Category Archives: Print resources

Don't Distress this Autumn – De-Stress!

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NSAD-2013-Logo-300x240Today is National Stress Awareness Day, so what better time to remind you mind of the many ways the Library can help you at this tricky halfway stage through the first term of the year.

We’ve prepared a range of useful study modules on Learn under the banner of Learning Central Online, ten units on a variety of topics which will help take the stress out of your work by enabling you to further enhance your information literacy and study skills and hopefully your degree classification. The skills you learn here can be used both in your studies and when you go out to work. We also offer a handy Stress help sheet, with helpful tips on how to minimise stress, which is free to download, and we stock an extensive range of self-help reading among the Mood Boosting and Books on Prescription range among our Leisure Reading section up on Level 4.

And if you’re getting stressed about finding information for your coursework, don’t panic – ask your Academic Librarian! Not only are they specialists in the knowledge areas for your particular Schools, they’re also very friendly and just love being asked questions!

The University also provides specialist help with the mental rigours of academic life courtesy of the University Counselling Service, which offers a broad range of services ranging from one-to-one meetings with their experienced staff of fully trained counsellors, to online self-help resources and workshops tackling a variety of issues and topics including homesickness and meditation.

National Stress Awareness Day raises awareness about stress, how to prevent it and how to manage it once it occurs. Their emphasis is on promoting psychological wellbeing of people at work so that they can perform at their peak. Further resources on beating stress can be found on their website.

Self-help, and Mood-boosting books now available!

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Eleanor Trigg, Mental Health Support Team; Carol Neath, Loughborough Public Library, Sharon Reid, University Library.

The University Library, University Mental Health Support Team and Loughborough Public Library have been working together to make available a wealth of new material. Reading Well Books on Prescription is a scheme providing self-help reading based on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for adults for a range of common mental health conditions including anxiety and depression. These titles can now be accessed from the University Library. Reference copies of most of the books in the scheme are located in the Leisure Reading Collection on Level 4. Take a look at this link for the range of titles available in the series. If you’d prefer to borrow a copy, multiple loanable copies are available from Leicestershire Public Libraries. Loughborough Public Library is located on Granby Street in the centre of town.

Alongside the Books on Prescription titles sit the aptly-named Reading Well Mood-boosting books, an intriguing range of uplifting novels, non-fiction and poetry. The Mood-boosting titles have all been recommended nationally by readers and reading groups. Why not come up and have a browse?

For further information about these schemes:

http://readingagency.org.uk/adults/quick-guides/reading-well/

If you enjoy reading and discussing books in a relaxed and cosy environment, come and join Club 790, the Student Book Club. Contact Sharon Reid at S.D.Reid@lboro.ac.uk or jump into the discussion via the Club’s Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/Club790

British Library Newspaper Collection On the Move

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Photo pf British Library gate by pshab

During 2013-14 the British Library is moving the national newspaper collection from its current home in Colindale, North London, to a purpose-built Newspaper Storage Building (NSB) in Boston Spa, West Yorkshire.

As such all Print newspapers and microfilm will be embargoed from Friday 8th November 2013, at which point the Reading Room at Colindale will close. Periodical titles remain under embargo, except for a small number of high-use titles which will remain available until the Reading Room at Colindale closes.

Future access to the collection will be via a dedicated newspaper Reading Room at the Library’s main site at St Pancras, where microfilm and digital copies will satisfy the majority of requests. Where no ‘surrogate’ copy exists, it will be possible to request the print originals from Boston Spa; if the required item is in good enough condition to travel, it will be delivered to St Pancras within 48 hours.

The moves are part of a wider programme that aims to safeguard the long-term future of the collection, which includes more than 750 million pages of local, regional and national newspapers, along with periodicals covering every aspect of life in the UK and beyond.

In the mean time, the British Library’s British Newspaper Archive website, which offers free-to-search access to up to 4 million fully searchable pages, featuring more than 200 newspaper titles from every part of the UK and Ireland, remains fully available, while our Library has access to a wealth of newspaper resources online, most notably Nexis UK, as well as the electronic archives of individual papers such as the Guardian & Observer, The Times & Sunday Times, and the Daily Mail Archive, all accessible through Library Catalogue Plus.

For further details and updates on the move, visit the British Library’s ‘Help for Researchers’ page here.

Boost Your Reading & English Language Skills with our New Graded Readers Collection

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If English isn’t your first language you may find a lot of our collection a bit daunting. With that in mind, we’ve set up a new section of Graded Readers as part of our Leisure Reading initiative to enable English language learners to enjoy reading whatever their language level.

These Readers include specially adapted versions of literary classics by, among others, Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, as well as many original and non-fiction works. They’ve been carefully designed by top English language specialists to introduce English learners to the delights of the English language and literature and are individually graded and tailored to specific levels of learning. Some of them are also accompanied by audio CD’s to help enhance a student’s understanding and fluency.

They’ve all been specially tagged on Library Catalogue Plus under ‘Graded Readers’. Why not have a browse today?

Image by Cassie Wang, an entry into our 2012 Photography Competition.

If Music Be the Food of Love…

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As today is St Cecilia’s Day – the patron saint of music – what better time to remind you of some forthcoming musical events happening on campus over the festive season.

