Last year the BBC asked a panel of writers, curators and thinkers to compile a list of 100 English-language books that have had an impact on their lives. Lists of "the greatest novels ever" or "books you must read" are everywhere, but this list struck a chord with many of us in the library, as …
Category: Let’s get engaged
Mash-up – World book Day and University Mental Health Day
5th March 2020 saw the annual World Book Day coincide with University Mental Health Day. To celebrate both themes we asked our users to suggest their favourite ‘feel good’ books. We hoped the concept of ‘feel good’ would be broad enough to encourage a range of titles to be suggested and we weren’t disappointed. ‘Feel …
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Christmas cheer
Ho ho ho! With Christmas nearly upon us, the Library has entered the festive spirit with our decorations and activities. Harcourt Hill and Headington have constructed some book ‘trees’ which have attracted a lot of positive comments. The ‘trees’ look fabulous, are environmentally friendly and were fun to build. (No books were harmed in the …
Books, chocs and lots for Wellbeing
Across all our libraries we have continued to work at providing wellbeing activities for our staff and students. Read on to see what we've been up to... World Book Day 8 March (all campuses) We celebrated by asking students in the libraries and online to submit your favourite book, via a little speech bubble card. …
Summer ICONS Exhibition Results
Over summer 2019 we had our ICONS Exhibition displayed in the Welcome Desk area on Level 1 of the Library at Headington and across our other sites at Harcourt, Wheatley and Swindon. Inspiration for this exhibition was sparked by the BBC ICONS series shown at the beginning of the year. Along with posters and a Spotify …
Library Exhibition Summer 2019: Icons
Come into the library this summer and have a look at our exhibition featuring many of the most important and influential men and women from the 20th century who helped shape our world... Would any of them class themselves as icons?... Now there’s a question.
Desert sandstorms, global pandemics and castles under attack!
Students co-operate to save the world on a Friday afternoon in the Library! You may have noticed something strange going on at the back of the Platform on Level 3 of the JHB Library on Friday 29 March… The Library has been collaborating with the award-winning Tabletop Gaming Society (Brookes Union Society of the Year …
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World Book Day at Oxford Brookes
Thursday 7 March was World Book Day and like true librarians, we celebrated it by asking you to submit, via a lovely little bubble card, your favourite book. Over the space of a day, we received nearly 80 completed bubbles and picked up some further suggestions on Twitter and Instagram. What makes a book a …
Christmas bauble feedback
Happy New Year! In the run-up to Christmas, we asked you to decorate our Christmas trees by filling out baubles with what you wanted more of and what you found frustrating about using the Library. We had a good response, especially at Headington where nearly 70 baubles were hung on the tree. A whiteboard was …
“Can’t you just give us 2 sides of A4?” Stepping up Library use from school to higher education
People who work in libraries love talking to other people who work in libraries about good ideas and good professional practice. And school libraries and school librarians are key to helping pupils learn and succeed, both at school and in later study and life (as the #GreatSchoolLibraries campaign is currently pointing out!) So when I …
Beating the winter blues for Disability History Month
The nights are drawing in and exams are approaching, so for Disability History Month we're compiling a Spotify playlist of uplifting tunes to help beat the winter blues. Submit your suggestions on Twitter or Instagram using #BeatTheWinterBlues or indulge in the full list. Tune in, grab a cosy blanket and a cuppa and enjoy! -- Jayne …
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Tell us what you think – we’re always interested to hear your views!
We do like hearing back from users of the Library. It's really helpful to know what works well and what causes frustration. At Headington, we have 'Tell us what you think' forms that are available for anyone to complete. We tend to get a range of comments from good, 'excellent reservation service' and 'thank you …
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Wordsearches, puzzles and other wellbeing activities
Earlier in October we hopped on board the Libraries Week bandwagon and offered a range additional activities that might provide five minutes relief from essays and assignments. We provided activities ranging from grown-up colouring in pictures to zentangles (structured pattern drawings) to jigsaw puzzles and fiction freebies. We also created a new (small) space that …
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Tell us your ONE library tip for first years
At the end of last semester we asked you to provide some tips for first year students. We had some great responses from across all the sites. Some were highly practical ('read the books') while others were more esoteric ('Pain is temporary, pride is forever'). In general the tips you provided broke down into broad …
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Dear Easter Bunny…
We asked students at Headington, Wheatley and Harcourt Hill to fill in postcards saying: Dear Easter Bunny, I’d love it if the Library could… The feedback we received was fabulously varied and we got excellent responses from across the three sites. (Swindon feedback coming soon!). The general themes of the comments are listed below with …
OXFORD BROOKES LIBRARY NEWS 