Thursday 22 December 2016

Lots of new books added to Clinical Key



Elsevier have added new electronic books to Clinical Key this month, including:

Clinical Key is a fantastic, easy to use resource that contains huge amounts of full text content including:
  • 1,400 topic pages
  • Over 600 electronic journals 
  • Over 1000 electronic books
  • 850 First Consult monographs
  • 17,000 + medical / surgical videos
  • 300 + Procedures Consult videos
  • 15,000 patient education handouts
  • 2.2 million images
  • You can find a full content list here
To access Clinical Key all you need is your OpenAthens password (register online here if you don't have one) to get started.

Friday 16 December 2016

Christmas opening at the libraries

All the libraries will be open up to Friday the 23rd of December.


Berrywood Hospital Library will be staffed from Wednesday the 28th until Friday the 30th of December, and then will reopen on Tuesday the 3rd of January.

Isebrook Hospital Library will be closed after Friday the 23rd of December for the Christmas period and will reopen on Tuesday the 3rd of January. Please contact one of the other libraries if you require any help during this period.

The Richmond Library at Northampton General Hospital will be staffed from Wednesday the 28th until Friday the 30th of December, and then will reopen on Tuesday the 3rd of January.

24 hour access will be available to registered users as normal throughout the Christmas period at the Berrywood and Richmond libraries.

We would like to wish you a very happy Christmas and a peaceful and prosperous New Year. We look forward to seeing you in 2017.

Friday 2 December 2016

Web site of the month: Students 4 Best Evidence

www.students4bestevidence.net



Students 4 Best Evidence (S4BE) is an award-winning international blogging network for students interested in evidence based healthcare and supported by the Cochrane UK. Produced by nurses, medical students, AHPs and others, S4BE pulls together useful resources on evidence based healthcare and puts them all into a single interactive space.

S4BE is described as a community for students, by students, although in reality the content would be of equal interest to anyone with a focus on using evidence in their clinical practice.

The site aims to guide you through an understanding of what is evidence-based health care, how it is practised and what resources are available to support it. Sections of the site will take you through the whole evidence based practice cycle:


The site also has an interactive element and features blogs written by students as well as reviews of useful resources (websites, courses, databases etc). Students can also sign up to be a contributor to the site.

There are also a related social media sites including an S4BE Twitter & Facebook page, as well as a YouTube channel.

We think Students 4 Best Evidence is a really useful resource for students and anyone else who is interested in developing their skills in evidence based practice. Highly recommended 👍👍👍👍

Monday 28 November 2016

Christmas shopping on Amazon? Find out how you can help the library.

Click the link!
If you are doing some or all of your Christmas shopping on Amazon, you can help support the Library Service at no cost to yourself. It's as simple as clicking a link.

By clicking on the "buy it now" link in our catalogue, on our web site or from this blog, a percentage of the price of anything you buy will come to us, all at no additional cost to you.

It doesn't matter if you are buying books, a blu-ray box set, music, a Christmas jumper, a laptop, scented candles or reindeer food. If you click our link the Library Service will get a cut.

The ID will stay on your computer for 24 hours, so anything you purchase from Amazon in that time will automatically be included.

"What's the catch?" you may ask. There isn't one.

Clicking on the link doesn't change what you pay to Amazon, and we can't see what you have bought.

Clicking the link just means we get some money back which we can then invest in the library service to help make what we do go a little further.

So please, if you are going to be shopping with Amazon this Christmas, help us at the same time and use our Buy It Now link to send a little of Amazon's profits our way.

Saturday 19 November 2016

Library opening Wednesday 23rd and Friday 25th of November

Photo courtesy of  Stavos on Flickr
On Wednesday the 23rd Isebrook Library will be closed from 12.30 for the afternoon.

Due to staff fire training on Friday the 25th of November:


Berrywood Library is open as usual on both days.

Apologies for any inconvenience.

