Christmas opening and on to 2010

Wishing all our colleagues a very merry Christmas and happy new year!

There will be slightly reduced hours with no late opening for the two weeks either side of Christmas. The Knowledge Hub and Cyber Room are available 24 hours as usual.

Mon 21st - Wed 23rd Dec: OPEN 8:30am-5pm

Thu 24th - Mon 28th Dec: CLOSED

Tue 29th -Thu 31st Dec: OPEN 8:30am-5pm

Fri 1st Jan 2010: CLOSED

Mon 4th Jan 2010: Back to normal! 8:30am-7pm Mon-Tue and 8:30am-5pm Wed-Fri

Latest book purchases

The November list of our latest book purchases has just been published.

This month we added several new titles on CBT, including Kinsella's Cognitive behavioural therapy for mental health workers: a beginner's guide, and in neurology we have the new edition of Brain's diseases of the nervous system, and also Evidence-based neurology by Candelise.

End of life carers will find the two titles Speaking of dying: a practical guide to using counselling skills in palliative care and Why is it so difficult to die of great help in communicating with and understanding their patients.

And for those seeking funding for education or research, the 2010 edition of the Grants Register is available in our Quick reference section, while Hickson's Research handbook for health professionals is a new title in our extensive research section.

There are many more new items in the list, and you can search for our other titles on NewhamCat, our library catalogue. Do let us know if there is a book which you think we should have and, if it is appropriate, we will purchase it.

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UpToDate - online now...

We are pleased to announce that UpToDate is now available to all Newham University Hospital NHS Trust Staff.

UpToDate is a tool to help you answer clinical questions quickly. It has a helpful straightforward search facility and offers topic reviews that include a synthesis of the literature, recent evidence and specific recommendations for patient care.

Access is provided via the Intranet and not via the main UpToDate website. The simplest way to gain access is to click on NewhamCat and then look for the UpToDate logo.

Please report any access difficulties to us so that we can look into them.

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Have your say 2009 - five minutes for knowledge

UPDATED - Thanks for your input the current survey is now closed - we will let you know about the results in the not too distant future - UPDATED

Please take five minutes to complete the Knowledge & Library Service survey.

Your feedback is key in guiding the future development of the service.

You can see how we responded to last years survey in this post.

Since this feedback we have completed the creation of the Knowledge Hub (in place of the old Reading Room) offering a 24 hours a day venue for small informal group work with extra computers.

So - have your say!

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October New Books

Here is our list of new titles purchased during October 2009.

Nurses and mentors will be pleased to see the 4th edition of the classic The practitioner as teacher by Hinchliff, and educators on the clinical side will be interested in several new titles in their field, including How to teach continuing medical education.

The GMC's new code on Confidentiality has just been published, and we have a copy in the library, plus an electronic link via our network catalogue NewhamCat; similarly with NUHT's Annual report 2008/2009. NewhamCat also has links to the Performance Rating 2008/09 for NUHT and Newham PCT.

For those worried about swine flu there is Dread: How fear and fantasy have fueled epidemics from the Black Death to avian flu to counter any alarmist tendencies.... And maybe Maggot therapy: a handbook of maggot-assisted wound healing will offer some new thoughts on an ancient therapy.

Of course, we also have many new clinical, nursing, & midwifery textbooks - the list has full details. And NewhamCat has details of our complete book stock. Carry out a single word search to find items with your word in the title (eg 'stroke').

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New book titles in stock!

The list of recently acquired book titles is now available.

We have several items for anaesthetists this month, including the new edition of the 4-volume set of Clinical Pain Management, & the 6th edition of Barash's Clinical Anaesthesia together with its accomanying Handbook.


Dermatologists will appreciate the new edition of Goodheart's photoguide to common skin disorders as an aid to diagnosis, and all clinicians and student will be pleased to see the arrival of the latest Kumar & Clark's Clinical Medicine.




Of more general interest, we now have several books on Project Management & PRINCE2, including Project management demystified, and Prince2 for dummies.




And to relax you after a hard day at the NHS coalface, our Well @Work collection now boasts two new titles: Everyday calm: relaxing rituals for busy people & Office yoga: simple stretches for busy people.

