Month: May 2024

Libraries over the summer 2024

30/05/2024 / mayagreen / 0 Comments

Libraries over the summer 2024

We’d like to give you an update on what is going on in the libraries over the summer. All campus libraries will be weeding unused stock. These items will be boxed up and collected by Better World Books a company which diverts books from landfills by collecting material from libraries, bookstores, and other sources with surplus materials. All libraries will also receive an extra lapsafe tower providing 12 more laptops for each one.

Individually each campus will have its own tasks to hopefully complete throughout the summer:

The Libraries:

Craiglockhart: Teaching of languages has now finished so along with the general stock weeding the language books and kits will be withdrawn. This will free up shelf space and the intention is to remove the shelving and provide extra study or social space. One of the group study rooms will become family-friendly with children’s furniture, books and toys to provide a safe space for parents without childcare to study. A third large study booth has been added following the popularity of the two which were added earlier in the year.

Sighthill: Teaching of veterinary nursing has now finished and this stock will be withdrawn along with the general book stock withdrawals. After withdrawals are completed, excess shelving will be removed and space utilised differently.

Merchiston: Along with general book withdrawals journals will also be weeded. Music scores will be re-boxed. Wellbeing space will be re-designed. O’Reilly ebooks (mainly old computing books) are being withdrawn. Retention notes are being added to the records of all last copy in Scotland of print items.

We are of course open throughout the summer. If you need to borrow books or laptops or would like to come in to use the group study rooms. Or even use the relaxation spaces or need to print, pop in during summer opening hours. Staff will be around to help when the helpdesks are open. If you’re not planning to use the services over the summer we hope you have a great break. And we will see you again in September.

Remember if you are graduating bring back library items

By Vivienne Hamiliton

ENU Degree Show 2024

30/05/2024 / mayagreen / 0 Comments

ENU Degree Show 2024

This week has seen our annual ENU Degree Show. a week-long celebration of our students’ talent as they present their final projects to friends, family, industry and the public. Immersed in a world of authentic art in our Merchiston campus.

See our final year Design, Photography, and Advertising students come together and make their own unique mark through their craft.

Virtual ENU Degree Show 2024

Find out more about the Degree Show on the Edinburgh Napier Webpages. You can visit the online Degree Show showcasing all the amazing talent over the courses. As well as meet the people behind the degree show. Read their stories and explore the work online to discover the next generation of creative talent.

ENU Degree Show 2024: Publishing Showcase Awards

The Publish Showcase award ceremony will be held this evening at Merchiston Campus library at 4.30pm. We invite everyone from our book and magazine community – publishers, authors, booksellers, and particularly our Alumni – to join us as we celebrate the past and future of MSc Publishing. Reconnect with old friends, discover new talent, and help us say “thank you” to some of our former publishing colleagues.

Well done to everyone who partook. The work is incredible.

Interested in Publishing. Read previous posts about the Edward Clark Collection. One of our Hertiage Collections at the library which details the history of publishing in Scotland.

Coeliac Disease Awareness Month 2024

15/05/2024 / mayagreen / 0 Comments

Coeliac Disease Awareness Month 2024

Coeliac disease is recognised as a serious autoimmune condition affecting 1 in 100 people throughout the UK. But it may be the case that approximately 7 out of 10 people are undiagnosed. This could mean a staggering half a million people are suffering from symptoms with the cause being unknown. Throughout the entire month of May this year, the charity Coeliac UK aims to find these individuals and assist them with managing these symptoms whilst raising awareness of the condition itself.

Symptoms and Signs…

The NHS website lists a range of both gut-related and more general symptoms. One of the most common symptoms is diarrhoea, which results from the small bowel (intestines) struggling to fully absorb nutrients (malabsorption). Some other gut-related symptoms also include bloating, recurring pain in the abdomen, constipation, being sick and indigestion. If left untreated, the coeliac disease will not allow the body to digest food properly which can lead to more general symptoms such as sudden weight loss and fatigue (extreme tiredness).

Other more general symptoms can also include:

Dermatitis herpetiformis, which is deemed to be an autoimmune reaction to gluten does not always evolve from coeliac disease primarily but can be a symptom of the condition, nonetheless. It is an itchy and often painful rash which causes blisters to emerge on any area of the body.
Fertility issues and difficulties getting pregnant.
Numbness and a tingling feeling in the hands and feet (also known as peripheral neuropathy).
Ataxia, which is an issue with coordination and balance.