Wednesday 16 November 2016

Library information skills training programme 2017

"Just precisely what is a P value"?
Need to find information to support your clinical practice? Need to make a decision but can't find the supporting evidence? Starting a course but can't find the study material? Found the evidence but unsure what it means? Going through nursing re-validation? We can help.

All of our training programme dates for 2017 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.

They 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.

So what do we offer?

  • PreCourse Course
    If you are returning to study, or starting a formal academic programme for the first time, our PreCourse Course may be just what you need. This three hour workshop is designed to give you the information skills you need to make you studies that bit easier. The session cover things like finding the material on your reading lists, using databases and how to identify good quality information. It also covers searching for evidence and guidelines and how to access electronic journals. Everything you should need to get you started.
  • Literature Searching
    If you need to access primary research, our literature searching course may be the answer.  This will enable you to effectively search a number of databases such as Medline, HMIC (healthcare management) or the British Nursing Index through the NHS's HDAS interface. We'll show you how to search, save your results and even access full text journal articles, straight from the databases.
  • Critical Appraisal Skills
    Once you have found the evidence, you need to know what it means and if you can rely on it, and that is where our critical appraisal skills sessions come in.Our Introduction to Critical Appraisal workshop will take you through the statistics, terminology and process, while our highly interactive Critical Appraisal in Action session gives you the opportunity to appraise a research article in a group facilitated by one of our librarians.
"3 hours of CPD & a reflective
 account you say?"
  • Evidence into Practice
    If you are a nurse undergoing revalidation, try our Evidence into Practice course. It offers the opportunity to refresh (or learn) your skills in searching for the latest evidence, while finding information that is relevant to your day to day work.Come to the course with a question related to your scope of practice and go away not only with updated skills, but also with evidence to feed back in to your department. You will log 2 hours and 30 minutes of CPD time and at the end of the session will complete one of the 5 reflective accounts required by the NMC for revalidation, based on what you have learned.
As well as our published workshops, we can also create tailored sessions for you team or department, and we can always do a one to one session if you can't make any of our published dates, and we can even come to you.

Finally, if face to face training is not your thing, or you just want a little help, we have a selection of videos on our YouTube channel that can help you with getting to grips with some of these skills.

Monday 14 November 2016

New books added to Clinical Key


Elsevier have added new electronic books to Clinical Key this month, including:

Clinical Key is a fantastic, easy to use resource that contains huge amounts of full text content including:
  • 1,400 topic pages
  • Over 600 electronic journals 
  • Over 1000 electronic books
  • 850 First Consult monographs
  • 17,000 + medical / surgical videos
  • 300 + Procedures Consult videos
  • 15,000 patient education handouts
  • 2.2 million images
  • You can find a full content list here
To access Clinical Key all you need is your OpenAthens password (register online here if you don't have one) to get started.

Sunday 13 November 2016

Development Day Friday 18th of November at Berrywood Hospital

We are involved in the development day being held on the 18th of November by the Pre/Post and Non-Registered Team for all nursing, allied health registered and non-registered staff. 

The event will be held across all meeting rooms and the library at Berrywood Hospital, Northampton with various development workshops and activities available throughout the day. 

Ongoing through the day:
  • De‐fib ‐ Mouth Care
  • Vena Puncture ‐ Elimination Assessment
  • IV ‐ NMC Revalidation
  • Catheterisation ‐ Portfolio Building
  • Wound Care ‐ Mentor Support
  • Diabetes Foot ‐ Research
Sessions:
Advice will also be on hand for Learning Beyond Registration, mentorship, NMC revalidation and creating and maintaining professional development portfolios for non-registered staff.

There’s no need to book on, just turn up to one of the sessions: 
  • 10am to 10.30am 
  • 10.45am to 11.15am 
  • 11.30am to 12noon
  • 12.30pm to 1pm 
  • 1.30pm to 2pm 

Friday 11 November 2016

Medical Masterclass - now available as an app

Medical Masterclass is a learning package designed to help trainee physicians as well as and doctors undertaking the MRCP.

