Its back! The great library book sale bonanza starts Monday the 1st of December

Back by popular demand!

The rush to the library to bag a bargain...

We are having a sale of recently withdrawn library stock at the Berrywood and Richmond libraries, starting on Monday the 1st of December.

On offer will be a variety of titles covering lots of different topics and disciplines, including previous editions of current text books.

Costing just £1 or £2 each, you could find yourself a real bargain. You'll need to be quick though as they tend to sell fast.

Changes in access to the BNF and BNFC online

Both the BNF and the BNF for Children have moved web sites. They are now no longer available from the bnf.org address, but are now both hosted on the Medicines Complete site.

To access them directly use the links below:

• BNF https://www.medicinescomplete.com/mc/bnf/current/

• BNFC https://www.medicinescomplete.com/mc/bnfc/current/

If you are using a device on an NHS network you should be able to access both versions without the need to log in.

If you are using them from outside of the NHS, you will need to have an Open Athens account to enable you to log in.

Both the BNF and BNFC are also available as an App for Android and iOS (Apple) devices via the NICE web site. Again you will need to log into Athens when you download the App to confirm your eligibility.

Need help managing your library books? We've got an app for that...

The free BookMyne app from SirsiDynix, for both Apple and Android devices, allows you to manage your access to the library from your smartphone or tablet.

BookMyne offers a lot of convenient features, making it quick and easy to search our collections on the move, find the items you need and manage your account.


BookMyne enables you to:

• Search for items by title, author or subject
• Reserve any title in our catalogue and select which library you would like to collect it from
• Edit or cancel your reservations (we all change our minds sometimes)
• See when a reserved item becomes available
• See all the items on loan to you
• See if you have any fines
• Renew any loans and see when items are approaching their due date (and never have a library fine again!)
• Use your phone's camera to scan a book's barcode to instantly check if there are copies in the library

Once you've downloaded the app, all you will need to get started is your library card and your PIN (which you can get from any of the libraries if you don't already have it and also allows you to log in and use our online catalogue).

We think BookMyne is an easy way to find the information you need, stay on top of your loans and reservations and avoid those pesky fines by always having your books returned or renewed on time.

Did we mention it's free...?

BookMyne on the App Store

BookMyne on Google play

November 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 might mean for current practice.

In the November issue you can find:

• Premature death in people with learning disabilities
• Self harm and suicide in prison
• Admissions to hospital for any type of infection and childhood vaccinations
• Radical radiotherapy or prostatectomy for prostate cancer
• Effects of decision aids on patients' decision-making about treatment or screening

You can find all the previous issues of Eyes on Evidence or subscribe to receive the bulletin by email on the NICE Evidence Services site.

There are also new Evidence Updates highlighting new information worth considering along side current guidance:

• Preventing type 2 diabetes: population and community-level interventions (NICE Guideline PH 35)
• Headaches (NICE guideline CG 150)

Changes in access to the Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines in Psychiatry and other ebooks

We have moved some our our e-books to a different supplier.

The new 123Library platform is easy to use and has a number of useful features such as allowing you to highlight text, make notes on ebooks, and place bookmarks in the text. You can even download the book for a limited time (which requires the free Abode Digital Editions).

You can find the titles directly from the links below:

• Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines in Psychiatry (11th edition)
• Drugs During Pregnancy and Lactation: Treatment Options & Risk Assessment (2nd edition) 
• TNM Classification of Malignant Tumours (7th edition)

You can also access them via the library catalogue or  by logging into Open Athens and clicking on the 123Library link on the resources tab.

You will need an Open Athens password to be able to access the books. If you don't have one you can register online here.

Library information skills programme for 2015

And this is how you get the full text article...

Need to find some information to inform your practice? Need to make a decision but can't find the evidence? Found the evidence but not sure of it's validity? We can help.

All of our training programme dates for 2015 are now available on the Library's web site.

Our courses are free to access for staff and attached students from Northamptonshire Healthcare and Northampton General Hospital.

Our courses are aimed at both clinicians and managers who want to be able to find and use the best possible evidence to support their decision making.

The courses run at a variety of locations including the Berrywood and Northampton General hospitals, as well as Bevan House in Kettering.

If you are about to begin a programme of study, our Pre-course Course may be just the thing. The course is designed to set you up with the information skills you need to tackle academic work. The 3 hour sessions cover finding books from your reading lists, using databases, identifying good quality information, searching for evidence and guidelines and accessing full text electronic journals.

If you need to find the research our Literature Searching course can help. This will enable you to effectively search healthcare databases such as Medline, the British Nursing Index and HMIC (healthcare management) to find the information you need and even retrieve full text electronic journal articles.

Mmm, where is the P value?

Of course, once you have found the information you need to know how to assess it and our Critical Appraisal skills workshops can help.

Our Introduction to Critical Appraisal will give you a basic understanding of the terminology and process, whilst our highly interactive Critical Appraisal in Action session gives you the opportunity to appraise a piece of research in a group facilitated by a librarian. 

It doesn't end with our published programme though. We can also create a tailored session for your department and can also do one to one sessions if you can't make any of our dates, and we can even come to you. Please contact us if you would like to arrange a session.

And finally, if you can't make a training course, we do have a lot of related videos on our YouTube channel.

Web site of the month: Ask DORIS

Question about stroke? Ask DORIS

DORIS (Database Of Research In Stroke) is a free to access resource which aims to bring together the best evidence in relation to stroke.

DORIS was developed by the Cochrane Stroke Group with the aim of providing:

• Access to the best evidence, including systematic reviews, RCTs and guidelines
• Ongoing research
• A way of identifying priorities for future research
• A platform for collaboration

DORIS has a number of useful search tools to enable you to access the evidence. With a selection of drop down filters, you can quickly search for medical management and complications, specific interventions or just enter text to perform a general search. 

DORIS also recognises words if you have truncated them (for example, enter "therap" to find therapy, therapies, therapist, therapists etc.), and there is also a filter that allows you to narrow your search by time (acute treatment, late treatment, prevention).

Once you have found your results, DORIS has a number of filters that allow you to look for specific types of information (e.g. systematic reviews), research in progress or even areas of uncertainty (future research). Where possible it also links you to the full text.

DORIS is free to use, but does require you to register with a valid email address before you can access the database. Don't let that put you off, DORIS is a really useful resource for anyone involved with the care and treatment of stroke.