Triggers for coeliac disease…

Gluten is recognised as a huge trigger for symptoms of coeliac disease. Gluten itself is a structural protein which is found in certain grains such as wheat, rye and barley, and is what gives bread and baked products a soft and chewy texture. One of the substances which makes up gluten, named gliadin, is what triggers an abnormal immune system response in individuals with coeliac disease as the immune system will misinterpret the substance as a danger to the body. As a result, antibodies emerge which lead to inflammation of the surface of the intestines. This disrupts the villi (known as tube-shaped growths) around the surface area of the gut and makes it more difficult for them to aid with digestion.

It remains unknown why many people end up with coeliac disease, and why some people experience more severe symptoms than others as well.

A gluten-free diet…

Coeliac disease is mainly managed and treated by avoiding foods which contain gluten. It is recommended by the NHS that those following a gluten-free diet should not eat the following foods unless it is stated on the labelling that the specific food item is a gluten-free version.
• Pasta
• Gravies
• Cereals
• Cakes and pastries.
• Biscuits and cookies
• Crackers
• Pizza and pies
• Bread

• Sauces including soy sauce and some pasta sauces

Living with Coeliac Disease…

There is no doubt that living with coeliac disease and managing symptoms can be very challenging. There is a wide range of support available for those diagnosed with coeliac disease or who suspect they may have the condition. This includes:

Make an appointment with a dietician who can help with putting together a step-by-step plan for cutting out gluten from your diet and adopting a gluten-free lifestyle.
Joining the Gluten-Free Food Service. More information is available on the NHS Inform website through the following link: Gluten-free Food Service.
Information and support sites, charities, and organisations such as Coeliac UK. More information is available on Coeliac UK’s website about local support groups.
The Gluten Free Scanner App.

Some gluten-free brands…

LazyDay: Specialises in a range of gluten-free, milk-free, egg-free and vegan cakes and confectionery. Some of their products are in Sainsburys, Tesco, Waitrose, Morrisons and Ocado.
Garofolo: A brand which offers a range of gluten-free pasta options. Available through Amazon and in Ocado.
Bread brands such as Schar and Dillon. These are available to order online and are available in some selected stores.
GO-FREE Cereals which are available in supermarkets such as Sainsburys, Morrisons, Tesco, Asda, Ocado and the Co-op.

For more information:

Check out some of the library books and ebooks. Links below:

Coeliac disease: nursing care and management by Helen Griffiths
Coeliac disease by G. K. T. Holmes and C (Carlo) Catassi
Coeliac disease and gluten-related disorders by Annalisa Schiepatti and ed. by David S. Sanders.

Read about colour blindness day

Photo by Wesual Click

By Rachel Downie

Mental Health Awareness Week

13/05/2024 / mayagreen / 0 Comments

Mental Health Awareness Week

When was the last time you went for a walk, run or swim? Danced to your favourite song? Flew a kite? Strolled through the park and stopped to smell the flowers? We suggest that now is a good time: the sun is shining*, the city’s gardens are in full bloom, and you’d be amazed at how much of a tonic even a tiny bit of physical activity can be.

It’s with this fact in mind that the Mental Health Foundation has chosen “movement” as their theme for this year’s mental health awareness week, 13-19 May.

You don’t have to run a marathon or bag a Munro. We’re not even suggesting a couch-to-5K. A gentle walk around the block, a spot of gardening or even a few stretching exercises can be enough to make you feel better. It releases those “feel good” hormones, gets your circulation going, stretches the muscles, aids your digestion and improves your sleep. All these factors play into mental well-being.

Mental Health Foundation | Everyone deserves good mental health

And if today you find that you’re not feeling so great, and even the idea of getting out of the house is too much, know that you’re not alone. Health in Mind is a local organisation that is there for you. Give them a call:

Health in Mind | Homepage (health-in-mind.org.uk)

And remember that we are here for you too!

Wellbeing Support and Inclusion (napier.ac.uk)

We’d love to see you in our libraries. Drop into our relaxation zones and check out our well-being resources.