Check out the full list for all our September new books, and go to out NewhamCat on the Trust network to see the rest of our stock.

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New books added in August 2009

Here's the link to the August New Books List.

Midwives will be pleased to know that the new edition of Myles' textbookbook for midwives is now available to borrow, and we have purchased several new nursing texts including the UK editions of the Made Incredibly Easy! series, & books on clinical nursing supervision, eg Milne's Evidence-based clincial supervision: principles and practice. Check out the list for more new nursing & midwifery/obstetrics books.

Surgeons will be interested in Clinical surgery made easy: a companion to problem-based learning and Top knife: the art and craft of trauma surgery, while Medical London: city of diseases, city of cures will make fascinating reading for anyone interested in the medical history of our city.

A couple of new titles on stroke management will be of use to both therapists and clinicians: The Stroke clinician's handbook and Stroke treatment and prevention.

As usual, this is just a tiny selection of our new titles. Check the list for the full range, and go to NewhamCat on our Trust network to see our full stock.

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Where are we on the Map?

The NHS in Newham is working on localising the Map of Medicine. You can read more about this resource in our previous post on this topic.




As part of the process of getting the Map up and running we need to establish a base line position on awareness and use. All clinical staff in Newham are asked to complete this brief pre-implementation online survey.

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Literature Search Training Dates for September & October

Are you starting a new healthcare course this term?

You might want to learn how to search the healthcare databases for references to quality journal articles - many of which will link thorugh to full text.

Or just want to brush up your literature search skills?

Then book for a 1 hour training session on one of the following dates:

• Mon 14 Sep 17.15-18.15
• Thurs 24 Sep 12.30-13.30
• Wed 30 Sep 09.00-10.00
• Fri 9 Oct 13.30-14.30
• Wed 14 Oct 10.00-11.00
• Mon 19 Oct 15.00-16.00
• Thurs 29 Oct 10.00-11.00

All sessions are in small groups. Book on ESR under 'Finding the Evidence: using the healthcare databases' or contact the Library on 8016 for advice.

If you cannot attand on any of the above dates or are a small group who would like to arrange a session to suit, please call the Library on x 8016 to discuss.

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July 2009 New Books

The July list of New Books has just been published.

For those thinking about taking a course in the Autumn, we now have a paper copy of the new edition of Floodlight, and also the latest paper copy of HotCourses for the London area. We also have the current British Qualifications, a guide to all qualifications in the UK, so you can see what can be achieved and what is out there to help you further your career!

If you are struggling to create a guideline, then How to write a Guideline from start to finish: a handbook for health professionals by P Bowker was written with you in mind (but don't forget to contact the Knowledge & Library Service as well - we can help you identify current practice and assist you with your searches).

For managers we have added, amongst others, the 4th edition of the classic Gower handbook of project management by R. Turner, and in the area of cultural diversity we have links in NewhamCat (our online network catalogue) to all 13 titles in the Understanding Muslim ethnic communities series. Each community, eg The Nigerian muslim community, has its own book.

In response to a request from paediatricians, we have purchased the new edition of the Child surveillance handbook, & copies of Evaluation of the sexually abused child & Interviewing children about sexual abuse: controversies & best practice.

See the full list for our other purchases this month, and do suggest a title if you feel there is something we should have.

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RefWorks on trial

We are pleased to be able to offer a three month trial of the RefWorks bibliographic management system - available now till October.


This web based resource is a great way to create a bibliography you can then share with colleagues and use to support your writing for publication or study. You can import records from the results of a literature search on our databases (or from PubMed if that is your interface of choice).


To import from our databases make sure you export results in the RIS format. You then select this as import filter and "NHS - National Library for Health" as database. This will import your record including any links to electronic copies or details of paper copies.


You will need an Athens username (register online). You can then access access RefWorks from any Internet based machine.
Click here for RefWorks online help

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MIDIRS Digest - now easier to access

Midwifery staff will likely be familiar with the work of MIDIRS.

We are pleased to announce that MIDIRS Digest ("the Pink Digest") is now available to all staff as an electronic publication rather than the previous paper version.

