We're currently making some changes in the background of our email updates to solve some problems we've been having recently. During our testing phase this may automatically generate some alerts, which will show below, but you can ignore these! If all goes according to plan we will be resuming normal service in the next week…
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
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.
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.
The Royal College of Physicians' (RCP) new report Research for all: Building a research-active medical workforce has noted that the greatest barrier doctors face in engaging in research is a lack of time, even though they are eager to do so. Drawn from the findings of a survey of almost 2,000 doctors, the report shows that respondents cited the lack of time as having a ‘significant impact’ on their ability to engage in research.
GRADE is a method of assessing the certainty in evidence (also known as quality of evidence or confidence in effect estimates) and the strength of recommendations in health care. In the paper the authors acknowledge that trustworthy answers are required across different timeframes, sometimes in just hours.
A newly-revamped social care website has been launched today (Wednesday 8 June 2016) as part of the national Carers Week 2016.
Shropshire Choices, developed by Shropshire Council’s adult services team, is designed to ensure everyone in Shropshire has access to information at a time and in a format which suits them
Elizabeth Collier writes her debut blog on the REMCARE randomised controlled trial of reminiscence groups for people with dementia and their family carers.
The Patient Information Forum (PIF) has published a factsheet called ‘What source when? Creating realiable and accurate information‘, that provides an introduction to the difference sources of evidence that exist, and considers what sort of source you might want to use for different sorts of health content.
It has a range of resources to assist members at different career stages and covers a variety of issues, with practical activities as well as relevant articles and interviews from information practitioners.
The Hub is organized into specific areas focusing on different topics of interest:‘Career Management’ looks at the job searching process of with valuable advice from recruitment experts.‘Career Options’ covers the different sectors within the information profession with interviews from practitioners working in each field. ‘Challenges and Change’ highlights the difficult issues such as redundancy and provides ideas and support to help those facing such challenges.
This is an updated and revised version of A Guide to Using Social Media for Research Purposes by Matt Holland first published on this blog in March 2016.
This guide takes you though the basics of building a research profile using social media, how to maximise your impact and the tools you can use to assess your impact. If you have any comments or want to add any resources contact Matt.Holland@nwas.nhs.uk
This is a reflection on the Second part of the Three part Edward Jenner Foundations Programme. Part One is Launch and Part Three is Advanced. Launch & Foundations are free. Advanced carries a fee. The reflection on Launch can be found in a previous blog entry here.
Mental health literacy has received great attention recently to improve mental health knowledge, decrease stigma and enhance help-seeking behaviors. We conducted a systematic review to critically appraise the qualities of studies evaluating the measurement properties of mental health knowledge tools and the quality of included measurement properties.
There is an established disparity between physical and mental healthcare. Parity of research outputs has not been assessed internationally across influential medical journals.
Aims: To assess parity of publication between physical and mental health, and within psychiatry. You can request a copy of this article by replying to this email. Please ensure you are clear which article you are requesting.
The plans follow two detailed consultations which have taken place during the course of this year and will mean original proposals to close six of the borough’s nine libraries have been ripped up.
Now three of those six libraries – Donnington, Dawley and Stirchley – will be run by Town or Parish Councils. Also a fourth library in Hadley will be run by Hadley Learning Community, supported by Hadley & Leegomery Parish Council.
This was after the Town and Parish Councils expressed concerns about their library closing and indicated they would be interested in running a community lead library.
In addition to the bitesized training in Twitter and Apps for health professionals taking place on 26th September and 14 November respectively we have now added a further session to the list:
Yandex is an excellent alternative to Google. Not only does it work in the same way, so you'll immediately be familiar with the interface, but it also provides extra functionality that goes way beyond anything that Google can offer. It's a real search engine for real information professionals. If you're tired and fed up with the limitations that Google places on you when you're trying to search, take a look at Yandex.
