New books in the Library May 2008

The list of new titles added to the Library over the past couple of months is now available.

We are constantly updating our stock and this is just the latest selection of the resources available to you from the library. To see more, visit our catalogue at NewhamCat from any Newham University Hospital NHS Trust or Newham PCT networked computer.
Among the titles are the latest editions of Magee - Orthopedic physical assessment, Cameron - Current surgical therapy , Jarvis - Physical examination & health assessment & Tidy's Physiotherapy. In response to input from the orthopaedic dept we have also purchased Schatzker & Tile - Rationale of operative fracture care . For those finding life as a new doctor confusing, Parbhoo's - What they didn't teach you at medical school might answer a few questions! And for nurses we have the new NMC code, which is also available electronically.

If you have any comments, or would like to suggest titles for stock, please contact us.

Image: The Time to Read is any Time - (c) Creative Commons Attributed

The ebook option

We recently added some new ebooks. Checking NewhamCat I was suprised to find we now have nearly 750 books in electronic form. These range from the brand new NCEPOD report on Sickle Cell (Sickle: A Sickle Crisis?) published in the last couple of days to most of the major Department of Health documents since they started putting them on the Internet. We have a number of Oxford Handbooks / Textbooks and a wide range of mental health and nursing / midwifery related titles.

The best way to find our ebooks is to search NewhamCat - all ebooks are marked as such and have a link direct to the item itself (Athens login sometimes required). You can also search the majority of our book type ebooks (ie not the DH ones) via the National Library for Health (Athens login definitely required here).

We can add pretty much anything web based to NewhamCat so feel free to point out things we have missed or that you feel would be useful for others.

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Your choice of new books

A recurring feature of this blog are the lists of new books available in the library.

Due to the budgetary cycle there are relatively few new items to add in April. Accordingly there will be no new books list this month.

The good news is that we are ready and waiting for your requests for the items you need to support patient care, personal development and research. Feel free to drop in to discuss your needs, call or send me an email.

You can use NewhamCat to check what we already have in your area(provided you are on a NUHT or NPCT computer).

All requests will be given due consideration. While some might have to be rejected we will be happy to explain why and can generally borrow any item you might need from another library. I am particularly interested to hear from people who feel we do not support their needs. The first step to getting that fixed is getting in touch.

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DTB - Drugs on your desktop

We are happy to report that Drugs and Therapeutics Bulletin is once more available to all healthcare staff in Newham.

From their site "DTB's aim is to provide informed and unbiased information on medical conditions, medicines and other treatments to enable people to make informed choices."

You can access the full text of DTB back to 1994 using your Athens username and password.

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Master MRCP with the Medical Masterclass (other exams are available)

One of the resources we are frequently asked for here in the library are exam revision aids - short notes, MCQs, EMQs etc etc.

We do our best to keep a regular supply of these on the shelves to help if you are studying for anything from your FRCA to your GPST or indeed an NVQ. Suggestions for new texts in these areas are always welcome as no one knows the latest quality exam texts better than those studying for the exam.

As mentioned in the latest new books post we have recently added the new edition of the Medical Masterclass . Thanks to support from the London Deanery we have four sets of the 12 paper modules that cover all aspects of the MRCP curriculum. You can also access two sets of interactive cases (only available on Newham NHS computers - you may need to get IT to install a plugin). Finally the package includes web based MCQs and mock examinations (ask KLS staff for a login).

Happy studying!

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Super computing

You will be pleased to read that the Knowledge & Library Service recently took delivery of a batch of brand new computers.

We have a total of 13 machines (unlucky for some) spread across our three rooms so you have a decent chance of getting onto one when you need one. While the new machines look only slightly more technologically advanced than the one in the picture I am assured they are pretty good. Enjoy!

PS Don't forget that we are currently open from 8:30am to 4:30pm Monday to Friday due to reduced staffing levels. The Cyber Room remains available 24 hours.

(c) Image Creative Commons Attributed

Search 2.0 - how was it for you?

Here we are one week into the launch of NLH Search 2.0 and currently the stress meter in the KLS reads "Exceedingly Anxious" (see image). There are a few bugs to fix and a number of peculiarities to get used to.

In particular at present our electronic and paper journal holdings are generally missing. You can still see these in the Dialog system or by checking MyJournals.

For now we recommend that you stick with using the old Dialog system for at least a couple more weeks.

For those of you starting to explore Search 2.0 (something for the weekend perhaps?) here are some tips -

Stick to searching one database at a time so you can use the thesaurus.

The default search is just on the title field - use the drop down box to select Title and Abstract or All fields for a more sensitive search. Just searching the title is good if you are trying to find a known article.

Use "" to search for a phrase. Handy again if you are trying to check a reference or you want two or more words only when used directly next to each other.

Use * to represent 0 or many characters e.g. pregnan* or child*

If you put in more than one search word Search 2.0 will search for articles with all of the requested words in any order. Boolean logic fans will recognise this as a default AND.

That should be enough to get you started. I am keen to hear of any experiences you have with Search 2.0 - positive or negative.

(C) Image Creative Commons