Bags of Knowledge

Smartphones

2015-01-29T11:03:00.002+00:00

Smartphones. Everyone has one. The technology involved boggles the mind if you put too much thought into it. Not too long ago computers looked like this.

And even then about all you could do on them was play Solitaire and do long division. Nowadays, your average toddler can do anything from play a cheeky game of Candy Crush, to manage their bank account, to remotely controlling their central heating at home. That's right, the average toddler.

The value we place on the versatility and convenience of having these tiny gadgets in our back pockets is immense. I have friends who buy every new instalment and marginal upgrade that the companies decide to make. “But look Gareth, the menu layout has been redesigned; this is going to change my life!” And I am certain you know similar people in your life, or are one yourself. The industry in the smartphone market has exploded. Samsung, Apple and Microsoft are all riding this train to colossal profits. Ever heard of Huawei? They’re a Chinese company with some new phones being released in the UK, but they are the largest telecoms company in the world.

Apple purchases in excess of 50% of the world’s total production of sapphire to provide for its new screens.

What am I going on about with all this? Well, smartphones are a new phenomenon, but they are not going away anytime soon. This is why I wanted to give you some insights into what the little box in your left pocket is doing to your life, and also some interesting facts you can use to impress your colleagues over lunch.

Using smartphones dramatically increases sensitivity in the tips of your fingers. Find out a bit more about it here. The study seems to show that after a certain period of using a phone, the piece of your brain responsible for the sensory nerves in your thumb and fingers become dramatically more sensitive. So maybe using your phone is affecting your brain, but probably not cooking it like your Gran warned you.

You’ve heard of Athletes Foot and Tennis Elbow. Well how about Texter’s Neck? Did you know your head weighs 12lbs? (average) That’s equivalent to the green bowling balls you find in your local bowling lanes. Now imagine the length of time that you spend hunched over staring gormlessly down at your phone waiting for twitter to Load New Tweets. The study shows just how much strain you are putting on your cervical spine by spending so much time on your phone. Up to 60lbs worth of strain, depending on how deeply you incline your head. Maybe try and keep it at eye level?

Ever have trouble sleeping at night? Tossing and turning because your mind is still active, thinking about plans for the next couple of days? Well we can blame that one on your phone too. The act of looking at a screen is a remarkably taxing one for your eyes to perform. Just the simple act of scrolling down your Facebook wall is a highly mental activity, and is something that preoccupies a great deal of attention. To an even greater extent, relaxing by playing a simple game like Clash of Clans is an activity that requires a whole lot of brainpower.

This is the opposite of what you want to be doing before bed. In an ideal world, you would stick on some smooth jazz or whale song, depending on preference, and relax in a semi-meditative state repeating the word “Ohm” to yourself until your mental activity has ceased, from whence you fall into a blissful sleep carried on the wings of angels. Is this going to happen every night? Without a doubt, no. What you can do to help yourself out before going to bed, is maybe relax downstairs on your phone, then when you are ready to go to bed, toddle up stairs and put your PJs on, brush your teeth, and get some multiple of 40 winks without poring over your phone.

So the smartphone is using its powers for evil, for the most part right? All part of the plan, so that when Skynet rises we will all be an oversensitive, ill-rested and chronic back pain suffering lot who lack the vim and vigour to resist the machine uprising.

We all know the surface benefits of having a phone. 24hr access to information wherever you are, an ability to contact everyone you know in a matter of seconds, distracting yourself in important meetings, and all manner of other tasks.

Wondering how this is all relevant to the library? Wonder no longer! With a flawless segue, here are a couple of links about services you can access on your phone.

UptoDate has a great mobile site just waiting for you to scroll down.

http://www.scoop.it/apps is well worth a look. I told you about Scoop it a couple of weeks ago, but the content curation is a really valuable feature and a novel approach to information access.

See you next time!

This Blog Will Save Your Life!

2015-01-16T14:59:00.000+00:00

As long as you have some kind of heart defect that can only be cured by reading this blog. Convenient, right?

This week’s blog is about headlines. More specifically about headlines in health and medical articles, and is a companion piece to the article from last week.

