Computers & Study SpacesStudy spaces and libraries1. There are a few different libraries. There is the
Matheson (Humanities),
Hargrave-Andrew (Science/Engineering) and
Law Library. There is also the student run
Medly Library for novels, magazines and other recreational items, apparently the cheapest printing on campus. They have
beanbags.
2. I know this might sound kind of fucked up but the libraries actually aren't the most quiet places on campus, i'd wager they're some of the
loudest. This is especially true for the main parts of them.
3. Hargrave has a basement, a ground floor and an upper level. They're all pretty noisy. Very far back on the ground floor is a quiet study area and that is *alright*. The basement can be quiet sometimes too. Most of the computers and printers are on the ground floor. There's also a
freaky-ass sculpture in the entrance, i'll let you guys discover it for yourself.
4. Matheson has like 6 floors (or more?). It tends to be a tad bit quieter than hargrave in my opinion, probably do to the sheer size of it. The upper levels are just shelves and shelves of books with a few desks and things scattered around. If you want a quite and reliable place to go to indoors, these are a pretty good bet. They do tend to get fairly popular though. The book collection gets more obscure as you get up, level 3 had a
manga version of Japanese financial crisis of the 90's. The very top level had demonology and erotica on the same shelf for some reason which raises
even more question.
5. Under both the libraries are food places and inside the libraries are vending machines.
6. Matheson is open til
midnight (give or take) and
Hargrave is open til about
9pm. Hours are shorter on weekends/holidays.
7. The
law library is the quietest of the bunch but also probably the smallest/least well equipped imo.
8. They're working on creating more and more
informal study spaces in lobbies and things like that. In the
Menzies (the main arts building, also the largest on campus) there is a lot of desks and chairs scattered around the various levels, these are a good bet too. A lot of buildings have spaces like this so just look around.
Computers and printing1. The
libraries are the obvious location here. Computers do tend to be taken fairly fast though, its quite normal at peak hours to have pretty much no computers free, so, i'd be weary of that and plan around it. If you wait long enough people will obviously get up though.
2. There are
various computer labs scattered around campus. Some are general access and never scheduled. Others sometimes have classes in them, if they do, probably don't use them (you could ask though), otherwise, they're free.
3. Your
student card has some kind of
magical voodoo about it that lets you print with it (or a microchip, i'm gonna stick with voodoo though). Don't do what i did and buy the separate printing cards they offer,
you don't need them. In the libraries there are terminals to charge up your card using coins. Near the printers are sensor pads you put your card on and they deduct your printing costs from your card. It'd be far cheaper to print at home (even inc. the cost of a printer) in the long run but if its just for a few pages here and there it's fine.
4. I don't know how it was at everyones school but you can go on pretty much any website you want at uni, there are no restrictions. It's quite usual to see people using facebook or watching movies/sports on the computer. It's alright if its during a break from work but if you're occupying a computer for a few hours to do it, its kind of dickish if other people need it to do work.
5. There's wifi everywhere and upstairs in the
campus center, you can hook your laptops up to a few of the fairly large TV's they offer and watch movies on them or whatever else you like.
6. Underneath the
campus center is a Microsoft facility. It's a little like an apple store in a way, except they don't sell anything. It was paid for by Microsoft, it has a bunch of their laptops, tablets and yes even
Xbox's in there. I've never been inside (i really should) but it seems very nicely furnished and comfortable. We're one of the few universities in Australia to get these (sorry UoM

).
7.
Students are entitled to various pieces of free software, most of them are stuff the average student wouldn't want but some are great.