New ebook: Manual of Dietetic Practice now available

Access it online

We've just added the Manual of Dietetic Practice by Joan Gandy to our ebooks collection. The manual is produced on behalf of the British Dietetic Association and covers the whole dietetic curriculum, making it ideal for both students and practitioners.

Now in its 5th edition, the manual covers dietetic practice, nutrition and nutritional support, as well as clinical practice in more specialist areas such as obesity, respiratory disease and mental health (and many others).

Like our other ebooks (find them all on our catalogue), you will need an OpenAthens password to access the book. If you don't have one you can register online here. 

Library Stampers enter the Global Corporate Challenge

Our Trust is taking part in the Global Corporate Challenge and an intrepid group of seven library staff have decided to enter a team.

For the next 100 days every team member will be wearing a pedometer that will count how many steps they take. The recommended level of activity is 10,000 steps per day (about 5 miles), although in reality most people do 3000 -  4 000 (and some librarians less than that).

Each step will be entered as distance travelled in a virtual world tour.

The Library Stampers will be starting their virtual journey from the Shibuya Pedestrian Crossing (possibly the busiest in the world!) in Tokyo. How far we get will be entirely dependent on how many steps the team takes during the challenge (but we are hoping to at least get out of the city!).

The Global Corporate Challenge is all about increasing levels of physical activity over a sustained period of time and the positive effects it has on health, wellbeing, sleep and stress levels.

So if you see us walking around the library a little more frequently than we might have, or notice any tracks worn into the carpet, you'll know why. Our team Captain has also had to complete an oath which includes a ban on using tasers as "encouragement" so we are all quite relieved.

We will keep you posted with updates throughout our 100 day journey.

Changes to OpenAthens for users on Windows XP

As of Thursday the 28th of May, computers running Windows XP will need to ensure they have Service Pack 3 installed or they will no longer be able to access any part of the OpenAthens system.

If you are using a NHFT or NGH trust PC you don't need to take any action.

However, if you have an older machine at home to maintain access please ensure that if you are running XP or Internet Explorer 6, you upgrade to SP3. You can find a free download for it on Microsoft's site.

Would you like to work for us? We're recruiting...

A recent YouGov survey of over 14,000 people said that being a librarian was the 2nd most desirable job in Britain (just behind author). If you are one of the 54% of people who agreed, now is your chance to live the dream as we are recruiting for a full time library assistant.

A typical NHS librarian

You will be based at the Berrywood Hospital Library in Duston, although we may need you to go to our other libraries on occasion.

We're looking for someone with great customer service skills as you will often be the first point of contact with the NHS staff who use our services.

We need someone who is adaptable, confident, and able to deal with the full range of staff and students. You will have a good level of general education and be IT literate. Previous experience of working in a library would be a bonus but is by no means essential. A sense of humour would also be an asset.

Berrywood Library

Our library assistants undertake a range of general duties including staffing our reception desks and dealing with users, carrying out library inductions, sourcing documents, answering enquiries and supporting users with finding information and general IT queries.

You will also be given overall responsibility for one or more areas of work, and of course, appropriate training will be given.

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

We look forward to hearing from you...

May bank holiday closure

All the Libraries will be unstaffed on Monday the 25th of May for the bank holiday.

Bullfinches are found all over Britain 

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 26th at all of our sites.

May 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 May issue you can find:

• Patient expectations of the benefits and harms of tests and treatments
• Nicotine replacement therapy for people trying to cut down on cigarette use
• Life expectancy for people with cystic fibrosis
• Intermittent versus continuous administration of proton pump inhibitors after treatment of bleeding ulcers

You can find subscribe to receive the bulletin by email on the NICE Evidence Services site.

Book shopping - try before we buy

A Woman Reading a Book
www.metmuseum.org

Our books on approval scheme is back!

We want to be sure that the books we buy are the books you actually need to support your work and learning.

We review publisher's catalogues, scan reading lists and peruse different web sites, but what we like best is when you tell us what you want us to stock.

