Finding the evidence: searching the healthcare databases

Do you need to know how to search healthcare databases for journal articles to support your work or study? Join us and invest 90 minutes of your time learning how to find journal articles on your topic of interest.

Monday 17th September 2012
11 - 12.30pm

The session will teach you how to:

-Plan your search strategy
-Understand how to carry out a subject search
-Combine search terms
-Apply limits to your search
-View, save or print results
-Access any available full text

 Contact the library at library@newhamhealth.nhs.uk or on x8016 or book your place on ESR.

We can also organize a session at a time to suit you or your group.

There are similar training opportunities available at Whipps Cross University Hospital 
Contact library.whippsx@bartshealth.nhs.uk.

Image (c) Creative Commons - gerlos 

Finding the evidence: using the healthcare databases

Let us help you navigate the redesigned NHS Evidence Healthcare Databases. Learn to search healthcare databases systematically and save yourself time when looking for access to full text journal articles on your topic of interest.

Thursday 9th August 11 - 12.30pm

Monday 20th August 9.30 - 11am

The session will teach you to:

-Plan your search strategy
-Understand how to carry out a subject search
-Combine search terms
-Apply date or other limits to the search
-View, save or print results
-Access any available full text

Contact the Library on x8016 to book your place.

We can also organise a session at a time to suit you or your group.

There are similar training opportunities available at
Whipps Cross University Hospital.

Contact library.whippsx@bartshealth.nhs.uk

Image (c) Creative Commons - Liam Quinn

Finding the Evidence: using the healthcare databases

Work, study and life is often a juggling act but knowing how to search the healthcare databases can help save you time by enabling you to find journal articles on your topic of interest.

Why not join us for a one hour hands-on session?

Friday 18 November 14.00
Monday 21 November 17.15
Tuesday 29 November 14.00
Wednesday 07 December 10.00
Monday 12 December 14.00
Tuesday 20 December 14.00

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

Book for a session on ESR or contact the library on x8016 for advice.

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Finding the Evidence: searching the Healthcare databases

Our November dates for learning how to search the Heathcare databases are:


Thursday 10 November 10.00-11.00
Friday 18 November 14.00-15.00
Monday 21 November 17.15-18.15
Tuesday 29 November 14.00-15.00

Register for a place on ESR or contact the Library on x8016 for advice.

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

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Finding the Evidence : using the healthcare databases

Join one of our hands-on sessions and find out how to search the healthcare databases (Medline, CINAHL etc) for journal articles on specific topics.

By the end of the session you should be able to:
- Plan your search strategy
- Carry out a subject search
- Combine search terms
- Apply limits to your search
- View, save or print your results
- Access any available full text

Tues 4 October 14.00
Wed 12 October 10.00
Fri 21 October 14.00
Mon 24 October 17.15

All sessions last for one hour.
Book on ESR or contact the library on x8016 for advice.

Or we can organise a session to suit you or your group.

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Finding the Evidence: using the Healthcare Databases

Join us for a 1 hour hands-on session


Support your professional practice by learning how to search the Healthcare Databases for journal articles.

By the end of the session you should be able to:

- Plan your search strategy
- Carry out a subject search
- Combine search terms
- Apply limits to your search
- View, save or print your results
- Access any available full text

Thursday 01 September - 10.00
Friday 09 September 14.00
Monday 12 September - 17.15
Tuesday 20 September - 14.00
Wednesday 28 September - 08.45

Book on ESR or call the library on x8016 for advice

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Training Dates: July / August 2011

Support your professional practice by learning how to search the Healthcare Databases for journal articles.

Join us for a 1 hour hands-on session and learn how to:
- Plan your search strategy
- Carry out a subject search
- Combine search terms
- Apply limits to your search
- View, save or print your results
- Access any available full text

July / August dates:
Tues 5 July - 14.00
Wed 13 July - 10.00
Mon 18 July - 17.15
Thurs 28 July - 10.30
Fri 5 Aug - 14.00
Tue 9 Aug - 14.00
Wed 24 Aug - 10.00

We can also organise a session at a time to suit you or your group.

Book on ESR or call x8016 for advice.

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Training Dates May / June 2011

Do you want to know the best way to find evidence-based journal articles?


Invest just 1 hour of your time and you can learn to:
-Plan your search strategy
-Carry out a subject search
-Combine search terms
-Apply limits to yor search
-View, save or print your results
-Access any available fulltext

May / June dates:
Wed 25 May - 09.00
Tues 31 May - 14.30
Thurs 09 June - 10.00
Fri 17 June - 14.00
Mon 20 June - 17.15
Wed 29 June - 09.30

Book on ESR or call the Library on 8016 for advice

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Training Dates for April 2011

Want to find journal articles on your topic of interest?
And to know if you have full text access?

Dates for April
Wed 06 April - 09.30
Tues 12 April - 14.00
Mon 18 April - 17.15

By the end of a one hour session 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

Book on ESR or contact the Library on x8016 for advice

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Training Dates - March 2011

Do you want to know how to search for journal articles on a specific topic?

Book a one hour training session and learn how to:
-Plan your search
-Choose your database
-Carry out keyword and subject searching
-Apply limits
-View, save and print results
-Access any available full text

Thurs 03 March at 10.00
Fri 11 March at 14.00
Wed 16 March at 09.00
Mon 21 March at 17.15
Thurs 31 March at 13.30

Book on ESR or contact the Library (x8016) for advice

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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

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

Finding the Evidence: searching the healthcare databases

During the 1 hour training session you will learn how to:

Plan your search strategy
Carry out a subject search
Combine search terms
Apply search limits
View, save and print your results
Access any available full text

Dates for October 2010 are:
Wednesday 20 October 09.00
Friday 29 October 14.00

Enrol on ESR or contact the Library on x8016 for advice.
Or we can organise a session at a time that suits you or your group.

