An update from Jade Powell one of our Campus Assistants at the new Barrow-in-Furness campus.

It has been an exciting six months since Barrow Campus opened its doors. The beginning was hectic and stressful; we were still in our hard hats and shoe covers right up until the day before our students arrived.

Those first few weeks were a learning curve; we worked hard as a team to get things up, running and ready for our new students. Since then, we are becoming a well-oiled machine. Our students have settled into this new space comfortably, making it their own. We even have a student led group: The Music Society. 

Being the shiny and new campus we are, we have hosted lots of different events, from council meetings to school visits we have had so many guests and tours happening that our diary has been full almost every week. 

We have all been settling into the building and making our mark. I was very excited to see noticeboards and artwork go up onto the walls adorned with prints of Barrow and information for our students. The site is really starting to feel like our own and we are so excited to see what will happen in the future. 

As we enter the latter half of the academic year, we are keen to welcome a larger cohort of students in September and to continue working with our continuing students. The future in Barrow is looking bright.

07 April 2026

Are you going home over the Easter break? Remember that you can stay in touch with the library staff using our Ask a Librarian Chat Service. It's available online, 24/7! 

You can use Ask a Librarian to ask any questions you might have about library services, e.g. loans, returns and renewals, as well as things like referencing, accessing journal articles and much more! 

To give you an idea we’ve picked some examples of questions we have answered via the Ask a Librarian service: 

• Can I reserve a book? 

• Can I request a book from a different library if it is not available at UoC? 

• Can I suggest a book for the library to acquire? 

• How do I get a replacement student card? 

• I have found a journal I would like to use, how can I tell if it is peer reviewed if it does not state that it is in the text? 

• How can I access additional reading material on books that are not online? 

• Can I return a book to the library by post? 

• Can you help with conducting a search for dissertation articles? 

• How do I make an appointment with the academic skills team? 

Use the form on the link above or look for the orange 'Ask a Librarian' tabs on Onesearch

Happy Easter! 🐣 

30 March 2026

Dates for our popular webinars are now live for April to July.  Click onto here to check topics and dates. Webinars: Library and Academic skills

There are a variety of topics and timings so check out the timetable for details. 

A new title to flag up is:

• GenAI as study buddy: possibilities and pitfalls of using GenAI in our studies

If you cannot make the dates for a specific topic, check in the blue banners if we have a pre-recording of the key points from that webinar. 

Details of how to join the session will be sent to you by email at the time of booking and a reminder one hour beforehand.

Here is what some students had to say after attending a webinar: 

• "Thank you very much for today! It's been very reassuring and helpful"
  
  
• "Thank you. I am feeling a bit more confident after being out of the academic loop for a while!"
  
  
• "The redraft has just given me a lightbulb moment as to where I'm going wrong with my own academic writing!"

30 March 2026

Looking for a chilled study break?

Grab a seat in our performance space opposite the library front desk and let us do the rest!

Hot drinks and sweet treats provided - drop in for a few minutes or soak up a full hour of stories and poems.

For many students deadlines are on the horizon.

Did you know the Skills@Cumbria Team offer support to University of Cumbria students' and will give feedback on 500 words of an assignment once per module? This can be either via email or in an online one-to-one appointment. Feedback focuses on your academic skills, referencing, use of literature, and academic writing style. We will let you know where things are going well or suggest edits to develop your work. 

You can submit your work for email feedback via the Student Enquiry Point.

You can book an appointment and find out more about the service on our need more help page.

13 March 2026 

A new post on our Live Well, Learn Well at Cumbria Blog is called Master Your Dissertation Journey: Tips for Academic Success.  Here is a flavour ....

"We might compare research projects to mountain-hiking, perhaps climbing Wainwrights in the Lake District. There are ups, downs, stretches that will be harder work, perhaps. Weather conditions might mean sometimes the path ahead to the summit is clear, but sometimes mists abruptly descend and it’s easy to become despondent or even lost . Maybe you need to retrace steps to get back on the right path. Sometimes the terrain is forgiving; sometimes it’s boggy, slippery or even treacherous. You might feel this particular Wainright is maybe for more experienced hikers…But then turning a corner reveals a view where you see the extent of your progress and marvel at the view"

This and more about thriving at university can be found on our Live Well, Learn Well webpages. 

25 February 2026

Did you know our libraries provide a variety of study rooms and spaces for you to make use of when you need to work on assignments.  You can either book or drop in to find one suitable for your needs. We offer everything from group study to quite spaces to focus. Find out more about what is available and book study rooms from our study spaces page. 

17 February 2026

Are you a distance learner? Did you know that you can have library books posted to your home address?

The postal loan scheme costs £25 per year and payment can be made through the online store. This will allow you to select 'home delivery' when you place a book request on OneSearch.

Your books will be sent to the home address that you have registered at the university, and you can return them via our prepaid collect+ service, or at any of our campus libraries. There is no further charge for this after the initial fee.

Click here for full details, or contact us with any questions by email library@cumbria.ac.uk or use the Ask a Librarian chat service.

03 February 2026.

Since Friday, several other universities have reported issues accessing ProQuest Ebook Central. 

The issue presents with the following error message when accessing previously available e‑books:

“Sorry, your institution does not allow access to ProQuest Ebook Central from your current IP address.”

In the meantime, ProQuest advise the following troubleshooting steps for anyone who may experience problems:

1. Clear your web browser history, cache, and cookies
2. Try using an incognito/private browsing window
3. Try accessing via an alternative web browser
4. Update the browser to the latest version

 Any queries email skills@cumbria.ac.uk

20 January 2026

A key business database provided by the library is Mintel

Mintel contains material to help you with marketing, strategy and innovation modules by providing :

• Reports on market sectors  
• SWOT analyses of markets
• Innovations in brand development  
• Consumer data

Mintel now have an AI powered search to interrogate Mintel material.

It is called Leap and the link to it is by the Mintel logo.

Check out the ‘Learn how to use Leap” guide first of all.

Then start typing in your questions.

Types of questions you can ask:

• “What innovations are the in the UK cheese market?”
  
  
• “Provide a SWOT analysis of the UK Beer Market”

• “How many consumers like to go to music concerts in the UK?”

For any help please email skills@cumbria.ac.uk 

23  January 2026

We know a lot of our student are completing assessments including exams at this time of year. Don’t forget to take a look at our exam preparation page for hints and tips. 

Our exam skills reading list has some useful texts to help you get prepared. Plus, our short video covers some useful tips for exams. 

Good luck with your assessments. 

09 January 2026

We know students use the free reference generator called MyBib.com to create their reference lists. 

However we see a lot of errors in these reference lists when students ask Skills@Cumbria for assignment support. This can be because they have selected the wrong Harvard version.

When using MyBib.com make sure you select the format for 'Cite Them Right 13th edition - Harvard (no "et al.")

We also have plenty of referencing support on our Referencing page for you to check out too.

Any queries or to ask for a reference list check email skills@cumbria.ac.uk 

09 January 2026

This  time of year often finds students gearing up to do their dissertations or research projects.

Did you know we have some great guidance on our Skills pages to help with all aspects of your dissertation from deciding on your topic, to conducting your literature search, to planning and writing it up?

Head over to these pages to find out more:

Dissertations and research projects

Literature Reviews

Being Critical

Paragraph structure

Getting the flow going....

Remember you can also ask for help from the Skills Team whether in an appointment or via email to skills@cumbria.ac.uk or checking into one of our webinars.

12 January 2026