That is where our books on approval scheme comes in. Every two months our supplier sends us a selection of new publications on relevant health topics which are available for you to review and suggest titles for us to purchase (or sometimes, not to purchase!).

Our current selections will be available at the Berrywood and Richmond libraries until Friday the 26th of June. Topics covered include:

• Cardiology
• Haematology
• Nursing (general and mental health)
• Psychology
• Psychiatry
• Pulmonary & Thoracic Medicine
• Research
• ...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. 

Our catalogue will be out of action on Tuesday the 12th of May

Courtesy of Flickr

The IT networking team are conducting some essential maintenance and will be moving our catalogue server to a new home on Tuesday the 12th of May, starting at 9am.

This means there will be no access to either our new or old catalogue, and our BookMyne app will also be out of action for the duration of the move.

It is anticipated that the move should be completed and the server up and running again at some point on Tuesday afternoon.

If you need to renew or check any items you have out on loan, or wish to know if we have an item in stock, please contact one of the libraries and we should be able to help you.

Apologies for any inconvenience.

Web site of the month: Meds IQ

Medication errors are a significant cause of preventable harm to children and young people. Meds IQ is a brand new web site that seeks to support the improvement in paediatric patient safety.

www.medsiq.org

The site has sections on:

• Safe prescribing
• Drug error reporting
• Medicines reconciliation
• Supporting patients

Meds IQ brings together tools to support improved safety and reducing harm as well as examples of improvement projects (including contact details) that have made a real difference in the reduction of medication errors. Free registration is required to use some of the features.

The site also features:

• Resource library - see how others have tackled similar problems 
• Favourites - build your own menu of resources which are of most use to you 
• An online professional community - share your own ideas and learning
• E-learning resources – develop your understanding and skills in paediatric prescribing

Meds IQ is a really useful resource for any health professional working with children and young people who is involved in prescribing or drug administration.

May Day bank holiday closure

All the Libraries will be unstaffed on Monday the 4th of May for the bank holiday.

May Day Celebrations at Xeuilley 1624-25 www.metmuseum.org

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 5th at all of our sites.

Loan laptops

We are having the operating system on our loan laptops upgraded. Accordingly IT will be picking them up on the 5th of May to do the work.

They will be out of action for approximately 2 weeks, but we should have them back with us and ready to loan again by Monday the 18th of May from the Berrywood and Richmond libraries.

Apologies for the inconvenience, but the upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7 is essential.

Clinical Key has arrived.

We have been very lucky to secure a year's subscription to Clinical Key, thanks to generous funding from the Northamptonshire Health Charitable Fund. It is produced by Elsevier who publish the Lancet and a wealth of well known medical books such as Kumar & Clark's Clinical Medicine.

Clinical Key is a versatile search engine backed by a huge amount of full text electronic content. It can be used at the point of care for fast overviews, or for more in-depth research or study, making it a valuable resource for consultants, doctors, students, nurses and other clinicians.

www.clinicalkey.com

Unlike a normal search engine, Clinical Key's smart search is designed to find answers very quickly and to think like a clinician. When you search it recognises relevant clinical concepts, giving you a short cut to the information you need.

You can also filter your search by types of content, books, journal articles, videos etc.

Search results will often lead you to a disease topic page where you will get an overview, including definition, diagnostics, differential diagnosis, imaging and treatment.

Clinical Key contains:

• 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

As well as reading them online, individual articles (and some book chapters) can be downloaded as .PDF files 

Whilst there is no app, Clinical Key is optimised for mobile devices and will work well with the browser on your tablet or phone.

You will also be able to find the full text journal content from Clinical Key when you use HDAS to search the databases (e.g. Medline or the British Nursing Index) on the NICE Evidence Services site.

To access Clinical Key all you need is your OpenAthens password (register online here if you don't have one) to get started.

Clinical Key is a fantastic easy to use resource, full of high quality information from world recognised sources (and if you do get stuck there is a user guide here).

At the end of our subscription in March 2016 we will be evaluating how much usage Clinical Key has had and deciding whether to fund an ongoing subscription from the Library's budget, so now is your change to try it out and let us know what you think.

Northamptonshire Health Charitable Fund