Are you ready for Super September? We are! We librarians love September. In fact, it’s our favourite month, because it brings our students back and oh, how we miss you during the long summer vacation. So why not join us for an Edinburgh Napier University Library tour!
We can’t wait to reconnect with some familiar faces and welcome many new ones. We’d like to invite you to come and visit us, either in person or virtually, and allow us to introduce ourselves and our services.
It’s never too early to hone your information retrieval skills. The sooner you’re acquainted with your library resources, the easier it’ll be for you when you have to start on your first written assignments. So, come and find us and let us show you what we can offer you.
We’ll be running our library tours on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the first four weeks of Trimester 1.
In these short, friendly sessions, we’ll introduce our physical spaces at all three campuses, our print and electronic resources collections, explain how to borrow and request items, general pc and wifi usage, how to borrow laptops, and a whole range of other library services. See here for more details:
But if these times don’t suit you, you can also book another time from early September. We’ll have a booking form ready for our unscheduled tours in early September. It’ll be called “Personalised library tour” and you’ll be able to click on and book a session. When the page is live, you’ll find it on the library forms page in our self-service portal, Unidesk:
The 22nd Commonwealth Games begin in Birmingham this month and are expected to be the largest yet staged.
Edinburgh has played host to the games twice. The first of these in 1970, the 9th British Commonwealth Games, was the first major multi-sport event ever staged in Scotland.
The Commonwealth Games Newsletters: A Fantastic Insight
The Library through the JSTOR database has access to an archive of the official newsletters published in the lead-up to those games.
These give a fascinating insight into the organisational efforts required to stage the games, reflect the excitement the games generated, and highlight some of the societal and technological changes we have witnessed since.
In addition to the nearly £4 million capital sum spent on creating the major venues, a general appeal was launched to fund the games with an initial target of £200,000. The newsletters tell us that contributions received ranged from a single 3d (1.5p) stamp from an anonymous donor to £25000 from both Edinburgh and Glasgow Corporations. Dinner dances, whist drives, and fashion shows are all reported as helping to swell the coffers as the games approached.
For a celebration of athleticism, a donation of £1000 from a cigarette manufacturer may raise eyebrows today but was received without qualms at that time.
Donations in kind were also received. One fuel company offered to provide 10000 gallons of petrol for the official vehicles. How much would that be worth at today’s prices?
The vehicles were supplied by solid British manufacturers including Leyland and Rootes and volunteer drivers were recruited. Specific mention is made of the 20 “lady drivers” provided by the Edinburgh Junior Chambers of Commerce Wives Group.
Tickets could be purchased by post, or in person at the official ticket outlet, R W Forsyth’s, one of Princes Street’s leading stores.
In true Scottish fashion, the January newsletter tells us, “Telephone bookings cannot be entertained, as orders must be accompanied by the appropriate costs before tickets can be released”.
So, Nae cash! Nae ticket!
Edinburgh’s First Commonwealth Games
A day at the bowls arena cost 7/- 6d (38p) but a hefty £4 was required for prime seating at the closing ceremony, though there was an unreserved open-air seating option at 15/- (75p). Comparable seats at Birmingham are priced at £290
Teams were housed in a “Games village” at Edinburgh University’s Pollok Halls. It was reported that the catering subcommittee was “evolving Eastern and Western menus”, and one-third of the dishes were “non-British in origin”. However, haggis, porridge, and Scotch broth would be available as “novelties’’.
A very precise 42/- 3d (£2.11) per day was allocated to feed the competitors but no one would be “refused seconds”. It was also noted that washing and toilet facilities would be available on every floor of the accommodation!
Modernism was creeping in. The games were the first to be measured in metric, so 400 metres replaced 440 yards etc. They were also the first with electronic timing and backstage at the weightlifting a “unique scoreboard with writing in light” was specifically mentioned. CCTV was also introduced so that competitors did not have to join the audience to watch their rivals in action.
Whilst upward of a “million paper photocopies” were to be provided for the press there was heavy emphasis placed on modern telecommunications. 500 extra private telephone/telex circuits were being installed, along with 200 new public telephones, including 12 in a bus for use on the cycle road race. Unfortunately, the mechanics of this latter operation are not elaborated on, but the concept of the mobile phone would appear to be not that new.
Events would also be broadcast on TV in colour, though the latter had only arrived in Scotland the previous December and was not yet that widespread.
Whilst today we take for granted many aspects involved in organising major sporting events, these newsletters reflect the remarkable nature of many of the preparations back then.
At an estimated £778 million it would certainly require many successful whilst drives to help assuage the costs of the 2022 games.
