Christmas opening at the Libraries

Book Tree by Cindy Sharpe

We would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a peaceful and prosperous new year and we look forward to seeing you in 2012. 

Berrywood Hospital, and the Richmond Library will be open between the 28th and 30st of December, and from Tuesday the 3rd of January.

24 hour access will be available as usual to registered members throughout the Christmas period.

The Libraries at Francis Crick House and Isebrook Hospital will close on Friday the 24th of December and re-open on Tuesday the 3rd of January. Please contact one of the other libraries for help during this period.

New Critical Appraisal course and dates for all training in 2012

 The Library Service offers a number of different training courses, freely available for all NHS staff and attached students in the county.

Dates and venues for the whole of 2012 are now available on the Library web site.

Critical Appraisal

• Critical Appraisal: an introduction covers the basic principles of CA, covering the different types of research, statistical terminology and using checklists to conduct an appraisal. The ideal course for those new to the topic.

• New for 2012 -  Critical Appriasal: in action is a follow up session giving you the opportunity to appraise a randomised controlled trial, using the information learned in our introductory training. The paper will be circulated in advance although time will be allowed for reading it in the session.This course is aimed at people who have previously attended Critical Appraisal: an introduction or similar training.

Health on the Web

• A Basic Introduction to Health on the Web is a step by step guide to the basics of the Internet using good quality health web sites. A 100% hands on course for those who are not confident using the internet. This course is available on demand.

• Evidence of Health is a hands-on introduction to using evidence based health web sites such as NHS Evidence and Trip to find high quality information.

• Literature Searching offers an introduction to searching for published literature, showing you how to find journal articles on a subject from databases such as Medline and the British Nursing Index and is a good starting point for those undertaking academic courses.  

These courses can also be delivered in your work place and even tailored to you particular needs. For more information about the courses, or to book onto a course please contact us.

RCN: improve patient care with the right skill mix

RCN: improve patient care with the right skill mix: The Royal College of Nursing has welcomed the Government’s commitment to giving patients more information about their care, but has said it is 'vital' that new benchmarks in England, announced today, do not become additional targets that will place further pressure on an already stretched NHS workforce.

From anaesthesia to statistics, by way of mental health and neurology... new books in stock

A medical student (was), a photo by AlSaee on Flickr.

The Library Service covers all subjects and disciplines in the local NHS trusts and we are constantly updating our stock. Every month we produce a list of new titles added to stock.

You can now see what we have added to our collection in December.

We are also always happy to receive recommendations for new items to buy, and we also have a selection of titles on approval which you can view and recommend for purchase.

You can find all the stock from all of our sites, including items we have on order on our catalogue.

Health Promotion Resources is now closed for moving

The Health Promotion Resources service has now closed for its relocation to the new base in Northampton.  We regret that during this time the service and all resources will be unavailable whilst it is packed and relocated.

The service will reopen on Tuesday the 3rd of January at:

Boothmeadow House
Museum Way
Riverside Park
Northampton NN3 9HW (Click here for a location map)
Temporary telephone number: 01604 362964
Email (unchanged): hpresources@northants.nhs.uk
Follow us on Twitter for updates: @HPRNorthants

We look forward to meeting customers old and new at our new base in 2012.

Dr Foster Hospital Guide 2011

The latest Hospital Guide has now been published by Dr Foster and you can find the detail on the NHS Choices web site. The guide reviews hospital mortality figures, and patient comments, and focuses on hospital admissions at the weekend.

One of our local Trusts, Northampton General Hospital, features in the list of hospitals with higher than expected death rates. This is questioned by the Trust's Medical Director who argued  the actual numbers of deaths at NGH were among the lowest in the East Midlands and the Trust did not understand why Dr Foster had set the number of expected deaths so low in relation to other similar hospitals. In response the Trust has also set up a group to review every patient death  that occurs in the hospital.

The full guide is available on the Dr Foster web site.