The number of open access (OA) research articles published annually is growing at double the rate of the complete spectrum of research articles according to the most recent report from media and publishing intelligence firm Simba Information. The report, Open Access Journal Publishing 2016-2020, found that open access already represents about a third of all research articles published when articles completing their embargo periods are included.
The researchers provided 45 clinical vignettes to more than 200 doctors. They found doctors were twice as likely to diagnose accurately first time compared with an online symptom-checking application called Human Dx.
The relatively new exception to copyright law that we enjoy in the UK, permitting text and data mining (TDM) for the purposes of non-commercial research, offers potential to further knowledge and make scientific and medical breakthroughs. Importantly, the new exception states that any contractual clause which purports to restrict this exception is automatically null and void. Librarians who manage electronic resources and datasets can assist researchers greatly. However, in order to do this they need a robust understanding of the law and to be assertive in their relationships with publishers when negotiating or interpreting licence agreements. This article examines the ways in which librarians can facilitate the work of researchers who want to use TDM. It also argues that librarians need to encourage researchers to exploit the new copyright exceptions as key partners in the research process.
Reports detailing the audit results for each platform have been added to the Individual Platform Feedback Reports section of the website. The table on page 6 of the reports may be particularly useful for Library staff - it gives an at-a-glance view of how well the platform met each of the criteria. We will now be encouraging platforms to look at their own report and hopefully use it to inform developments.
Public Health England (PHE) is piloting an online space on Knowledge Hub to share information about local knowledge and intelligence products and services. Our Local Knowledge and Intelligence Service (LKIS) will run the space.
Knowledge Hub gives PHE in each geographical PHE Centre location, a way to make it easier for local partners to keep up to date with the relevant health intelligence relating to their area, and to take part in discussions.
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.
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.
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.
If you haven't had a look at the HDAS preview, then do have a look. It's available here: http://alpha.hdas.nice.org.uk/
Some of the features that you can currently use on the preview site are:
Saving strategies
Browsing the thesaurus
Using thesaurus terms in a search
Using limits and fields to refine your search
Re-running searches
Editing existing search rows
Saving results
Exporting results
Access to full-text links
This article is the first in the feature to highlight the social network site Twitter as a tool for health information and it reports on a study by Emma Hughes, who completed an MSc in information and library studies at Aberystwyth University in 2014. Emma's research investigated the quality of health information available on Twitter, in particular the information available on UK alcohol consumption guidelines. Her research suggests that users searching for this information would need certain literacy skills to interpret it correctly. However, there is no doubt that Twitter is an increasingly popular resource for information dissemination and health professionals, and organisations should be encouraged to use it frequently as a tool for sharing information.
A public libraries dataset published today by the BBC has revealed the extent of losses to public library services and paid staff since 2010.
According to the data compiled from FOI requests returned by 207 authorities responsible for running libraries across the UK, almost 8,000 jobs in UK public libraries have disappeared in six years and 343 libraries have closed, with over 15,000 volunteers recruited to the library service.
In this context, I am writing to provide some details of my YouTube channel called ‘Psychiatry Lectures’ (www.youtube.com/channel/UCVZhg8unEqo0XUm8cHAIwbA/videos). This is a free-to-access educational channel featuring videos on psychiatry topics targeted at health professionals who see psychiatric patients. So far, I have uploaded 19 videos covering most of the major psychiatry topics, for example, schizophrenia, mood disorders and anxiety disorders. The average duration of the videos is 50 min and most videos end with a set of five multiple choice questions. The videos are in the form of PowerPoint presentations with my narration.
Stephen Fry actor, comedian and writer has given his support to libraries by appearing in a new poster campaign from the Chartered Institute of Library & Information Professionals (CILIP). The poster is available to download for free.
