Exams are a tricky time. Often you will be juggling different exams themselves, on top of other deadlines. However, we want you to know that you aren’t alone at this crazy time of year. We are here to help you through.
But how exactly can we help? Sadly, we can’t take go into the exam with you, or magically freeze time to give you more hours in the day, but do make the most of the following:
Library Help – the place to go when have a question via chat, email, text, twitter, Facebook. Or alternatively search our Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) database.
Librarians – yes you heard right. Book a one-to-one appointment to get the best out of the University Library resources. Also remember our staff in every library are friendly and approachable. There is no such thing as a silly question, so ask away!
Study Space– The University Library has a range of different study rooms and spaces to suit your needs.
24/7 – The Philip Robinson Library is open 24/7 during the exam period. We want you to sleep and get enough rest, but if you do need to study through the night, we are here.
Subject guides – we have a range of subject guides put together by expert librarians which draw together all the main resources for your studies.
Be well@NCL collection – we don’t just have books for study. This new collection includes tried and tested books that support your wellbeing.
The Library has subscribed to Drama Online for several years. This resource contains the text of over 2,200 international plays, from ancient to contemporary, together with contextual resources. It’s likely to be of interest to anyone studying literature, languages (ancient to modern), film studies and media.
We’ve recently upgraded our subscription to include the 2018/19 top-ups of the Nick Hern Books collection and the Core Collection (featuring plays published by Bloomsbury and Faber), giving us access to an additional 150 plays.
All the plays are individually catalogued and searchable via Library Search, or you can search/browse them all in various ways on the Drama Online site.
For example, using the options at the top of the screen, you can browse by title, author, genre and time period, or if you click Find Plays on the home page, you can add in other search filters, such as number of roles or scenes. Select Context and Criticism for access to a wide range of e-books about drama.
When viewing a play text, click Play Tools to analyse the speaking parts and appearances of different characters throughout the play.
Finally, follow @dramaonlinelib for news and features about this fantastic resource!
Following a successful trial, the Library now has access to the Irish Newspaper Archives: a fascinating resource for any aspect of Irish studies.
It provides access to the archives of national and local Irish newspapers from the 1700s to the present day. Major national titles such as the Irish Examiner, Irish Independent and Sunday Independent are included, together with a wide range of regional titles, such as the Meath Chronicle, Kerryman, Connacht Tribune and Ulster Herald.
The archive is updated daily with the latest editions of current titles, and it also includes significant newspapers which are no longer published, such as the Freeman’s Journal and The Nation.
A selection of title pages from the archive.
You can search and refine your results in various ways, or choose browse to look through individual newspapers by date. Various save and export options are available, and there are some short help videos on the archive’s home page to give you some tips (note, these don’t have sound). Follow Irish News on Twitter for interesting highlights from the archive.
Thank you to everyone who gave us feedback on the trial.
Returning to University in January means one thing: it’s time to start revising for your exams. Study Well @ NCL is a campaign run by the Library, NUSU (Newcastle University Students Union) and NUIT (Newcastle University IT Service) advocating a responsible approach to studying and encouraging positive behaviours in study spaces. We all know it can be stressful at this time of the year – but we’re here to make things easier. So, what exactly are we doing?
Extended Opening
Hours
Here in the Walton Library from 6th – 24th January, 2020 we’ll be extending our opening hours opening from 8:30 until midnight, Monday to Friday and 10AM until midnight on weekends. You can check our extended opening times here on the Library website.
Noise Alert Service
We’ll be monitoring our Noise Alert phone very closely during this time. Wherever you are in the Walton, you can text us at 07891 484764 and we’ll investigate the source of the noise issue as soon as possible. You can also contact us on Library Help to report a noise complaint.
Housekeeping
During busy periods staff will be checking to see:
where seats are available (and clearing unattended desks after 30 minutes of inactivity).
that bins are emptied.
that bathrooms are clean.
that walkways are kept clear.
How you can help
Choose a study space suited to your preferred choice of
study. There are silent, quiet and collaborative study spaces to choose from. Please
be considerate of fellow Library users.
Do be mindful of the food and drink policy within your
chosen study area. Remember, you can only eat hot and strong smelling food in
the café area.
Let staff know if there’s something that’s been missed. It’s not always possible for us to know if there’s a shortage of towels in the bathroom or if a waste bin needs emptying. Please contact us if you notice something and we’ll do our best to fix it straightaway.
Looking after
yourself
We encourage all Library users to take regular study breaks. Taking the time to get a drink of water or some fresh air can make all the difference to your study session. Why not stop by our display table (located near the main entrance) and pick up a Sudoku puzzle or desk yoga instructions? However, to be fair to all Library users, we’re asking that breaks away from your study space are no more than 30 minutes.