We all know the press loves to sensationalise stories. Remember the craze about superfoods I talked about last week? How pomegranates and blueberries cure cancer, stop child abuse and fight fires, all while rocking a James Dean slicked back hair do?

Maybe not in so many words, but in 2013 the world went a bit doolally* over these unassuming constituent parts of muffins and smoothies. The studies so far failed to figure out why exactly this was, especially regarding Blueberries, as they contain no particularly high or dense quantities of nutrients or antioxidants. (http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fruits-and-fruit-juices/1851/2)

Don’t just believe me though. (http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-info/healthyliving/cancercontroversies/superfoods/)

So while the media went a bit mad with articles like “Superfoods Fight Cancer” really all that was happening was they wanted you to click on their article or pick up the paper. Had you done so, you would have found dubious sourcing and abbreviated quotes to sensationalise otherwise quite well balanced opinions.

Of course it didn’t take long until people like yours truly were shouting about the over hyping and misleading headlines, before we got this from the Daily Mail (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2598694/Why-called-superfoods-BAD-Nutritionist-says-kale-send-thyroid-haywire-quinoa-irritates-gut.html)

Anyway, that’s quite enough links for one article, but I think you get the idea. Linking to last weeks article, make sure you see through the headline glare, and read what the article actually says, and who it sources. Before you decide to cut Kale totally out of your diet in case your Thyroid gets a bit antsy, consider looking in a bit more depth at what proof the Daily Mail cares to provide you.

I lied about the last link. This one is. http://www.nhs.uk/news/2014/12December/Pages/your-guide-to-hitting-the-headlines.aspx

The reason I wrote this is because I wanted to bring this one to your attention. It’s a light-hearted piece by the Behind the Headlines team at NHS Choices, and I recommend giving it a read.

This is quite a short one this week, but if I went any further I might be impinging on the intellectual property of NHS choices, and woe betide he who does such a thing.

I hope these last two articles were a bit more enlightening, and that you are now armed with the knowledge to think a bit more critically about the headlines. And maybe not believe everything you read. Except this blog. You should treat this as gospel.

*Interesting fact about the expression Doolally. It originated in early 20^th centuryBritish India, and refers to Deolali Transit camp, where soldiers being sent home would wait for a ship back to ol’ Blighty. The waiting times were severe, and so stemmed the phrase Doolally Tap, to meaning crazy waiting. (Doolally being a corruption of the name Deolali, and tap from the Sanskrit word “tápa” meaning fever.) Don’t say I never teach you anything.

AMR- What, Who, When, Where and How?

What is AMR? Well, I’m glad you asked. If you hadn’t I probably would have assumed I didn’t need to write this. AMR is fancy jargon for AntiMicrobial Resistance. It may be something you have heard about in the news, and should you be clinical staff, on the job. It refers to how the bugs are winning the fight.

Since the discovery of Penicillin, humans have used all kinds of cultures to stave off infection by the trillions of little gribblies all just waiting to force you to take a day off work. It is in fact a hard-pressed conflict. As we go on using them, many bacteria will develop an immunity or resistance to certain types of antibiotic, similar to how you are likely immune to Smallpox. (Thanks Edward Jenner!)

This provides quite the challenge for the brainy folk who go about their daily jobs trying to find new weapons in this ongoing struggle. Miracle drugs don’t grow on trees! Or maybe they do, but there are a lot of trees to check.

So is that it? Just wait for the inevitable tide of Bacteria to come kick down your front door and abscond with your spouse, all while you sit there blowing your nose?
Ridiculous hypotheticals aside, there are several things you can do as an individual to curtail the spread. You never know, if everyone starts doing this, maybe it’ll have an impact!

Some decent guidelines to follow are:

· Cover your mouth when you sneeze. For one, it’s just polite. Second, logic dictates that if a strain of bacteria infects less people, it will have less likelihood to be subjected to a gauntlet of antibiotics, and will therefore have less of a chance to develop immunity.

· Follow basic Infection Control guidelines. You should be doing this already, I’m just pointing out there are reasons beyond NHS officials having a thing for clean hands.

