Keep the Heid and Read!

Scotland’s Reading Moment 2022

We all know the pleasure of becoming absorbed in the plot of a really good book! That feeling of being unable to put it down as you are desperate to find out what happens next. Reading provides us with magical encounters, opens doors to different worlds and gives us the opportunity to experience other cultures and communities.

To celebrate the joy reading can bring and the benefits it can have on our mental health and wellbeing, the Scottish Information and Library Council (SLIC) have partnered with mental health charities, publishers, booksellers, and authors to bring us the ’The Reading Moment’, a public libraries initiative.

As part of this initiative, SLIC is asking people across Scotland to dedicate SIX minutes of their time on Wednesday 11th May 2022 to read a book.

See the Keep the Heid and Read! website if you’d like to find out more about Scotland’s Reading Moment 2022 and would like to pledge SIX minutes of your time to join people all over Scotland reading on 11th May 2022.

https://www.keeptheheid.scot/

You can also borrow fiction books from all our Libraries, including eBooks. Check out librarysearch.napier.ac.uk to see what we have. Need a quick guide to Librarysearch? Read one here on our blog!

Also, don’t forget your local libraries. Edinburgh city libraries are a rich, free resource for books and they have all the latest best sellers so why not visit one today.

By Sarah Jeffcott

Congratulations!

You’ve reached the end of your course, you’ve passed all your exams and so onto Graduation!

It’s that time of year when we say Love Your Library, please clear your library record before you leave!  Unsure whether your record is clear? Sign into LibrarySearch and select Library Card, you’ll find any loans and fines detailed here.

It’s very easy to return items, just scan them through our self-service kiosks and pop them into the returns box.  Laptops can be returned to a Lapsafe or Library Help Desk.   If you’ve fines to clear these can be paid through LibrarySearch or appealed if there’s been extenuating circumstances.  You can also post books back to us if that’s easier for you.  Here’s our contact details if you need to get in touch library@napier.ac.uk or 0131 455 3500.  Don’t forget we’re also open as normal over the Summer!

Anyway, we’d just like to say we’re sorry to see you go and would like to wish you all the very best with your future career or studies!

If you followed the ospreys at Loch of the Lowes last year, you may be interested to know that LM12 has already returned! You can watch his return to the nest here.

More Information

Staff and volunteers at the reserve, as well as a global audience of webcam watchers, are now eagerly watching for the return of LM12’s mate, the female osprey NC0. The pair successfully fledged three chicks in their first two seasons together (in 2020 and 2021).

Loch Arkaig osprey webcam will go live soon.

By Vivienne Hamilton

Read our earlier article on the Ospreys here.

Trial Access to AM Explorer Database

We have trial access to AM Explorer from Adam Matthew Digital until 5 May 2022.

This fascinating resource will be of interest to staff and students in the School of Arts & Creative Industries and the School of Applied Science, but it is very wide-ranging and potentially useful to all.

AM Explorer brings together a range of the most popular database products from Adam Matthew Digital. These award-winning digital resources which cover the social sciences and humanities were developed in collaboration with leading libraries and archives. They comprise of digitised versions of documents of historical interest collected from public and private sources of the past, but may also include photographs and video content, depending on the topic.

Features include:

• Millions of pages of primary sources spanning the 15th – 21st centuries, including a wealth of new content added every year.
• Powerful digital collections that transform teaching and research on important themes such as: Borders and Migrations, Gender and Sexuality, Global History, and War and Conflict
• Range of additional features to enhance student engagement including Handwritten Text Recognition, Data Visualisation, Video and Oral Histories

You can access AM Explorer from the A-Z Databases list by clicking on the Databases tab in LibrarySearch, or via the URL https://libguides.napier.ac.uk/AMExplorer

Feedback

If you have any questions or comments on this database, please contact Marian Kirton, Subject Librarian for the School of Arts & Creative Industries m.kirton@napier.ac.uk. We are grateful for your thoughts as they will influence future decisions to purchase this resource.

By Sarah Jeffcot

Learn more about our other databases, Nexis and IBISWorld.

Image source

Wakey, wakey!

I trust you had a good night’s sleep and are feeling bright and perky. No? Well, maybe you’re one of the 14 million UK adults who suffer from undiagnosed sleep disorders, or one of the 48% of the population who engage in high risk behaviour when you can’t sleep? These statistics from The Sleep Charity are concerning.

Sleep is the most effective, cheapest and portable therapeutic treatment. It repairs your immune system, helps you think clearly, regulates weight and blood pressure, helps to stave off a whole range of diseases from heart issues to diabetes. It’s vital for mental health too. It manages emotional well-being, keeps worry, anxiety and depression at bay. Sleep is one of the vital keys to keeping fit and healthy. The Dalai Lama puts it simply: “sleep is the best meditation”.

To sleep or not to sleep?

It’s had its critics, sleep. Novelist Virginia Woolf described it as “that deplorable curtailment of the joy of life.” Rapper Tupac Shakur declared that “the only time I have problems is when I sleep”.  And Shakespeare’s Scottish king lamented that “good things of the day begin to droop and drowse, whiles night’s black agent to their preys do rouse.” (Macbeth, III, II, 45). Well, no disrespect to big Mac, but maybe if he’d enjoyed a good kip, he’d have woken up in a better mood and not felt so, well, murderous.

I am a champion sleeper, and sleep is my refuge when life gets hard or I’m feeling low. But too much sleep is just as bad as too little. As with all things in life, balance is needed.

Source

World Sleep Day

World Sleep Day is held on the Friday before the spring vernal equinox of each year. This year it’s the 14^th of March, and the theme is “Make Sleep Health a Priority.” If you’re struggling to make sleep a priority, help is available from Sleep Action

and The National Sleep Helpline

And the NHS Inform has compiled a self-help guide: Sleep problems and insomnia self-help guide | NHS inform

Here at Edinburgh Napier, we have a range of resources to support you. Sign in to LibrarySearch to find the Sleep Well Kit, Sleep, and Sleep: a very short introduction among many others.

Let’s leave the last word to peace activist Mahatma Gandhi: “Each night, when I go to sleep, I die. And the next morning, when I wake up, I am reborn.”

Read more on how to take care of yourself by reading our article on self-care books in 2025

Or why not check out our Virtual Relaxation Space!

By Lesley McRobb