We have had a subscription to the web site for some time, but the Royal College of Physicians has now produced a rather nifty app as another way to access this revision package.

Available for both Android and iOS (Apple) devices, the app is a well designed, easy to use way of accessing all the content from Medical Masterclass. It also tracks your performance as you go through revision questions, giving you a good idea of how you are performing.

The app itself is free, but to set up an account on Medical Masterclass you will need to contact the Richmond Library to obtain a user name and password to access the content.

If you are a doctor in training, undertaking the MRCP or just wanting to test your medical knowledge, Medical Masterclass is a good starting point and the new app has just made it even easier to access.

Tuesday 8 November 2016

Want to help us with some early Christmas shopping? We have some new approval books.

We have a new set of books on approval.

The scheme gives you the chance to browse a selection of newly published titles covering a variety of health and related topics and let us know if there are any you would like us to buy for the Library's collection. Like picking a present everyone can share!

Our current selections are available at the Berrywood and Richmond libraries until the 16th of December. The topics covered include:
  • Autism
  • Dermatology
  • Medicine
  • Mental health, psychiatry and psychology
  • Nursing
  • Palliative care
  • Paediatrics
  • ...and more
Of course, we are always happy to have recommendations for new stock on any health related topic.

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

Saturday 15 October 2016

New books and journals added to Clinical Key


Elsevier have added new electronic books and journals to Clinical Key this month, including:

Journals
Books

Clinical Key is a fantastic, easy to use resource that contains huge amounts of full text content including:
  • 1,400 topic pages
  • Over 600 electronic journals 
  • Over 1000 electronic books
  • 850 First Consult monographs
  • 17,000 + medical / surgical videos
  • 300 + Procedures Consult videos
  • 15,000 patient education handouts
  • 2.2 million images
  • You can find a full content list here
To access Clinical Key all you need is your OpenAthens password (register online here if you don't have one) to get started.

Friday 7 October 2016

Smart lights, big savings at the Richmond Library

In March this year the old lighting system we had in the Richmond Library, Northampton General Hospital was replaced by new programmable "smart lights" that respond to things around them. Using movement sensors they turn themselves off after a set amount of time when there is no activity. Likewise, as soon as someone goes near a sensor they turn back on in banks.

They also detect the amount of ambient light, so on a bright day they will dim down to reduce consumption, or even turn off entirely.

Our old lights were never switched off (except those in staff areas after hours) and we did have some concerns that as a 24/7 library where people sit quietly and read, our users might suddenly find themselves in darkness.

However, it takes hardly any movement at all to make the lights come on and this has not been a problem as far as we are aware.

What is clear though, is the substantial impact the installation has had on the consumption of electricity in the William Kerr Building.




In  comparison with the previous year, we have seen a 38% reduction in consumption since April. Given all the computers we have and everything else, this is a very significant drop.

We are very pleased we are able to do out bit to save the NHS money whilst reducing (albeit in a small way) our carbon footprint (even more so because the vendor, Thorlux Lighting offset all the carbon emissions for the production and marketing of their products).

Tuesday 4 October 2016

Looking for a new role? We have a vacancy for a professional librarian...

Berrywood Library
Due to the impending retirement of the current post holder, we are looking to recruit a new full time band 5 librarian to join our friendly, forward thinking team.

In a varied role you will take the lead in delivering the service at Berrywood and Isebrook libraries, based in Berrywood Hospital, Northampton

You will be responsible for the day to day supervision of staff based at Berrywood. Other duties will include cataloguing, classification, stock management and collection development.

You will deliver training (both in group and one-to-one sessions), undertake enquiry work and perform literature searches for service users.  You will also lead on some library projects as they arise.

We are looking for someone who is flexible and proactive with strong IT, communication, interpersonal and presentation skills. Ideally you will also have experience of delivering training. 

You will need to be able to work effectively with minimal supervision and be able to travel to other healthcare sites within the county.  Previous health care library experience would be an advantage, but isn’t essential. 

If you are interested in this role you can find more information, including how to apply, on the NHS Jobs web site here.

