Get ya geek on: Really useful resources for NCEA Physical Education

Taking NCEA Physical Education this year? Get fitter, faster, stronger and smarter with these great resources.

• Study your way to success by borrowing an NCEA Physical Education study guide from one of our community libraries now open;
• We also have all sorts of sports, fitness and health books, magazines and DVDs;
• Get inspired on The Pulse;
• Health Reference Center Academic provides access to articles on fitness and more;
• Learn the secrets of the world’s best athletes on our website;
• NZQA can coach you through your NCEA assessments;
• Create a training plan tailored to you at ActiveSmart;
• ACC offers good, commonsense tips for preventing injuries while being active;
• Check out sports and fitness news and research on Everybody.co.nz.

Want some more really useful resources for another NCEA subject? Go to The Pulse, the library’s website for teens.

Bodice ripping e-books on OverDrive

I don’t actually own a bodice (does control underwear count?) but if I did, I am pretty sure having it ripped from my person by the strong hands of a devilish Scottish warrior would indeed  “ignite me with longing”. People may get all snobby when it comes to reading romance, but it is still one of our most popular genres.

This has proven again to be true with our OverDrive e-book  collection. If you want to Tame a Highland Warrior or want to be An Accidental Mistress then this is the place to go!

Personally I prefer to be Ravishing in Red or Sinful in Satin as I am pretty sure you get to sit down through most of that and taming anyone sounds far too much like hard work – especially in control underwear!

Anti Tour Rally

Anti Tour Rally

30 years ago today … Saturday 29 August 1981.

This rally coincided with the second test between the Springboks and the All Blacks.

It took place in Wellington at Athletic Park.

More information on the Springbok Tour:

• View all the 1981 Springbok Tour posters in our collection.
• Search BiblioCommons for books on the 1981 Springbok Tour.
• Websites with information on the 1981 Springbok Tour.

Explore the Hospitality,Tourism and Leisure Collection

New Zealanders love to welcome travellers to our country. In turn we like to travel, with the concept of an O.E  etched into our national psyche.

For those working in tourism, we have the  Hospitality, tourism and leisure collection. This collection includes industry journals, travel guides and reference titles. They focus on:

• The cultural, social and economic aspects of travel and recreation;
• Working in tourism and hospitality;
• Travel guides for planning holidays.

Hospitality, Tourism and leisure collection and many other useful electronic resources can be found in the Source. Access this from home with your library card number and PIN, or at our open community libraries.

Get ya geek on: Really useful resources for NCEA Biology

Preparing for your NCEA Biology assessments? Let us help!

• Both the Student Research Center and the Science Reference Center have you sorted with information and resources for every area of biology, from agriculture to zoology.
• NZQA is in the know when it comes to NCEA.
• Get help from biology and human biology teachers at Study It.
• Make the most of the useful study guides for biology on SparkNotes.
• Take a look at the BBC’s Science and Nature website. It has particularly good information about the human body.
• Learn about cells at CellsAlive.com
• Study DNA from the Beginning.
• Use your brain to understand how your brain works (I know, trippy right?)

So where did we find these great resources? On The Pulse, the library’s website for teens.

Trash or treasure? Allyson Gofton’s Country Calendar Cookbook

I’m guessing that you wouldn’t expect to find a cookery book in the Trash or treasure list, but this one is something special. Allyson Gofton’s Country Calendar Cookbook celebrating Country Calendar’s 45th anniversary.  Tui Flower sure did “knock the chef out” of her and the food writer in. I went to the book launch in Oxford, North Canterbury. What made the afternoon and the cookbook such a delight— is this book’s subtitle “Our people, their food”.

Divided into seasons, each set of recipes is grouped by the families that cook them. The families, their land and their stories are each introduced, and then each recipe is enhanced with more family stories and Allyson’s tips. Instead of primped and posed food shots, there are pictures of people, plants, land and animals, as well as beautifully photographed simply presented food, mostly cooked by the families themselves.

This book is as far removed from the normal fare of cookery book as a single-serve prepackaged chicken breast in the supermarket is from a home kill pig, spit roasted and shared with friends in the shade afforded by the canopy of an apple orchard. It is a treasure. A sample of our people — fishermen, farmers, market gardeners. their lives, and their food. A slice of New Zealand, all to savour.