Health Promotion Resources is moving

The Health Promotion Resources service is moving from it's current home in Kettering to Northampton.

The service will close on the 1st of December and will reopen on Tuesday the 2nd of January. During this time we will not be able to supply any resources or leaflets.

The Service's new contact details will be:

Boothmeadow House
Museum Way
Riverside Park
Northampton NN3 9HW (Click here for a location map)
Temporary telephone number: 01604 362964
Email (unchanged): hpresources@northants.nhs.uk
Follow us on Twitter for updates: @HPRNorthants

Need to keep up to date with the latest news? Try our Daily Health News service

If you want to keep up with the latest news, policy, commentary, publications and events in UK health care, we can help. With so many different sources of information available, it's hard to know where to start, let alone keep up with them all.

This is where our daily health news service comes in.  We scan over 60 feeds from different sources every day and publish the the things we think will be most useful to you on our Blogger site.

We use feeds from the Department of Health, NMC, NHS Confederation, major newspapers, the BBC, Kings Fund, NICE and and many more. We try to ensure any major health related story being covered in the media is included, as well as reports and other relevant information.

You can access the service in a number of ways:

• Via our site on Blogger http://nhftlibrariesdailyhealthnews.blogspot.com/
• By RSS feed (you can find it here).
• By email, with all the day's news sent straight to you inbox. Just enter your email address here and once you have clicked on the link in the confirmation email you will receive, the service will be live. We won't use your address for anything else and you can unsubscribe at any time. 

You can also find out more about this and other current awareness services we offer (like our Netvibes site) on the Keeping up to Date page of our web site.

We hope you find it useful...

Books, books and more books! New books on approval / new books in stock

Photo from Flickr

We have a new selection of on approval books in stock at the Berrywood and Richmond libraries. If you can spare the time, please come and have a look at the titles we have and recommend any that you think the library should purchase. This is your opportunity to ensure that the book stock in the libraries reflects your needs.

We would also be happy to receive any other recommendations for purchases for library stock.

If you want to see what we have added to stock recently, we produce a monthly new books lists of our latest titles (including those bought via the on approvals service). You can find them on our web site.

Health Promotion Resources open day 16th of November

Wednesday 16^thNovember

Venue: Cytringham Room, Forest House,

2 Riley Road, Telford Way Industrial. Estate, Kettering NN16 8NN

Drop in any time between 10am and 4pm 

*Refreshments available*

How Can We Help?

Do you organise health & wellbeing events in the community? Do you hold health education sessions in the classroom? 

Our free of charge service can help by providing

audience-engaging materials to support your health-promoting activities.

Don’t miss this opportunity to: 

Meet the staff & see a selection of the resources available to you

Familiarise yourself with our services & find out what else we can offer

Come & be inspired!

What's your poison? A sober analysis on alcohol and health in the media

Alcohol is everywhere  in the media at the moment. It's often hard to open a newspaper or watch the news without being bombarded with different, and often contradictory messages about alcohol. Some stories focus on the dangers of binge drinking whilst others tell us a glass of wine can help us to lose weight or even reduce the risk of a heart attack.

Photo by Danicuki

Behind the Headlines from NHS Choices have produced Whats your Poison? a report which analyses the media's relationship with alcohol research, and the science behind it. More importantly, it also tells us what this means for anyone who drinks alcohol. You can find What's Your Poison on the NHS Choices web site.

Issues with journals and databases on NHS Evidence now resolved

NHS Evidence have now announced they have isolated the problem that was affecting the journals and databases service and have put in place a temporary fix to ensure the service is fully functional.

A permanent solution will be incorporated into the next release of NHS Evidence, due on the 16th of November.

Issues with journals and databases on NHS Evidence still unresolved

The disruption to the Journals and Databases service on NHS Evidence is still currently unresolved. Users may find both are still running slowly and timing out periodically (but they do both still work).

