“It was the month of May / And the green of the mountainside was woven / With wayward flecks of flowers…”

– Cave Outlaw, “Moment on a Mount”, Each Day (1942)

We have made some changes to our document supply service! If you come across an article that you can’t access yourself (either through your OpenAthens account or after checking if the article is open access), fill in this form here. This new method helps us maintain copyright compliance and streamlines the process for obtaining these articles.

We have revamped how we deliver our (Monthly) Articles of Interest — now to just be called ‘Articles of Interest’, or ‘AOI’. Rather than sending out a spreadsheet once a month, readers will now be able to browse boards relating to their areas of interest at any time. These boards will be updated once a week, usually on a Wednesday. See our new ‘Articles of Interest’ page (which can also be found via the menu bar at the top of the page) for more information and a list of the boards. We hope that this will make our Articles of Interest service more accessible to all our users!

Below are some new library acquisitions — see here for more recently added books. To borrow any of these books, please join the library (if you haven’t already).

The book to be discussed at May’s reading group is The Names by Florence Knapp. Cora goes to register her newborn son and considers whether she wants to follow family tradition and name him after his father. The book considers the possible paths this decision may set her son on. The meeting will take place in the library and over Teams on Wednesday 27 May — contact the library if you would like to join.

Following is a selection of awareness events taking place over the next month — see here for more.

The Commons and Lords have agreed on a final draft of legislation which will prevent anyone born on or after 1 January 2009 from buying cigarettes. This is part of a drive to create a smoke-free generation. Other measures include the banning of vaping in cars carrying children and outside schools.

NHS England have published new documents relating to the NHS Children and Young People’s Gender Service. This includes a service specification, consultation report, public consultation analysis and report, and equality and health inequalities impact assessment. Select the link above to access these documents.

Recently published reports from Bite Back and The Food Foundation explore how school food might be improved and students’ thoughts on current offerings. Bite Back found that 22% of students surveyed felt that there weren’t enough grab-and-go options to meet dietary, cultural, or religious requirements, while The Food Foundation looked at some specific examples from schools around the UK on how they improved their offerings.

A new project at Great Ormond Street Hospital has trialled switching patients from liquid to pill formulations. The patient cohort included 19 children with congenital hyperinsulinism aged 7 or older, all of whom were switched to a pill form of their medication. The switch is estimated to save around £40,000 per patient per year.

This long read from NHS England sets out guidance to support integrated care boards, providers, and clinical teams in transitioning patients between services. It includes clear descriptions of roles and actions for different bodies and teams, as well as case studies of different trusts and their transition services.

This long read from Nuffield Trust breaks down the recently published neighbourhood health framework. It includes assessments from the authors of what they think works within the plan, as well as areas which are difficult to understand.

For those (like me) who are fans of chamber music, the Sheffield Chamber Music Festival returns! Running from Friday 15 to Saturday 23 May, this year’s festival is curated by Claire Booth and features works by composers such as Prokofiev, Beethoven, and Brahms.

Back for its 15-year anniversary, Sheffield Food Festival returns to the Heart of the City from 23–25 May! As well as its vast array of food stalls, the festival will also feature live music and other events.

In place of the ‘Recipe of the month’ feature is the new ‘Book of the month’ slot — featuring a book I have read and enjoyed!

I recently read Africa Is Not A Country by Dipo Faloyin. The writing style is very accessible and, despite not being a big reader of non-fiction, I flew through this. The section on the British Library’s housing of stolen artifacts was very striking, while the section on jollof rice made me very hungry and keen to seek some out! I would highly recommend this to anyone looking to learn more about this hugely diverse continent.

The June edition of the blog will be published on Friday 29 May 2026 — look out for it then!