Colour your Campus
On lighter note, we’ll be providing pens, pencils and colouring sheets for you to relax and unwind with. Hand your completed sheet in to a member of Library staff with your name or Twitter handle on the back and we’ll display it in the Library and enter your masterpiece into a draw to win some fabulous Library prizes.
Off The Shelf
Sue Spencer returns to the Walton Library on Thursday 16th January (3-5PM) to dispense personalised poetry pick-me-up’s designed to soothe and inspire. Take a study break, chat with Sue and receive your own poetry prescription. You can find out more about Off The Shelf here.
We hope that Study Well @ NCL provides you with a peaceful
and productive study environment and allows you to achieve maximum studying
satisfaction. We welcome feedback on how we can change or improve Study Well @ NCL.
You can ‘Tell Us
What You Think’ online or get a form in the Walton Library.
Overdosed on Christmas carols? Or want to know more about the voices behind that ‘Fairytale of New York’ song you’ve heard so much during the last few weeks!? You need Rock’s Backpages.
Rock’s Backpages is an online library of music journalism: 40,000 classic articles and 600 audio interviews pop’s finest writers, spanning over 60 years across all pop genres.
You can read articles on Slade, Bjork, Van Halen, Fleetwood Mac, Ed Sheeran, Stormzy, our own Maximo Park, Queen, Lamb of God, 50 Cent or 5 Seconds of Summer. Perhaps you are researching jazz, country or folk? There’s something here for you.
Access the Library to easily browse by artist, genre or publication:
Follow @rocksbackpages on Twitter for news of recently released articles or features on artists and their music, listen to the weekly podcast which highlights the latest additions or sign up to receive their newsletter.
Do you need help to understand your mental health and wellbeing?
Are looking to understand your subject from a different point of view?
Then take a look at the collections below. These will get you reading around and outside of your subject and could benefit your health and wellbeing. Both collections can be found in the Quiet Study area of the Walton Library.
Be well@NCL is a collection of books designed to help manage and understand common mental health conditions and wellbeing. Reading a book by someone who understands what you are facing can help you start to feel better. The books within the collection are recommended by professionals and are available to borrow. The Philip Robinson and Walton libraries have the same collection of books.
Content
of the collection
The collection offers books that can help with
a wide range of issues and concerns. The collection includes titles that offer
more healthy ways of thinking, such as practicing mindfulness and challenging
unhelpful thought patterns. There are also books about common feelings,
experiences, and issues, such as:
Anger
Anxiety – including health anxiety and social anxiety
Bereavement, loss and grief
Body image issues and Body Dysmorphic Disorder
Caring for someone with a mental health issue
Depression – including postnatal depression
Eating disorders and eating distress
Low self-esteem
Mood swings
Obsessive-compulsive disorder
Phobias and panic
Sleep problems
Stress
If you find the book you are reading is not helping, please contact your GP or health professional. If you are a student you can also contact the University’s counselling team.
If the book you want is out on loan then please make a Reservation. If there is high demand for a book this alerts library staff to potentially order more.
Pick up a Be well@NCL postcard from the Walton Library desk or find out more here.
The Medicine in Literature collection captures the complexities of what it means to be human through a wide range of literary genres. Representations of illness, dis-ease, healing and health are interwoven themes that give voice to a diversity of perspectives and experiences. If you are interested in exploring your subject from a different viewpoint or simply want to broaden your reading, dive right in! The collection includes books and DVDs.
Topics covered include:
Alzheimer’s
Anxiety
Autism
Bipolar Disorder
Brain Disorders
Cancer
Coma
Cystic Fibrosis
Dementia
Depression
Eating Disorders
Epilepsy
HIV/AIDS
Leukaemia
Locked-In Syndrome
Mental Illness
Motor Neurone Disease
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Parkinson’s
Polio
Schizophrenia
Stroke
Go and have a look at both of these collections in the Quiet Study area of the Walton Library.
If you use any of our historic newspaper and periodical archives which are published by Gale, you’ll notice they have recently upgraded their platform.
There is no change to the content, but you should notice a more unified design on the search pages, together with improvements to the display of search results, plus new search tools, including ‘topic finder’ and ‘more like this’. You can also use ‘term frequency’ on all Gale databases to analyse the use of a particular term over time.
The following collections are affected:
British Library Newspapers; Burney Newspapers; Eighteenth Century Collections Online; Nineteenth Century UK Periodicals.
Together with these individual archives:
Picture Post; Punch; The Daily Mail; The Economist; The Financial Times; The Independent; The Listener; The Sunday Times; The Telegraph; The Times; The Times Literary Supplement.
They are all individually catalogued on Library Search, or you can find quick links to them all (plus resources from other publishers) on our historic news guide. If you would like to search across several Gale resources at once, search Gale Primary Sources.
Where can I get more advice about searching historic newspapers online?
