Student Wellbeing Campaigns in the Library
Relaxation Space in Libraries
The library represents the majority of learning space on campus and students often seek comfortable places in the library with little distraction and noise, without being cramped into a booth.
Information Services' Information and Operation Team proposed the creation of Relaxation Spaces across the 3 University Libraries. The Relaxation Space is a quiet space intended for students to take a break from long study and other stresses during the busy exam period.
We aimed to provide a welcoming, inviting and comfortable space to study and relax.
We planned to design spaces that encourage students to come to the library to study, as well as socialize or simply “hang out”, by using our sofas and adding nice cushions.
We wanted to offer study spaces that have a vibe and sense of the learning environment without the stress and hassle. Students were offered number of de-stressing activities as jigsaws, mind games and colouring. We also offered earplugs to those who wanted achieve a perfect silence.
All spaces and activities proved to be popular from the very beginning. Some students used them to have a break and play, some used them as a preferred study space. It was nice to see a situation when one student can start work and another finish it. The first jigsaw was completed at Craiglockhart Library within couple of days, each student was adding few pieces, whenever they had time, until the picture was complete.
Easter Egg Hunt
We ran this campaign for the first time this year, to provide not only fun and a relaxing game, but also to offer familiarity of home away from home to our students and introduce our international students to this British tradition.
Students were given an clue and asked to find the correct book on the shelf in one of the Libraries.
Participants needed to use the keywords in LibrarySeach to find the location.
For example:
Q1. It was a Romanov tradition to give these dream items
A. Faberge eggs: imperial Russian fantasies by Christopher Forbes - book location739.22092 FAB
Each correct answer was rewarded with a small chocolate egg. The first person to get all 5 questions correct at campus, regardless of whether they won the mini-prizes got the Smarties boxed egg.
The first person to get all 15 questions correct won the big prize.
The activity was advertised across University and was very popular. First Campus price was won just 45 minutes after the Library opened!
We also offered free chocolates at each Help Desk throughout the Easter period, to welcome our students.
In a long term this type of campaigns should help us to develop community, to encourage library use by all students.