Drawn from the MIDIRS site:

"MIDIRS Midwifery Digest provides maternity health professionals with an overview of key midwifery and medical research to inform their practice. The information is gathered from over 550 international journals and original articles are commissioned on the hot topics being discussed by the midwifery profession."

You will require an Athens username. You will find results from MIDIRS digest included when you search for literature, if you access MyJournals while logged in with your Athens username or you can bookmark this direct link. Please get in touch if you need any assistance accessing this resource.

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Do you value the Specialist Libraries / Collections?

The recent launch of NHS Evidence is part of a wider set of changes to the knowledge and library environment in the NHS. The old National Library for Health included what were then called the Specialist Libraries bringing together high quality evidence on a specialty or topic area and publishing regular updates. You can sign up to receive these via email using our Knowledge Alerts service.

The Specialist Libraries have been renamed Specialist Collections but currently remain largely unchanged. They are now being reviewed by NHS Evidence to decide what form they will take in future (or whether they need to continue at all). We would encourage you to have your say via this survey. It will take around 5 minutes to complete and closes very soon (17th July).

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New Books for June 2009

The list of new books for June is now available, a bumper month with over 90 titles added to our collection.

We've been concentrating on updating our IT support section with new titles on various aspects of Microsoft Office 2007, including the Teach Yourself Visually Series on Office 2007, Powerpoint, Access, Outlook & Word. The Excel title in this series will arrive next month.


We now have the new 2-volume edition of the New Oxford textbook of psychiatry by Gelder & the 11th edition of the weighty Williams textbook of endocrinology. In response to a request from the Greenway Centre we have also purchased the 4th edition of Mildvan's International atlas of AIDS.


To assist managers in all disciplines there is The 80 minute MBA: everything you'll never learn at business school by Reeves, & Seamless teamwork: using Microsoft Sharepoint technologies to collaborate, innovate & drive business in new ways by Sampson, along with the 5 volumes of Better Partnership working.


As always, this is just a tiny selection from the list. Go to New Books June 2009 to see all the new titles. They can also be found in our network catalogue NewhamCat. And do let us know if there is a title that you think would be a useful addition to the library.


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More journals on your desktop

People often ask us if we have a particular journal and then look over hopefully at the display shelves where the current paper issues live. While we do have a small collection of titles in print these are only a tiny fraction of our actual journal collection which is now nearly all electronic.

Recently we have added a new collection of high quality electronic titles from the publisher Lippincott Williams and Wilkins. Access is simple either

• browse them using MyJournals (you will need to be logged in using Athens though)
• or search them using Healthcare Databases Advanced Search (again Athens required)

Titles include - AIDS, American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, Anesthesiology, Circulation, Critical Care Medicine, the Current Opinion series, the Endocrinologist, European Journal of Emergency Medicine, JAIDS, J Patient Safety, J of Trauma IICC, Journal of WOCN, Nurse Educator, Obstetrics & Gynecology, Simulation in Healthcare and so on.

Please get in touch if you have any difficulties accessing these titles.

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Building a better library

The good news is that the Knowledge & Library Service Reading Room (opposite the main library) is going to be refurbished. Users of this room will know that it has long been in need of some care and attention.




The bad news is that this means temporary loss of access and some general disruption.

Please bear with us - we promise it will be quick and worth while.

Building starts on the 11th but we will be clearing the room from the 10th. The rest of the Library will be open and working as usual throughout.

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New books available in May 2009

Here is the link to the May New Books list.

Some biggies this month - the new editions of Hochberg's Rheumatology and Keighley & Williams' Surgery of the Anus, Rectum and Colon, both 2-volume monsters, and Hoffman's Hematology, all key texts in their fields.

General medics will benefit from new editions of Netter's internal medicine & the Oxford Handbook of clinical specialties, and we now stock Davidson's Essentials of Medicine, a handy digest of Davidson's Principles & Practice of Medicine textbook.

Fraud and Misconduct in Biomedical Research edited by Frank Wells & Michael Farthing helps to raise awareness of unethical research practice.

This is just a selection - view details of all our May purchases by checking the full list or click Newhamcat on the Trust network to see what else we have to offer.