· Do not save antibiotics prescribed to you by your doctor as part of a course “for next time.” That isn’t how it works. If you don’t finish the course, the antibiotics don’t do their job properly. Antibiotics need to reach a certain level of saturation in your cells to have any effect. Bacteria that survive the course because the levels of drug are too low to kill them, have an opportunity to develop resistance to it. Don’t be Patient Zero of the dreaded Hedgehog Flu Outbreak of 2015. By “saving it for next time” you are undermining the whole reason to take the course in the first place!

· Do not use antibiotics without the advice of a clinician. Those drugs you saved from last time may not be tailored in the correct dosage and quantity to appropriately attack the particular infection you have acquired. Let the doctor and pharmacist do their job. They probably know better than you. They get paid to do it for a living. And if you are a doctor? You should probably know better.

Right, well that’s that bit done with. Believe it or not, that all came from reading a couple of books on the topic, and consulting various publications by various institutions rather more qualified to declaim on the matter than I. They can all be found down at the library, as we are creating a display on the topic! I’ve even marked the relevant sections in a number of books hand-picked by a librarian for your convenience! We’re good like that.

Hope to see you soon, and I leave you with this little joke on the history of medicine.

2001 BC	Here, eat this root.
1000 AD	That root is heathen. Here, say this prayer.
1850 AD	That prayer is superstition. Here, drink this potion.
1920 AD	That potion is snake oil. Here, swallow this pill.
1945 AD	That pill is ineffective. Here, take this penicillin.
1955 AD	Oops... bugs mutated. Here, take this tetracycline.
1960-1999 AD	39 more “oops”... Here, take this more powerful antibiotic.
2000 AD	The bugs have won! Here, eat this root.

Musings on the New Year

2015-01-09T13:03:00.000+00:00

January. A time of reinvention, of crowded gyms, streets filled with joggers and smoothies that taste “all right”, but only because it’s better than yesterdays.

I touched on the health craze that annually sweeps the nation this time of year briefly in my last article, but I wanted to go into a bit more depth this week in light of a pair of articles my colleague very kindly pointed out to me.

These articles are from the NHS Choices website, which I heartily recommend as a goldmine of good and grounded information on all manner of topics. Find it here.

I despair at what comes at the turn of each year. My twitter feed is inundated with various celebrities and public figures all promising to be better people and eat less junk food My Facebook wall is similarly burdened with old schoolmates swearing off Alcohol/Cigarettes/McDonalds (other fast food chains are available)* only for me to see them outside the pub later that week with a cigarette in one hand and a pint in the other.

This rant is not aimed at making people feel bad about their New Years Resolutions, and if you are taking part in the Dry January challenge, or quitting smoking, and used the New year as a starting point then well done, and I believe you are more than capable of doing it. Remember, if you need help, there are organizations set up to help you quit smoking and reduce alcohol intake. And you can always help others while doing it! https://registration.dryjanuary.org.uk/

What I want to express though, and the point of the article, is that there are a myriad of schemes, plans, mantras and “diets” that are based in dodgy science at best. The article my aforementioned colleague showed me was penned by Dr Alicia White, who shared the same concerns as me.

She was concerned that most people do not know how to properly assess the legitimacy of a particular piece of text, be it a research paper or newspaper article.

The problem we face these days is oversaturation of the news. You can’t possibly read every piece of news that meanders its way through over your breakfast table, there simply isn’t time. Just as you are unlikely to research into the minutiae of every diet you consider. Many people pick one based on a celebrity who lost a bunch of weight, or a “Superfood” like flavour of 2013, the blueberry.

The article I refer to explains this in a much more concise and enjoyable fashion than I will here, so the link is right here: http://www.nhs.uk/news/Pages/Howtoreadarticlesabouthealthandhealthcare.aspx.

Please give it a read, it’s well written and convincing, and provides invaluable information about several extremely relevant topics.