• Find some more books by this author
• Read more posts in the Trash or treasure series

Warning: graphic content follows

I’m sneakily inserting a kind of advertorial into the blog here, and purely for personal reasons, too.

See, it’s like this:  I’m currently working at the new Central South City, and while there’s a few gaps in the shelves, there’s ONE area that is a smidgeon overstocked.  Oddly, it’s an area that at old Central was full-on and flat-out all the time, and we couldn’t keep stuff ON the shelf, and all I can think is that you guys don’t realise it’s HERE now …

It’s the graphic novel section (see what I did with the title?).

To be frank, I need some space.  Also, my poor old knees aren’t what they used to be, and all that kneeling down to shelve things is making me creaky.

And the payoff for you guys is that you get to come to a cool new library, see all the shiny shiny new titles we’ve got, and all of this before anyone else realises that there’s a bunch of graphic novels sitting here that no-one else knows about …

Popular magazines: quick reads on cold winter nights.

With the Central Library currently out-of-bounds, we do not have the same access to magazines that we once had. I have found a way around this though – and you don’t even have to leave the warmth of home. Popular magazines is an electronic resource that contains the full-text of over 1,000 magazines covering current events, sports, science, health and more. From this resource you can explore a variety of interests from:

• Redecorating your home;
• Keeping up with the latest news;
• Researching investment opportunities;
• Reading the latest celebrity gossip;
• Finding exercise and dieting information;
• Upgrading your computer.

Time, National Geographic, Newsweek and Fortune, to Vanity Fair, Men’s Health and Sports Illustrated are just some of the titles covered! View the full title list here [XML]

Popular magazines and many other useful electronic resources can be found in the Source. Access this from home with your library card number and PIN, or at our open community libraries.

Get ya geek on: Really useful resources for NCEA Spanish

Learning Spanish doesn’t have to be difficult – these resources will help you speak and understand the language like you were born in Spain … or Mexico … or any other Spanish-speaking country!

• Borrow a Spanish language multimedia set from one of our community libraries now open so you can practice anywhere;
• We also have Spanish dictionaries (including one you can access online from home!) and books about Spain;
• One of the best ways to learn a language is to immerse yourself in it – read books and magazine articles written in Spanish, watch Spanish films, and listen to Spanish music;
• Find articles about places in Spain, as well as Spanish history and culture, at StudentResourceCenter;
• Learn about notable Spanish people and more at WorldBook Online InfoFinder;
• Explore travel and tourism websites – we’ve brought all the best ones together in one place to make it easy for you;
• Earn an excellence in NCEA Spanish with help from NZQA;
• The BBC makes learning Spanish easy;
• Make learning Spanish fun – play games at Digital Dialects;
• Keen to visit or live in Spain or another Spanish-speaking country for a while? Win yourself a student-exchange scholarship;
• GoAbroad.com and Youth For Understanding also offer travel opportunities for high school students;
• Get travel tips from Lonely Planet;
• Challenge yourself at StudySpanish.com.

Want some more really useful resources for another NCEA subject? Go to The Pulse, the library’s website for teens.

Get ya geek on: Really useful resources for NCEA Japanese

Do you dream of moving to Tokyo once you finish school? We can help you get there!

• Borrow a Japanese language multimedia set from one of our community libraries now open so you can practice anywhere;
• We also have Japanese dictionaries (including one you can access online from home!) and books about Japan;
• One of the best ways to learn a language is to immerse yourself in it – read books and magazine articles written in Japanese, watch Japanese films, and listen to Japanese music;
• Find articles about places in Japan, as well as Japanese history and culture, at Student Resource Center;
• Learn about notable Japanese people and more at World Book Online InfoFinder;
• Explore travel and tourism websites – we’ve brought all the best ones together in one place to make it easy for you;
• Earn an excellence in NCEA Japanese with help from NZQA;
• The BBC makes learning Japanese easy;
• Make learning Japanese fun – play games at Digital Dialects;
• Keen to visit or live in Japan for a while? Win yourself a student-exchange scholarship;
• GoAbroad.com and Youth For Understanding also offer travel opportunities for high school students;
• Get travel tips from Lonely Planet;
• Discover the latest trends in Japan at Web Japan;
• Check out a bunch of awesome Japan-related websites on SpeakRealJapanese.com;
• Discover Japan’s seasonal attractions.

Want some more really useful resources for another NCEA subject? Go to The Pulse, the library’s website for teens.