(C) Image: Creative Commons, Pesky Library

Training Dates June 2010

Need to track down journal articles to support your work or study? Want to be able to save your searches or download a subset of your results?

Tues 6 June 14.00
Fri 18 June 14.00
Mon 21 June 17.15
Wed 30 June 08.30

To enrol on any of the above training dates: call the Library on x8016 for advice or book on ESR under Finding the Evidence: using the healthcare databases

Sessions are hands-on in small groups and last for 1 hour.

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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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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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Welcome to 2009

We have some NEW DATES for our
Finding the Evidence: Searching the Healthcare Databases training sessions

• Wed 21 January 2.30pm
• Tues 27 January 5.15pm
• Fri 6 February 8.30am
• Mon 9 February 5.15pm
• Thurs 19 February 2.30pm
• Mon 23 February 4.30pm

Sessions cover the following: keyword & subject searching, applying search limits, saving & printing your search results and accessing full text articles where available

You will need an Athens username and password for these session - you can self-register for this at http://www.library.nhs.uk

You can enrol on a training session via ESR or contact the library on ext. 8016 for further advice.

If you cannot make the above dates please come and talk to us to arrange a more convenient time. We are also happy to provide training for groups at a mutually convenient time.

Image (c) Creative Commons - Agroforestry Training in Tiruvannamalai by treesftf

Easy Athens

A number of changes have been made to the Athens system to make life a bit more convenient.




We use Athens to provide access to all of our electronic resources via the National Library for Health.



The biggest change on a day to day basis is that the main login point has been shifted to the top right hand side of the http://www.library.nhs.uk/ page. Helpfully most people will find that they can now login in using their email address and Athens password rather than the harder to remember username.



If you have forgotten your details there is much better support with a simple guided process to reset your password.


A new registration system will allow people to register on any NHS based computer as before but will also allow rapid registration from home if you have access to your NHS email away from work (this mostly applies to people with NHS.net email accounts).



A big step forward is the ability to keep your Athens login as you move from Trust to Trust. This ensures you will not lose any alerts or searches you may have saved on the system. To access this facility you should login and then access the MyAccount page. From this page you can alter your email address / password or indicate that you have moved to another NHS organisation in England.



Please contact us if you have any problems with your Athens login.

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Having Problems Finding the Information You Need?

The Library's 1 hour training sessions on searching the healthcare databases for journal articles are now running regularly.

You will need an NHS Athens username and password to access the databases. To obtain these self-register at http://www.library.nhs.uk/
If you have already registered but cannot remember your details please contact the Library.

Course Title

Finding the Evidence:

Searching the Healthcare Databases

Monday 20 Oct 5.15pm

Thursday 30 Oct 2.30pm

Wednesday 5 Nov 11.00am

Monday 10 Nov 5.15pm

Friday 21 Nov 2.00pm

Thursday 27 Nov 1.00pm

Tuesday 2 Dec 5.15pm

Tuesday 9 Dec 10.00am

Thursday 18 Dec 8.30am

The session covers the following: keyword and subject searching, applying search limits, saving and printing your search results and accessing the full text of available articles.

Book on ESR (search for 258 KLS or by course title) or contact the Library on 8016 for advice.

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Finding search

By now I hope most of you will have noticed that you no longer have access to the DIALOG interface to search for journal articles (see blog posts past).

From the 1st of August the main entry point for finding journal articles is via http://www.library.nhs.uk/ and more specifically the Books, Journals and Healthcare Databases section of that site.

To search you will need to be logged in using your Athens username (self register from any NHS based computer). We recommend that you then use the Healthcare Databases Advanced Search Mode to search a single database at a time as this will give you the most control over your search.

If you were a confident DIALOG user you may find the following Q & A helpful -

Q. How do I search for a phrase?

A. DIALOG did this by default if you entered multiple words - NOW - you should place any phrases in "". For example "Newham General Hospital". If you enter multiple terms without quotes then you will retrieve articles that include all of the words but not necessarily in the order you requested.

Q. How do I truncate a term?

A. Truncation is handy when you want to retrieve a number of words with the same root. DIALOG did this by adding a $ sign. NOW - you should use an asterisk (*). For example diabet* will retrieve diabetic, diabetes, diabetologist etc.

Q. Why am I not getting any keyword results?

A. DIALOG automatically included keyword results alongside the results of subject searches. To acheive the same effect NOW you should complete two searches - one with and one without the "map to thesaurus" option checked and then combine the two sets of results using OR.

Q. How does the new system handle plurals and UK versus US spellings?

A. DIALOG used to automatically try plurals and alternate American spellings. NOW - you need to add these yourself. Truncation (*) can be a simple way to do this for the plurals but for ae or ou words you will need to search for both. Eg paediatric* OR pediatric*

Q. How do I combine sets of search results?

A. DIALOG required you to type the set number plus AND / OR. NOW - you can still use set numbers or you can tick the sets you wish to combine and use the Combine sets button provided.
Q. How do I limit by publication date?

A. This is much simpler with a pair of drop down boxes located below the main search box. Select your dates and all searches will be limited to these years till you remove the limit. You can apply any limit to any set by selecting it and then running a search on the set number.

If this is all sounding rather confusing - get in touch and we will be glad to guide you through it.

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