Withdrawal of funding for Library Services for primary care & commissioning staff

Following the closure of the PCT, the successor commissioning organisations have decided not to continue to fund the Library Service for staff in primary care/general practice, commissioning or public health, given the financial constraints they are under.   We understand this decision has already been communicated to commissioning staff, and it was approved by the LMC on behalf of GP Practices.

Given the decision to cease funding the service, sadly we are unable to continue to provide it at no cost.

The service will cease to be available for new requests from the 1st of October.  GP or Commissioning staff who have items on loan from us will be able to keep them until the due date (even if this is after the 1st of October). Likewise we will honour any requests for information or training already received, but will not be able to take on new work after the end of this month.

We will also be withdrawing access to all locally funded electronic resources that we previously provided via Athens. GP and Commissioning staff will still be able to access some material (including databases) through the national core content list which is purchased for all NHS staff in England, but the majority of resources will no longer be available after the service is withdrawn.

If you have any queries about, or wish to discuss this decision, please contact the LMC in the first instance (enquiries@northantslmc.co.uk).

NHS England in their CCG Bulletin on the 11th of July  stated that Libraries “are an integral part of the core business of the NHS” (see item 16), so we would be willing to discuss arrangements for individual organisations within the county who were interested in preserving access to the Library Service for their staff.

New books for you to try before we buy

This one is rather jolly splendid...

We are very keen to ensure that the books we buy are the books you want to read. We review catalogues, look at publicity from publishers, scan reading lists and peruse different web sites to try and find titles we think you might need.

What we like best though, is recommendations from our users.  Our Books on Approval scheme means we have a collection of new publications sent directly from our supplier which are available for you to review.

The current selection includes subjects such as:

• Anaesthetics 
• Counselling and psychotherapy
• Diabetes
• Eating disorders
• Healthcare law
• Nursing management
• Oncology
• Psychiatry and psychology
• and many more...

You can find the current on approval books at both the Berrywood and Richmond Libraries and we would be happy to buy any of the titles you think we should have in stock.

You can also find a list of titles we have recently purchased (including previous on approval items) on our web site, and all of our stock via our catalogue.

Stoptober 2013

Following on from the success of last year (where 160,000 people completed the challenge), the 2013 Stoptober campaign was launched on the 9th of September.

The campaign aims to persuade people to quit smoking for 28 days, starting on the 1st of October. Smokers who succeed for 28 days are five times as likely to stay smoke free after, and Stoptober has a step-by-step programme to achieve this.

Health professionals can find lots of resources in support of the campaign on the NHS Smokefree Resource Centre including, posters, leaflets, email signature banners and more.

Smokers themselves can find lots of useful things on the Stoptober site including a free support pack. You can also get daily text support or download the interactive Stoptober mobile app. You can even sign up to get daily emails full of useful tips and advice.

You can also find Stoptober on Twitter.

September Eyes on Evidence from NICE

Eyes on Evidence is a free monthly bulletin from NICE Evidence Services  which reviews significant new evidence as it emerges and what this may mean for current practice.

In the September issue you can find:

Effects of human papillomavirus vaccination
Surveillance data from Australia suggests a reduced incidence of genital warts following the introduction of vaccination against human papillomavirus for girls and young women.

Drug treatments for restless legs syndrome
A meta-analysis shows that, compared with placebo, pramipexole, ropinirole, rotigotine, gabapentin  enacarbil and pregabalin improve symptoms in people with long-term moderate to severe primary restless legs syndrome.

Effects of loneliness and social isolation on mortality in older people
A longitudinal study finds that social isolation and loneliness in older people may be associated with increased all-cause mortality.

Thromboembolism during pregnancy after in vitro fertilisation
An observational study suggests that the risk of thromboembolism after in vitro fertilisation is low but persists into the first trimester of pregnancy.

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs: new information and warnings about cardiovascular risk
A meta-analysis notes that COX-2 inhibitors and diclofenac are associated with increased incidence of  major vascular events.

Acupuncture for seasonal allergic rhinitis
A randomised controlled trial suggests that acupuncture for seasonal allergic rhinitis may improve disease-specific quality of life and reduce use of antihistamines.

Case study from the Quality, Improvement, Productivity and Prevention (QIPP) collection

• Safety Express – a national pilot to deliver harm-free care

Need something new to read?

Find out what we've added to stock in the last month via our new books list.

This month the topics covered include:

• Anatomy and physiology
• Cardiology
• Community care
• Management
• Mental health
• Nursing
• Research
• Speech therapy
• ...and many more

You can even find a small collection of fiction titles that have been recently donated to the library if you like your reading to be less work related.

Don't forget we are always pleased to have recommendations for titles to buy for the library's collections, and you still have time to peruse our books on approval selection and let us know if we should purchase any of those...

New dates available on our course for staff who are studying

We've added three new dates to our Pre-course Course programme, aimed at NHS Staff who are about to start (or may have already started) new studies.

You may already be confident in using the library and finding the information you need, but if not this course will help you get ahead of the information skills game.

There will also be an opportunity to join the library and apply for an Athens account to access online journals and databases if you haven't already.

The new dates are:

• Tuesday the 15th October, 9.3- 12.30, Northampton General Hospital
• Monday the 11th November, 1.30 - 4.30, Berrywood Hospital
• Monday the 2nd December, 1.30 - 4.30, Northampton General Hospital

For more information see the course page on our web site.

Upgrade to Healthcare Databases Advanced Search on the 3rd of September

Following a number of performance issues with the Healthcare Databases Advanced Search (HDAS) on the NICE Evidence Search site, there will be a new release, scheduled for Tuesday the 3rd of September.

There is liable to be some disruption to the service between 5 and 6 pm while this rolled out and users may want to avoid using HDAS during this time.

After the upgrade you will notice a number of small changes to the way HDAS works, all of which are aimed at improving it's performance and reliability.

Web site of the month: University of Northampton Skills Hub

The Skills Hub is produced by the University of Northampton's Library and Learning Services. It aims to provide support to anyone undertaking further study by helping the development of academic skills.

http://skillshub.northampton.ac.uk/

On the Skills Hub you will find lots of useful material including:

• Interactive guides to Harvard referencing, including quizzes to test your knowledge
• Video tutorials on using the statistics package SPSS 
• Video guides on academic writing
• Interactive tutorials on critical thinking
• Guide and video to reflecting writing
• Time management and note taking tips, and more.
• Guides for UoN students on using the Library (including a virtual tour), using TurnItIn and more

You can also follow the latest developments on the site via the Skills Hub Twitter feed.

Most of the material on the Skills Hub is open access and we highly recommend it for anyone undertaking a course of further study, whether at the University of Northampton or beyond (and don't forget, if you are about to start a course of study we can help too).