I’d also like to qualify this article by mentioning that by no means should you write off all diets and healthy living plans. As an example, I have been adhering to the 5:2 diet mentioned in the article above. A “fad” diet by definition, it suggests you reduce your calorific intake on two of every seven days to around 500 calories. Remember, I am not advertising this diet, but I would like to mention that I went into it with eyes open, and sceptical myself, which I believe is key to anything run by a for profit organisation. I did my research and found the scientific basis to it sufficiently convincing that I was prepared to try it. I was helped by my Dad’s success at it, and have been using what is effectively an altered eating plan for around 9 months. I’ve lost 3 stone now, and feel good. However, rather than risk this turning into a Weightwatchers Testimonial, I acknowledge that a good part of this weight loss is down to me starting to exercise more, drinking less beer after leaving Uni, and that willpower isn’t just the force that Prince Charles' son can exert.

Why is this all relevant on a library blog? Well, for one thing, I wanted to write an article about this, and saw my chance when Helen the aforementioned colleague showed me the relevant source material. The other reason is that as a library, our job is to make knowledge more accessible. However, there is a lot of knowledge out there, and we can’t sift through the whole lot to ensure it is all pertinent and trustworthy for each individual. The referred to article lets you critique what you are reading for yourself.

Knowledge is power, and we want to empower you.

Sorry for the slightly more serious article this week, but some topics don’t lend themselves to wanton tomfoolery. We’ll be back to more fun and frolics next week!

*Oh wait, I don’t work for the BBC…

Merry New Year!

2015-01-05T12:19:00.000+00:00

It’s finally over. Christmas and New Year are in the rear-view mirror, and Spring approaches ever faster.

After gorging yourself with various nibbles, snacks and tasty treats, going back to work must seem a bit of a drag, especially after you drank a few too many glasses of bubbly to see in 2015.

2015. Where has the time gone? This is the year Marty and Doc Brown travelled to in Back to the Future 2! I still am without a hover board though, and my clothes are disappointingly still not automated, to say nothing of the abolishment of the Lawyer.

So then, a new year means a new you right? Going to finally start that new fad diet, stop drinking all that beer/wine, and join the gym. Millions of people do it every year, and it goes the same for a vast majority of them. The first two weeks are fun and exciting, and then you remember that you actually enjoy a beer, that this fad diet is plain ridiculous, and the gym is taking up a bit more of your time than you previously anticipated.

Perhaps slightly more relevantly, that research article that you’ve been meaning to start for sometime, and the deadline looming ever closer is starting to be a cause for concern, or that technique you aren’t certain about, but it comes up so rarely that it’s ok to ask a colleague about it.

I wonder who could possibly help with that.

Readers of previous articles, and anyone familiar with rhetoric at all however, will jump to the conclusion that it may in fact be something that us lot down in the library can help with. Not help you drink less beer, but I’m sure we can find something to get you going on that indecipherable research topic, and provide clarity on the best techniques.

This article was less of a tirade on the benefits of the library, and more a chance for us at the library to say we hope you had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. And hope you weren’t blinded by the fireworks in London. Better than my Catherine Wheel, I tell you that!

See you next time!

Electronic Learning. Welcome to the Future, We have flying cars!

2014-12-19T11:37:00.001+00:00

Hullo!

This is the fourth article I am writing in as many weeks. So far the reception has been extremely positive, with a couple of people mentioning they liked the articles whilst in the library, and even a comment on last week’s article! Thanks Anonymous, you’re a swell guy/gal.

Reiterating the end of last week, please never feel afraid to get in touch and let me know about how you feel about this series. As the weeks pass I’d like to tailor it to what you want to hear about, and that can’t happen without me knowing what you like.

Big fan of the eye-candy in last week’s article? He’s married; I’ll have to check with his wife if you want more of that. Missed last week’s? Here it is!

Want more features? A quiz? I have a lot of useless knowledge, but then when I read quizzes on other websites they always seem lame. Maybe not.
Want dessert? Well finish your greens then young man/lady! It’ll put hair on your chest.

I think you get the picture. If there’s something you want me to ramble on about for about 400 words or so , let me know and I’ll try and fit it in.

So anyway, to todays topic. Electronic Learning Resources. (ELR)

ELR come in a myriad of forms. E-books, journals, online access, forums, apps, databases (Databi?)

We provide access to all of the above. Except Databi, which isn’t a word, let alone a service. We do have databases though!

