Commons Knowledge

Donald Fillmore has won a gift certificate to Tim Horton’s for correctly answering our last Trivia Question. What is the volume and issue number of the journal "Serious Research" illustrated in the training video, "An Introduction to Journal Articles"?
(The answer was Volume 43, Issue 2). Congratulations Don, enjoy the coffee!

And, to the person who responded, “Gimme my Timmys” along with their answer. . . it’s kind of cute. Can I use it in upcoming games?

Every year the graduating class chooses an on-campus project to support. Last year the Grad Class fixed up the tunnel between Oland & Hazen halls. This year, we are very pleased to announce that the Class of 2008 has chosen the Student Study Lounge as their project. And, as an added incentive, we will be matching their donation dollar for dollar.

What a perfect project, the room was looking rather bedraggled (or dare I say shoddy) with its hodge-podge of mismatched furniture and chipped paint on the walls. Now we’ll have the best Student Study Lounge anywhere . . . Thanks to you!

Progress is already being made, some of the furniture has been ordered and we expect the walls to be painted while you’re away on March Break. So, even this year’s grad class will be able to enjoy some of the renovations.

There are many easy ways you can help ensure that your computer--and its vital information—are kept safe and secure. Here are a few:
 Don’t open email attachments unless you are familiar with the sender and are expecting the file—unsolicited attachments are the most common source of computer viruses and worms (nasty little programs that do bad things to the computer!)
 Don’t ever run (or ‘double-click’ on) an email attachment that has the file extension .exe. This kind of file is an ‘executable’ program, and is always highly suspect unless it comes from a known, reputable source. On the other hand, if you buy software online, the downloaded .exe file is usually safe.
 When you have to leave your computer, whether in your office or in a lab, make sure that you log out of your network account, or at least lock the workstation so that someone coming along can’t access your files and email account. Most computers with the Windows XP operating system can be locked by pressing the Ctrl, Alt, and Delete keys at the same time, then clicking on ‘Lock Workstation’. To unlock the computer when you return, simply enter your normal computer password.
 Speaking of passwords, be careful which ones you use. There is an excellent guide to creating good PINs (personal identification numbers--the same thing as passwords), on the (ITS website)

Over 50 people entered our "Guess the number of Hearts" contest yesterday, during the Love your Library Day celebration. We had some interesting entries - ranging from over 1000 to under 250, but someone was bang on! (We really appreciated the calculus done long-hand!)

Sarah Idler was our winner with an entry of 587. . . Sarah gets the goodies. So if you know Sarah, make sure you ask her to share her cinnamon hearts!

We're trying so, so hard to liven up this long, cold winter that we're thinking of having a St. Patrick's Day celebration. And, we'll see how many leprechauns we can get in a jar!

You were so disappointed that the last batch of new e-resources I featured didn’t have anything for business that I started feeling guilty. . . So I dug around our website and came up with an “oldie but a goodie” just for you. (Hey, what do you know, the spellchecker likes goody but not goodie!).

I checked, and a couple of hundred students are taking some kind of economics course on campus. With all of the papers and projects coming up, I just know that at least a few of you are going to need Econlit. It’s the self-proclaimed, “world's foremost source of references to economic literature. . . ” Topics as diverse as labor, marketing, health economics and technological change are covered in its 350,000+ records. As an added bonus, it's accessible through a platform that should be familiar to most of you, EbscoHost.

So now you can really enjoy those economics assignments and papers, Right?

The Commons Team are right here for you (except for the all-nighters – we don’t do all-nighters anymore)! It would seem that everyone is working on a paper (or three) before the March Break. . . So this would be a really good time to check out our writing resources.

Sure, we can help you find scads of information on your topic, but did you know we can also help with:

(1) Technology that’s giving you grief. Power Point won’t behave? Minitab questions? How about formatting that table? See the Helpdesk.
(2) The Actual Writing. Need help organizing your paper? Using APA or MLA? Polishing the final copy? Make an appointment at the Writing Centre.
(3) Tools of the Trade. Including: subject databases, Writing guides, reference books & academic journals. Talk to the Information and Research Desk.

We’re also open regular hours throughout the March Break, so be sure drop by!

If so, please ask us. We have a Lost & Found Box, and it’s brimming over with all kinds of stuff! I see in there right now: a few hats, some mitts (some in pairs, a few singles), scarves of every color, a pair of sunglasses (and an unrelated sunglass case), an umbrella (actually two), earrings (again, some in pairs, others single), plenty of CDs (usually left in the laptops), notebooks, binders and a plastic snake? (I won’t even comment on the snake). Some of the valuable things we find get sent directly to the Security Office (wallets, keys, calculators or cell phones). And, if we can find a name on stuff that’s been lost . . . we call or e-mail the owner. But alas, so much stuff has no identification at all!

Early next week we’ll be shipping the stuff over to the “Big” Lost & Found at the Security Office. We have to do this each month or we’d be buried in stuff. So, if you’re missing anything, drop by and see if you can help us empty out some of the stuff!