I wonder however if that same palpable sense of excitement at the ‘new’ evident from these newsletters can be duplicated in Birmingham.
What the librarians are reading: Books we recommend! Part 2
Stumped for your next read? Curious what the book professionals are reading? Look no further! Here’s a peek into what the staff here at Edinburgh Napier University Library (ENULibrary) have been reading over the last year.
Check out recommended books from all genres and Interests (we are a diverse lot!) Some are available right here at the Library. For the books we don’t have, why not try your local library? Edinburgh City Libraries have a huge selection of books and we love supporting them.
The Book Reviews
Marian
“A tale for the time being” by Ruth Ozeki
“Intricately interwoven plots, fascinating settings in British Columbia and Japan, full of ideas, touching and thought-provoking, shortlisted for the 2013 Man Booker Prize.”
“Extremely loud & incredibly close” by Jonathan Safran Foer
“This deals with difficult themes but is full of humour and zaniness, and very well-written. ”
“If you could choose a superpower, what would it be? Invisibility? Immortality? You might want to reconsider your options after reading Vicious, a smart, witty take on the superpower/superhero genre. This is a grown-up page-turner with plot twists and snappy dialogue throughout, and it’s all shot through with deliciously macabre humour. V.E. Schwab is an American author who lives in Edinburgh. We’re lucky to have her.
You can borrow this one from us! Check out LibrarySearch
Cathryn
“The Fair Botanists” By Sara Sheridan
“Set in 1822 Enlightenment Edinburgh at the time of the impending visit by King George 1V to the city and the move of the Botanical Garden from Leith Walk to where it is now at Inverleith. Sir Walter Scott who was responsible for organising the King’s visit features as does the rare flowering of the Agave Americana in one of the Botanics glasshouses. The story follows the twists and turns of the lives of the 2 main female characters Elizabeth Rocheid who arrived in the city after the death of her husband and the enigmatic Belle Brodie. I enjoyed this book as it was based in Edinburgh and I recognised all the places it mentioned, the historical and botanical references were also really interesting .”
“On Starlit Seas” By Sara Sheridan
Historical novel set in Georgian times, based around the true character, recently widowed author Maria Graham. She’s been used to travelling around South America with her husband but now she must make to the journey back to England to visit her publisher. She books a place on a ship bound for Bristol captained by Captain James Henderson a roguish smuggler. For those who love chocolate, the story is woven around the consumption of chocolate and the Fry family of Bristol are characters in the novel!
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the word refugee originates from two Latin words: “fugere” meaning to flee and “refugium” – a place to flee back to. But specifically, the word refugee was first noted in 1685. It referred to the 50,000 Huguenots, French Protestants who fled religious intolerance in their home country.
There are no identifiable Huguenots today, but that’s the point about refugees – as local, national and global circumstances change, so do the movement of people and the labels we attach to them. Wherever there is war, famine, natural disasters or a clampdown on human rights, there will be refugees.
So, there have been refugees since there have been established human communities around the world, but it wasn’t until 1951 that there was an international standard on how to treat them. The Refugee Convention defined a refugee as someone who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted.
A refugee’s journey can be long, dangerous and highly publicised, but in fact, most refugees don’t travel far. Most stay in neighbouring countries until it’s safe enough for them to return home. Those who travel the furthest often feel the most alienated and are often least welcome in their host countries. With this in mind, Refugee Week is a UK-wide festival that celebrates the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary.
Refugee Week 2022 this year
This year’s festival runs from 22th-26th June. Its theme is healing – a celebration of community, mutual care and the human ability to start again. It will promote a programme of arts, cultural, sports and educational events alongside media and creative campaigns.
Here at Edinburgh Napier University, we have an amazing project designing refugee housing by Lara Alshawawreh. Check it out here.
Love them or loathe them, insects are an important part of the earth’s ecosystem. Furthermore, they are a vital source of food for birds, fish and animals. In addition, they pollinate crops and plants and break down plant and animal matter. Over one million species of insects have been discovered and described, but it is estimated that there may be as many as 10 million species on earth. Scientists estimate that insects make up to 90% of all species of animals on the planet and more than half of all living things.
All insects have:
Six legs.
Three body sections (head, thorax and abdomen)
Pair of antennae.
Compound eyes.
Most have wings.
Three or four stage life cycle (egg, larva or nymphs, pupa and adult)
Insects can be found in every habitat on earth from hot deserts to snow-covered mountains, some such as termites and ants live in large colonies. Others, like the praying mantis and some bees and wasps, are solitary only coming together to mate.