NHS Evidence have said the issues are being investigated as a top priority and they are trying to resolve this issue as quickly as possible (all the current issue with the NHS Evidence service are listed on their Service Update page).

We'll keep you posted...

Major changes to Google Reader will effect our Health News Service

Daily Health News

The Official Google Reader Blog has announced some major changes to the service from next week (currently the exact time scale is unclear), including the removal of the sharing feature. This means that shortly we are no longer going to be able to use Google Reader to provide you with daily news updates.

Google say the sharing functionality will be added to their Google Plus platform, but we will need to investigate whether that can provide us with the same service, or whether we will need to seek an alternative.

Consequently their may be some interruption in the service whilst we investigate Google Plus and see what alternatives to the existing Google Reader service may be available.

Ongoing problems with the databases and journals on NHS Evidence

There is an ongoing problem with the databases and journals services on NHS Evidence. Currently the service is running very slowly and searches can take a long time to complete or even time out and give an error message (although this is not happening all the time).

NICE are aware of the problem and are currently working to resolve it as a matter of priority.

CQC national report on dignity and nutrition review

This review was a targeted inspection programme of some NHS hospitals. It looked at whether older people are treated with respect and whether they receive the nutritional support that meets their needs.

You can find the following reports on the CQC web sites in relation to the inspection programme:

• An overview giving the national picture from the inspections which you can find here
• Inspection results from individual trusts which you can find here
• Locally, Kettering General Hospital were inspected and you can find the report here

Emerald Management First - information for managers

Are you looking for information on healthcare management? The library has a subscription to a package aimed specifically at health managers. The Emerald Management First site includes access to a collection of electronic journals, plus lots of other content.  

http://first.emeraldinsight.com

New for 2011! Our subscription now includes access to a grand total of 120 e-journals which you can access from your desktop, both at work and at home. You can also access the site from your mobile phone via this link. The subscription includes access to journals in several different collections including:

·   Health Care Management

·   Human Resource Management

·   Education

·   Accounting and Finance

·   Information and Knowledge Management

·   Learning and Development

·   Industry and Public Sector Management

·   Managing Quality

·   Strategy

Additional content includes:

·   Articles written by practicing experts on healthcare and management,  HR, finance, marketing and other topics

·   Case studies

·   Briefings

·   Interviews

To access this resource, (and lots of others too), you will need an Athens password. If you don’t already have one, click on this Athens Self registration link.  It’s easy to do and takes just a few minutes. If you’d like to find out more about Emerald Management First, you can download our user guide here or you can contact us.

A guide to health care related iPhone Apps

Countess of Chester Hospital Library Service have produced a guide on useful healthcare related Apps for the iPhone. 

The guide covers Apps for anatomy,  clinical guidelines, decision support, clinical calculators, education, news and alerts. It also features some topic specific Apps for cardiology. dermatology, mental health and more.

Some of the Apps are free whilst others do have to be purchased. 

You can find a copy in the Resource Guides section of our web site

The easy way to find clinical guidelines

www.patient.co.uk

If you are missing the Guidelines Finder from the old NLH site, or simply want an easy way to find all UK clinical guidelines on a particular subject, the Patient UK may have the answer.

They have produced a simple A-Z list of all UK guidelines by topic. This list includes those produced by

• NICE
• Prodigy (formerly the Clinical Knowledge Summaries)
• SIGN
• The Royal Colleges
• Other professional health organisations 

To access this list simply go to: www.patient.co.uk/guidelines.asp

New selections of links covering information for patients and clinical images

We have developed two new sections in the Useful Links part of our web site that you may find useful.

Information for patients covers good quality web sites aimed at patients rather than health professionals. It is a good starting point for those looking for non-technical health care information, or for clinicians who may want to refer patients to sites to find out more about their particular condition.

