Academic Libraries and Wellbeing
M25 Consortium of Academic Libraries Task and Finish Group
Liz Brewster is a Senior Lecturer in Medical Education at Lancaster University and has written extensively about student wellbeing and bibliotherapy. In the summer, Emma Fitzpatrick and Pete Williams from the Wellbeing Task and Finish Group caught up with Liz over Microsoft Teams to talk about how library collections can promote good mental health and what academic libraries can do to support student wellbeing.
Liz had lots of interesting things to say. You can read the full interview here.
The Museum and Study Collection at Central Saint Martins has been able to build upon its long-established practice of object-based learning to provide object-led wellbeing activities for both students and the wider community. Read about it here.
You can also hear Judy talk in more detail about object-led wellbeing in this video:
Student Minds is the UK’s student mental health charity. It promotes student-led activities to tackle mental health issues and aims to supports university staff deliver on a ‘whole university approach.’ Their website includes a very useful series of guides and reports which make recommendations about how universities might create a more welcoming and supportive environment for students.
Since 2002, Universities UK (UUK) has hosted a standing group on Mental Wellbeing in Higher Education (MWBHE). The group produced the Student mental wellbeing in higher education: good practice guide in 2015 and, following this, UUK adopted mental health as a proactive policy priority in 2016, launching a programme to improve the mental health of students and staff across higher education. The #stepchange website includes a framework and checklist for university managers along with some useful research data.
Academic Libraries and Wellbeing 