At the beginning of last year I was asked to design and teach a new course with one of the nursing instructors that would teach students how to write professionally and value inter-professional communication. As an academic librarian for nursing and health sciences, I do a lot of teaching as part of my day to day role, but I had never taught an eight week course. And, not since before library school had I taught anything that wasn’t directly related to libraries or where I was not in the role of librarian.
First to the rather disturbing 85% figure. This originates from a 2009 Lancet article that suggests much research is wasted due to asking the wrong questions, being badly designed, being not published, being poorly reported and more. The paper has been cited some 400 times in Google Scholar which indicates that it is an area of interest and concern.
So where where do librarians fit in? A recent paper (“Impactful librarians : identifying opportunities to increase your impact”) suggests that they can play a very important role in improving research quality in their organisations. At the same time, this will help raise the profile and value of clinical librarians, which is increasingly important in the current economic climate.
If you're into medical information, take a look at MedNexus, which claims to be the Google for Medicine. I can't pretend to any great medical knowledge, so please take that into account when reading this post. Their 'about us' page says: "Through our search engine, you can find the most relevant content from a variety of sources: medical journals, patient forums, government health sites, etc. We want to empower patients to educate themselves and cut through the noise and pseudo-science of typical online health information. No more WebMD scares, no more endless Googling"
I was asked to take a look at Check Them, which purports to be a people search engine. It's US only and covers all 50 states. However, it left quite a nasty taste in my mouth, since the whole engine was based on fear.
What a treasure trove of images! I finally got around to looking at the collection of digitised images from the New York Public Library, and it's a wonderful place to spend a while. Maps, posters, ancient texts, drawings and manuscripts - over 600,000 images, without use restrictions.
A website full of ideas about inpatient mental health care. Covers areas such as activities, mindfulness, involvement, culture/atmosphere, communications ...
Background
Systematic reviews have found limited evidence of effectiveness and impact of clinical librarians (CLs) due to the poor quality of reporting, scale and design of previous studies.
Objectives
To measure specific CL impact on organisational and patient outcomes using a robust approach that helps CLs develop research skills.
LB: Sorry I can't see this Journal on the spreadsheet, I assume access is via CILIP/HLG
Staff at Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust are asking people to donate items they can use to support patients.
Helping to keep patients at the Community Hospitals in Bishop’s Castle, Bridgnorth, Ludlow and Whitchurch occupied and stimulated plays an important part in support their mental and physical health needs. This is especially important for patients with dementia.
Academics from across Australia, Wales and England will join with University Centre Shrewsbury (UCS) tutors to launch their new book which provides an introduction to mental health at each stage of life.
The publishing of Mental Health Across the Lifespan will be celebrated at a free event on Tuesday 8 March 2016, held in partnership with Routledge Publishers at UCS’ learning and research base.
People are invited to Guildhall in Frankwell Quay to hear from seven of the authors who have contributed to the book, representing a diverse range of expertise.
Shropshire Libraries and company Bibliotheca are delighted to announce the launch of a new Cloud Library e-book lending system for library users.
The Cloud Library can be accessed online or through many popular devices, including iOS and Android, via the new easy-to-use app.
Below is the new homepage for Trip. I've blurred it, a bit, to retain some mystery. The homepage has changed considerably the results page less so. NHS have a one year free trial of TRIP!
I'm still hopeful to get a test version by the end of February and then - hopefully - a full release by mid-March.
Albrighton Library and Customer Service Point will be temporarily closed for six to eight weeks from Monday 29 February 2016 for refurbishment, as part of the transfer of the library to Albrighton Parish Council.
The transfer follows a public consultation led by Shropshire Council, in which proposals for the future of the library and Customer Service Point were put forward for residents to consider. A total of 95% of respondents opted for the transfer of the library to Albrighton Parish Council.
Broseley Library and Customer Service Point will be temporarily closed for around six weeks from Monday 29 February 2016 for refurbishment, as part of the transfer of the library to Broseley Town Council.
The transfer follows a public consultation led by Shropshire Council, in which proposals for the future of the library and Customer Service Point were put forward for residents to consider. A total of 87% of respondents opted for the transfer of the library to the town council.
Having recently gone through the process of revalidating my Chartership, I thought I’d share three tips, things that worked well for me or that I will be doing differently in future and that might just help you. So this is for all of you out there currently working on your portfolios! Good luck.
