Monthly Archives: April 2022

Your Favourite Safe Services are Back!

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It’s that time of year again, where we are staying later and later at the library. Hang in there, brighter days are ahead! After dark, SSMU provides two services to help you get home safe: DriveSafe and WalkSafe!

DriveSafe

Next week starting Wednesday, April 13th, there will be a table in the library for you to access the service, or you can always call the number (514) 398-8040! Also if you’re seeing this before then, their services are available on weekends as well if you’re planning to hit the town. To stay updated with hours and operations check out their Instagram, Facebook or Website.

The exam period boundaries are restricted to:

East-West: Autoroute 15 to Papineau

North-South: Rue Jean-Talon to Verdun

If passengers would like to be dropped off outside of this designated area, they will drop them at a bus stop, metro, or train station near the edge of the boundary.

Also some key information:

  • If its an emergency, don’t wait for DriveSafe, call 911!
  • Opened alcohol is not permitted at anytime in a DriveSafe van.
  • Volunteers have total and absolute discretion as to who to allow into their van and where to go.
  • It is service aimed at bringing students home safely, not a taxi service for transporting you from place to place!

A HUGE thank you to all the volunteers who give their time to make their peers safer and happier.

WalkSafe

If you live closer by and would like some company on your walk home, WalkSafe is the perfect resource. Just call  (514) 398-2498. They operate from:

9pm-midnight Sunday-Thursday

9pm-3am Friday and Saturday

Also you can check out their FAQ page if you have any questions.

As always, if there’s an emergency call 9-1-1 or if you’re on campus, McGill Security can give you a hand just call  (514)398-3000 for downtown campus and  514) 398-7777 for Mac Campus.

Stay safe and take care of yourselves during the busy season. You are almost done!!

P.S. If you need a pick me up during finals check out our PetGrams as well!

If you have any questions email hssl.library@mcgill.ca or directly contact WalkSafe and DriveSafe.

How to Get Away with Free Movies

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Netflix subscriptions go up every month, HBO is so randomly expensive, and movie theatre tickets are now $15?!? If you’re a student on a budget, or simply want to use the library’s resources for some free movie watching, this is the place to learn more.

Unsplash//@freestocks

Streaming Services

There are so many audio-visual resources available to you through the the McGill Library collection. You can learn all about them on this subject guide.

This includes access to seven different platforms filled with awesome content for you to take a little break from your academic reading. If you’re having trouble with accessing them, or want to learn more, check out the McGill Films 101 blog post which goes into the specifics of each platform and how it can be accessed.

You can also check out the Health and Wellness guide for some staff favourite Youtube channels and podcasts. While not technically free movies, they are resources for you to stream free entertainment while you’re on your lunch break or relaxing before bed!

DVDs

Do you remember redbox?! If want a similar experience and you’re a little more old-school, we have 15,000 DVD is our collection for you! There are some big blockbuster names like The Martian, Joker, or even The Terminator for you to choose from and find your next movie night pick.

There’s also some awesome Blu-ray picks, which bring you the best quality and sometimes bonus content! A few of our picks are Moonrise Kingdom, Bladerunner 2049, and the 50th anniversary of the 1961 version of the West Side Story!

If none of these picks are up your alley, you can always go into the advanced search button of the catalogue, choose keywords and type in a few, and then select DVD as the format in the bottom drop-down menu. For “romance” “comedy”, 163 results popped up, a mixed of old and new!

Hope this has been a helpful guide through the ways you find free movies in whichever format you prefer! There are so many options when looking for ways to destress; take advantage of the free library resources you have access to! Happy watching 🙂

If you have any questions feel free to email hssl.library@mcgill.ca.

Books that Make you Fall in Love… At First Sight

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Judging Some Books By Their Covers

We are all familiar with the idiom “don’t judge a book by its cover”. It is a phrase used far and wide to discourage people from valuing someone’s appearance over their personality, but can it also be applied to books? Of course you can judge a book by its cover, that is precisely what the covers of books are for. Judging the book. 

Although book covers, like first impressions, may not tell you all there is to know about the contents within, they give you a fair idea of what to expect, and on a usual day, we all want something expectable, familiar, and predictable to make us feel content. No surprises needed. 

The beauty of judging a book by its cover though, is that not all of us look at the same things and find them beautiful, our sense of aesthetics is different and so are the books we pick.

Come with us then, as we take a dive into McGill Overdrive’s New eBook additions and take a look at the handpicked books we find aesthetically pleasing. It’s time we give the illustrators, writers, and publishers the praise that they are due.   

The Overstory by Richard Powers (2018) 

The Overstay Cover Art

The cover of this Pulitzer Prize winning novel describes the story within perfectly, with its surrealistic depiction of the woods.

Description: The Overstory is a sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of—and paean to—the natural world. From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, this novel unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. There is a world alongside ours—fast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us. This is the story of a handful of people who learn how to see that world and who are drawn up into its unfolding catastrophe.

Music Therapy in Adoption and Trauma by Joy Gravestock (2021) 

This one may seem a bit surprising, rarely do theoretical non-fiction books have covers that draw us in. But we cannot deny that this one, with its swimming shades of warm colours and an almost musical sense, deserves a spot on our list. 

Description: The book discusses music therapy as a valuable method of support and treatment for those dealing with trauma within the adoption community. Music Therapy in Adoption and Trauma offers a timely and much-needed perspective for music and creative arts therapists, as well as families themselves.
Addressing topics such as contemporary adoption processes, potential resulting trauma, attachment and adoption breakdown, the book looks at why music therapy specifically can help. Throughout, it centres the value of lived experience in increasing understanding of trauma and effective support…

Build Your House Around My Body by Violet Kupersmith (2021) 

This one with its simple and elegant design makes you curious from the very first glimpse. We’re all lovers of collages but this one is especially intriguing!

Description: Build Your House Around My Body takes us from colonial mansions to ramshackle zoos, from sweaty nightclubs to the jostling seats of motorbikes, from ex-pat flats to sizzling back-alley street carts. Spanning more than fifty years of Vietnamese history and barreling toward an unforgettable conclusion, this is a time-traveling, heart-pounding, border-crossing fever dream of a novel that will haunt you long after the last page.

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon (2021) 

No one could tell us that they wouldn’t click on this book the second they saw it, browsing be damned! This beautiful cover re-imagines the legend of St. George and the Dragon to match the mood of Shannon’s epic fantasy. 

Description: A world divided. A queendom without an heir. An ancient enemy awakens.

The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction—but assassins are getting closer to her door. Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic…

Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan (2021) 

What better way to launch your debut novel than with a most gorgeous artwork? Another book from the epic fantasy genre, this cover brings to life Lynn Tan’s true inspiration for her work in a colourful manner: Chinese myths and legends. 

Description: Growing up on the moon, Xingyin is accustomed to solitude, unaware that she is being hidden from the feared Celestial Emperor who exiled her mother for stealing his elixir of immortality. But when Xingyin’s magic flares and her existence is discovered, she is forced to flee her home, leaving her mother behind.

Alone, powerless, and afraid, she makes her way to the Celestial Kingdom, a land of wonder and secrets. Disguising her identity, she seizes an opportunity to learn alongside the emperor’s son, mastering archery and magic, even as passion flames between her and the prince.