While I was at the Information Desk one day, a law professor requested the library to purchase films that she wanted to use for a module. So we started discussing the benefits of films as a teaching aid.

Films are seldom used in class, and the novelty factor can make students more excited about the topics being discussed. On a superficial level, films can be used by law professors to illustrate the legal process. On a deeper level, they can also provoke critical thinking and analysis. For example watching Twelve Angry Men can stimulate a debate about the role and selection of the jury. It can also generate a critical analysis of the pros and cons of the jury system. Films that depict lawyers can be used for analysing the roles of lawyers in society. In addition, many films can be used to discuss the issue of legal ethics.

Some films which can be used in law classes are: Minority Report (2002), Erin Brockovich (2000), The Rainmaker (1997), My Cousin Vinny (1992), Class Action (1991) and Jagged Edge (1986).

国大中文系同学会联同中文图书馆在2009年10月30日举办了一场写论文讲座，获得了60名同学的踊跃参与。这场名为“救命啊！老师，我要“王”牌论文”的讲座由中文系王昌伟老师主讲。

王老师说， 学生们时常在选题上遇到寻找资料的难处，有两个可能性：一，图书馆没有这方面的材料；二，学生们不会找资料，而学生们往往都属于后者。他表示，学生应该根据自己的兴趣鉴定要研究的课题，再依照问题去寻找资料。

对于如何鉴定学术课题，王老师认为，学生们应该要广泛地阅读各种资料，才能确认某种课题值不值得学生们去寻找学术性的答案。 “一个课题会引入你进入死胡同，因为你考证不来，或有问题却没有答案。”这是王老师在讲座上向学生抛出的救生圈之一。

他说，如果研究的课题能够在前人的基础上找到所要的答案，对目前的课题提出有进一步的的看法，那就是很好的学术课题，也是最高境界。

会上，学生们踊跃参与发问环节。王老师一一地为学生们解答后，提醒学生不要忘记读者，因为读者未必经历过同作者同样的思考过程。因此，他叮咛学生们要时刻在文章上加上指标，让读者能够跟上他们的思路。

会后，中文系同学会主席罗超伟赠送纪念品予王昌伟老师与中文图书馆馆长沈俊平博士，以表达谢意。学生也通过发问，各自的疑惑都解开了，纷纷带着满意的心情结束了这场有意义的讲座。

陈德明
中文系同学会秘书

For revision purposes, try BMJ’s (British Medical Journal) Endgames at http://www.onexamination.com/endgames. BMJ’s Endgames is a pop quiz consisting of five short MCQ questions on a wide range of topics. It’s a fast and easy way to see how much you have learned.

On a lighter note, try BMJ’s monthly online quiz at http://my.onexamination.com/Community/Quiz.aspx and test your general medical knowledge.

Answer a short question and stand a chance of winning great prizes! 

However, in order to have your entry included in the monthly quiz you have to log in to your account. If you do not have an account you will be prompted to create one. Don’t worry it’s free!

10月8日（星期四；2.00 – 4.00PM）
国大中央图书馆第二讲堂

有幸参加诗人邹璐关于新诗鉴赏的讲座。回来之后，拿着邹璐女士的诗集反复阅读玩味，颇为感慨。

邹璐女士并没有系统地给我们讲解如何鉴赏新诗，乃至创作新诗。这一点，是极其出乎我的意料的。然而，如果她按部就班地传授我们这些技巧，那么，这一次讲座，也就不过是一个平乏的关于学术的讲解。我首先喜欢的，便是邹璐女士跳出了这么一种常规的模式，以一种更具体的方式向我们展示了诗歌的美妙。

邹璐女士给我们讲了一些她的经历，她的心路历程。然后，拿出了她的诗，并邀请评论家怀鹰与我们一起鉴赏。

我一直认为，诗歌，无论是古诗，还是新诗，都需要我们调动起所有的感官，去制造一种身临其境的真实。是，无论是何种文学作品，都会唤起我们的想象，让我们有身在其中之感。然而诗歌由于它的特殊性，由于它精炼的语言，最需要我们用自己的想象力去描画出丰富的场景。

那静默的远山，寥远的天际，无垠的草原，在你的眼前绵延。仿佛一卷水墨画，在你的眼前铺陈开去。闭上眼，凝神细听，你是否感觉到，耳边有风声呼啸而过？深深吸一口气，你是否嗅到了清晨清冷空气里湿润的青草味？这就是诗歌啊，让你不用跑去野外深深吐纳，胸腔里浑浊的气息便已全然净化。你的心里，是一片的开阔明朗。