Insects in trouble
It has been well documented in recent years that insects are under pressure due to loss of habitat, climate change and chemicals used in farming. It is estimated that every minute an area of rainforest the size of a football pitch is being cleared, displacing the insects that occupied it. In addition, Insects are also being killed by pesticides and herbicides designed to increase crop yields.
To reduce the impact scientists are trying to develop disease-resistant crops. This will lessen the need for harmful chemicals. Also farmers are being encouraged to develop wildlife strips to try to boost insect numbers.
Honey bees are also under threat from the varoa mite . It attaches to the body of the bee and sucks out fat bodies and also feeds on the larvae in bee hives. Moreover, these mites are a vector for at least five different debilitating bee viruses contributing to the current higher levels of bee losses worldwide.
How can you help this National Insect Week 2022?
You may think that there’s little you can do to help the insects’ plight, but there are some simple and cheap things you can try at home. Should you have a garden, you can leave a wild area where you don’t cut the grass, let weeds and nettles flourish and leave tree branches where they fall. This provides shelter and dedicated space for insects to thrive. Also, you can try planting flowers and shrubs which are good for insects in your flower beds or planters.
Don’t have a garden? You could plant up a window box with bee-friendly flowers such as cornflowers, cosmos and pot marigolds. These can be bought for a relatively small price.
Bug hotels are a fantastic way to provide shelter and a breeding spot for insects. They can be purchased at garden centres and online, but you may like to try making your own. There are several tutorials on YouTube and it’s a great way of recycling old materials and garden waste which you might have lying around.
Alternatively, you could take part in citizen science projects to help scientists better understand how insects are coping and if their populations are in decline or expanding.
In some countries, insects are seen as delicious snacks. Walk around a market in many parts of Asia and you will almost certainly come across fried grasshoppers and mealworms on the menu. This concept seems very alien to us in Scotland, but some scientists believe that there is a need for us to start using insects as a food source. The ever-increasing global population and events such as wars put pressure on food commodities. This can cause shortages, which if they were long-term, could mean that we must consider some more unusual sources to feed the world’s population.
Edinburgh Napier has lots of books and articles about insects available at Sighthill campus library and online. Use Library Search to find them.
By Vivienne Hamilton
Want to read some more nature-inspired articles? Why not read Vivienne’s post in Ospreys.
The exams may be over, but our campus libraries are still open and offering a full range of services. That means that you still have access to laptop loans, printing, study space, and group study rooms. Also, Click and Collect and Inter Library Loans services are still operational. During staffed hours you can still contact us or come to the helpdesk for assistance.
Although you have finished your studies for the summer the library may still have something to offer:
Merchiston library has a wide selection of novels, poetry and photography books.
Craiglockhart Library has French, German and Spanish textbooks if you are interested in learning another language.
Sighthill library has books about birds, animals and plants for nature lovers.
You can also still access our relaxation spaces to take some time out or have some quiet time.
Don’t forget our online services where you are able to access electronic books and journals throughout the summer break. Also, Box of Broadcasts has lots of summer themed programmes to enjoy:
Countryfile Summer Diaries
Secret Scotland
Roads Less Travelled
Britain’s Best Walks with Julia Bradbury
Iain Robertson Rambles
All Aboard! The Canal Trip
Nature’s Calendar (Summer)
Travel Man (48 hours in….)
The Great British Seaside Holiday-Timeshift
And when the weather permits, why not visit the extensive grounds around Craiglockhart campus where you can take a walk or relax and take in the fantastic views of Edinburgh.
We hope you decide to use the library this summer, but if you don’t have a great summer and we will see you again in September!
By Vivienne Hamilton
For more Summer Ideas why not read our Summer Escapes article here!
The start of June is upon us which means the start of Pride month. After all, June is the month of pride. Why June you may ask? Well…
The History of Pride 🏳🌈🌈🏳🌈
Celebrating Pride month in June is to commemorate the Stonewall riots that happened on the 28th of June 1969. New York Police raided the Stonewall inn which was a prominent gay club in Greenwich Village in the early hours of the morning. As police turned violent, and a build up of social discrimination and continuous police harassment grew, the raid became a riot and a protest. Led by Marsha P. Johnson, it lasted for 6 days. It saw large media coverage and spilt out to the streets of Greenwich. This was the ‘catalyst for gay rights and activism in the United States and the world’ (Source)
Known as ‘Mother of Pride’, it was Brenda Howard who organised the first pride march to commemorate the one year anniversary of the Stonewall riots. This became America’s first ever Pride parade. It was not until the 1990s however that Pride Month became more popular (Source). Bill Clinton became the first President to acknowledge June as Pride Month.