As I have mentioned before, our physical journal collection is pretty expansive, giving you that book smell when you open any one of our 407 titles we have in the flesh. That’s not counting the online access you have when mucking about on Open Athens (our service provider). Anyone want to guess how many you get?

You’re very quiet, you need to shout at the screen, I won’t be able to hear you otherwise.

Ok, please don’t shout at the screen, especially if you’re reading from a computer on the cardiology ward.

The final total, including e-books comes to a mind boggling One Hundred and Fourteen Thousand, Four Hundred and Thirteen.

Oh my.

That looks like 114,413 in numbers.

And it costs you the princely sum of £0.00, payable in monthly instalments*

*APR 3.4%, sum payable within 12 months or your home may be repossessed

*Gasp*

Pretty good for nothing right? Come on down and see us on how you too can hold the wisdom of ages in your palm, and laugh like some kind of omnipotent being.

UpToDate!

That’s right, we subscribe to UpToDate, which is so good, it has capitalised letters strewn through the title.

I’ll wait for you to get up off the floor after swooning at this latest revelation.

Done? Good. Mop your brow, you look a state. Just kidding, you’re beautiful. All my readers are as beautiful as my own non-existent children.

Anyway, tangent aside, I guess I should tell you about UpToDate (it’s a pain capitalising every other letter in that word) UpToDate is a clinical evidence based search tool that can be used by clinicians and hospital staff to find quick and relevant information on any one of 10,000 topics and counting.

The way it works is the company running UpToDate have a crack team of experts working round the clock researching the methods that have the most clinical evidence to back them up. Want to find out techniques for amputating someone’s leg? They’ve done the research so you don’t have to.
The best thing about it though, is certainly the fact it’s evidence based, and current. No more searching through dusty tomes for the most potent rum to administer when performing an amputation, although if you’re still doing that, I wonder that they let you have a stethoscope.
We recently performed a survey which many of you may have participated in. Here is some of the anonymous feedback that we received.

“(UpToDate) provides key learning in one site allowing improved efficncy of my time”

“An invaluable resource for this Trust. Each of us should probably use it even more, it is a great resource particularly for areas outside one's own specialty and to check other matters. It is not advertised sufficiently. Do all the junior staff know of it? It would be as serious loss of we did not have it.”

So pretty positive. I only chose two because I don’t want this article to go on too much, but as the second reviewer suggested, it really is a powerful tool in the medical professional’s arsenal. If you don’t use it already, try giving it a look, you can find a direct link on the SDH intranet homepage on the right. If you do use it already, great! Maybe recommend it to your colleagues. They will thank you for it. And then you get to be that person who knew about something before it was cool. Everyone loves that person.

That’s all for this week!

Until Next Time…

Blog Article 3, This Time It's Personal

2014-12-12T09:40:00.000+00:00

So here we are again. What should I talk about this week?

While there are several topics I wanted to talk about, I have decided for one more week to talk about the great things we do.

Friday the 28^th of November was the Striving for Excellence awards, which all the library staff attended (except the new guy) and all remarked it was brilliant seeing the innovation, effort and quality of care the staff of SDH make part of their everyday jobs.

A link to the full breakdown of the awards and their winners can be found here.

Our very own Liam Thornhill (Library Assistant turned IT Trainer) was a well deserved recipient of the Living the Values award, which he earned by being everything you might want someone helping you to be. Now I don’t want him getting a big head, but he’s been doing a great job here for 4 years, and in filling his role, I am constantly asked “oh are you the lovely young man who helped me last time I was in?”

Now, I am a lovely young man, but I’ve got my work cut out for me if I hope to follow in his footsteps.

Scoop It!

I also want you to take a look at the Healthcare Library’s Scoop.it page. It is updated daily with all the latest news from around the web. The two topics curated on there are SDH news which is a delight to read about all the good work you folks are doing, and a healthcare app page updated with information about all the latest apps that can help make clinicians and their patients lives easier/more contained within their smartphones.