The Sir Robert Martin Theatre in Martin Hall will be hosting the Midwinter Cheese Madness on Saturday evening 1st December (6.30-10.30PM), a live musical event featuring bands local and national, co-organised by staff and students of the English Department, with all proceeds going to Cancer Research UK. For tickets and further information email cheese@lboro.ac.uk or visit https://www.facebook.com/MidwinterCheeseMadness .

On Wednesday 5th December the University Choir will be staging its annual Christmas concert, featuring the music of Berlioz, Britten and Joubert among the usual seasonal favorites, and featuring a performance by the University String Orchestra.

Just after the New Year, on Friday 18th January, the University’s Martin Hall will be visited by the Maggini Quartet, one of the UK’s leading string quartets, internationally acclaimed for their concert performances, appearing frequently at home and abroad, along with regular media broadcasts. They will be performing a selection of Mozart, Britten and Schubert.

Full details of both events can be found via the University’s Arts site here.

Don’t forget we’ve got a wide range of books and journals on the subject of music among our collection on Level 2, covering the complete spectrum of musical genres from classical to jazz to hip-hop. You may also be interested in browsing Rock’s Backpages, an archive of music journalism going back to the 1950’s, or the British Library’s Sounds database, a two-year development project encompassing 3,900 hours of digitised audio freely available to the Higher and Further Education communities of the UK.

Happy listening!

Mughal India at the British Library

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A new exhibition opens at the British Library this week on the theme of the Indian Mughal Empire showcasing never-before-seen treasures from the era.

Mughal India: Art, Culture and Empire is a study of the mighty dynasty that stretched from Kabul in the northwest to cover most of the South Asian subcontinent. This exhibition is the first to document the entire period, spanning the 16th to the 19th centuries, through more than 200 objects including paintings, manuscripts and jewelry.

We have quite a range of books ourselves on the subject of the Mughal Empire, its history and treasures among our art and history sections on Level 2. You are also likely to find many interesting articles on the subject among our art and design databases on Library Catalogue Plus, particularly the Art Index Retrospective and the Arts & Humanities Citation Index on Web of Science.

The exhibition opens this Friday, 9th November, and runs until April 2013. To find out more about it, visit the British Library website here.

Image shows the court of the Mughal Emperor at Darbar, c.1839, from the Asian Curator at the San Diego Museum of Art, reproduced under CC License from Flickr.

A Prize for Europe

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The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the European Union in recognition for its work in keeping peace on the continent over the last 60 years.

Founded in 1952 in the aftermath of World War 2, the European Union initially comprised of six nations, headed by France and Germany, under the less-catchier umbrella title of ‘The European Coal and Steel Community’. Today, in its present form, membership currently numbers 27 countries, including Great Britain, which finally joined in 1973.

While there has been much debate of late over the effectiveness of the EU, particularly in respect to the Eurozone Crisis which is presently plaguing its member states, the award of the prize reflects the many significant advances made within the Union in terms of diplomacy and reconciliation between formerly historic and traditional enemies, as well as its work on helping improving democracy and human rights not just in Europe, but across the rest of the globe as well.

The Library is an accredited European Documentation Centre and contains a vast store of information about the European Union among our shelves. There’s also a wide variety of free leaflets for you to take home from our display next to the Level 2 Information Desk. Why not have a browse next time you’re down there?

End Of An Era…

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Nearly 250 years after the publication of its first edition, the publishers of the Encyclopedia Britannica have called time on the print edition of the venerable reference tome, and are going to concentrate purely on its faster, sleeker online twin.

The publishers have made this decision in order to compete better against online reference resources such as Wikipedia, and after customers declared they preferred using the online version of their books.

The Encyclopedia was first published in Edinburgh in 1771 as a three-volume set. It had since risen to 32 volumes by the 15th and now last edition last revised in 2010.

The Library still owns a print copy of the 15th edition, among our many other resources in our Reference section. But for more up-to-date browsing, we have a wealth of encyclopedias, directories and handbooks among our electronic Reference Book collection on Library Catalogue Plus, including the multi-faceted Oxford Reference Online.

So really, you don’t need Wikipedia at all… do you?

Image copyright Shishberg, reproduced under CC License from Flickr.

New EU leaflets!

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We’ve just added some new EU leaflets and booklets to the designated stand on Level 2 (next to the Information Desk – look out for the EU emblem).  Titles  include:

  • The EU: what’s in it for me?
  • A guide to your rights as an EU citizen: freedom to move and live in Europe
  • Speaking for Europe: languages in the European Union
  • Investing in our common future: the budget of the European Union
  • The EU in the world: the foreign policy of the European Union

You’ll also find our popular, up-to-date leaflet on travelling in Europe and one for job-seekers. 

 Feel free to take whatever you need (and ask for more if it’s empty!).

The Library also houses a European Documentation Centre (EDC) –  an extensive collection of publications and documents of the EU. Click here for more information.

More free EU information!

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The EU stand on Level 2 (next to the Information Desk) has just been restocked. Pop downstairs to pick up your free brochures and guides on:

– Travelling in Europe 2011-12

– Europe and you: a snapshot of EU achievements

– Combating climate change

– The European Union budget at a glance

– Finding a job in Europe: a guide for jobseekers

– Speaking for Europe: languages in the European Union

Please take whatever you need.

More guides coming soon!

The Library houses a European Documentation Centre (EDC) –  an extensive collection of publications and documents of the European Union. Click here for more information and who to contact for further details.