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.