Volunteering opportunities come in all shapes and sizes at your library; we have new and varied volunteering roles available in libraries across Staffordshire. The possibilities are endless, but here are some of the things you could get involved with:
To advance evidence on newly graduated nurses’ use of knowledge sources. Login using your SSSFT NHS OpenAthens for full text. SSOTP - request a copy of the article from the library - www.sssft.nhs.uk/library
We’ve had feedback from a number of library staff, asking how Evidence search works behind the scenes to produce the sets of results that you are presented with. We thought a set of notes for advanced searchers would give some insight to how Evidence search works, explain what happens when different search features are used, and provide some extra hints/tips for searching. The notes cover ranking of search results, word stemming (lemmatisation), synonym expansion and wildcard searching, phrase searching, Boolean operators, stop words, spelling correction and UK vs international searching.
Presentation from NHS Transformathon. Social media tools are developing at pace and offer many ways to bring about change in health and care. This session provides a snapshot of the global work of innovators, clinicians, patients and digital collaborators who have shared their learning online and explored the possibilities to improve patient care.
Innovation happens through connecting ideas and people. Social media enables connection at scale, pace and by flattening hierarchies. The presenters offer their different narratives of change, how this resonates with their communities and highlight analytics that can be used. This is a whistle stop tour of social media innovation which starts with a simple idea and develops to healthcare change with impact.
I have been reflecting that many of the approaches towards rapid reviews start with the notion of a systematic review and approach rapidity by removing bits. For example they may search fewer databases or perhaps only have one person assessing for bias. But the principle is that the person undertaking the review (and those commissioning it) believe that the approach will not affect the result too much and will therefore be acceptable. This approach is predominant and if you have a look at much of the research (see List of articles) you’ll find loads of examples.
I have revisited the idea many times in the last five years, always trying to solve the same problem: a search engine doesn't answer questions, it gives you 10-20 results to articles that may answer your question. I borrowed the term 'answer engine' from Steve Wozniak (co-founder of Apple) who used it in relation to the release of Siri. He said people want and need an answer engine.
Open access. Aims and method- To gather information about psychiatric trainees' use of different information sources and academic materials, a questionnaire was distributed at the London Deanery Annual Psychiatry Trainee Conference and the training programmes of two teaching trusts.
Results- Participants returned 202 out of a total of 300 completed questionnaires (67%). Websites were the most commonly accessed information source ahead of textbooks, abstracts and journals. Year of training correlated positively with journal use and negatively with textbook use. Year of training also correlated positively with frequency of reading three journals published by the Royal College of Psychiatrists and with specific reasons for consulting journals, namely to improve clinical practice and inform trainees' own research.
Clinical implications- Respondents reported consulting websites more frequently than more traditional information sources but journals are still a widely used source of information for trainee clinicians. It is important that trainees continue to be equipped with skills to identify and access high-quality information at the point of clinical uncertainty.
People are being given the opportunity to try volunteering in their local library as part of a new campaign.
The new roles are available in all Staffordshire libraries and are designed to help people explore their own interests whilst making a difference in their community.
In return for helping for a minimum of just two hours a week, volunteers will have the opportunity to meet new people and learn new skills whilst helping the community to get the most out of their library.
Scannable QR codes have the ability to deliver medical device operator information as a short video, when needed, and at the point of need, to reduce adverse incidents
This article from 'Anesthesia and Analgesia' has a lot of useful information about the value of librarians, including references to studies about clinical ones. It also includes an interesting discussion on people’s search behaviour and use of resources.
Staffordshire Libraries have launched a new online catalogue called the ‘e-Hub’.
For the first time, visitors to the Staffordshire Libraries webpages can view books in all formats (electronic and hard copy) from the same catalogue, in the same search.
The e-Hub, which can be found at the same web address, replaces the old online catalogue and has a number of added features and benefits.
Once logged in, one click on a title is all that's needed to show detailed information about a book, a short description of what it's about, previous readers reviews, and all the formats the title is available in.
If you are an NHS user and use the Proquest database to search for journal articles and complete literature searches then help is at hand...
Proquest have created a series of videos to help you to get started. You can find the collection of videos on YouTube.
On the 3rd February from 1-1.30 we’re running a Pocket-sized Training session on Library OmniSearch in IT Training 2 in the Learning Centre at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.
