Library & Learning Services

The first term is well and truly underway and, as deadlines approach, it is a good time to think about how you ensure a healthy balance between study, rest and play. But never fear as Study Happy week is returning Monday 4th – Friday 8th November to offer you help, support, ideas and tips to transform your study-life experience!

Study Happy ☺️
All week our knowledgeable Student Advisors will be available (11am-4pm) on the ground floor event space in Catalyst, so why not take a well-earned study break and join them to discover some of their own great study tips and techniques that can help your studies.

Take One, Leaf One ?
Turn over a new leaf this autumn by increasing your healthy study practices. Look out for our inspiration tree where you can pick up a study happy tip, or leaf one of your own. Our Student Advisors will be demonstrating their own techniques for maintaining good study habits throughout  the week.

Student Advisor Study Tips Video ?️

Mindful Activities ?
As well as being fun, creativity is a key part of academic study. You can exercise your brain and develop your creative thinking skills by testing out your paperfolding origami skills.

Healthy Body, Happy Mind ?
While you are feeding your mind with handy academic study tips, don’t forget to feed your body too! Pick up some free fruit on offer all week to keep you fuelled up and ready to take on the rest of the term.

Motivational Music ?
Listen up! Music is one of the most popular ways to increase happiness whilst studying. Our Student Advisors have picked out their favourite tracks to work to and created an EHU Study Happy Spotify playlist. Come along to Catalyst during Study Happy Week to find out more about the motivational mix of music that has been created for you.

Cosy Competition❓
If the lure of free fruit, fun activities, study-friendly playlists, and academic study skills tips is not enough, why not escape from the temperamental autumn weather by coming inside cosy Catalyst and completing our academic study skills competition? Test your knowledge of spelling, grammar and referencing. All correct entries will be entered in our prize draw for a chance to win up to £25 in Amazon vouchers and a UniSkills goodie bag! (T&C apply).

UniSkills Workshops ?
As always there are lots of UniSkills workshops taking place this week, all of which have been designed to help you develop your academic skills and confidence at University and beyond!

• Introduction to Academic Writing – 4^th Nov, 1pm
• Powerful Presentations – 5^th Nov, 12pm
• Become a Paraphrasing Pro – 5^th Nov, 1pm
• Effective Exam Prep (Manchester) – 6^th Nov, 1pm
• Developing Academic Writing – 7^th Nov, 1pm
• Reading Academic Texts – 8^th Nov, 12pm

EHU Big Read Student Book Club ?
We think reading is good for the soul, and with lots of studies championing the benefits it can bring to your general wellbeing we can’t be wrong. If you’ve read this year’s Big Read book, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, why not come along to our special book club and let us know what you thought.

Whether you’re still at the beginning, half way through or finished completely, we want to hear what you think of Harold and his journey! Join us Monday 4^th November at 12pm in Willow – book your place now and we’ll even provide free pizza ?

Wellbeing Workshops ?
The Student Wellbeing team are running a series of workshops throughout the semester to support your own mental wellbeing. Whether you want to worry less, learn some mindfulness techniques, manage your stress or just get stuff done – there’s a workshop for you.

• Stress Surfing – 6^th Nov, 10:30am
• Why Worry? – 6^th Nov, 2:30pm
• Perfectionisn’t – 8^th Nov, 10:30am

Manchester, Aintree & Virtual Support ?
If you are studying at Manchester or Aintree, you will be able to pick up your free fruit and lots of helpful study tips all week from your Library. Manchester will be offering UniSkills drop ins and workshops, as well as a Study Happy display, and Aintree has a silent study area, a great reading for pleasure selection and will be hosting some educational boardgames and jigsaws throughout Study Happy week.

Don’t forget you can also access lots of help, support and guidance online 24 hours a day – a great place to start is your My Library tab in Learning Edge or our UniSkills webpages:ehu.ac.uk/uniskills. Whether you’re just starting your very first assignment and want to learn about planning and structure or are writing your final dissertation and need help with referencing, we can help you to boost your UniSkills!

This term we are also offering UniSkills workshops at Manchester and two virtual UniSkills workshops with unlimited spaces – book now!

