The value of University libraries and UCP student survey

End of term at UCP

This week, UCP students finish for the academic year and for many it will be time to say "goodbye" for good. The staff in the LRC wish everyone graduating this year all the best for their future. For those students coming back next year, we'd like to remind you that we are open over the summer holidays and we can also make arrangements for you to borrow books over the whole of the summer too.

New University for Peterborough and the value of academic libraries

This year further progress was made towards establishing a new independent University for Peterborough. Currently the LRC supports UCP students by providing printed books for their courses and also showing UCP students how to use the digital resources made available through Anglia Ruskin University. We run some of the UCP Study Excellence sessions and also offer 1:1 sessions on finding resources mainly for dissertation students.

For any University, the library lies at the heart of supporting students to achieve their qualifications by supporting their research and helping them use of a range of different and appropriate resources. SCONUL (Society of College, National and University Libraries) has published a statement on their website about the value of academic libraries.

UCP student sudy area in the LRC
Photo: Peterborough Regional College

Learning Resource Centre UCP Survey

This term we asked UCP students for their views of the Learning Resource Centre during this term and here are some of the comments we received.

We asked whether you liked the new LRC environment and most of you did. Comments included:

"Spacious and quiet", "very warm and welcoming", "good selection of books", "nice environment and area to study", "helpful staff", "more inviting", "good layout" "open plan and more welcoming" and "looks good, modern and inviting".

Some of you have concerns about the noise from other students. It is not easy for us to be in all places at the same time, but we do walk around the LRC and check noise levels and behaviour. If you are having trouble working please alert the member of staff at the desk and we will address the issue promptly.

We asked if you had had an LRC induction and introduction to the digital resources at the beginning of your course and whether this had been useful. A large number of those who answered said they had had an induction and that it had been useful. Comments on whether it gave you the information you needed included "how to use e-books", "clear to understand" "allowed me to know where the ARU stuff was", "contains more information than the general internet" and "everything is explained clearly".

We also asked about the workshops we deliver as part of the Study Excellence programme over at UCP and which of these you would find useful and when. E-books were the most popular followed by online resources and visual images. You requested a range of times. These sessions are usually timetabled at lunchtime on Tuesdays and Thursdays and were not well-attended so we are unsure if this is because students were unaware that they ran or if they were at the wrong times. The times you gave were very varied.

Thank you for your feedback.

Mental Health Awareness Week

Mental Health Awareness Week

This week is Mental Health Awareness Week and we are launching our new guide to mental health resources in the LRC. In this, we highlight some of our books on topics such as anxiety, confidence and self-esteem, depression, eating disorders and stress which may be of help. We also recommend a list of moodboosting books and some titles about mindfulness. See a quick preview below.

If you would like a copy of the leaflet, please come in to the LRC and pick one up. We will also make this available on our moodle pages as a pdf.

Mental Health Awareness Week display (with new guide)
Photo: Peterborough Regional College

Some organisations with useful resources

BBC3's Things not to say to someone with depression video features young people who suffer with depression talking about responses they don't find helpful.
Rethink.org (Rethink Mental Illness charity) has a student toolkit to help young people look after their mental health.
Student Minds is a mental health charity for University students and has it's own blog.
Mindfulness for Students may be useful for those of you wanting to find out more about this technique to help with stress and building resilience.
Mind is a mental health charity for all ages with lots of online support and advice. You can read stories and experiences here of people who have battled with mental illness and what has helped them.

Finally for those of you studying mental health as part of your course, our e-resource Issues Online (available from our electronic resources page using your network login details) has a range of e-books and articles on issues such as self harm and suicide, body confidence, anxiety and stress and understanding depression.

Exam stress and Mental Health Awareness Week

Mental Health Awareness Week - Stress: are we coping?

Next week is Mental Health Awareness Week and as part of this the LRC will be hosting a meditation session on Tuesday 15th May. There are limited spaces so it is on a first come first served basis.

Stress and Exams

It's that time of year again and for many students doing exams it can be a difficult and stressful time. While stress can't be avoided, there are things we can all do to help manage our stress. Here are some resources available on the internet from reputable organisations which might be of help.

Teenmentalhealth.org has a useful factsheet on stress generally. It explains that

• stress isn't the same as anxiety, 
• most stress isn't bad for you (whilst avoiding it may well be) and
• the key to managing it is to learn how best to deal with it.

It explains that you can change how your body feels by

• changing how you think about your stressful experience
• focusing on the problem and thinking of solutions
• using proven techniques to reduce your body's stress response

Online Resources

Student Minds - the student mental health charity - has five main themes to help with exam stress. 

The BBC website has plenty of advice here and here.

The Student Room gives some practical tips.

Have a look at this light-hearted page on how NOT to cope with exam stress.
If you are a lecturer you may find this newspaper article from the Guardian 2 years ago useful, but the links at the bottom of the article do not lead anywhere.

If you want to try some different ways to revise to make it more enjoyable, have a look at our blog entry 4 weeks ago or click on the revision label on the right hand side of the screen.

Stress: are we coping? book display in the LRC
Photo: Peterborough Regional College

Buying essays online and plagiarism

Buying essays online 

This week there has been discussion about the use of online essay-writing services which offer to write essays for payment "plagiarism free". By this they mean that the essays are written to order and are less likely to be recognised as plagiarism when checked by educational software. It does not mean that what they do is ethical or that students using them are not cheating. Universities and Colleges have strict policies on this and if you are caught you can be disciplined or even expelled from an institution.

Photograph CC0 https://pixabay.com/en/writing-write-person-paperwork-828911/

What is plagiarism?

Plagiarism is passing off something someone else has created as your own work whether intentionally or not or if you have their permission or not. ARU's Academic Honesty Policy identifies "the situation where someone has deliberately and knowingly allowed or paid another person to do their work" as fraud. It also states that "handing in something for assessment which has been produced by another student or person" is plagiarism.

How do I avoid plagiarism?

For the majority of students who do write their own assignments, there is still the need to avoid plagiarism. To do this, you need to reference everything you use whether published or not, whether written, drawn, composed, created etc. It could be a television programme, it could be an image, it could be a paragraph in a book or a section from a website. It is always best to put ideas in your own words but whether you quote directly, paraphrase or summarise, you must write a reference. It is best to do this as you use each source (so you aren't trying to remember everything at the end) and then collect them together in to one author alphabetical sequence at the end of your assignment.

The LRC at PRC have created a plagiarism and referencing learning package together with a plagiarism quiz and a referencing quiz with exercises to help you create references. These are on our 24/7 Moodle page. ARU also has one of the best guides to Harvard referencing on their website and this is what UCP students should be using. Qualified librarians can also come in to a class and deliver a session with practical activities if this is preferred.