With 2020 going the way it is, it’s more important than ever to maintain balance in our lives. As we all navigate the shift to online study / relaxation / socialising / everything, here are some recreational resources that you can access from wherever you are – books, movies, music & more… 

Surly e-books – e-books are the best way to browse and borrow from home, once you’ve used up your personal book collection. You can use your desktop, phone, tablet, or ereader. Free for all students, and we add new titles every couple of weeks + take requests!

Surly Audiobooks – ideal to listen to while you’re exercising, cleaning, cooking, gardening, crafting, lying in bed, etc. Listen through the app, or download so you’re not using up your data while out and about on your daily state-approved walk.

MSA Book Club – join or start a book club so you can get recommendations from like-minded ppl, and chat about what you’re reading.

Book reviews, recommendations & competitions –We’ll have all of these on our socials over semester – follow along on Facebook or Insta, or read some of our latest blog posts

SLV – Become a member of the State Library of Victoria to access their collections including online newspapers, magazines, and photo archives. You need to have a Victorian home address but it’s completely free (You should do this anyway not just during self-isolation, they have some rad stuff).

Minecraft library – yes this is a thing. And no it’s not a collection of books about Minecraft, it’s hosted within Minecraft as a clever way to provide access worldwide to banned books. Liberté, égalité, minecrafté!

Kanopy Cinema – thousands of films and documentaries, for both education and entertainment. This is an amazing, free, and surprisingly under-utilised service – just log in with your Monash student email.

Internet Archive Emergency Library – this has got to be one of the best initiatives to come out of 2020 so far. The Internet Archive is offering free ’emergency’ membership during the self-isolation period, which gives you access to thousands of books (both fun and textbooks), classic movies, and music, from hundreds of libraries around the world. It can be hard to navigate, but there are some gems hidden in there for sure.

Surly on Spotify – Missing SURLY’s music collection? Fear not- we’re launching SURLY music playlists! That’s right, we’re now on Spotify bringing you new tunes to listen to every week – dance tunes, study music, relaxation playlists & more coming atcha.

MSO – for those who would normally be listening to Classical Music from our LP collection, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra has been live-streaming their concerts on youtube. Pop on your best headphones and escape into some Beethoven!

Museum at Home – if you’re looking to expand your cultural horizons, you can now explore collections and exhibitions from Melbourne Museum, Scienceworks & the Immigration Museum online.

P.S. if you’re not sure where to start, don’t worry, we’re not abandoning you! If you follow our socials (FB / Insta) we have a team of book-lovers who’ll be putting together reviews, recommendations & other fun stuff over the course of semester.