Clinical and healthcare images contains links to web sites featuring clinically related photographs, diagrams,
charts, videos and other related material. These sites may be useful if you are preparing a presentation, writing an essay, or looking for an image to enhance an explanation. Some of these sites offer licence free use of their material, for others some conditions will apply (please check before downloading).

If you have any suggestions for sites we may want to include in our useful links lists, please let us know.

Medical Masterclass

 

Medical Masterclass is an online resource from the Royal College of Physicians designed to support those studying for the MRCP (UK) examinations (but is available to everyone). 

 

The library has a subscription and we have a number of logins that we can give out to library users for a monthly loan period. Access to the website includes:

• 3000 practice questions for MRCP (UK) parts 1 and 2 (written examination) with the option to select individual specialties if there are particular areas you want to focus your revision on
• Timed mock examinations
• New for 2011 – screencasts aimed specifically to help you with the MRCP (UK) PACES examination

New questions and practice exams are regularly added to the site so there is plenty of material here!

If you would like to find out more or would like a login to access the site please contact the Richmond Library.

CLAHRC Introduction to Critical Appraisal 29th September

As part of the CLAHRC  R&D programme, the Library Service is running an introduction to critical appraisal training course at Berrywood Hospital on Thursday the 29th of September (10.30 - 12 & repeated 2.30 - 4) in the Oak Room at Berrywood Hospital.

This course covers the basics of assessing the quality of research evidence. It looks at the different types of research studies you are most likely to come across and will give an introduction to some of the statistical terminology most commonly used in biomedical research. The course also takes you through a checklist for critically appraising a randomised controlled trial.

To book a place please contact CLAHRC Co-ordinator Rachel Lovesy on Rachel.lovesy@nhft.nhs.uk

  

Places are limited.

Laptops for loan

Do you need a laptop for a presentation or to work from home?
The Library has recently acquired some laptops we are able to lend to NHS staff for work related activities.
They are available from the Berrywood & Richmond libraries (but we can deliver them to our other library sites), and are free to loan. The laptops can be booked in advance and are loaned for a period of one week.

New edition of the Royal Marsden Manual of Clinical Nursing Procedures available

The new 8th edition of the Royal Marsden Manual is now available on-line (the Libraries also hold printed copies of the book). The Manual is nationally recognised as the essential guide to clinical nursing skills. The online edition is very easy to use, allowing you to search or browse through topic headings.

www.rmmonline.co.uk

The fully updated edition provides up-to-date, evidence-based clinical skills procedures related to essential aspects of patient care. The procedures in The Manual are based on the latest research findings and advice from clinical experts, to enable students and qualified nurses to provide the best possible care. All procedures include the rationale for each action and the evidence used is graded to help nurses assess its validity.

You will need your NHS Athens account to access the Manual. If you don't have one you can apply online (NHS staff and attached students only). You can also reset your password if you have forgotten it.

To access the Manual, go to the RMM site (www.rmmonline.co.uk) and log in using your Athens account.

If you don't currently have an Athens account (or have forgotten your password), NHS staff in Northamptonshire can apply online.

The Library Service transfers to Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS FoundationTrust

Along with the rest of the IM&T Directorate, the Library Service has today officially transferred from Provider Services to Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. This does not effect the services we offer, or who can use the libraries, but we look forward to working even more closely with colleagues from NHFT.

CLAHRC Finding the Evidence training 20th September

As part of the CLAHRC  R&D programme, the Library Service is running a finding the evidence course at Berrywood Hospital on Tuesday the 20th of September (10 - 12 & repeated 2 - 4) in the Rowan Room at Berrywood Hospital.

This is a hands on interactive course covering where to find evidence based information for health and social care and providing an introduction to searching for journal articles from databases such as Medline and The British Nursing Index. 

The skills gained from this training can be used in the preliminary stages of a research project in exploring what evidence already exists and also to support service developments and evidence based practice.

To book a place please contact CLAHRC Co-ordinator Rachel Lovesy on Rachel.lovesy@nhft.nhs.uk

  

Places are limited.