Pride Month is not necessarily recognised internationally. However, it is increasingly becoming more recognised outside the United States.
Avoiding Tokenism
Here at the Library, we love to celebrate Pride month, but we acknowledge that working towards equality is something that needs to happen all year round. We are working hard to promote and diversify our collections to be inclusive of all people, and to redress the imbalances we find in our collections to become more representative of everyone.
Library Resources
The Library has a wealth of books and articles on the subject. From the history of LGBTQ+ rights to current Legal information to keep you informed. Use LibrarySearch to find what you are looking for, or contact us for help with any of your research needs.
Here are some items available through the Library to get you started:
The Edward Clark Collection, housed in the library at the Merchiston campus, is not as well-known as it should be. It is one of the only two surviving examples of what was once a widespread phenomenon in Britain: printers’ libraries. The other survivor is St Brides Library in London.
The Edward Clark Collection consists of around 5,000 items illustrating the development of the book from the 15th century. More specifically, it concentrates on the development of typography, the techniques of printing illustrations, and fine bindings. The collection is located within the Campus Library at the University’s Merchiston Campus.
Printers’ Libraries
The first Edinburgh printers’ library was established in 1858. The technical and reference collections continued to be used up until the end of the 19th century, afterwich it is not clear what happened to them. Formal educational requirements for printing apprentices were established after World War I. The Clark Collection was put together as a teaching resource, mainly in the 1930s, to illustrate printing technologies, type design and book production from the 15th century to the present day. As well as the treasures highlighted on the Collection website it is a treasure trove for the historian of print.
Over the last 2 years, whenever access was possible, I have consulted type specimens, trade journals, company histories, technical manuals and books about print production and the design and making of books. These included James Watson’s History of Printing in Scotland (1713), Caleb Stower’s Printer’s Grammar (1808) and T.C. Hansard’s Typographia (1825), and looked again at a long-standing favourite of mine – John McCreery’s poem The Press, printed in Liverpool as a type specimen in 1802.
It is a privilege to work with this collection, and I am very grateful to all the library staff who have made this possible.
Since 2014, we have been honouring May 29th as National Biscuit day
Biscuits can be dated back as long as there were baked goods, dating all the way back to Ancient Egypt but perhaps they would have been seen as more dried breads. The sugar trade in the eighteenth century changed and by the nineteenth century, we were seeing McVities, Crawford and Carr began setting up (daysoftheyear.com)
In Britain, we consumed the most biscuits of any other country (ScotsmanFoodandDrink). In fact, Brits eat roughly 52 biscuits per second! Now that’s a lot of biscuits. And now we all want to know what biscuit reigns supreme, the to go, the absolute fave. Well, it’s of course the humble yet delicious chocolate digestive. A third of the British population rank chocolate digestives as their favourites (ScotsmanFoodandDrink). This is followed by the chocolate hobnob then the Jammie Dodger, fourth favourite is the custard crème and in finishing off the top five is shortbread. Do you agree with the top five biscuit list or disagree, what’s your favourite biscuit. And most controversial is a Jaffa Cake a biscuit or a cake? So many questions to ponder about this national biscuit, mull them over with your favourite biscuit.
Photo of Rob O’Brien and Tess Dalton (the woof), Rob’s fellow monster movie fan at home.
Meet your Subject Librarian Rob O’Brien
Rob is the subject Librarian supporting the School of Applied Sciences and the Department for Learning and Teaching Enhancement.
“I joined the Library at Edinburgh Napier in March, having worked in a similar role at Leeds Beckett University for the last few years, and I’m enjoying settling into my new team and life in Scotland.
The best part of working in a university library for me is getting to meet such a diversity of students and staff and learning about their learning and research interests. Not many jobs give you an opportunity to learn and have new thoughts every day. Also, I still can’t believe my luck in having constant access to a university library with all its space and collections. When I was boy, growing up in a seaside town in Ireland, my local library was about the size of a corner shop and I wasn’t allowed to borrow from the “grown-ups collection” (no matter how many varieties of fake moustache/beard combinations I wore to the service desk).
When not working, I like to read (forgive the librarian cliché), play guitar (terribly), cycle (well, pretend cycling on an e-bike), play badminton (if anyone can recommend a club in Edinburgh who might have room for a surprisingly bad player that would be most appreciated), and hang out with my four-legged friend, Tess (the most fun by far).
I’m looking forward to meeting all my new colleagues outside a computer screen very soon and introducing myself to the confectionery counter at Sighthill Café (which I have heard good things about).”
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“Vicious 
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“On Starlit Seas” 