This study sought to determine whether a flipped classroom that facilitated peer learning would improve undergraduate health sciences students' abilities to find, evaluate, and use appropriate evidence for research assignments. Students completed online modules in a learning management system, with librarians facilitating subsequent student-directed, in-person sessions. Mixed methods assessment was used to evaluate program outcomes. Students learned information literacy concepts but did not consistently apply them in research assignments. Faculty interviews revealed strengthened partnerships between librarians and teaching faculty. This pedagogy shows promise for implementing and evaluating a successful flipped information literacy program. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details
Different approaches to learning, including integrating face to face and e-learning. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details
Mersey Care NHS Trust have saved the historic Carnegie building at the former Walton Library and transformed it into the state-of-the-art ‘Life Rooms Walton’, a new centre for learning, recovery, health and wellbeing.
The stunning new centre has retained the historic exterior while the interior has been extensively refurbished into a state-of-the-art centre which will revolutionise the way people recover from and manage their mental health. It will also serve the wider community of Walton with a variety of new and exciting services that challenges stigma and promotes positive mental health and wellbeing.
Leading mental health trust Mersey Care have also retained some of the popular library services for the local community at the much-loved building on Evered Avenue, off Rice Lane, Walton, which was opened in 1911, with the £8,000 cost being paid by Scottish-American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.
The building has become available as part of Liverpool City Council’s reduction in library services and Michael Crilly, Mersey Care’s Director of Social Inclusion and Participation, said: “People have been scared they’d lose their library so it’s good to be able to reassure them that some of those services will be retained, including an electronic ordering service for books that are not in stock.”
Evidence-based guidelines represent a form of ‘evidence-based practice’; defined 20 years ago as the integration of clinical experience, patient preference and research findings (Sackett et al, 1996). Guidelines, such as those published by NICE, provide a series of ‘quality statements’ that are then enacted in clinical practice. At least that’s the theory..........
it can be challenging to locate gray literature sources, including conference papers and guidelines. Most databases such as MEDLINE do not index gray literature publications, guidelines, or best practices that are not published in the journal literature. ... Both Google Scholar and Scopus, however, index a variety of types of gray literature. This review discusses the search functionality and search options in both tools for finding gray literature publications, with a focus on conference papers. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details
In our recent poll the feature most users wanted to see was a search suggestions function. Well, we’ve delivered on that and it is freely available on Trip.
The MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, based at the University of Glasgow, today launches a free, interactive websiteopens in new window designed to explain complex health research.
The Understanding Health Researchopens in new window website is the creation of a collaboration between the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit and an advisory panel of academics*. [We need to look at this in the library]
I love it when we roll out new features and few have been as significant and innovative as this one. Over the last few months I’ve been working with the wonderful team at RobotReviewer to introduce two major improvements to Trip.
With the PokemonGo phenomenon sweeping the globe, Shropshire Libraries are welcoming gamers across the county.
Pokemon can be found in amongst the bookshelves in many of the county libraries, and with free wi-fi in all branches gamers are encouraged to drop in and see what they can find. Some libraries have been designated as Pokestops, and others as Pokegyms where Pokemon can be caught and trained.
The experience sampling method (ESM) is a structured diary technique to appraise subjective experiences in daily life. It is applied in psychiatric patients, as well as in patients with somatic illness. Despite the potential of ESM assessment, the improved logistics and its increased administration in research, its use in clinical trials remains limited. This paper introduces ESM for clinical trials in psychiatry and beyond. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details
A new campaign will remind health service leaders in England of their responsibility to ensure evidence-based practice under the Health and Social Care Act1. It highlights the beneficial outcomes when healthcare services are planned and delivered with input from dedicated health librarians and knowledge services.
Launching on 30 January, ‘A Million Decisions’ is jointly led by CILIP, the library and information association, and Health Education England (HEE), who work together to support decision-makers and those delivering health services to make good use of library and knowledge skills to meet their obligations under the Act.
Evidence updates folders for Healthcare Professionals (Nurses, HCAs and AHPs etc) have been updated across the hospital with the latest evidence for you to read.
