About to start studying? Our course for people about to start a course is back

Our Pre-Course Course is back! Designed for NHS staff about to start (or who may have already started) a programme of study, the Pre-Course Course can help equip you with the skills you need to make finding information for your studies as painless as possible.

Whether it is a module, short course, degree or masters, is freely available to NHFT and NGH staff.

You may already be confident in using the library and finding the information you need, but if you think Athens is a good holiday destination rather than your gateway to online resources this may be the course for you. Whether it is a module, short course, degree or masters the Pre-Course Course can help.

In this 3 hour session we will you set you up to:

• tackle reading lists and find the books you need
• use databases
• identify good quality information
• search for evidence and guidelines
• access full text electronic journal articles
• make best use of the support the Library Service can offer you throughout your studies

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.

Find the course dates on our web site here.

Need help with literature searching? We have created some new videos on how to use HDAS more effectively

We have added some new titles to our YouTube channel. The videos show how to get the most out of the NICE Evidence Services Healthcare Databases (HDAS) such as Medline or the British Nursing Index by using subject headings to improve the speed and accuracy of your searching.

There is a play list called Literature searching: using the subject headings so you can watch all 4 videos in sequence to understand the whole process (a total of less than 7 minutes).

Alternatively you can watch the individual videos:

• What are subject headings?
• Major subject headings
• Scope notes
• Subheadings

You can also find other videos that take you through the whole process of conducting a basic literature search from selecting the best database to find what you want, through to selecting and saving you results and even setting up an automated alert to let you know when new material in your area of interest is published.

Our videos are short and detailed enough to take you through the process of literature searching in a methodical, step-by-step manner. Don't forget, you can also book on a training session with the Library Service if you want a more human touch!

Understanding the new NHS: A guide for everyone working or training in the NHS

The guide from NHS England

NHS England have produced a new guide to the systems, structures, functions and processes that constitute the NHS under the Health and Social Care Act 2012.

The guide covers the commissioning, monitoring and delivery of NHS services as well as working in the NHS, leadership, quality and innovation. It also covers the NHS in the rest of the United Kingdom and the differences between the services.

Although written by junior doctors and aimed at clinicians in training, the guide is a highly accessible and practical read for anyone wanting to have a better understanding of the complexities of the new NHS.

New books - you can try before we buy

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.

Our current selections will be available at the Berrywood and Richmond libraries until Friday the 15th of August. Topics covered include:

• Diagnostics
• Health services
• Medical study/revision aids
• Paediatrics
• Psychology
• Psychiatry / psychiatric nursing / mental health
• ...and many 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 the library catalogue. 

Disruption to OpenAthens access Thursday 3rd of July

EduServ are undertaking some essential maintenance to the OpenAthens system on July 3rd between 7:00 am and 11:00 am.

During this time there are likely to be periods of disruption and you may find you are unable to register for an OpenAthens account, or use your account to access databases and journals online.

Web site of the month: TRIP

Here at the Library Service we have been fans of the TRIP (Turning Research Into Practice) database for many years.

TRIP is a UK clinical search engine designed to allow clinicians to find the best evidence to answer their clinical questions.

TRIP has an easy to use simple search, but also offers two other ways to search in a more sophisticated way.

The advanced search option is very similar to the same feature in Google and allows you to combine search terms in different ways to find the information you want (including phrase searching, limiting by year and excluding words).

The PICO (Patient/Population Intervention Comparison Outcome) interface allows you easily break your search down into its most important elements which is really useful when answering a clinical question.

TRIP's PICO search 

Once you have found your results TRIP offers different filters so you can further narrow down your results by type of evidence (systematic reviews, guidelines, primary research etc).

As well as searching for evidence, TRIP searches other sorts of content which is displayed in your results including images, videos, education/CPD material, information for patients and news items. Each is displayed on its own tab, again allowing easy filtering of your results.

TRIP is free to use and doesn't require any passwords, but there are some  advantages to logging in to it (which you can do via Facebook or Twitter, as well as setting up your own account manually).

If you add Northamptonshire Healthcare or Northampton General Hospital as your organisation when you set up your account, you will be able to click through any links to journal articles and see if you can access them via the Library Service's electronic holdings (you will still need to log in with your Open Athens account to access the actual article).

Once you have signed in, TRIP will create a timeline of your activity on the site so you can easily revisit any searches you have previously undertaken. You can even export your timeline as a .PDF file to use it as evidence of CPD.