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KLS at Adult Learner's Week Open Day

Many thanks to all of you who visited the Knowledge and Library Service stand at Adult Learner’s Week Open Day on Thursday 14th May in the Lecture Theatre where we answered in excess of 120 enquiries.

The big screen demonstrations of Anatomy.tv were much appreciated as our ‘skeleton’ flexed his muscles, twirled and blew kisses to the audience.

A leaflet on setting up your learning plan on BMJ Learning was available – do have a look at the wide range of modules that are available. We are happy to advise on this resource as it has such a potentially wide audience.

Electronic resources often require an NHS Athens username and password to gain full access. You can self-register for this or come along to see us for advice on any aspect of NHS e-learning packages.

We reminded staff that our book collection is ‘Not all Doctors and Nurses’ with productivity and efficiency books on display – search NewhamCat (the library catalogue) for our full collection.

It was lovely to meet so many HCA’s drawn to the stand by the British Journal of Healthcare Assistants and now received regularly in the Library.

ALL Newham NHS staff are welcome to use the Knowledge and Library Service
Our opening hours are:
8.30am – 7.00pm Monday & Tuesday
8.30am – 5.00pm Wednesday, Thursday & Friday

New books added April 2009

We have just published the latest New Books List. In the field of medical education several PasTest titles have been added and we now cover most of their catalogue, including the 2nd editions of our own Adam Feather's EMQs for Medical Students.

Occupational therapists will be interested in the arrival of the 11th edition of Willard & Spackman's Occupation therapy while Boog's Palliative care: a practical guide for the health professional: finding meaning and purpose in life and death will provide support for those working in the sensitive area of palliative medicine.

We now have the rather pricey Irwin & Rippe's Intensive care medicine, & we have also purchased Health services marketing: a practitioner's guide by R Thomas, a vital handbook in today's competitive arena!

There were over 70 new titles added this month, so check the list for details of other items, and go to our network catalogue Newhamcat to see what else is available.

Do contact us with any queries or suggestions you may have about our stock.

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Worth looking at...

As previously posted the new NHS Evidence portal went live on Thursday 30th April.

You can find it at www.evidence.nhs.uk and we recommend you give it a try.

So what will you find there? Drawn from the site:

• A fast, comprehensive search function for clinical and non-clinical information
• Access to a resource collating information on new drugs to support commissioners
• A new NHS Evidence portal homepage
• Links to resources previously part of the National Library for Health.

The search tool offers you the means to carry out the kind of search you might do on a well known search engine but against a selection of high quality resources. You can enter one or more words, use "quotes marks" to search for a phrase and should get lightning fast results in return. There is a good help page.

Once you have some results there a special filters to help you narrow your search down. Or you can just add another search term in the box above your results.

The results are relevance ranked by default to promote high quality evidence and guidance to the top of the page. You should find good results in the first ten hits.

You won't find journal articles in NHS Evidence (apart from where they are included in one of the old Specialist Libraries - now known as the Specialist Collections). If you want to search the journals the system is unchanged with the A-Z MyJournals for browsing or Health Care Databases Advanced Search to carry out literature reviews. The National Library for Health website remains available for the time being (in a fetching new shade of blue).

We will be offering more information on getting the best out of NHS Evidence in the near future. In the mean time if you get confused, stuck or excited about the changes - please get in touch.

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Change in Evidence

We are expecting a new arrival...

30th April will see the arrival of a new website offering a high quality, evidence oriented, search experience.

There will be some changes to the current National Library For Health website but these should be largely cosmetic to start with.

We will keep you informed on developments!

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Anatomy learning with Anatomy.TV

A number of years ago we had access to the Anatomy.tv resource via the now defunct National electronic Library for Health site (more on upcoming changes to it's replacement in a future post).

As an interim measure we were able to lend CD Rom based versions of the same (still available via NewhamCat) but these proved rather unwieldy and take up was low.

We are pleased to announce that access to Anatomy.tv has been restored and it includes even more resources. You can access it from anywhere using your Athens username.