Library OmniSearch is our new search tool on our website, allowing you to search a range of resources (books, e-books, journal articles and evidence resources) from one handy search box.
There will be differences between this newly developed animal model and ASD in people. However, researchers hope that studying the monkeys could help in understanding the condition better, and possibly give some early indication of whether new drugs might hold some promise for human use.
The debate around health and social media continues. But knowing how to use all the different platforms on a professional level results in healthy, popular accounts that are extremely useful to library services, your colleagues, contacts and organisations in the health world.
Shifnal Library and Customer Service Point will be temporarily closed from Monday 1 February 2016 for refurbishment, as part of the transfer of the library to Shifnal Town Council.
An exciting new mobile app has been launched to help patients manage long term health conditions.
The free app, called Manage Your Health, is available on IOS and Android devices, and is the brainchild of the West Midlands Academic Health Science Network (WMAHSN) , Stoke on Trent CCG and Keele University with clinical support from the Royal Stoke University Hospital.
Using computer generated characters, interactive quizzes and information resources; the app updates with content designed to help patients with asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and diabetes with additional conditions to follow.
At the beginning of December I had a query from a user who wanted to find negative research results regarding a topic she was using for her masters course.
I drew a complete blank so I asked a question of the Clinical Librarians email list, a source of amazing brain power.
I thought I would summarise the answers (with permission from the senders) as it is an interesting topic.
A press release on the Information Literacy mailing list (LIS-INFOLITERACY@JISCMAIL.AC.UK) has announced that, "as of 1st January, InformAll exists as an organisation in its own right. As some of you will know, InformAll brings together partners and experts from different communities and interest groups, within and beyond the library world, that offer distinctive perspectives on the developing understanding of information literacy.
I was updating a presentation today and checking the links still worked from the last time I did this, back in October last year, so only a couple of months. In that time we've lost access to such tools as
There's a petition out at the moment, "HM Government: act now to protect my statutory rights to a quality public library service" However, it would seem that most library and information professionals don't give a ......
The Council is approaching community organisations to explore how a number of these services could continue from April 2017, run in a new way by different organisations and not the council. The proposals include:
· Closing council run libraries at Dawley, Donnington, Hadley, Madeley, Newport and Stirchley
· No council-run youth clubs
· No council-run community centres
· No council-run markets
· Less Council run children’s centres
Available via PubMed Health, “The PubMed systematic review methods filter finds publications to support this process. They could relate to the development or evaluation of any step in doing or using systematic review.” The site can be accessed via this link.
Conclusion – The study suggests that age, cognitive style, level of health literacy, daily Internet use, and prior education are all important variables in determining whether an individual can successfully take advantage of the increasing amount of health information available on the Internet. Specific approaches to web design could be used to improve the success rate of those who are context sensitive, and greater support and direction to reputable online health sources from medical and information professionals could assist those who are less health literate.
Conclusions – The authors conclude that multiple factors influence online library resource selection behavior among undergraduates. The results indicate that usefulness and ease of use are important factors in use intention. The effect of “resource quality” factors, indicated by credibility, format, accessibility, currency, and coverage, suggested that all five factors positively impact use intention. Accessibility is most likely to increase the likelihood of online library resource selection while the credibility of a source has the weakest effect on selection. Familiarity with online library resources and self-reported strong search skills also positively influenced use intention.
Conclusion – The implementation of a discovery tool at one library has had both postive and negative outcomes. An increase in the use of electronic collections was observed as a positive outcome, whereas a decrease in the use of print collections was a negative outcome. Due to the findings of the study, the library revised its policy on content inclusion to the EDS. Any new content is now screened for suitability before it is included. As a changing student demographic evolves at the library, with an increase in distance and online learners, the library will grow its collection in line with their needs. The author notes that a further study is needed to examine ebook usage, and recommends that the library consider a move towards ebooks for all
Librarians in academic institutions have been providing personalized services to the student population by offering individualized research consultations (IRC) for decades. These consultations usually consume many hours of librarians’ busy schedules, and yet the impact of these consultations is unknown. Therefore, it’s worth asking the question: what assessment methods have been used in academic libraries to evaluate the impact of IRC?
This paper reports on the development and evaluation of an online learning resource, designed for librarians and other interested searchers, presenting an evidence based approach to enhancing and testing literature searches.