August bank holiday closure

The Libraries will be unstaffed on Monday the 29th of August for the bank holiday.

Poppies, a photo by Chris Donohoe on Flickr.

Access is available to registered users on a 24/7 basis as usual at the Berrywood and Richmond Libraries by swiping in using your library card.

End of Life - free palliative care electronic journal

End of Life

Produced by the London based St Christopher's Hospice, the open access End of Life is a peer reviewed quaterly e-journal that publishes articles on all aspects of nursing practice relating to end-of-life care.

It is primarily aimed at generalist nurses working in hospital, community and care home settings, but will also be of interest to the specialist palliative care audience. The journal focuses on care for patients with both malignant and non-malignant diseases.

The journal publishes articles relating to clinical skills and symptom management as well as clinical reviews, ethics and the law, primary research and audit, clinical practice development, communication skills, professional issues and debate.

Access to the journal is completely free of charge, but does require registration to view and download articles. You can find End of Life here: http://endoflifejournal.stchristophers.org.uk/

Changes to the Cochrane Library

Cochrane Library

The Cochrane Library have made a number of changes to the site, giving a different look and feel to both the interface and the way articles are displayed. The changes include:

• An updated interface
• Easy access links to ‘Jump to’ different sections of a Cochrane Review or Protocol.
• Improved reference linking: links to relevant material now appear directly in the reference list.
• ‘Cited by’ links to find articles that have cited the Cochrane Review or Protocol.
• Links to find related articles (based on assigned topics) and for bookmarking and sharing through social networking services or email.
• Updated page layout, making navigation easier, and allowing better discoverability by Google and other search engines.
• Minor changes to the ‘look and feel’ of The Cochrane Library navigation menus.

Latest version of the TRIP database launched

www.tripdatabase.com

The TRIP (Turning Research Into Practice) Database is a UK clinical search engine designed to allow clinicians to quickly find answers to their clinical questions using the best available evidence.  

TRIP offers a useful alternative to the NHS Evidence search engine.

TRIP is free to use and no passwords are required, but if you register you will have access to some additional functionality such as CPD, search history, and collaborative tools.

There are a number of new features including:

• Incorporating new content including medical education, and patient decision aids as well as enhanced content from social media and videos (now over 6,100)
• Clinical trials are now highlighted via a link to clinicaltrials.gov. If you go through to the site it shows the trials for your subject and what stage they have reached. There is a tab, "Results on map" which shows you where the trial has been conducted (and therefore which are UK trials).
• Clinical calculators related to the search terms are now displayed. 
• The ability to restrict the results to new research (from the last month) only.
• The site is significantly faster
• New results page design
• DOI (Digital object identifier) is displayed, this is to facilitate the identification of full-text articles.
• Translate introduced, allowing users to translate the search results and subsequent links into one of six languages (Spanish, German, French, Italian, Portuguese and Welsh).  

You can find TRIP at: www.tripdatabase.com 

Science: From Cradle to Grave

Interested in research? This programme on Radio 4 explores longitudinal research in health.

Ben Goldacre, medic and author of the Bad Science Column, explores the past, present and future of longitudinal research. How did these monumental long term-studies come about? What have we learned from them and what do we still need to know?

He talks to some of the pioneers of epidemiology including Sir Michael Marmot whose famous study on civil servants changed our view of executive stress and Professor Diana Kuh, who worked on the original 1946 cohort study. And he meets the scientists behind a new UK Birth cohort study, starting in 2012 which will track a whole new generation of children, starting from their development in the womb to their final days of life.

Broadcast

• Tuesday 2nd August 11:00 am
• Thursday 4th August 21:00
• Also available on the BBC iPlayer

PRODIGY - evidence based information for primary care

PRODIGY is a reliable source of evidence-based information and practical 'know how' about the common conditions managed in primary and first-contact care.

