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.