What's new?

In this term's mailout you will find:

• Term 4 Topic List Update
• Infocus order form
• Topic suggestion form

Looking for supplementary material on "The Journey"?
The recent film "Touching the void" tells the true story of two young mountain climbers, Joe Simpson and Simon Yates, and their perilous journey climbing the Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. The film is literally a "cliff-hanger" based on Joe Simpson's book by the same title. It deals with their physical journey as well as their inner journeys. See items 2341-2343.

"Speculative fiction" was a term coined by Robert A. Heinlein in 1941 and can encompass the genres of science fiction, fantasy and horror.

For English students studying this topic, items 2339-2340 analyse Frank Herbert's "Dune" and items 2338 and 2357 take a look at this popular genre. You could also direct students and teachers to the following websites:

The Home of Science Fiction and Fantasy contains a 'mixture of book reviews, opinion pieces, author interviews, fiction excerpts, author and publisher reading lists and a variety of other features'. A comprehensive list of links to author sites, tv, movies, magazines and many other science fiction resources makes this worth investigating for supplementary material.

http://www.sfsite.com/home.htm

Fantastic Fiction features bibliographies for more than 6,000 authors and includes information on 120,000 books in various genres.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk

The Internet Speculative Fiction Database provides bibliographic information for an enormous list of authors as well as magazines and related resources.

http://www.isfdb.org

One of Shakespeare's most famous couples, Antony and Cleopatra, are examined in item numbers 2344-2346. The contemporary appeal and relevance of Shakespeare is discussed in item 2347. Item 2353 is an article on the remains of The Globe and Rose Theatres, which reveal a great deal about performance and audiences during Elizabethan times.

The University of Adelaide Library has compiled a list of electronic books in their collection. This is a wonderful resource for English and History students. Notable themes include 'Travel and exploration', 'Australian exploration' relating to The Journey, and 'Crime and mystery' for the Crime Fiction option in Extension 1. Search their collection by theme, author, title or use the full-text facility.

http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/

This term, Infocus takes a look at the National Studies elective focusing on Russia and the Soviet Union 1917-1945. We have included items on the development of Communism in Russia, focusing on key figures such as Trotsky, Lenin and Alexandra Kollantai (Items 2352-55).

Option 20 looks at the nature of the presidency of John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
In 2002, Arms Control Today magazine did a feature on the Cuban Missile Crisis. These articles appear on their website at the following link.

http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2002_11/cubanmissile.asp#havana

If you like Item 2335 on Thucydides, for Option 5, you may also want to look at Robert Zaretsky's article "It's all Greek to us: on the timelessness of Thucydides" from The Virginia Quarterly Review. It is now available on the University of Virginia's website:

http://www.virginia.edu/vqr/viewmedia.php/prmMID/7165

To read Richard Crawley's translation of Thucydides "History of the Peloponnesian War", go to the University of Adelaide Library's Web books:

http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/

During the July school holidays approximately 30 Infocus members visited the State Library during our Open Day. Activities included a behind the scenes tour of the Library into Preservation and the Framed Picture storage room. Some members also attended a demonstration of iSELECT.

The afternoon session on WEBLOGS by Dr Anne Clyde Professor in the Faculty of Social Science at The University of Iceland, was very popular. After a potted history of 'blogs' and an explanation of the terminology used by 'bloggers', Dr Clyde walked us through her website covering various issues including weblogs as information sources, weblogs as professional development resources and their use in education. This site will remain live until June 2005. See http://www.hi.is/~anne/slnsw-tl.html

New exhibitions at the State Library include:

Open to 28 November 2004

Galleries, Mitchell Wing

This exhibition surveys a range of paintings created in New South Wales between 1820 and 1870. Works by well-known professional artists including G. E. Peacock, Augustus Earle and Conrad Martens depict vibrant views of Sydney people, places and society.

Open to 28 November 2004

Galleries, Mitchell Wing

Frances Mocnik and Robert Young used experimental photographic techniques to portray corporate Australia's larger-than-life characters for the Financial Review. Portraits of Allan Fels, Peter Costello MP and John Atanaskovic are among images of past and present powerhouses being exhibited for the first time.

Open 18 October to 6 February 2005

Picture Gallery, Mitchell Wing

Oswald Brierly was part of a great tradition of British ship-board artists who sailed on voyages of exploration and discovery and helped extend European knowledge of Australia and the South Pacific. This exhibition includes over 40 works, the subject matter ranging from ships and whaling to coastal profiles and indigenous canoes.

Infocus contact details

Infocus: linking people and information
State Library of New South Wales
Macquarie St, Sydney 2000
Tel: 02 9273 1519 Fax: 02 9273 1248
E-mail: infocus@sl.nsw.gov.au