The library has always been a haven for borrowing a great read or a classic film. Patrons once lined up for books, and later for DVDs. Now, in a striking new chapter of public service, libraries in Scotland are lending something far less traditional: light therapy lamps designed to combat seasonal affective disorder (SAD).
Glasgow’s libraries pioneered this shift and the phenomenon is spreading across the country. East Dunbartonshire libraries have stocked the light boxes — which include lamps and mental health guidebooks — since last winter as part of a joint research project by the universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow.
The lamps work by emitting intensely bright light, which is thought to encourage the brain to reduce soporific melatonin hormones and increase feel-good serotonin hormones. While the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, the UK medicines watchdog, has said it is not entirely clear whether the lamps are effective, a study published this year in the European Journal of Psychiatry did find that the light reduced depressive symptoms.
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The scheme is expanding to more remote areas. From this Sunday Orkney’s mobile library van, aptly named “Booky McBookface”, will carry the lamps around the archipelago. This is crucial for areas like Orkney, where residents have just over six hours of daylight by midwinter, compared with almost eight hours in London. The limited light puts children at risk of conditions such as rickets and the NHS already encourages residents to take vitamin D during the darker months.
The seasonal depression treatment is taxpayer-funded through a grant from the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council, aimed at applying academic research to social challenges. Professor Hester Parr, an academic at Glasgow University who led the study, noted that the Royal College of Psychiatrists estimated that more than a million people across Britain experienced SAD symptoms, including lowered mood and anxiety. She expressed delight at extending the work to community services in the challenging remote and island locations.
Professor Hester Parr
MARTIN SHIELDS
In Glasgow alone, 200 people borrowed the lamps last winter, with loans being renewed 349 times.
Erika Copland, 49, grew up in Orkney and has worked as a community practitioner in Kirkwall for three years. She said: “I have friends as well as clients who have been affected by [seasonal depression]. At this time of year they become more despondent, there’s a lack of willingness to go out, and they withdraw from activities they usually enjoy and other people. On a really overcast day it can feel like you need your lights on all day.
“For some of the people I work with on a limited income, being able to try this out to see if it’s something that will benefit them before deciding to buy it is a really good thing. Normalise is the wrong word, but it will help to normalise what this time of year can mean for many people.”
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On the Orkney Islands, the lamps will be promoted by “community link practitioners” who work in GP practices.
The mobile library service, driven around the islands since 1963, delivers books to every community every eight weeks. Vikki Kerr, the team manager for libraries at Orkney Islands council, said that it was “not surprising that public libraries are effective hubs of health and wellbeing and in this case that can make a big difference to everyday life on Orkney”.
Dublin’s libraries are also set to trial the scheme this winter, building on an existing service where they began supplying SAD lamps for use strictly within the library in January.