Author: InfoGirl

And the course listings for Fall 2010 are UP! Check them out and start planning obsessively here.

Upon reading Chrissy Callahan’s article, “Books for classes: Less is more” in The Hoot, I am surprised to find that the most convenient alternative to book-buying is not mentioned at all: Interlibrary Loan. This process is fairly simple, and it allows you to obtain your textbooks from the library without being tied to reading them in the library. How does this work? Start at the LTS website, and click “Find Books and More.” From here you will see a link for “Other Library Catalogs,” and then World Cat. Simply search for your textbook, click on the title, and press “Get it.” If Brandeis has a copy, make sure to make a note that our copy is checked out or you need it for more than the 2 hours that reserves allows (only if this is true, of course!). The ILL department will order your book and deliver it to the main library for a loan period of about a month. Note, however, that you need to order it early–the process can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks.

While this is not a viable alternative for textbooks that are used throughout the semester, I have found it very useful for those books that we only read and discuss for a short period of time. If you’re never going to use a book again, why buy it when you can get it from the library?

Did you know that Brandeis offers fellowship opportunities? I know I didn’t; they don’t advertise it, and it’s buried on the Academic Services page. Check this out: http://www.brandeis.edu/acserv/fellowships/index.html

Have your interests changed a little bit over the summer? Do you have that one class that you really wish you had signed up for? This is just a reminder that as of 12:01 am on MONDAY, AUGUST 17 registration for fall classes are once again open. Ready, set, go!

As if Fall 2009 wasn’t close enough, Brandeis has published its preliminary schedule of classes for Spring 2010. You can view it here.

Finally, after a long delay, the registrar has put up the courses which will be taught next semester. You can see them at http://www.brandeis.edu/registrar/schedule/search.php.

Making plans to go home? The Spring 2009 Final Exam Schedule is now avaliable on the registrar’s website for your all your planning needs. Just what you always wanted…

As mentioned in Adam Jaffe’s recent e-mail, CARS has a brand-new, beautiful website. We can now see the membership of every committee, a summery of what each committee is working towards, a timeline of the entire process (including scheduled open forums!) and a document from the provost listing five pages worth of ideas. Take a look. I for one think it’s pretty impressive.

bumped ~sahar

A message from Steven Karel on mybrandeis: 

After a torrent of e-mails over the weekend (1/31/09-2/1/09) with lots of interesting comments, there has not been a single comment today. Please take a look at the other bulletin boards from the CARS subcommittees and weigh in. There are a number of posted questions with absolutely no student responses. If you don’t make yourself heard now, you will be hard-pressed to complain later about not having been consulted.

I hate to say it, but it’s true. We have all these resources. As Sahar said below, we have a voice. We have the power to use that voice. We wanted open communication, right? But communication has to go both ways. Give and take. We’ve been given the opportunity; please, take it. There are 4,000 people on this campus. There is no reason why the discussion should be stalling.

Sahar sent this out to the BCC listserv, but it’s so cool that it deserves a post here too: BrandeisPlans, a wiki for members of the Brandeis community to submit, edit, and debate proposals for Brandeis’s future. What better way to make our voices heard?

For off-campus access:

login – faculty
password : change!

An explaination on the login information: The wiki was originally created as a faculty outlet, but it has expanded to the whole of Brandeis.

There seems to be a lot of confusion going around about the status of Alumnai and Friends scholarships. What is it? Can it be used for study abroad?

According to the study abroad office, Alumnai and Friends Scholarship are not merit aid. Or in other words, those who have this scholarship will not lose it if they choose to go abroad.

Has anyone else been telling their families that we have no admissions building and the Shapiro family lost all their money? Well… The Justice did an article on it, posted online December 26 here. Notice how Brandeis itself hasn’t released anything…

Well, it’s 2009, which to me translates as, “Oh G-d, Spring semester starts soon and I don’t have my books!!!” And as the price of postage goes up, shipping costs rises–and I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to pay $4 shipping on a $3 used book. Thus, I have come to share a webesite with you: TextbooksRUs. The quality of their prices vary (some books are really cheap, some are insanely overpriced), but shipping’s always $1. Check this website against Amazon; sometimes you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

I would like to step away from my capacity of InfoGirl for a second to bring your attention to an article in today’s New York Times, Obama’s ‘Secretary of Food’?. Considering the focus on environmentalism in the Brandeis community, I figured this might interest a few people.

And on a subject closer to home, a warning: If you are a vegitarian or a person who keeps kosher but eats dairy out, you might not want to eat at Quizno’s. I have ended up with bacon in my tuna sub on two separate occasions, and they have lost all trust from me. You might want to consider doing the same.

It’s here. Oh G-d, it’s here. Finals. Papers. Sleep-deprivation.

I would like to share a link that my sister gave me: Write or Die. She says it’s the ultimate anti-procrastination tool; hopefully it’ll help some people get a bit more sleep this week.

If anyone’s curious, the registrar has published the preliminary final exam schedule here. Not that they’ll announce it or anything.

How many people out there know that registration for the Spring 2009 semester is beginning on October 27, a week from Monday? Academic services has been being strangely quiet about it, but according to the registrar’s website, it’s true. Classes can be found at http://www.brandeis.edu/registrar/schedule/search.php, though note that a) you have to move the drop-down menu to Spring 2009 (it’s still set on 2008) and b) in some cases, the professor listed when you click on the course number is incorrect. All the correct instructors are listed on the actual search page.