Relaxation Spaces (napier.ac.uk)

Online Relaxation Space

Home – Wellbeing Collection – LibGuides at Edinburgh Napier University

*true at the time of writing, but this is Scotland so we can’t guarantee it’s true today.

By Lesley McRobb

Library: Eresources and Accessibility

06/05/2024 / mayagreen / 0 Comments

Library: Eresources and Accessibility

Library: Eresources and Accessibility.

We have a wide range of online resources at the library, ranging from ebooks, journals, databases, and subject guides. In fact, we have over 330,000 ebooks and over 220 online databases. More and more libraries and their resources are entering the digital sphere. With that, these resources must be accessible. And Edinburgh Napier University Library is committed to making sure that our online resources are accessible.

We are working with a range of tools and features for accessibility.

The tools and features available may depend on which platform the eresource is available on. By platform, we mean the website which hosts the resource. Sometimes we have the same resource available from multiple platforms, but often it will only be available from one platform.

In this article, we will be looking at the tools and features that make our eresources more accessible.

Accessibility Tool: Read Aloud

Read aloud tools (also known as text-to-speech) can be used to read out loud text on a webpage and PDF. How to use:

In Microsoft Edge, use the built-in Read Aloud tool. Look for the icon at the top of the page with a capital A and sound waves, or use the shortcut Ctrl + Shift + U to start. You can adjust the speed of the speech and also choose from different voices and accents.

In Google Chrome, try the ‘Read Aloud’ extension which can be added from the Chrome Web Store. You can adjust the pitch and speed of the speech.

These tools sometimes work less well if platforms have embedded ereaders. In these cases, try to download a PDF if available.

If you can download a PDF, try these options:

Use Microsoft Edge to open the PDF and use the Read Aloud tool.
Use Adobe Reader to open the PDF and use the Read Out Loud option under the View menu.
Use ClaroPDF to open the PDF and read aloud (part of the ClaroReadPlus package which can be accessed from AppsAnywhere).

Other tools

In ProQuest Ebook Central, you will need to switch on a text-only mode which will allow you to use read-aloud tools. To enable this, go to Settings in the top menu bar, then choose Profile, and select ‘Enable Text Only Mode’.

A few platforms have their own Read Aloud tools, such as VLeBooks and Gale. Look for the ‘Listen’ or ‘Read Aloud’ buttons if you are on one of these platforms.

Changing the colours, font and text size:

With most of our eresource platforms, you can use browser extensions to change various visual features of the webpage, including the text colour, colour background/overlay, font and text size.

We recommend the Helperbird extension (available for Chrome, Edge, Safari and Firefox).

You can change the colour of the text, links, and background, and apply a colour overlay. There are 30 different colour options to choose from, and the brightness of the colour overlay is also customisable.

You can choose from 25 font options, and six text size options, as well as customising word spacing, letter spacing, and line height.

After you have chosen your customisation options, the changes will be applied on any webpage you visit, as long as you have the Helperbird extension still switched on.

Helperbird also includes various other tools and customisation options which may be helpful. More information can be found at Helperbird tutorials.

There are some platforms which don’t work with extensions like Helperbird, usually because there is an embedded ereader rather than a plain text webpage. VleBooks and JSTOR are two examples. VLeBooks does have their own feature in Read Online mode which offers some colour customisation – look for the paint palette icon or the cog icon appearing in the top bar of the ereader.

If downloading a PDF is possible, you can open the PDF in Adobe Reader and navigate to Edit > Preferences. In the Accessibility settings for Document Colours, you can change both the background colour and the text colour, choosing from a wide range of colour options.

Keyboard Navigation

All of our major eresource platforms can be navigated using a keyboard only.

In a few cases, such as with VLeBooks, additional shortcuts may be needed to navigate to all areas of the screen, and these shortcuts are listed on the platform’s accessibility page.

Further Information:

You can find more information about browser extensions and other tools at Technology to help you study.

You may also refer to the web accessibility statements for all our third party products to find more information about specific platforms.

Need more support? You can contact the Library or the Disability & Inclusion team.

We have Ergonomic Equipment available at the Library Help Desks for loan.

Read our previous blog articles.

Month: May 2024

Libraries over the summer 2024

Libraries over the summer 2024

The Libraries:

Like this:

ENU Degree Show 2024