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For the last few years we have been offering recently withdrawn library stock at knock- down prices to our users, and it has proved so popular we are doing it again.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