Quick Introductions

Would your group or team like a quick introduction to any of the following resources:


NHS Evidence (20 minutes)

By the end of the session participants will be able to:
-Know when to use NHS Evidence
-Access the Specialist collections
-Be aware of QIPP (Quality, Innovation, Productivity and Prevention)
-Search for topics of interest
-Add filters to a search


Accessing E-Journals (20 minutes)

By the end of the session participants will be able to:
-Register for an NHS Athens login
-Search or browse for journal titles
-Link through to any available full text


TRIP database (15 minutes)

By the end of the session participants will be able to:
-Know when to use TRIP
-Do a search
-Filter results


For any of our Quick Introductions, please contact the library to arrange a time convenient to you.

(C)Image: Creative Commons, simpologist

Training dates for February 2011

We have four dates for our training sessions this month:


Finding the Evidence: searching the healthcare databases
Thursday 03 Feb at 14.00
Wednesday 09 Feb at 09.00
Tuesday 15 Feb at 14.00
Wednesday 23 Feb at 10.00

By the end of the session you will be able to
-Plan your search strategy
-Understand how to carry out a subject search
-Combine search terms
-Apply limits to your search
-View, save and print your results
-Access any available full text

Sessions are hands on and last for one hour. Book on ESR or contact the libray for advice.

(C)Image: Creative Commons, michaelfitz

Your feedback

Thanks for the over a hundred responses we received to our survey. Ten lucky winners should have received an email asking them to collect their prize.

Your comments are greatly valued to help guide how we develop the service. They also remind us of how things we think we have cracked can remain an issue.

The good news for us was that your satisfaction levels with the service remain steady and high.

Opening hours were raised as an issue. There seemed some confusion over our current hours (8:30am to 7pm Monday & Tuesday, 8:30am to 5pm Wednesday to Friday) with people unaware of the evening opening. The increased 24 hour provision, with the Knowledge Hub and Cyber Room both available, does seem to have improved matters somewhat. It is unlikely that we will be able to manage more staffed hours in the foreseeable future.

There was a slight fall in satisfaction around ejournals. We have greatly increased our selection of ejournals in recent years and are working to make access as convenient as possible.

You can see our full list of titles by logging in with your NHS Athens at MyJournals (NB if not logged in you only see a very partial picture). We have made many titles available without logging in when you are at work. This includes most of the BMJ publishing titles, those from the AMA, over 300 titles from Wiley Blackwell and a selection from Elsevier. We hope to add more over time. In some cases we have access to a journal via a supplier other than the main publisher – an example here is the Lancet which you can access via our A-Z list or via a search on our databases but you will not get via the publishers own site.

The rating for the book collection remains good. 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. We will be working with our suppliers in April to assess where we still have older editions and this should hopefully further improve the quality of books on the shelf. Do check out our new books lists that are on this blog and circulated in the monthly Knowledge News email.

The creation of the Knowledge Hub as a space for shared working does seem to have helped somewhat with noise levels. Library Staff have also been trying to avoid talking across the office but it is always likely that the Main Library will be more noisy than people would like. You can help by taking calls outside and using the Knowledge Hub if you need to discuss your work.

We got some brilliant responses to our question regarding the impact of information provided by the KLS. Here are just a few examples:

“the librarian helped me find a key reference paper which I later used for teaching students”

“Child with Y-- obtained information specific for children from UpToDate.”

“Access to case reports on Z helped formulate a plan for confirming diagnosis and managing drug interactions”

“I attended a recent teaching session on "Finding the Evidence: searching the health care database". It helped me a lot...”

We have emailed those who asked us for more detail of any aspect of the service and in response to specific questions and suggestions. If anyone feels they still need more information then please do get in touch (in person or via email). Thanks again for you input.

(C) Image Creative Commons - Jon Peck

December New Books

The final new books list of 2010 contains a good collection of nursing books. Some will be new editions of key texts (eg Pudner - Nursing the surgical patient); others are brand new titles (eg Vaughans - Nursing fundamentals demystified).

Several items for the allied health professions are on the list. New dietetics titles include Payne & Barker Advancing dietetics and clinical nutrition, while for occupational therapists there is Occupational therapy interventions by Meriano, and in physiotherapy we have Mosby's field guide to physical therapy.

Two hefty tomes for surgeons are the newly acquired Atlas of general surgical techniques by Townsend and the 9th ed of Zollinger's atlas of surgical operations.

There are over 100 new items on the list, while NewhamCat holds details of our complete stock.

Image (c) Creative Commons

Finding the Evidence: using the Healthcare Databases

New Year - New Skill
or refresh an old one!

Invest just ONE HOUR of your time and learn a skill that will enable you to search for journal articles on the topic of your choice

Dates for January 2011:
Wed 12 Jan: 10.00-11.00
Tues 18 Jan: 14.00-15.00
Mon 24 Jan: 17.15-18.15

By the end of training participants will be able to:
- Plan their search strategy
- Understand how to carry out a subject search
- Combine search terms
- Apply limits to their search
- View, save and print their results
- Access any available full text

(C)Image: Creative Commons, nathansnider