Creating a wellbeing collection

1. Wide variety of topics supporting wellbeing
Light and informal reads
Focus on recently published material
Mix of writing styles, formats and layouts
Suggestions from Student Wellbeing, Union of
Kingston Students and KU staff/students
Recommendations from events, press/media
and book award long/short lists
Browsing physical and online resources
As often as possible
In the libraries, on campus, online
By Library and Learning Services, Student
Wellbeing and Union of Kingston Students
Physical book displays
Printed material – posters and list of titles
Online reading list
Social media posts
Updates via emails, bulletins and meetings
Analytics suggest successful title selection and
promotion
Casual observations of book displays confirm
engagement and interest
Positive comments from students/staff
Budget for a second academic year secured
Quarterly updates requested by leadership team
Interest in collection expressed by external
psychological therapies service (iCope)
Launched on 24 April 2018
£700 budget in 2017/18
£1000 budget – 2018/19
173 unique titles available
4-week loan status
1 online reading list
1 printable list of titles – 14 pages long
89% of available titles borrowed at least once
(as of 14 May 2019)
Selection Promotion Reaction Figures
Creating a Wellbeing Collection
to support students' physical and mental health
We collaborated with the Student Wellbeing
team and the Union of Kingston Students, promoting
the collection during national events such as
Libraries Week (08-13 October 2018) and University
Mental Health Day (7 March 2019).
Browsing is best
Although we created an online reading list
with all wellbeing titles, it was seldom used.
Students prefer to browse physical displays
in the library and borrow those titles which
catch their eye.
Collaboration is keyFeedback is slow
We really wanted students to get involved in
selection but despite providing suggestion
slips and opportunities to suggest titles online,
we rarely received recommendations.
Lessons Learned
Background
The Wellbeing Collection was established in January 2018 to support students in all aspects of their lives, with a particular focus on physical and mental health. A budget of £1700 was managed by a Subject Librarian
and titles were selected in collaboration with library colleagues, the Student Wellbeing team and the Union of Kingston Students. It has been a great success since the launch in April 2018 and we have recently
celebrated the Wellbeing Collection's first birthday! This poster highlights what we did and what we have learned in developing and managing such a collection.
Anna Englund | Senior Information Advisor
a.englund@kingston.ac.uk