The Northampton Square Library will be open from 10am to 6pm between Friday 27th and Tuesday 31st December, 2019. Security staff will be present, and yule be able to borrow items using the elf-service machines as usual.
If you are planning to visit the Library to study or revise over the festive holidays, then check out our opening hours and plan ahead.
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All libraries will reopen on Thursday 2nd January, with Northampton Square and Cass libraries open 24/7 until the January exam period is wrapped-up.
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Please note: access for SCONUL users is permitted during Library-staffed hours but restricted during 24/7: see the Library website for more information.
Understanding, organising and retaining information can be challenging. While studying and working we often need to compose and organise our written work, understand complex topics and retain information. Mindmapping can be an excellent tool to help us meet these challenges.
Depending on the task at hand mindmapping can be useful for almost everyone, but can be particularly useful for Neurodiverse profiles such as Dyslexic learners.
Mindmapping is a way of graphically representing a topic, concept or problem, so we can visualise it, making it easier to understand. Mindmapping is a versatile technique which can have many applications. Here are some examples:
Brainstorming
Mindmapping is a great way to brainstorm. You can use it to better capture your thoughts or start exploring a topic. You may find that it can help to stimulate and generate more ideas.
Capturing all of your ideas can reduce the load on your working memory. Once you can see your ideas together on one page, you can then edit and arrange them into a more organised structure. This is also useful for group brainstorms, try it on our large screens in the group study rooms and technobooths.
Planning and organising
Bring order to chaos. Before you start a task it’s a good idea to plan how you are going to do it. Mindmapping can help you plan written work such as an essay. With most digital mindmaps, as you build your map you can add more substantial notes to ideas. This means that when you export your finished mindmap into a Word document you have a logical outline structure and some content to get started with.
You could even use a mindmap to plan your research or literature search in an academic database, plotting out which keywords, synonyms and antonyms you are going to use.
A mindmap to plan a database search [click to expand].
Revision
Make your revision notes into a map. When trying to recall information it’s easier to remember the spatial layout of a map rather than linear notes. Add additional memory hooks, such as colour and images, which can prompt you to recall the associated concepts.
Breaking down complex ideas
Some topics are complicated such as land law, who is related to who in Wuthering Heights, or potential Brexit scenarios, requiring flow charts and maps to make visual sense. It’s difficult to keep all that information in your head or to understand the connections when going backwards and forwards though linear notes.
The characters of Wuthering Heights [click to expand].
So, how can I start mindmapping?
To me, Mindmapping has no strict rules, but there are some basic guiding principles you may wish to follow to keep your map effective:
Put your topic or essay title in the centre this is useful for keeping you on track or remind you to answer the question in hand.
Use single keywords (or very short phrases) so you can see at a glance what the map means when you come back to it. Key words are easier to digest and remember if you are using the map for revision. Keywords are also useful because at the mapping stage our ideas may not be fully formed sentences, but we can still easily capture and build on them.
Using MindGenius software
MindGenius 2019 software is now available on any City student Windows pc.
Staff can download the software onto their City staff desktop computer via the Software Centre. MindGenius is excellent for project management and has some advanced features to facilitate this, such as the ability to create a Gantt chart from your map at the click of a button.
MindGenius Functionality
The software is simple to use with “type and return” functionality to build you map. You can also:
Add attachments to keep the documents you are reading for a project or essay organised by linking them to relevant branches within the map.
Add notes: Add more substantial notes to each branch. As mentioned, this feature is excellent when planning an essay.
Export to Word: You can export your finished mind map to Word to create draft written work. In Word you will have a linear structure to work with along with your added notes.
Export to PowerPoint: You can use the software to help plan and create presentations.
The mental connection tool allows you to link ideas on different areas of you map and describe the relationship between them.
Categories and Filter: You can use colours to code or categorise ideas across your map. If your map becomes quite large and complex you can filter by category to concentrate on particular themes.
Templates such as the SWOT and PEST analysis can help encourage exploration of a topic and apply critical thinking to it.
If you’re really not sure where to start there are guided brainstorm tools, such as ‘solution finder’ and ‘question sets’.
A real life example
I find mindmapping incredibly useful for organising complex, but otherwise unordered ideas. To write this article I planned it first in Mind Genius.
I started by brainstorming in an unstructured way, getting every one of my ideas down on the page (which is very cathartic!). This reduced the load on my working memory. I also used the Who? What? Where? When? Question set to stimulate more ideas and identify gaps in my thinking.
Once all my ideas were on the page I could move on to organising and structuring the information using the drag and drop functionality to group ideas which came under the same theme.
Then I could think more critically and reject any of the weaker or less relevant ideas. i.e. in this article I’m not going to talk about other mindmapping software so I have deleted those branches on review.
Stage 1. An unordered mindmap. [Click to expand]
Stage 2. An ordered mindmap. [Click to expand]Stage 3. Mindmap exported to Word as outline text. [Click to expand]
Need Help?
If you need help or have any questions about Mind Genius contact us. We’d like to hear what you think so please add your comments below or share with fellow students how mind mapping works for you.
Returning students will notice that Level 6 is closed for refurbishment as part of our wider work to develop the library estate.
Levels 4 and 5 are still available for silent study. In addition to the silent spaces inside the Library, we have transformed B411c into a silent study room. You can access this new silent study space by taking the lift or stairs from the refectory end of the Level 1 walkway to the 4th floor and following signs to Silent Study.
This autumn Library Services will host a series of drop-in sessions and workshops at the Northampton Square and Cass Libraries. These sessions form our Library Services Autumn Specials. They will be an excellent opportunity to meet the people behind these resources and learn about how to get more out of library resources.
See the table below for dates and times of each session. Select the links to find out more information and book your place.
Our Technobooths and Pods on Level 3 of Northampton Square Library are now available to book for quiet collaborative work. Students can book these spaces for a maximum of two hours per day, up to two weeks in advance. You can book these online through our new look bookings pages.
Technobooths are ideal for working with your colleagues on a group project or presentation as they are equipped with a large screen which you can plug your own laptop into. Our quiet collaborative pods are great if you want to study in the same place as your friends.
If you want to study in a group, then our group study rooms and spaces on Level 2 are for you.
Over the summer we installed nearly 700 metres of shelving on Level 3 and moved 1.2 km of books to spread the library stock across three levels of Northampton Square Library; the same length as Oxford Street from Oxford Circus to Marble Arch stations! As a result you will see some empty shelves on Level 5.
You will now find your books on Levels 3, 4, and 5. CityLibrary Search has also been updated to show you which level the book you are after is on.
All this work was done in preparation for planned developments to our spaces. Watch this space for more information in the coming months…
Level 6 of Northampton Square Library will be closed on Monday 3rd June – Wednesday 5th June for maintenance. Silent study spaces and PCs will be available on Levels 4 and 5 of the Library.
We have scheduled this work outside our peak times in order to minimise disruption.