A new, updated Shropshire Choices support finder has been published in association with Shropshire Council. It is a comprehensive guide on choosing and paying for adult care and support services in Shropshire.
Many year ago Muir Gray stated – in relation to the access to evidence – that ‘Three clicks are two clicks too many’. This statement inspired the invention of the Trip Answer Engine and we have delivered on Muir’s vision. Answers to clinical questions, quickly, with a single click!
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.
Positive discussions have taken place between Telford & Wrekin Council and Madeley Town Council with a view to saving the town’s library & First Point Service.
Madeley Library was one of six earmarked for possible closure in Telford & Wrekin Council’s budget proposals – as the council strives to make £30m of cuts.
However, since then a drive to establish community partnerships to enable libraries to be delivered in a different way has resulted in announcements that Hadley, Dawley and Newport libraries will all continue.
No final decisions have been taken but one of the preferred options is for the Library to move into the Anstice Memorial Hall – which historically used to house Madeley Library.
Stirchley Library is set to soon be run by Stirchley & Brookside Parish Council.
Meanwhile talks are progressing well with community organisations led by the Brookside Big Local Partnership (BBLP) and supported by the parish council on the future of Brookside Central.
Stirchley Library was one of six earmarked for possible closure in Telford & Wrekin Council’s budget proposals – as the council strives to make £30m of cuts.
As the first nurses and midwives start to pass through the revalidation process, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) continues to produce supporting materials for employers and registrants.
Over the next few weeks, look out for new resources designed to help you and your nursing and midwifery workforce go through the process.
Wards and departments across Shropshire’s two acute hospitals have been presented with new books to celebrate World Book Night.
160421-worldbooknightweb
Chief Executive Simon Wright is pictured delivering the books to Oonagh Le-Maitre
One of the departments to benefit was the Renal Unit at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (RSH), and Simon Wright, Chief Executive at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH), was on hand to deliver the novels to Ward Manager Oonagh Le-Maitre on Thursday 21 April.
We outline benefits and problems of introducing internet-based approaches (e.g. e-learning, social networking) into journal clubs. We also look at potential risks to the continuing existence of clubs posed by the changing health economy and the move in psychiatry from clinical medicine to community care. Overall, we are optimistic for the journal club’s survival. Login using your SSSFT NHS OpenAthens for full text. SSOTP - request a copy of the article from the library - http://bit.ly/1Xyazai
book review. Login at top righthand side of page using your SSSFT NHS Athens for full text . SSOTP - You can request a copy of this article by replying to this email. Please ensure you are clear which article you requesting.
Soon after the inception of the evidence-based medicine (EBM) movement in the 1990s, the evidence pyramid rose from the sand.1 As more evidence resources and resources for finding evidence were developed it became necessary to provide guidance on their use. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details
ORCHA, the Organisation for the Review of Care and Health Applications has developed a safe, simple and highly effective way to validate health apps and provide a convenient rating scale to guide clinicians and the general public.
ORCHA also empowers health and care professionals to identify, engage with and actively promote apps that will have a positive impact on their patients and service users health and wellbeing outcomes.
Now Sherwood Forest Hospitals, Sutton-In-Ashfield, has its own pop up staff library service visiting the wards and departments.
“It’s all about ensuring our staff have the most up-to-date information to provide the best patient care” says Heather Gardner,Library Manager. “People told us it was often difficult to cross the hospital site and get to the library after they had done a full shift or in their breaks.So we decided to take the library to them”
Librarians work with the hospital’s Practice Development team-who provide cover on the ward to ensure patient care is unaffected during the visit-to make the service a success.
The Conference was held on Thursday 15th and Friday 16th September 2016 in The Scarborough Spa, Scarborough. If you missed out on attending the conference or would like to take a walk down memory lane, via the HLG Conference 2016 pages: http://www.cilip.org.uk/health-libraries-group/events-conferences-seminars/hlg-conference-2016