For those encountering it for the first time Anatomy.tv is a fantastic website that offers 3D anatomical images by region or system that you can rotate, zoom and alter the level of detail on (nerves, muscles, just skeletal etc). There are also MRI images, MCQs and quizzes and specialist modules for Sports & Therapy and Surgery.

We have been able to access the resources on site at NUHT but do let us know if you have experience any issues.

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BMJ Learning - now FREE to you

A great collection of e-learning resources is now available to all Newham staff. There are hundreds of modules available aimed at a broad range of healthcare staff (though those aimed at Doctors are most numerous).



You will need your Athens username and there is an additional registration process on the site itself. If you have used BMJ Learning in the past then you can link your old BMJ Learning login to your Athens. Once you have completed the registration you will only need your Athens details in future.



All modules are peer reviewed to ensure quality and some can lead to CME points.

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March 2009 New Books List

Here is the last New Books List of the financial year 2008/09. You will find a substantial proportion are links to full text electronic items. For your convenience, we try to provide links on NewhamCat, the network library catalogue, to all important new health-related documents that are available on-line.

The subject of child abuse has been much in the news over the past months and we have a link to Lord Laming's report The protection of children in England as well as a paper copy for borrowing. We have also purchased the 3rd edion of Reece & Christian's classic title Child abuse: medical diagnosis and management.

Other electronic items include the NHS London annual report 2007/08 and Safely does it from the Healthcare Commission on implementing safer care for patients. The Healthcare Commission has now been merged into the new Care Quality Commission and all Healthcare Commission documents can be found on a dedicated section of the new website.

We have made two substantial additions to our Reference collection this month - The Medical Directory 2009 and The Health and Social Care Yearbook 2008-2009.

Check the list for all new items added, and search on NewhamCat to see what else we have.

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Nurses / Midwives - April is for YOU

Nurses and Midwives are you tired of the gymnastics you have to perform to find the information you need for your work or study?

The Knowledge and Library Service has dedicated the month of April 2009 to training nurses and midwives on searching the healthcare databases. Sessions last for 1 hour, are in small groups of 6 maximum and will show you how to search for journal article references and full text where this is available.

You will need a current NHS Athens username and password. You can self-register for this at http://www.library.nhs.uk/
When you have registered you will need to answer the email you are sent in order to activate your account. If you already have a username and password but are unsure of the details, please contact the library asap as we will not have time to sort out problems during the training.

The April dates and times are as follows:

1st, 2nd & 3rd at 12 – 1pm
7th & 9th at 2 – 3pm
14th, 15th & 16th at 12 – 1pm
21st, 22nd & 24th at 2 – 3pm
27th & 28th at 2 – 3pm

Please contact the library to reserve a place or turn up on the day for any spare places.

We are happy to organise group sessions outside of these times. Please contact the library if your group would like to do this.

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Best Practice on trial

The Knowledge & Library Service is continuing to look into different solutions for providing rapid access resources to support clinical care. In recent times we have trialled both UpToDate and promoted the Dynamed resources available as part of the National Library for Health. A new option is Best Practice from the BMJ Publishing Group.

In their own words:

"In a single source we have combined the latest research evidence, guidelines and expert opinion – presented in a step-by-step approach, covering prevention, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis. Best Practice provides a second opinion in an instant, without the need for checking multiple resources. Its unique patient-focused approach represents a major new advancement in information delivery at the point of care"

It integrates the content of the Clinical Evidence product you may have used previously.

You can choose to search or browse and content is well structured for ease of access. An online user guide is provided.

We have a trial running till 19th April 2009. Access to the trial is via your Athens username (register online). It will be possible to set up the full product to work in the same way as UpToDate with a link from the Intranet so please try to imagine this being in place when evaluating the product.

Please give it a try and let us know what you think.

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Copyrights and wrongs

As you fire up the photocopier do you stop to think about the legality of your copying?