Saturday 1 October 2016

Web site of the month: The NHS if...

www.kingsfund.org.uk/reports/thenhsif/
The NHS if... is a collection of essays from The King's Fund that explores hypothetical scenarios and their likely impact on the future of the NHS and social care.

The aim of the collection is to "encourage new thinking and debate about possible future scenarios that could fundamentally change health and care." Some of the authors are from the King's Fund whilst others are experts in their fields.

The essays are broken down into three broad categories, The NHS and society, Medicine, data and technology and How the NHS works. Within these you will find essays on a broad variety of relevant topics including:
The site also allows you sign up by email to get notification whenever a new essay is published.

The NHS if... is a great site for anyone interested in the future of the NHS, the debates around its sustainability and the things that could have a potentially big impact on the way services are delivered.

Tuesday 27 September 2016

Back by popular demand! The great library book sale starts 3rd of October.

For the last few years we have been offering recently withdrawn library stock at knock- down prices to our users, and it has proved so popular we are doing it again.

Starting on Monday the 3rd of October we will be offering a variety of titles including previous editions of current text books, at the Berrywood and Richmond libraries.

The topics on offer include:

  • Anaesthesia
  • Autism
  • Health promotion
  • Psychiatry
  • Mental health nursing
  • Oncology
  • Reflective practice, mentoring and supervision
  • Research
  • Statistics

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.

Friday 23 September 2016

Help us select the books we buy for you

St Jerome as a Scholar
We have just taken delivery of a new set of on approval books. The scheme gives you the chance to browse a selection of newly published titles covering a variety of health and related topics and let us know if there are any you would like us to buy for the Library's collection.

Our current selections are available at the Berrywood and Richmond libraries until the 28th of October. The topics covered include:
  • Anatomy
  • Dentistry
  • Medicine
  • Mental health, psychiatry and psychology
  • Nursing
  • Public health
  • Research
  • ...and more
Of course, we are always happy to have recommendations for new stock on any health related topic.

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

Friday 16 September 2016

UpToDate registration event for NGH staff Thursday 22nd September

You may be aware that Northampton General Hospital has a subscription to UpToDate, which provides quick and easy access to synthesised evidence-based information on thousands of clinical topics and is an invaluable resource for all health professionals.

UpToDate was previously only available through the intranet or online via OpenAthens.

The Trust has extended its subscription to UpToDate Anywhere and this means NGH staff and students can now access it via the UpToDate app (described as "one of the best apps in publishing" by EContent Magazine).

The Trust is holding a registration event on Thursday the 22nd of September in meeting room 3 of the Cripps Postgraduate Medical Centre from 12 - 2 pm.

Come along and get registered with UpToDate so you can use the app (available for iOS (Apple) or Android devices). You will also have the opportunity to put any any questions you may have about UpToDate or the app to Michael from the UpToDate team.

Wednesday 14 September 2016

New books and journals added to Clinical Key



Elsevier have added good selection of new electronic books and journals to Clinical Key this month, including:

Journals


Books



Clinical Key is a fantastic, easy to use resource that contains huge amounts of full text content including:
  • 1,400 topic pages
  • Over 600 electronic journals 
  • Over 1000 electronic books
  • 850 First Consult monographs
  • 17,000 + medical / surgical videos
  • 300 + Procedures Consult videos
  • 15,000 patient education handouts
  • 2.2 million images
  • You can find a full content list here
To access Clinical Key all you need is your OpenAthens password (register online here if you don't have one) to get started.

Friday 9 September 2016

Important announcement for anyone using the BNF or BNFC app on an Apple device

NICE have announced there is a problem with using the BNF and the BNFC apps on iOS (Apple) devices.

A fault means a small amount of content in the apps is out of date.

You will need to delete the app(s) from your device and download a new version from the App store. This should solve any problems you may have been having.

This does not apply to Android devices.

Monday 5 September 2016

The NHS databases are changing...

The interface we all use for searching the NHS databases such as Medline, PsychInfo or the British Nursing Index is changing.