It is built on the Clinical Knowledge Summaries that used to be on the NHS Evidence site and uses the same format. The Prodigy service is updated regularly (there have been over 140 updates since 31 March 2011). PRODIGY is available at: http://www.prodigy.clarity.co.uk/ and is currently free to access.

NICE pathways - an easy way to navigate NICE guidance

NICE Pathways is an online tool for health and social care professionals that brings together all related NICE guidance and associated products in a set of interactive topic-based diagrams. The diagrams provide an easier and more intuitive way to find, access and use NICE guidance, enabling users to see everything NICE has published on a particular topic.

 

NICE Depression Pathway

 

Each pathway includes all relevant NICE guidance, including clinical guidelines, public health guidance, technology appraisals, interventional procedures, medical technology and diagnostics guidance, and quality standards, and accompanying tools produced by NICE to support implementation.

 

Currently 17 of NICE's guidelines are covered by the pathway site, but NICE plans to add many more by the end of the year, and ultimately, to have a pathway map for every guideline.

New self-care website for the NHS

The new Self Care Forum web site has been launched for NHS staff and patient groups. It's aim is to encourage people to think about self care in a broad sense and provides tools and information to encourage people to look after themselves.

The site contains resources to aimed at general practice to help with the implementation of self care initiatives. There are case studies, reports, research, fact sheets and practical tips. NHS staff can also upload their own case studies.

There will also be a Self Care Week 14th - 20th of November used to publicise local initiatives

New Books On Approval

Help us to buy the books that you want to read. We have a new selection of approval books in stock at both the Berrywood and Richmond Libraries. 

Image: nuttakit / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

If you can spare the time, please come and have a look at the titles we have and recommend any that you think the library should purchase.  This is your opportunity to ensure that the book stock in the libraries reflects your needs.

We would also be happy to receive any other recommendations for purchases for library stock. If you want to see what we have added to stock recently, we produce monthly new books lists of our latest titles.

CPD On-line - interactive training for mental health trainees

The Royal College of Psychiatrist's CPD On-Line service has been purchased regionally and can be made available to junior doctors undertaking training in psychiatry.

Eligible trainees should have already received an email regarding access to the resource, but contact the Library Service is you haven't and we will pass your details on to the regional Athens administrator.

National Transplant Week 4th - 10th of July

This week is National Transplant Week - and it starts with a reminder that three people die each day because there are not enough donated organs available.

The NTW site has lots of information about this years campaign - "What are you waiting for?", organ donation and transplants, as well as events that are happening this week and a chance to contribute to their national survey

As part of raising awareness, NHS Employers have also produced a briefing on organ donation.

Local Health Profiles 2011 for Northamptonshire now available

The Public Health Observatories of England have published the Local Health Profiles for Northamptonshire. The profiles draw together information which includes:

• An ‘At a glance’ summary description of people’s health in the area, which includes information on locally identified priorities
• Maps and charts showing how the health of the area compares to the national view and information on health inequalities within the local authority
• Charts presenting changes in death rates over a 10 year period, compared to rates for England
• A 'spine chart' health summary showing the difference in health between the area and the regional / England average

The Health Profiles website also provides interactive maps and charts for users to create their own views of the data, and links to further supporting and relevant products.

You can find all of the profiles for Northamptonshire on the Association of Public Health Observatories site.

Alternatively you can find the profiles for individual areas here:

• Corby
• Daventry
• East Northamptonshire
• Kettering
• Northampton
• Northamptonshire
• South Northamptonshire
• Wellingborough     
  

NICE launches new guideline for hip fractures

NICE have launched a new guideline for the treatment of hip fractures that calls for surgery to take place no later than the day after hospital admission. The guideline also states that hospitals should deliver a co-ordinated Hip Fracture Programme to help faster recovery.

You can find the full guideline and all associated documentation on the NICE web site.

Places still available for July training courses

There are still some places available on the Library Service training courses in July. Training is free to NHS staff and run at a variety of locations around the county. The links below will give you more information.