Scoop it is an underused tool that I had never heard of before I started work here, but I do recommend checking it out. Think of it more as a Twitter where you follow topics relevant to you rather than people who post motivational quotes and pictures of kittens. Not that kittens aren’t relevant, but you get my gist.

Find it here! http://www.scoop.it/t/medical-apps-by-healthcarelibrary

Back on display!

November in the library was “Self-Care Month”. In conjunction with the week running the 17^th to the 23^rd of November we have had a display of tips and tricks to keep you jolly and healthy throughout winter. Although that display is gone now, you can still get information on the NHS choices website.

Taking its place once more by our glorious self-issue machine is the Mood Boosting Book display. Featuring Works by Terry Pratchett, Victoria Hislop and James Bowden, we have a range of books that will cheer you up on a dismal British December evening.

Healthcare Current Awareness Bulletins

Our resident librarians remind me of Santa’s elves. Not because they are short and have high pitched voices, but because they spend a good portion of their time working on Elfcare , sorry Healthcare Current Awareness Bulletins.

These Bulletins are tailor made with the latest guidance and research to help keep you up to date with the most recent developments in the field of your choice. Want to know more about Urology? Who doesn’t?! You can find a focused Bulletin on the topic by simply selecting your topics and emailing them to us at Library.Office@salisbury.nhs.uk.

To save you unnecessary clicking, and because I’m good like that, here is the list of topics you can get updated with.

Acute and Critical Care Occupational Health

Alcohol, Ophthalmology

Burns and Plastics, Orthopaedics

Cleft Lip and Palate, Paediatrics

Dementia, PCI/Cardiology

Dermatology Pharmacy

Diabetes/Endocrinology Public Health

End of Life Care, Rheumatology

Fertility, Spinal Cord Injuries

Infection Prevention/Control Stroke

Maternity Care Urology

Neonatal Care Wound Care

Neurology

Then your little bundle of research will turn up in your inbox (stocking) periodically all wrapped up and ready to go. See? Elves.

So there we are. Another week, another series of flippant remarks and bad irrelevant tangents.

I would love to know what you guys think about the blog, and if there are any topics you might be interested and want to hear me discuss in future articles please leave a comment in the comments section.

Equally if you hate what I’m doing with this blog and only reading in a fit of self-loathing, let me know in the comments. This is the internet and if someone isn’t calling the author rude names on a public domain it just feels a bit weird…

Also, you should tell all your colleagues to have a look. It’s nice to share, especially at Christmas!

Until next time…

Librarians. What on earth do we do?

2014-12-02T11:41:00.002+00:00

So they let me write another one. Phew…

This week, now that introductions are out the way, and you know where we are, I want to talk about the jobs that the staff at the Healthcare Library do.

But wait Gareth, don’t you all just sit around reading books and tell people to “shhh” for a living?

Well in a dream world, that would be the plan, but too much shushing starts to wear on the throat after a while, and we all feel like this might be a misappropriation of Trust resources. Instead we carry out tasks that help keep the library running and most importantly, keep access to the resources you guys need available and easy to find.

Sounds easy right?

So, let’s break down our friendly staff into their job roles shall we?

These would be the Librarians and Library Assistants.

That didn’t take long.

Your faithful Library Assistant team at this particular Healthcare Library consists of myself (Gareth) and my esteemed colleague Anne-Marie Fitton. Our particular responsibilities cover two separate sections of our physical and online resources.

Anne-Marie is the Keeper of the Books. Not actually her job title but it sounds more dramatic... As well as the myriad of other tasks she performs in her role as our Library Office Manager, she is also the channel through which all our inter-library loans take place. She is an integral cog to our service, and resident expert on all things.

(I didn’t miss a bit out here, she knows everything)

If you need a book and we can’t provide it from our stock, she can track it down. If you have any queries about the library service, she will know the answer. If there's something strange in your neighbourhood... You should probably call Ghostbusters, but Anne-Marie will give it a crack!

Although I’m still learning, my role is managing the journal stock both electronic and in physical form. This amounts to looking after the collection we have, and adding to it when possible. I’m also responsible for responding to other library’s loan requests, as well as making sure you have a pleasant visit and any issues you encounter are resolved quickly and effectively. I also write the Blog, state the obvious, and run the ScoopIt page.

