Our New Temporary Home
June 2023 was all about change in the Illingworth Library!
The Library has been on the move: we are now in our new temporary home, on the first
floor at 26 Northumberland Road (the Estates building). We are open from 9am –
4.30, Monday – Friday, with study spaces for 6-8 people. Laptops are available to use; please email or call to book a study space. This will be our home until the Helipad build is completed.
We will continue to provide all your Library services: Literature searches, training (where you are, on Teams, or at at Northumberland Road), and supplying articles to support your work and learning. Our click and collect service enables you to borrow books; you can return items to Northumberland Road or to the book return box in the restaurant.
New Assistant Librarian
The other change is that I (Ruth Flagg-Abbey) have joined the Library as Assistant Librarian, following Jess's departure in April. I have started to settle in, and am enjoying being part of the Library team here. I am looking forward to meeting Sheffield Children's colleagues over the coming months. I will be publishing the monthly blog, hoping to keep the eclectic blend of information and interest. As a Librarian, I am always looking for new ways to access information. And old ways too, as you can see.
Things in the news
Free sight tests in special schools
Sight tests carried out in special schools will be delivered free of charge, following this recent announcement from the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England. The scheme is due to start in 2024 to 2025 and should support around 165,000 pupils. Children in special schools are 28 times more likely to have serious eye problems than the general population and they experience more barriers to accessing eye services; this can only be good news.
Sharp rise in eating disorders: "The only thing we could control was what you ate and how you looked"
The BBC reports on a 'staggering rise' in the incidence of eating disorders among teenage girls between 2020 and 2022. During the pandemic, prolonged access to social media, more focus on body image and less face-to-face contact may have led to feelings of low self-esteem and psychological distress, particularly among adolescent girls, according to the study. Social media may also have exposed young people to content which increased the risk of developing an eating disorder.
Caring for the carers
The King's Fund has published a report
looking into the role of unpaid carers, with the aim of finding ways to improve the support which they receive. The 2021 Census found that 4.7 million people are caring for another person, so this question touches many of us personally as well as professionally.
Young people who have a long wait for a cancer diagnosis have a reduced quality of life
A report from
The National Institute for Health and Care Research suggests that longer times to cancer diagnoses were associated with lower quality of life, anxiety, and depression among young people. These findings are part of the
BRIGHTLIGHT cohort study of 830 young people aged 12 – 24 years which the researchers say was the first large study of the psychological and quality of life experiences of times to diagnosis among young people.
Things to do in July in Sheffield
For garden and wildlife lovers
The
Marvellous Meadows event on July 2nd 10.30am - 4 pm will give an inside view of the work of
Green Estate, including tours of the Pictorial Meadows beds (booking essential). Green Estate recently received a King's Award for Sustainable Development, as reported
here.
The
Manor Lodge is also open and is well worth a visit, although maybe not to stay for the 14 years that Mary Queen of Scots spent in Sheffield (some of it in the Lodge) as an unwilling ‘guest’ of the Duke of Norfolk. (Sundays, April – September 10am – 4pm).
For the curious
'Sounds of the Stacks' in the University of Sheffield's Western Bank Library from 17th - 21st July is open to all and sounds intriguing: "This site-specific installation temporarily transforms Western Bank Library’s Level 2 into an interactive sound environment. You are invited to walk through the stacks and explore a collection of low-volume compositions made with sounds related to the building ranging from the quiet turning of pages and the rattling of book trolleys to recordings of fairground organs from The National Fairground and Circus Archive."
For music fans
Sheffield in July must mean that it's time for Sheffield's contribution to the music festival scene: Tramlines. If you get a bit misty-eyed about the good ol' days when Tramlines was free, then there are two whole days of free music at the People's Park in Heeley at
Pax in the Park over the weekend of 21st - 23rd July. The lineup includes the Oughtibridge Brass Band and John Otway, so there's surely something for everyone!
It's a Sheffield Thing
As I am a functional cook at best (to quote my oldest friend: 'Ruth, that's not really cooking; that's catering'), we have a new feature for the 'and finally' slot.
Like most newcomers to Sheffield (I've only been here for 17 years), I am constantly surprised by the wealth of small businesses in and around the city. So I hope to highlight one of these every month, to spread the word about the joy of shopping locally. To start, what else but a bookshop?
In the most unlovely of locations, on the ring-road in Shalesmoor is
Kelham Island Books and Music. Don't be put off by its exterior which is '1970s awful': pop in for five minutes, you may well be there an hour later, browsing along its well-ordered shelves and finding a bargain copy of that
natural history book you've been meaning to read for ages.
