To celebrate JCU's birthday the JCU Library Special Collections has added a new treasure to NQHeritage . Our first treasure of 2021 is the James Cook University 40th Birthday Commemoration Posters . Dr. Olsen with the first students of JCU at the Pimlico campus, 1961. Photograph courtesy of JCU Corporate Records, ©James Cook University. In 2010 James Cook University celebrated 40 years as a university and 50 years of teaching in north Queensland. As part of the 40th anniversary celebrations a series of 12 posters created by the Special Collections Librarian, Bronwyn McBurnie, were exhibited in April 2010. Examining maps on the Douglas Campus site, 1964. Photograph courtesy of JCU Corporate Records, ©James Cook University. Titled Caught on Camera: A photographic history of JCU celebrating 50 years in north Queensland , the exhibition was held at the Eddie Koiki Mabo Library from the 20th of April to the 12th of May in 2010 and showcased a wide range of photographs, memorabi

On April 19, 2021, JCU conferred honorary degrees on several very worthy people - many of whom have had close relationships with the Library over the years, so we are incredibly happy to see them get this nod. Four in particular are very closely associated with our library, and we'd like to give them a shout out with their new titles: Part of the Shaw Collection. Photograph by JCU Library. Dr Edna Shaw. The Shaw Collection of Australian Art and Culture is something of a love story. Over the course of more than a decade, until her death in 2019, Edna Shaw donated more than 5,500 works to our Library in honour of her late father. It's an amazing collection and we are incredibly proud to be the custodians of this treasure trove. Edna Shaw is dear to our hearts and we are so happy to see her acknowledged with an Honorary Doctor of Letters. Dr Laurie Bragge. One of our newest collections, being donated to the library in 2019, is the Bragge Collection , which features works collec

As ANZAC Day falls on a Sunday this year, the ANZAC Day public holiday in Queensland will be held on Monday, 26th April. This will be followed by the Labour Day public holiday on Monday, 3rd May.  The Library will provide study spaces and research help on the public holidays as follows: Online Chat Our online chat service will operate from 1:00pm -5:00pm on both days. Townsville The Eddie Koki Mabo Library will be open from 1:00pm-5:00pm on both days. The Info Commons will be open 24/7. Cairns The Cairns library building will be open from 7.30am-midnight for JCU students and staff with swipe card access. There will be no library services in Cairns on the public holidays. The Library and online Chat service will be open as per our normal weekend hours on Sunday, 25th April. You can check our opening and service hours for each day on the library website.

Nature Sustainability New to the JCU library collection is the journal Nature Sustainability . This journal publishes original research on sustainability policy dimensions and possible solutions from a broad range of natural, social and engineering fields. The overarching goal of sustainability research is to understand how to ensure life within the biophysical limits of the planet. Nature Sustainability covers topics including agriculture and food security, biodiversity conservation, circular economy, cities and urbanisation, climate change in holistic context, development, ecosystem services, education, environmental behaviour, environmental degradation, environmental law, green infrastructure, health and environment, human population, innovation, land use and land use change, natural capital, natural resources management, policy, pollution, poverty, supply chain, waste, water–energy–food and water-soil-waste connections and others, all as related to sustainability.  Part of the jo

As of 5pm on 29 March 2021, the Queensland Government is currently requiring everyone to wear masks in public areas and spaces where they cannot maintain a 1.5m distance. Details can be found on the JCU COVID-19 Advice page . When vising our libraries, make sure you bring a mask and wear it whenever you cannot keep socially distant, or when advised to by library or security staff.

Update: Please be aware that JCU is following the current Queensland Government requirements to wear a mask in public spaces. If you visit the library, please bring a mask with you and wear it indoors or outdoors if you cannot keep 1.5m away from others. See the JCU COVID-19 Advice page for more information. After a busy start to the year, it's nearly Easter and time for a well-earned break. There will be some adjustments to library services and access to facilities over the Easter weekend.  You can chat online with a librarian and visit the Eddie Koki Mabo Library on Saturday and Monday afternoon. The Cairns Library building and Townsville 24/7 InfoCommons will be open for study purposes every day. Read on for exact hours. Online Chat Our online chat service will operate from 1:00pm-5:00pm on Easter Saturday and Easter Monday. Cairns The ground and first floors of the Cairns library building will be open every day from 7.30am-12:00am for JCU students and staff with swipe card a

It’s great to see so many students back in the library, using our building for different purposes. Whether you are watching an online lecture, doing an online exam, working on an assignment with friends or doing some independent research, there’s a study space that’s just right for your needs. The ground floor is a collaborative zone . It’s a good space for discussion and group work. You can talk to Library and Learning Centre staff on the ground floor as well. The first floor is a quiet zone . There are still spaces for collaboration but conversations tend to be quieter here than on the ground floor. The second floor is a silent zone . If you like working with no distractions, this is the area for you. There are lots of individual study desks here for independent work. Group study rooms  (Cairns) and study pods (Townsville) can be booked on the library website. They are great spaces for recording audio or video, attending Zoom meetings or private study. Mobile phones should be

There's a wealth of information out there - but how do you find quality information that is relevant to your assignment? The key to finding the right information is developing a smart search strategy. The InfoSkills Toolkit is a series of self-guided, online modules that take you through each step of the research process. Work through each module in order or pick and choose the ones most relevant to your needs. You'll learn how to identify the keywords in your question, generate similar and related terms, use strategies such as phrasing and truncation, and create an effective search string. Once you know how to search, you'll need to know where to look for information. One Search is a good place to start; it's like Google for the library's resources. You can find the search box on the library homepage . Searching databases directly is a more targeted way to find scholarly information. Your subject guide lists the recommended databases for your discipline. Once you

"I know this is probably a stupid question, but..." Sound familiar? Believe it or not, no one comes to university already knowing everything they need to know – and you will never find out the answers if you don’t ask. Even people who have been studying for years have these “stupid” questions, and the longer you wait, the more time you’re going to waste. Here's a tip - ask them! Ask them without worrying about what the person on the other side of the desk or phone or chat button is thinking – because they’re probably just going to give you the answers (or show you where you can find them) without thinking much about it at all. If having the answer to a 'stupid' question is what you need in order to get on with your assignments, then ask them. Ask them proudly, knowing that every 'stupid' question you ask will make you smarter. You can ask us all the 'stupid' questions you need face-to-face at the InfoHelp desk on the ground floor of the library, bu

Every now and then someone asks us if we have "real books" - or they say they thought we only have text books and didn't know you could borrow novels from our Library. Well, we have all sorts of fun things to read. It's one of the reasons why we like to throw out Reading Challenges every now and then - just to remind you that you can find a wide variety of books in our collections for your reading pleasure. But how can you search specifically for fiction? If you already have a book in mind, you can search One Search to see if we have it. You can type the title or the author straight into the search box, and drop down the "Anywhere in the record" option to say you want to look specifically "in titles" or "as author/creator". You might prefer to browse the author's surname or the title - maybe you don't mind if you find something by any of the Brontës? Just pop Brontë into an author browse and see what turns up. Or see how many