December 15, 2009 by anne

The last meeting of the year that I have attended this week was held over a Christmas breakfast with fellow Health and Safety committee members.  This is one committee in the university that actually gets things done!  Check the Massey website for everything you wanted to know but were afraid to ask about Massey’s policy and procedures for Health and Safety.  It looks like it is targeted at Massey staff but there is a fabulous trickle down effect to cover students as well.

For instance I can pass onto you that some of the buildings around campus are due for cleaning and maintenance this summer.  I have already been showered on a sunny day by an abseiling wall-washer on Science Tower A.  The Social Sciences Tower and surrounding buildings are due for washing too, so take care if you are here on summer school campus courses, as there will be extra water about where you least expect it.

Some lifts are due for maintenance too – the left hand lift in the library building at Turitea is closed but there is another one to use in the right hand access well.

There is a proposal to make the whole of the campus smoke free eventually (as is Mid Central Health Hospital).  Do you have any comments that I could take to the committee?  The Committee is looking at all the options, and student feedback – as stakeholders – would be invaluable.

When you are here for your contact courses, and have noted any problems with buildings or paths, then please let me know and I can take it to committee – that’s why you have a student voice on campus!  Students can report near misses (potential hazards that may not have caused any damage to a person, but almost), and accidents.  Forms are available from the H&S website.

H&S newsletters are here: http://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/staffroom/campus-services/regional-facilities-management-manawatu/health-and-safety/information-bulletins/information-bulletins_home.cfm

Take care over summer – slip, slap and slop etc, and be safe and patient on the roads.  Whether you are having a break or studying, ENJOY!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

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Summer School Library

Posted on November 20, 2009 by anne

I have just attended the Library Committee meeting for November.  This is a committee of Academic Board, where I represent you, the extramural students, on any issues that you would like me to discuss.  Usually I receive complaints or suggestions via an advocacy issue, however this year I have received no complaints about the distance service at all!  Are there any out there?  Are you happy to refer to the Distance Library to get your own queries resolved?  And of course this is great!  I am sure that the Distance Library would let me know if there were any serious issues that maybe I could help with too. Turitea Library

The committee is also useful for regular information-sharing of what the Library is up to – where their budget sits, plans and innovations, buildings and staff, and contact with the other campuses’ libraries and users.

For the first time this year – in response to my alerting them to student complaints about the recall system – the Library had put in place a new system of minimum periods for books and no recalls until at least 10 days after borrowing, to allow students plenty of time with high-demand books.  This system has worked very well.  The online service for requesting and renewing items has been brilliant, and the “encore” search tool is highly successful – I believe.  Categories for searching can even be added to by the users – making it possible to update the encore site immediately.  Brilliant.

But is it?  Do you have any questions about the website?  Massey has just updated their website and the Library homepage can be found under the RESEARCH tab.  You can ask the library at any time by email, and please let me know what you think too – so by the time the next Committee meeting rolls around (May 2010) I will have a collection of student comments to take, and truly represent you at this level.

When you come on campus, do you need a place in the library to store your laptop while you go to class?  Or do you just want somewhere to plug it in and cannot find enough power points?  This was an issue for internal students, but I wonder what extramurals on contact courses think?  This could be a service that MUSA and/or EXMSS can implement and lobby for if we knew there was a need.

As for SUMMER SCHOOL, did you know that most of Massey’s staff will finish on 18th December?  The campuses reopen on 5th January, but in the meantime you may need to have access to the Library, for those summer school assignments which don’t take a break for Christmas!  Below is the link to the library’s opening hours for that quiet period, including the first two Sundays around New Year. http://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/research/library/about-us/hours/hours_home.cfm#summer

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