You will be unsurprised to hear that there are limits on what you can copy. This applies whether you own the item you are copying or not. In the UK the Copyright Licensing Agency (Limited) are responsible for protecting the interests of people who publish. The NHS buys a special licence from the CLA to allow you to make the copies you need. However limits do still remain.

o Copying must be for ‘NHS purposes’.
o The originals must be owned by the NHS.
o You may copy up to two articles from a journal issue (more from a themed issue), and one chapter or 5% of a book.
o Within these extent limits, you may make as many multiple copies as required.
o Copies from books and journals published in the UK may be scanned.
o Scanned copies may be supplied via the NHS network but not placed on intranets or websites.
o Only single paper photocopies may be made for patients and carers.
o Publications in the ‘CLA list of excluded categories and works’ are not covered by the licence

The licence has recently been renewed and will remain in force till March 2010.

If you have a question about copying please contact a member of the KLS team.

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EvidenceUpdates - targeting what you need to see

We recently posted about our Knowledge Alerts service. EvidenceUpdates is a fantastic service that complements Knowledge Alerts by providing a simple means to receive highly targeted updates on clinical specialty areas. The service is operated by McMaster University in Canada (a leading centre in the development of Evidence-Based Clinical Practice) and brought to you free of charge by BMJ Publishing Group.




The content is built up from the citations of over 160 leading clinical journals. These are rated for quality, clinical relevance and interest by practicing physicians.



On registration you select the areas of interest for you choosing first the population group (Neonates, Pediatrics, Adolescents, Adults, Geriatrics or all) and then discipline (a broad range of specialties and sub specialties). You can choose to be alerted anywhere between daily and once a week.



Then comes the really interesting bit. Cut off scores (4-7) are available for both relevance and newsworthiness. Broadly items rated four on both scales are possibly relevant and useful but likely conforming to a widely known view. Items rated seven on both scales are definitely and highly relevant and Useful information not likely to be known unless you read the item. Clearly the higher the levels you set the fewer articles you will be notified about but helpfully the registration form shows how many articles would have been sent to you each month over the past year. You can tweak the levels until you reach a level you will be happy with.



Once you have signed up you can also search against the database using the relevance and newsworthiness scales.



Give it a try and let us know how you get on.

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Get Intute

The internet is a treasure trove of riches but where to start? The majority of people just plunge off into Google but might there sometimes be a better option? We are going to explore some of the possibilities on this blog. Please use the comments to suggest others we might want to share with people.


Intute (terrible name - brilliant site) is a great place to start. Intute has built a collection of quality assessed sites ranged around different topic areas. For our purposes we are most interested in those under Health and Life Sciences which further break down into:

• Medicine
• Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health
• Biological Sciences
• Medical History
• Assorted others

You can search or browse in each section or across all the resources. There are some 33,000 resources claimed included. While this sounds a lot it is much more manageable than a free search on many millions of potential pages in Google.

Each resources in Intute has a clear description and has been indexed to increase the likelyhood of it being presented when you need it (you won't be suprised to hear Librarians are involved in preparing the site).

So next time you need to start researching a topic and are not sure where to start - try Intute. As a bonus they are currently looking for feedback and you can win a £50 Amazon Voucher for letting them know what you think.

February New Books

An abbreviated New Books list this month as we have been busy with other projects such as journal reorganisation.

However, those in theatres will be pleased to know that we now have two copies of the new edition of Hatfield's Complete Recovery Room Book. And we have purchased a key text in radiography education - Diagnostic ultrasound: physics and equipment by Hoskins and others.

Both students and nurses will find Davis' Guide to Clinical Nursing Skills a useful and easy-to-use reference to everyday procedures.

We also have an on-line link via our network online catalogue NewhamCat to Saving Lives 2007, the Annual report of the Director of Public Health for Newham.

Click the Booklist link to see all the new titles, and check NewhamCat for details of our complete stock.

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Keeping an eye on the flu

The recent bird flu alert in East Anglia is a good reminder of the need to stay up to date with progress around Avian flu.



The Clinical Sciences Library at University of Leicester have prepared an excellent resource on all things Avian and Pandemic Flu. From the latest news, to the latest research - right through to historical background.

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Stay alert

Staying up to date without becoming overloaded with information is a major challenge for us all.

Our Knowledge Alerts service is a great way to receive targeted mailings that you control.

We are hoping to have an online sign up form shortly but for now you can access the full list of alerts on our website. Simply tick the boxes to make your choice and send it along to us to get started. We recommend not signing up for more than 6 to start with to get the feel for it. The alerts from the National Library for Health Specialist Libraries are particularly recommended.