HDAS (Healthcare Databases Advance Search) has been redeveloped by NICE with the plan to make it easier to use, more stable and reliable, and easier to update with any future technological changes.

The change over is due in October, but NICE have said they will retain the older interface "for a few weeks" to run along side the new one to give users a chance to become familiar with the new version (and to give NHS Libraries a chance to update all their training materials!)

If you have any saved searches, you will be able to migrate them into the new interface as long as they were created before the 12th of September. We would advise not creating any searches you plan to keep after this date until the new interface has gone live.

Below is a screenshot of the new interface. It brings together things that were on different screens and puts them all together on a single page. 





The HDAS interface will offer new features including the ability to export more records, more consistency and flexibility with thesaurus searching, more fields displayed in the results page and saved results that stay saved after you exit (unlike the current clipboard feature). It should also be more reliable.

We will be publicising the change over once we have a definitive date. If you would like to try out the beta version you can find it here http://beta-hdas.nice.org.uk/ (NHS OpenAthens password required)

Thursday 1 September 2016

Web site of the month: Understanding health research A tool for making sense of health studies

Understanding Health Research is a tool designed to help you understand and review published health research to decide how dependable and relevant a piece of research is.

www.understandinghealthresearch.org


The tool, using a series of questions about the study, allows you to examine specific types of research, and helps you to understand what the answers to those questions mean for the quality of the research.

Once you have been through the questions, you can add any notes you wish and save (or email) the outcome as a .PDF document which lists all the responses to the questions.

The site also features other useful critical appraisal resources including a useful information section which includes a basic introduction to the scientific concepts involves (e.g. sampling and populations, sources of bias or correlation and causation). There are also links to other critical appraisal tools and research that has already been appraised, as well as to other sites to help you better understand scientific research.

Understanding Health Research is a really useful site allowing you to make a quick assessment of the quality of a piece research (even if you do not know much about critical appraisal) as well as providing other critical appraisal resources. Very highly recommended.

Monday 22 August 2016

August bank holiday closure

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

Access will still be available for registered members via our swipe card system at the Berrywood and Richmond libraries (just don't forget to bring your library card!), but Isebrook Library will be closed.

We reopen as normal on Tuesday the 30th at all of our sites.

Wednesday 17 August 2016

New books and journals added to Clinical Key



Elsevier have added new electronic books and journals to Clinical Key this month, including:

Journals
Books

Clinical Key is a fantastic, easy to use resource that contains huge amounts of full text content including:
  • 1,400 topic pages
  • Over 600 electronic journals 
  • Over 1000 electronic books
  • 850 First Consult monographs
  • 17,000 + medical / surgical videos
  • 300 + Procedures Consult videos
  • 15,000 patient education handouts
  • 2.2 million images
  • You can find a full content list here
To access Clinical Key all you need is your OpenAthens password (register online here if you don't have one) to get started.

Monday 1 August 2016

Web site of the month: Qwant - an interesting alternative to Google

Qwant is a European search engine alternative. Like DuckDuckGo (another favourite of ours), and unlike other search engines such as Google, Qwant does not track your activity or trap you in a filter bubble (where you see results based on your previous search history and clicks, rather than those that are most relevant).

When you search Qwant your results are presented in 3 columns tagged Web, News and Social (social media like Twitter). You can also filter your results to just include images or videos, or for shopping or music using the buttons on the left.

www.qwant.com


























You are also able to create a free account and set lots of preferences, including having a list of favourite web sites which can act as a start page (these act like bookmarks and can be accessed from anywhere when you sign in with your account).

Qwant has other useful features including:

  • Opening results in a new tab so you retain your list of search results
  • Searching options like phrase or title searching, excluding search terms or limiting to a particular file type
  • Qwant Lite has minimal graphics on display making it ideal for mobile devices and where there is a slower internet connection
  • Qwick which easily allows you to search the content of a particular site through some clever shortcuts
  • Boards which allows you to share content like pictures, videos, websites and even your own text
  • Qwant Junior: a more heavily filtered search aimed at 6 - 13 year olds, with an education tab which displays results from recognised educational sources 
Qwant has enough interesting features to make it an alternative to Google and other more mainstream search engines. It's approach to privacy and searching mean you get results based more on your search criteria than your previous activities and we think it is well worth a look.