我不禁想，能写出这样开阔的诗篇的人一定有一个开阔的心境吧。我忽然就觉得，自己从来都喜欢的婉约小调是那么的娇弱无力，我咂摸不倦多年的席慕容诗集又是多么的苍白空洞。我并不是在否认婉约词，也不是在反对席慕容的诗作，它们依旧是我的深爱。只是这一刻，我忽然就感受到了，一种磅礴，一种开阔，一种仰望渺茫苍天，遥望浩瀚大海的坦荡和舒心。仿若苏子在赤壁前咏史怀古的豪放豁达，一如稼轩在睡梦中挑灯看剑的慷慨大气，而又少了他们的怅惘和悲愤，更添畅爽。

这才是真正的鉴赏吧，让我们自己去阅读，自己去感受，自己去交流，拓展思维的宽度。将一片寥远的天地展现在我们面前，让我们自己去进行再次创作。

我闭上眼，眼前又是一片开阔。

陆嘉婧
中文学会文学组

With effect from 27 Oct, there will be changes to the options of collection scopes in LINC and LINC+ (in the “Refined By” column of search results). The changes are to facilitate your search for materials in specific library and format collections.

Note: The current default collection scope i.e. “View Entire Collection” which includes all scopes available in LINC and LINC+ remain unchanged.

We are a group of four social work students doing a community project for the module Community Work Practice (SW3105). In this project, we will be engaging the public into accepting and offering second chances to youth-at-risk and ex-youth offenders through a community arts movement named HeARTbeat.

HeARTbeat highlights the pressing need for youths to reflect about the causes, effects and solutions to youth delinquency and at-risk behaviour in Singapore. The aim is to raise the awareness of youths and the public about the concerns and challenges facing youths-at-risk and ex-youth offenders. We hope the members of the public will look beyond their immediate comfort zones and confront these issues in their personal capacities, and do their part towards fostering an inclusive and cohesive society.

With the rising trend of youth delinquency in Singapore, this art exhibition aims to explore the community’s role in helping the youths to realise the consequences of their actions and through the artwork, discover their strengths. We held an exhibition at the Woodlands Regional Library from 1 to 12 Oct 2009 and decided to bring the exhibition to the NUS Central Library as we wanted to allow the NUS students, faculty members and staff to have a greater understanding of the social work profession as well as the youth delinquency issues in Singapore.

Do visit the exhibition, which will run from 23 October to 20 November, and sign our guestbook!

Tng Xin Lei Corine
Undergraduate, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences

Oct 14 was our long awaited E-Resource Discovery Day and it was a day when almost 800 NUS students and staff learnt about our subscribed e-resources, received goodie bags, entered lucky draws, enjoyed free Milo and food and of course supported us in our fundraising book and food sales!

This year, we had 21 vendors exhibiting and educating students about our e-resources, a much bigger turnout compared to the 10 of last year. To encourage learning, students and staff were given quiz sheets that required them to get answers by talking to the vendors. Each completed sheet entitled them to a goodie bag and a lucky draw ticket.

Feedback from both vendors and students were generally positive. Vendors felt that the level of interaction this year was definitely higher and this gave them an opportunity to share about the best way to use their products. Feedback collected from students also indicated that they found the event useful and would visit again next year. We also received many great suggestions on how we can make the event even better next year.

Fundraising Food & Book Sale

Our efforts raised a total of $2250.15 for the NUS Students’ Fund. On behalf of the needy students who will benefit from this, we thank those who donated their books to us as well as those who bought them. Without your support, this would not have been possible. A cheque of this amount was presented to the NUS Students’ Fund last Friday.

Books that did not sell will be donated to the following causes:

• The Salvation Army
• Schools in Bago City, Philippines (through NUS Students’ Union Volunteer Action Committee’s (NVAC) Project Big Hands, Bigger Hearts 5)
• Project SAIL (Books to South Africa through NUS Students’ Fund)

Statistics

Prize Winners

We congratulate the following staff and students who participated in our various activities and won. We also want to thank the vendors who generously supplied the gifts.

Online Quiz

Treasure Hunt

Grand Draw

To view more pictures of the event, please click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nuslibraries/sets/72157622463582699/

We look forward to another educational E-Resource Discovery Day next year and your continued support!

