WellBEEing

By Graduate Intern Nancy Harber

Exam season is a familiar beast. Though admittedly many of the staff members here at the Bill Bryson Library have not met that beast head on in years, it’s not an experience that you easily forget.

The library has been filled (almost) to the brim these last few weeks with our students, just wanting to get their heads down and lock into the study zone. Seats have been sat in, study rooms have been constantly occupied, and when the sun decides to shine at midday our students congregate on the steps outside the library doors, soaking up some well-deserved Vitamin D and having a natter.

In an effort to help ease the anxiety of the exam period, the UX team at the Bill Bryson have been organising our Exam WellBEEing (get it? Because we’re at the Billy B?) Campaign these past few months. If our students have had a moment to raise their heads from their laptop/textbook combos these last couple of weeks, they might have seen evidence of the campaign dotted around both the Billy B and TLC.

Take a compliment is a particularly nice part of the campaign, in my humble and unbiased opinion (I spent three hours cutting them out on the guillotine.) Once a week, we put out a basket of compliments both at the Billy B and TLC, and students can walk past and grab one – to keep for themselves, or pass on to a friend who may need it more. ‘You can do it! Believe in yourself!’ ‘Keep going – you’re doing brilliantly.’ Perhaps this is just the tiny boost that our students need to finish making that page of notes, or just go home and cook themselves dinner, even.

The Lucky Tickets are also very popular. Hidden in secret locations around the library are golden shiny tickets, that if found, can be redeemed at the Help and Information Desk for various prizes – small plants that are impossible to kill even if you never water them, Amazon vouchers, chocolate (essential for sugar boosts) and more!

There’s been free fruit stands, freebie handouts, reminders and links to our Wellbeing Guides and other support systems that the University offers, and just generally lots of friendly faces around. As an organiser you can only hope that something makes an impact, even if that impact is small. On free fruit day I overheard a student say: “Ooh, free fruit! I’m going to take some oranges home for my housemate!” which was more than enough for me.