Thursday 28 July 2016

The Researcher

Available online now
The Researcher is an open access (i.e. free) online magazine, produced by, and aimed at the research community in the NHS. It is published by Health Education England, the NHS National Institute for Health Research and the North West R&D team.

The first issue features articles on
  • careers in health research
  • the benefits to your career of being a research participant 
  • an "agony aunt" answering research questions
  • what it is like to be a researcher
  • and more
For anyone interested in health care research, this title is well worth a look

Monday 25 July 2016

Get an introduction to what we can offer you in our new promo video

Regular readers may recall a while ago we blogged about the filming that was taking place in the libraries. Our two student film makers both completed promotional videos for the Library Service and we are very pleased with the results.

We have uploaded the first video to our YouTube channel. Keep an eye out for the second one which will feature later in the year.

This video will give you a glimpse of who we are and what we can do to support NGH and NHFT staff in practice and education.




Tuesday 19 July 2016

New books and journal added to Clinical Key



Elsevier have added new electronic books and a journal to Clinical Key this month, including:

Journals
Books

Clinical Key is a fantastic, easy to use resource that contains huge amounts of full text content including:
  • 1,400 topic pages
  • Over 600 electronic journals 
  • Over 1000 electronic books
  • 850 First Consult monographs
  • 17,000 + medical / surgical videos
  • 300 + Procedures Consult videos
  • 15,000 patient education handouts
  • 2.2 million images
  • You can find a full content list here
To access Clinical Key all you need is your OpenAthens password (register online here if you don't have one) to get started.

Sunday 10 July 2016

Stocking up on holiday reading? Buying a new shed? Find out how your Amazon purchases could help the Library

Buying the latest bestseller for the beach? Planning a new revamp in the garden? Treating yourself to a new tablet for your holiday?

If you're an Amazon customer you can help our budget go a little bit further just by clicking a link before you start shopping.

By clicking on the "buy it now" link in our catalogue, on our web site (or from this blog), a percentage of the price of anything you buy will come to us, all at no additional cost to you.

It doesn't matter if you are buying a book, clothes, a barbecue, music downloads or something expensive like a lawnmower or new computer, we will get a percentage of the purchase price.

The tracking ID will stay on your computer for 24 hours, so anything you purchase from Amazon in that time will automatically be included.

"What's the catch?" you may ask. There isn't one.

Clicking on the link doesn't change what you pay to Amazon, and we can't see what you have bought.

Clicking the link just means we get some money back which we can then invest in the library service to help make what we do go a little further.

So please, if you are going to be shopping with Amazon, help us at the same time as you engage in a little retail therapy, and use our Buy It Now link to send a little of Amazon's profits our way.

Thursday 7 July 2016

Web site of the month: Disclosure UK

A rather different site than normal this month. Disclosure UK is produced by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) and is a move towards increasing the transparency in the relationship between the pharmaceutical industry and health professionals. You can find more about the initiative and an introductory video on the web site.

The site contains a large database of payments or benefits in kind that have been made by 109 pharmaceutical companies in the UK to doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other health professionals (approximately 70% of professionals have agreed to have their details disclosed).

The database can be searched via the site and you can specify organisations or individuals. You can also download the entire data set for free.

Disclosure UK is a step forward in public understanding of the pharmaceutical industry and the public sector.

Tuesday 5 July 2016

Happy birthday NHS!

The NHS was founded 68 years ago today. It has seen a huge amount of change and innovation throughout its history.

To find out more about the history and development of the NHS the Nuffield Trust have an interactive timeline, which runs from the Beverage report in 1942 to the present day.