Get ready to:

Gain Knowledge
Our E-resource providers will be on hand to introduce you to the resources you need for studies and research. Come with questions!

Win Prizes & Redeem Goodie Bags
Online quiz: Take part in our online quiz now (1st-12th Oct) to be included in our pre-event lucky draw!

Treasure hunt: Take part in our lunchtime Treasure Hunt for a chance to win a Nintendo Wii, an iPod Nano 16 GB, or a Nikon Coolpix!

Grand draw & goodie bags: To redeem a goodie bag and grand draw ticket (prizes galore!), simply get a quiz sheet from the library booth, visit at least 3 vendors to find the answers and collect 3 stamps.

Support Needy Students
Spend wildly at our food and book fair to raise money for the NUS Students’ Fund! Books are priced to go, starting from 50 cents! So swing by, do something for the community, and get great stuff!

Check out the event website now! For more information, please contact Gerrie Kow at clbky@nus.edu.sg.

TNL met with a tutor friend along the corridors of the Business School recently and what she said gave TNL quite a nice lift of the spirits.

It seems this semester’s MNO1001 (Management and Organization) students are doing a project that totally grabbed TNL’s attention. It is called the Zoe Project . Our young ones’ mission is to go forth and improve someone else’s life. Just think Pay It Forward but with depth and academic credits.

So what has this got to do with organizational behavior? Plenty it seems. The question is: do we care more for the bottom line or the people that contribute to the bottom line. According to the project outline, effective management is less about the efficiency and more about people and relationships. And people want to be part of a community in which people care for each other. But caring for others is something learned over time and does not come naturally. How true.

But in a world where the first question asked is “what do I get out of it?”, an answer such as “meaningfulness in life” may not cut it. So TNL took a step back and thought of the people in her life that have shown care and reflected on the ROI.

A recent example was one that was close to home. A colleague’s father passed on after many years of being bed-ridden, plagued by illness. TNL’s colleague took upon herself to care for her father herself even though she had a maid and siblings. The little pains she took to ensure that he was comfortable and contented was admirable. But what took the cake was her humor despite the frequent grumblings of an insistent father and his demands for attention. She chuckled, shook her head and all the while she endured with love with never a sigh.

One may call her filial or attribute this to the duty expected of a daughter. But let me ask you this - could you see yourself commit to giving care with such good humor and love in the most difficult of situations every day for that many years? Perhaps the question should actually be what is the ROI? A sense of fulfillment? The satisfaction or relief of a duty well-discharged? A clear conscience?

TNL can’t answer that. But the impact of her attitude and actions on TNL was the realness of goodness. Surely, we can do this. Surely, with good humor, with a positive perspective of things, with the desire to love and care will give us the impetus, the courage to face these issues, to willingly wanting to give.

The MNO1001 students are expected to measure the impact of their project. This can be measured by the improvements made. TNL would like to suggest students look at the impact in reaching out to the witnesses, the observers of their good work. Should the ROI then be the number of causes observers suddenly pick up to pursue with passion?

How about this – the ROI is what it creates inside you, the desire not to turn away, a gesture of compassion, a pause to listen, a glimmer of hope for the next day. The ROI is allowing it to take root.

The Music Library has been very privileged to receive gifts of CDs and music scores from our teaching staff.

Dr Peter Edwards donated scores and CDs by visiting composer Christopher Adler in August 09.  Among these are : Ecstatic volutions in a neon haze, Epilogue for a dark day, Mineralia, and Transcontinental. Dr Edwards has also kindly donated his own compositions: Annicha : for flute, clarinet B major and piano (with a few preparations); and Puer natus est nobis (zu irgendeiner Zeit) : for orchestra (3.3.3.3 – 4.3.3.1. – pno, harp, 4 perc – strings).

Faculty member Prof Ho Chee Kong donated to the Music Library two CDs as gifts on 7 Sep 09. These are “A cappella palette” and “Of passion & passages”, which is a difficult to obtain CD in celebration of Keppel Corporation’s 40th anniversary.

Head of Cello Studies, Qin Liwei, donated Cello album Liwei Qin and Cello concerto : Sea pictures ; Prelude from The Kingdom, Op. 51.

Dr Shiu Kawai has also given the library a CD entitled Exchange : China.

The Music Library wishes to thank the teaching staff for their generous donations. They have enriched our collection and our users have benefitted from these additions to the library.