This is our monthly selection of “snacks” that you can take a bite of when you need some inspiration, either for your well-being, development or to improve your digital skills. Please let us know if you have something you want to share, either wellbeing, work or home-related.
Well-being
Lunchtime walk around Clerkenwell
On 5 August, a group of intrepid library staff led by our colleague Derek did a well-being walk around Clerkenwell in blissful sunshine. Clerkenwell is Islington’s oldest residential and business district and is named after the Clerks’ Well, a 12th-century water source. We recommend a lunchtime walk to discover some of the hidden history of the area.
Below are some places we visited:
Spa Green park
Spa Green park features a grade II listed war memorial, herbaceous beds and mature trees and is opposite the Sadler’s Wells theatre.
Photograph of Spa Green below:
New River Head
The New River Head near Sadler’s Wells theatre is an area of great historic interest and has been used as an artificial watercourse for the provision of fresh public water since the early 17th century.
Photograph of New River Head below:
Myddleton Sq and Wilmington Sq
We also visited Myddleton Square, a Georgian Square including St Mark’s church showing the legacy of Hugh Myddelton in the area and Wilmington Sq and Rosebery Avenue indicative of the late 19th century improvement works around Clerkenwell.
Photograph of Wilmington Sq below:
Clerkenwell Green
Clerkenwell Green is one of London’s oldest public spaces, dating back to the 12th Century, and is surrounded by some of Islington’s most attractive and valuable historic buildings including St James’s Church.
Photograph of Clerkenwell Green below:
Exmouth Market
Exmouth Market is a semi-pedestrianised street in Clerkenwell and the location of an outdoor street market of food stalls. And includes the Exmouth Arms and the church of Our Most Holy Redeemer.
Photograph of Exmouth Market below:
Spa Fields
Spa Fields is a park in Clerkenwell. It is known for the Spa Fields riots of 1816. It used to be a larger park but was built over in the 19th century and now is a small park with a children’s playground popular with local office workers at lunchtime.
Photograph of Spa Fields below:
Personal and professional development
A visit to Health Sciences clinical skills laboratories
‘I did not know we have this, it is very useful to know’. This is one of the comments from one of the library staff who visited the Health Sciences Clinical Skills Labs in the Tait Building in early August.
We visited 3 of the labs : Nursing and Midwifery, Radiography and Optometry. We also visited City Sight which offers eye care to the general public and local businesses.
All of the labs are modern and give a hospital-like view to give our students the opportunity to experience a clinical setting. The staff who facilitated the tour were very friendly and knowledgeable.
If you haven’t been to any of these labs, there will be another opportunity in the future for library staff to visit.
Image of Nursing & Midwifery lab
Image of Optometry lab
Image of Radiography lab
Digital Skills
Tips for using Ovid Online
Knowing how to answer Ovid Online queries, will be useful for answering questions at the Help Desk. Towards the end of August, we had a hands-on session on using Ovid Online, a host of health databases, including tips on how to answer frequently asked questions from our users. If you missed this session, we have this Power Point presentation on Ovid Online.
Tips for using Office 365
Office 365 is a frequently used software for staff and students at City providing you with access to the latest version of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and much more. Read a Learning at City blog post on 5 tips for using Office 365.
Word productivity tips
See some bite sized LinkedIn Learning tips on using Word such as: inserting tables, formatting text in a table and inserting page breaks.