Library & Learning Services

It’s well-known that one of the most important factors to be successful at University is your health and wellbeing, and sometimes we all need a little bit of a boost! A lot of us find ourselves burning the candle at both ends, and this makes it even more important to find a good balance between valuable time for yourself and time for study. As semester 2 gets underway, don’t forget to fuel your brain cells into action by drinking plenty of water and be kind to yourself by eating some healthy snacks (brain food!) when you’re out and about on campus.

Next week, Learning Services is launching “Food for thought”, to help you think about how you balance your wellbeing with your studies. Throughout the first week of February (Monday 1^st to Friday 5^th) we will be providing free healthy snacks and water to help you get that feel-good factor while you study with us!

Come to the 1^st floor of the University library between 11am – 2pm and see one of our Student Advisors to grab your freebies and find out how we can support you!

On top of this, we are also running two short workshops with our wonderful colleagues in Student Services which will focus on helping you respond to the daily demands of student life at University. After all, when we feel happy, we work better.

The first workshop Think positive. Feel positive. Study positive (Tuesday 2^nd Feb) concentrates on understanding how your feelings and emotions can impact on your academic performance and event your daily life. It’s difficult to take a step back, but doing so can help you to build your confidence, improve your problem solving abilities and challenge negative thoughts with a more helpful response. Come along to this workshop to find out how! (Book here)

Then, on Thursday 4^th Feb we have Stop putting things off and start getting things done! which will help you to understand the cycle of procrastination and how to get out of it, get organised and get things done! (Ideal for that one assignment you simply can’t stop putting off!) In this workshop you will learn how to start tasks earlier and feel more confident in starting, progressing and finishing your tasks on time. (Book here)

The workshops will take place in the University library 2^nd floor meeting room, which is also the home of our Academic Skills workshops.

Any questions or suggestions, please get in touch!

Discover. Read. Listen. Watch.

We are currently trialling a new eResource for Performing Arts & English called Drama Online.

Drama Online is a complete digital library of the most studied, performed & critically acclaimed plays from the last 2,500 years.

The award-winning Drama Online introduces new writers alongside the most iconic names in playwriting history, providing contextual and critical background through scholarly works and practical guides.

The constantly growing collection meets the full range of teaching needs for theatre studies, literature courses and drama schools. From the epic to the monologue; ensemble to one-person plays; comedy to tragedy; the historical to the contemporary; and from the highly political to the profoundly personal, there is plenty to discover!

Video guides to Drama Online can be found here: http://www.dramaonlinelibrary.com/pages/libraryresources

The trial for Drama Online will run from January 25^th through to March 18^th  2016. You can access the database here or from ‘Your FAS Resources’ tab in Learning Edge.

After trying Drama Online please leave your comments below or access a short survey to leave your feedback.

Do get in touch, we really want to know what you think about this resource.

Helen Miller
Academic Liaison Librarian FAS
[email protected]

If you have visited the University Library over the past day or so you may have noticed some signs appearing informing you of an imminent makeover…but just what are we talking about?

Well, in response to student feedback we are enhancing your learning spaces across two floors. The refurbishment, although small in disruption, should provide a huge impact for all our customers in terms of access to PCs and group study areas. We hope you enjoy the newly redesigned spaces.

The Ground floor will undoubtedly see the biggest enhancement with a whopping 24 brand new PCs, of which 12 are extra, a new soft seating area, new group study desks, and seating, with integrated power sockets for your devices and re-vamped, 24/7 accessible, hot drinks facilities!

The Second floor isn’t being left out of the makeover either, to add to the extra 12 PCs on the Ground floor, there will be 10 additional PCs introduced amongst the book stock to help you study closer to your resources.

Work has already begun (please note Bookends will be closed from Thursday 21st January) and will continue until mid-February. We cannot wait to see the finished results and look forward to receiving your feedback on all the additional facilities, PCs and study spaces!