All the bulletins you select are emailed to you from a special Knowledge Alerts mailbox so you can easily recognise them when they arrive. Each has brief instructions on how to access further information or cancel the alert.

If you think there is a bulletin we should include then please let us know and we will be happy to consider adding it.

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January 2009 latest book additions

The list of books added to the library at the beginning of this year has just been published.

The list includes several e-books, including the two big volumes on Trauma by Wilson, Grande & Hoyt.
E-books are electronic books, available online via NewhamCat with your NHS Athens login.

Marketing is an important part of successful business life and we think Ten deadly marketing sins: signs and solutions by Kotler will help you to avoid the more obvious pitfalls in this area. And we have also purchased the key management texts The Toyota Way and the Toyota Way Fieldbook to assist those working to maximise the efficiency of our services and management.

Those working in clinical areas will find the following titles of interest: Comprehensive hospital medicine by Williams, the 2nd edition of Essential clinical procedures by Dehn and the 4th edition of Epstein's Clinical Examination.

This is just a tiny selection of our new books - click on the January 2009 New books link to see the complete list, and check our online catalogue NewhamCat for details of our full collection.

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Taking action on your feedback

November saw the annual opportunity for you to comment on our services via a quick survey. Your feedback and suggestions are always welcome but the survey provides us with a handy snapshot of opinion.

We received over a hundred responses from a range of hospital and PCT staff and a good number from students on placement. Overall satisfaction levels remain high with over 90% of respondents rating the overall service as Good or Very good (up from 80% last time). Staff and the assistance they provide to find the information you need are rated particularly highly.


Satisfaction with opening hours has risen which is interesting given the period of reduced hours this year while we recruited a new team member - perhaps people were just happy to get our usual hours back? We are open longer hours than you may realise - 8:30 am to 7 pm Monday and Tuesday and 8:30 am to 5 pm Wednesday to Friday (46.5 hours in total!). In addition the Cyber Room is available 24 hours a day seven days a week to all staff with a proximity lock ID badge. The Cyber Room is equipped with 7 PCs and a selection of core books for reference use. For all satisfaction levels had risen there continued to be a high level of comments asking for longer hours. We plan to address this shortly by making the Reading Room opposite the library into a 24 hour space.

The level of satisfaction with training was improved - reflecting the improved provision of opportunities in this area. We will be making further developments to our offerings in this area over the next year.

We received a number of requests for more paper journals. It is highly unlikely that we will be able to subscribe to new paper titles - certainly not without reductions in other areas of the collection. However - we continue to increase the number of electronic titles available and anticipate that over the next few years the majority of titles will take this form. The best way to see if we have a journal is via MyJournals - remember you need to login with your Athens details to see everything.


The rating for the book collection has improved since last time. However there were still comments that we lack current editions. I think two main reasons can be identified for this. Firstly items may be on loan. The very latest books are those most in demand so a scan of the shelves should be supplemented by checking NewhamCat to see if someone else has the item you require. Secondly we might not have been told what you need. You can help us to help you by bringing in any reading lists you are issued, showing us interesting reviews or simply by suggesting titles. We nearly always buy recommended titles.

A number of comments were received regarding noise levels in the library. This is a long standing issue and hard to address. Larger libraries tend to be zoned to keep noisy activities - photocopying, interactions with staff, small group working and so on - away from quiet study areas. We will always struggle to separate these things out. As mentioned with regard to opening hours we are redeveloping the Reading Room opposite the main library. The intention is that this space should be equipped to support small group study and hopefully we can push some of the noise into this new area.

A new question this time was around how the information you had received made a difference to your work or study. We had some great responses to this and I'll close this post by sharing a couple.

“I've mainly used the library for requesting journal articles or information that relates to patients' treatment programmes. The articles/information always arrive quickly which makes treatment planning easier and faster.”

“Your selection of books is actually more impressive than similar larger institutions which may have more of a particular book but lacks the quality of books to support health professionals in running a first class NHS”

“I have found out a lot of relevant info through the knowledge alerts which I otherwise wouldn’t have known about”

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