The Libary

The library is one of the best sources of support and information for a first year student. The library contains a number of different things that can benefit the first year student including, computers for research, journals and books for direct referencing and a helpful staff who usually know how to find what you are looking for whether that is a book or an online resource.

The staff in library are all trained to assist students in there research and thus often know a number of tricks that the layman man not. Due to their position they usually won’t be stumped by any hard question you have after all they have probably heard it before within their career.

Online resources are very important for students this information usually comes in the form of journals. Not only does the library have ample computers and can thus give you access to these journals, the library had a webpage itself which if used correctly will greatly improve.

While books and journals are being phased out to be replaced by digital counter parts libraries still hold a large amount of physical copies of books and journals available to the students. Not only do these solid copies but if asked a book available at another campus can be transferred to your campus library with little trouble and it will usually only take about two days, a week at the longest unless of course the book has be loaned out to another student.

The library is not open on public holidays however from Tuesday to Thursday the library is open from 8am to 8pm, though the computers are turned off at 7 45pm. On Monday and Friday the library closes early at 5pm. It also opens on a Saturday 11am to 4 pm which is very convenient for those who struggle to work from home.

Caval borrowing cards are also extremely usefully for a student when researching. What a Caval card does is it allows a student to borrow from no Melbourne Polytechnic libraries without having to get an individual card for each library. I found this to be especially useful for me as I live in a suburb that is far away from my campus meaning that if I required a book for research I would have to wait till a school day to borrow after class of take a 40 minute train ride to get the books I need. With the Caval card I can got to Monash University library which is much closer or I can go the national library in Melbourne central which is still closer than the campus library for me.

I have personally found the library to be a safe and useful environment as a first year student and have continued to make use of it throughout my time at Melbourne Polytechnic. At the beginning of my first semester I primarily used it for its computer facilities without really bothering the staff, however as time when on I found myself having trouble locating information and had to increasingly as the staff not only how to find certain pieces of information but also how to better search for that information by myself.

In general I would strongly recommend that students use the library and its resources whenever they can, it of great help. Even if you do not need them it is good to check them out and make sure you understand everything that is available to you.