• An Introduction to Critical Appraisal

• Evidence for Health

• Literature Searching Using the Databases

Our Basic Introduction to Health on the World Wide Web (a course for people who want to know more about the basics of using the Internet) is now available on demand.

And if you can't make our courses, we can always come to you. The Library Service can deliver our standard courses, more tailored workshops or shorter, specialised sessions at any location around the county. All we need is an NHS network connection and a suitable venue. Contact us for more information.

RCN launches new sexual health resource

The Royal College of Nursing has launched a new on-line training resource on sexual health. It provides easy-to-understand learning for RCN members to dip into and addresses a wide range of sexual health issues relating to people of all ages and lifestyle choices.

You can find it in the Learning Zone on the RCN web site.

Springer offers free access to research articles on E. coli bacteria

In the light of the current outbreak of E. Coli in Germany, with cases in the UK and beyond, medical publisher Springer have provided temporary free access to over 400 articles on E. Coli for the next 12 weeks (until the 26th of August).
You can find all of the articles on the SpringerLink site.

More information about the outbreak in Germany is also available (in English) on the Robert Koch Institute web site.

Health Promotion Resources has Re-opened at Forest House

The Health Promotion Resources Service has now completed the move out of Westgate House in Northampton and is open for business at it's new home in Forest House, Telford Way Industrial Estate, Kettering (near the General Hospital, for directions click here).

Our full contact details are:

Health Promotion Resources,
Forest House,
2 Riley Road, 
Telford Way Industrial Estate,
Kettering NN16 8NN
Tel: 01536 527403
Fax: 01604 685465 (unchanged)
Email: hpresources@northants.nhs.uk

We look forward to seeing our customers old and new, at our new premises.

Marathon success for Librarian Jane Proctor

One of our Librarians, Jane Proctor, completed her first ever marathon in Edinburgh on Sunday. Running to raise funds for Crohn's and Colitis UK, Jane finished in a very good time of 4 hours and 36 minutes and has so far raised over £500 via the Just Giving web site.
Congratulations on a truly fantastic effort from all the Library team.

Health Promotion Resources is Now Closed for the Move to Forest House

Health Promotion has now temporarily closed to begin packing for the move to Forest House in Kettering next week.  Unfortunately during this time we will be unable to fulfill any leaflet or resource orders as all of our stock is being packed into crates for the move.

If you need to contact us please email hpresources@northants.nhs.uk.
 
We will reopen on the 2nd of June.

Updated Guides to Using Electronic Resources

In light of the changes to NHS Evidence, we have revised a number of our User Guides to ensure they are up to date with the latest developments on the site.

Our guide to e-journals

If you get stuck with using electronic journals, need to read an e-book, want to know how to search the Cochrane Library for systematic reviews, or look up a medicine in the BNF for Children we have a guide that can help.

For these (and more) see the User Guides page on our web site.

And of course, if you get stuck you can always contact one of the Libraries for advice, or book onto one of our training courses.

NHS Evidence changes - new Library guide available

 NHS Evidence have now launched the new site which has integrated the content from the previous National Library for Health service. The new single site has a very different look and feel with improved functionality.

The databases and journals are now accessed via page on the new site. The actual interfaces for searching both of these remain unchanged.

The Specialist Collections have been replaced by topic pages which bring together different kinds of information on the same subject, such as this one on bipolar disorder. The search engine also features new functionality.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has also launched Nice Pathways. An online tool for health and social care professionals, NICE Pathways brings together all connected NICE guidance on a topic in a user-friendly electronic flowchart.

Previously there has been no easy way to see at a glance everything NICE has said on a specific condition, across all its separate published guidance. Nice Pathways will allow users to quickly view and navigate NICE guidance and other tools on any given topic across an entire care pathway.

We will be revising our user guides and training in the next week or so, but in the mean time we have produced a quick guide to the new site.