NHS Choices also have a history of the NHS from 1948 to today and the BBC have a guide to how Britain built the NHS

The People's History of the NHS site has a virtual NHS musesum with galleries of images covering a wide variety of topics. They also have an encyclopedia with related articles.

There is also a great public information film from 1948 on the benefits of the new NHS called Your Very Good Health which is available on YouTube.

Anenurin Bevan, Minister of Health, on the first day of the National Health Service, 5 July 1948 at Park Hospital, Davyhulme, near Manchester

Monday 20 June 2016

New books and journals added to Clinical Key


Elsevier have added new electronic books and journals to Clinical Key this month, including:

Journals

Books

Clinical Key is a fantastic, easy to use resource that contains huge amounts of full text content including:
  • 1,400 topic pages
  • Over 600 electronic journals 
  • Over 1000 electronic books
  • 850 First Consult monographs
  • 17,000 + medical / surgical videos
  • 300 + Procedures Consult videos
  • 15,000 patient education handouts
  • 2.2 million images
  • You can find a full content list here
To access Clinical Key all you need is your OpenAthens password (register online here if you don't have one) to get started.

Thursday 16 June 2016

Disruption to full text journal links, Saturday 18th - Sunday the 19th of June

Due to essential maintenance by the providers of the WorldCat Link Resolver, you may be unable to access full text journals from the NICE databases (HDAS) from 15:00 on Saturday the 18th of June to 05:00 on Sunday the 19th.


Wednesday 1 June 2016

Web site of the month: Cochrane Clinical Answers



NHS staff now have access to a new resource, Cochrane Clinical Answers. Covering 32 different clinical specialities, it provides short, readable, clinically focused access to the high quality research from the Cochrane Library. Each question is designed to be clinically relevant, aiming to inform decision making at the point of care.

Each clinical answer contains a clinical question, a short answer and the ability to look deeper into the evidence from Cochrane reviews, displayed in a user friendly format. You can browse all the answers by broad topic areas, or search for more specific information.

Cochrane Clinical Answers is aimed at healthcare professionals and is a very useful resource for obtaining short, actionable evidence that can be used in clinical practice. 

Friday 27 May 2016

ProQuest Hospitals Collection - change of name

We have just been informed the ProQuest Hospitals Collection will be changing its name on the 1st of June to the Hospital Premium Collection.

Part of the NHS's national core content, ProQuest is an extensive health and care resource which also has a lot of full text journal content. It is made up of a number of databases:
  • Health and Medical Complete - offers in-depth coverage from leading biomedical publications
  • Nursing & Allied Health Source - provides reliable health care information covering nursing, allied health, alternative and complementary medicine, and much more
  • Health Management - relevant resources for anyone interested in the business of running a health organization
  • Psychology Journals - key information from leading psychology and psychosomatic publications
  • Family Health - covers a vast array of subjects for patients and their families from sports injuries to women's health, from food and nutrition to midwifery, from eye care to dentistry
With both simple and advanced searching options, the (soon to be called) Hospital Premium Collection is a useful source of good quality evidence based information.

Monday 23 May 2016

Spring bank holiday closure

All the libraries will be unstaffed on Monday the 30th of May for the bank holiday

The Garden of the Tuileries on a Spring Morning
courtesy of the Met Museum


24 hour access is available as usual to our registered members by swiping in using your library card at the Berrywood and Richmond libraries.

We reopen as normal on Tuesday the 31st at all of our sites.

Friday 20 May 2016

OpenAthens - what it's for and why you need an account

An OpenAthens account is your gateway to a huge volume of health care related resources. Having one will provide you with access to the latest evidence to support your practice including:
Once you have your account you can use all these resources from work, from home, from anywhere you can get onto the Internet with any sort of device, PC, laptop, tablet, or smartphone, providing you with instant access to the evidence.

OpenAthens is a vital resource to support your work and practice and to make it even easier for you, we have added a new video to our YouTube channel showing you exactly how easy it is to register for an account. If you don't have one why not get registered and see just how useful it can be?