• Effective Exam Prep (Manchester) – 6^th Nov, 1pm
• Effective Exam Prep (Manchester) – 27^th Nov, 1pm
• Developing Academic Writing (Manchester) – 4^th Dec, 1pm
• Introduction to Academic Writing (Webinar) – 14^th Nov, 12pm (unlimited space!)
• Developing Academic Writing (Webinar) – 27^th Nov, 1pm (unlimited space!)

With so many amazing autumnal activities taking place during Study Happy week (and beyond!) be sure to join us for lots of tips and techniques to help you conker your study fears, begin to be-leaf in your academic abilities and be Study Happy!

Study Happy Competition Terms and Conditions
1. Only EHU Students are eligible to win prizes, EHU staff may enter but are not eligible to win a prize.
2. Eligible competition entries must contain all five errors highlighted correctly and your student number.
3. There is one £25.00 Amazon voucher to win and two runners up UniSkills goodie bags.
4. You may enter the competition as many times as you wish, but only one correct entry will be entered in the final prize draw – entries can be submitted daily 11am-4pm only.
5. The winners will be contacted via their EHU student email.
6. The winners will be picked at random from a prize draw on Monday 11^th November 2019.
7. The prizes are non-transferable.
8. All winners must be able to collect the prize from the Catalyst Helpdesk and be able to provide evidence/ID that they have won before we will award the prize.
9. Prizes must be collected by 4pm on Friday 22^nd November 2019.
10. If anyone cannot be contacted or prizes are not collected by Friday 22^nd November 2019 the entry will become null and void and a re-draw may take place.

In honour of Black History Month, I have written a blog about my favourite female author – Maya Angelou!

I have loved Maya Angelou ever since I was a little girl. I think her kind face brings me comfort and reminds me of my gran. Her writing gave me hope and inspired me to push through adversity and never give up; when giving up felt like the only option.

Maya’s life

Maya was born on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. After her mum’s marriage ended, when Maya was four, her and her brother were sent on the train to rural Arkansas to live with the grandmother. After a traumatic event at age eight, she stopped speaking for five years. However, Maya rediscovered her voice through wonderful books, and went on to become one of the world’s most beloved writers and speakers.

Maya has written seven autobiographies, I highly recommend reading a few to gain more insight into her incredible life. Starting with I know why the cage bird sings; available at Ormskirk Public Library.

Why I love Maya

Maya was courageous and awe-inspiring. She was her authentic self, unapologetically. She pushed through the prejudice society has set for women at that time. She sang, she danced, she stood up for what she believed; she was a civil rights activist, an incredible writer, speaker and poet! It was rare to see a woman combine all those things and do it with sass, beauty, passion and kindness.

The thing that sticks out to me throughout Maya’s work is that she is honest and real about the challenges and hardships she faced. Life is tough for everyone and she did not shy away from sharing her adversity, but also sharing how she pushed through and got to the other side.

My favorite quote

“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated.”

My favorite books

Letter to my daughter
A beautiful book highlighting some of the lessons Maya has learned from her life. Each chapter breaks down a specific topic, Maya describes a time in her life where she has experienced something and shares the lessons she learned. 

Me, Mom and Me
Maya shares memories of her relationship with her mother. The challenges and changes of their time together as she aged, and how her life changed.   

My favorite poem

Phenomenal women
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I’m telling lies.
I say,
It’s in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

If you have enjoyed this excerpt, you can read the full poem here…

Her work in present day

Her work is used in many different ways throughout the world. One that sticks out for me is Sport England This Girl Can campaign.

Their promotional video uses Maya’s Phenomenal Women poem to highlight how women can be empowered by sport and physical activity. I remember when I first seen it the video, I didn’t expect to hear Maya’s voice or her poem. My full body covered in goose bumps!

The video was released a year after Maya died – what a lovely way to keep her memory and her incredible work alive!

Podcast

If you want to listen to more of Maya’s beautiful voice check out these podcasts:
Oprah’s Super Soul Conversations – Best Advice She Ever Recieved
Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations – When You Know Better, You Do Better

Books avaialble from the EHU University Library

If you have enjoyed reading my blog, don’t forget to check out the Black History Month fiction book display on the ground floor of Catalyst available until the end of October 2019. After this the books will still be available to loan and you can access this handy guide anytime or online book list to find out more.

Thank you for reading my blog – Student Advisors Jen ?

Jen Murray
MSc Sport, Physical Activity & Mental Health