TRIP is a great resource, easy to use, accurate, fast and much more flexible than the NICE Evidence Services site, offering more sophisticated searching and better personalisation.

You can find TRIP at www.tripdatabase.com

June 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 June issue you can find:

• Acid-suppressive drugs and oesophageal adenocarinoma in Barrett's oesophagus
• Prescriptions for anxiolytics and hypnotics and risk of death
• Assessment and treatment of dementia in older adults
• Bedtime schedules and children's cognition and behaviour
• Trained glycaemia alert dogs for people with type 1 diabetes 

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 three new Evidence Updates highlighting new information worth considering along side current guidance:

• Autism in adults (NICE Guideline 142)
• Opioids in palliative care (NICE Guideline 140)
• Physical activity and the environment (NICE Public Health Guideline 8)

Computer upgrades Friday the 13th June, Richmond Library, Northampton General Hospital.

IT are coming to continue the upgrade of our computers at the Richmond Library on Friday the 13th of June.

The process will inevitably lead to some disruption and there may be times when PCs are unavailable. We may also need to ask you to move between PCs to enable the technicians to get on with the upgrade.

Once the upgrade has finished all of our PCs will be moved from Windows XP to Windows 7, many of them will have been replaced with newer machines and there should be a significant improvement in performance and reliability.

We apologise of any inconvenience the process may cause, but the end result should deliver an improvement to our service.

Take advantage of the free NHS trial access to a large variety of electronic books and journals

As part of a national pilot, Springer Publishing have given NHS staff access to a huge amount of electronic resources.

With over 1900 electronic journals (all post 1997) and 40,000 electronic books (all post 2005) on offer, there is a lot of health related content available.

The Springer trial will last until the 31st of October 2014 (but may be extended)


How to access this content:

• Go to http://health.springer.com/ and click "Sign up/Log in" from the menu at the top right hand corner of the page
• Click on Institutional / Athens login
• From the "log in via Athens" dropdown, select NHS and then log in with your Athens account.

Other publishers are also involved with the pilot and you can also access content from:

• American Association for the Advancement of Science: 2 titles accessible here and here
• Annual Reviews in Biomedical Sciences: 26 titles accessible here
• Elsevier (via Science Direct): 150 titles (via Athens) accessible here
• IOP Publishing: 100 titles accessible here
• Nature Publishing Group: 37 titles (via Athens) accessible here
• Oxford University Press Medical Collection: 88 titles accessible here
• Royal Society of Chemistry: 57 titles accessible here

Except where noted above, access to these titles is only via the N3 network (i.e. you have to be using a computer on the NHS network). This content will be available until March 2015.

You can find all the journal titles by using the My Journals page, or by searching the healthcare databases (HDAS) on the NICE Evidence Services site.

If you don't already have an OpenAthens account, NHS staff and attached students can register online here.

The is a great boost to the electronic resources already on offer and we would encourage all of our users to take advantage of the trial while it is available.

Congestion and temporary changes to Bedford Road / Cheyne Walk junction at Northampton General Hospital

There are on going road works affecting the traffic around Northampton General Hospital on the A428 Bedford Road / Cheyne Walk / Victoria Promenade / Derngate junction. For more information see the national roadworks.org site.

From Thursday the 5th of June you will no longer be able to turn right from the Bedford Road into Cheyne Walk. This will remain in force until the end of the project.

The road works are liable to cause some severe congestion at times and journey times around the hospital and town centre may be much longer than normal. You can find live travel news from the BBC here.

The project is scheduled to finish on the 17th of October.



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Web site of the month: King's Fund reading lists

The Library Service at the King's Fund has produced a series of topic related reading lists. The lists are a really useful starting point if you are looking for information on a variety of NHS issues.

The topics covered are more managerial than clinical and include:

• Age discrimination
• End of life care
• Financial pressure in the NHS
• Inpatient mental health services
• Integrated care (partnership working and commissioning & contracting)
• NHS leadership
• Staff engagement
• Technology in healthcare
• ...and many more

Each contains links to full text online documents, as well as books, journal articles, reports and other relevant material.

You can see our own collection via the library catalogue, and  if you can't find an item from any of the lists just let us know and we'll source it for you. 

Disruption to EBSCO databases and journals Friday 30th May

EBSCO, who supply some of our databases (namely CINAHL and Health Business Elite) and electronic journals, will be carrying out a network upgrade between 4 pm and 6 pm on Friday the 30th of May.

During this time there may be intermittent access to some or all of their products and it may not be possible to access some of our e-journals or carry out any searches on the affected databases.