We are both full-time, so if you are popping in on a weekday when we are staffed, you can be sure to find one of our delightful visages waiting to help.

The Librarians down here are Jenny Lang, Caroline Thomas, and Helen Clemow. When you think librarian, you think some old battle-axe peering down the length of her nose, tutting just loud enough to shame you as you remonstrate what a mistake it was to come to the library whilst still being an organic being that requires breathing to live. Shame on you.

I was apprehensive of having to work with such characters, as I too need oxygen to live, and was beginning to puzzle out a way of somehow oxygenating my blood through some kind of intravenous system. (Patent Pending)

Then I turned up in the library and had to scrap my design. They were extremely tolerant of gas breathing carbon beings! In fact, since I’ve been here I’ve not heard a single tut, remonstration, recrimination, scolding or a haughty sigh!

The librarians are really keen to get the best experience possible for your visits, and keep you coming back. After all, knowledge is power, and we want to empower you to do your job as effectively as possible. That’s our job.

No longer in the dark ages are we. Books are not closely guarded as means of keeping the riff-raff in line any more.

That’s all very well, but what can the Librarian do for you?

A good question and one that cannot be answered in the limited word count available to me. To see a full list of what we can do, click here.

The service that I wanted to tell you about, and possible one of the most valuable services this library provides, is the Literature Search. A literature search is a very simple thing to request. Simply fill in one of our forms at our website with as much detail as possible, and our Librarians will scour the internet and databases, finding up to date and relevant information, fully referenced and ready to go! Time saving extraordinaire!

So once again, thanks for reading and I hope this will inspire you to let us help you do less work.

Until next time…

New Books!

De Swiet's medical disorders in obstetric practice	Powrie, Raymond O	WQ220
Introduction to research	DePoy, Elizabeth	WB25
Communication skills in health and social care	Moss, Bernard	WLM816
Critical reading and writing for postgraduates	Wallace, Mike	L125
Nursing research	Munhall, Patricia L.	WY20
How to write a paper	Hall, George M.	Q50
Risk assessment in people with learning disabilities	Sellars, Carol	WM805
The good research guide	Denscombe, Martyn	HM20
Minor injuries	Purcell, Dennis	WD458
Innovating for patient safety in medicine	Lawton, Rebecca	WA55
Disabling barriers - enabling environments	Swain, John	WB600
Essential knowledge and skills for healthcare assistants	Rawles, Zoe	WY120
Research methods for clinical therapists	Hicks, Carolyn M.	WB25
Succeeding in literature reviews and research project plans for nursing students	Williamson, Graham R.	WY20

An Era Ends

2014-11-14T12:16:00.002+00:00

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Healthcare Library Blog!

I hope you are sitting down, because the library blog is under new authorship.

Your previous guide to the Library, Liam has moved on to pastures new, and has secured a secondment in the lofty heights of the IT department. (Congrats Liam!) For the next year, I shall be your Sherpa to the comings and goings of the library. But wait, I hear you say, who is this we put our trust in to provide valuable information on the machinations of that sanctuary of knowledge?!

Introducing….

Gareth Hall. You may know me from my time in the Orthopaedic, Oral and Plastic Outpatients department admin team. If not, never fear as I am in the library every day of the week, just pop on down and say Hi!

I moved on down to the library to cover Liam’s adventure into IT, and have enjoyed every day of it.
The Library is in my opinion, a vastly underrated resource in this hospital. I am not even sure many hospital staff are aware we are down here. In case you are one of those uninitiated, we are in the old hospital, just down the corridor from Hedgerows café. Come stick your head in and say hello, maybe even read a book/journal!

We provide a variety of services from a quiet place to study, to performing literature searches on a topic of your choice for those of you who cannot find the time in between shifts to cram in studying for that paper/article/course you need to do.

Of course we also have books. We’re a library. I’m sure you guessed that. Our book stock ranges from Anatomy to Zygotes. We are constantly updating our stock with the newest and most up to date books, recommended by you! To see our new additions this month, check the list down the page.

In the event that you are unable to find that elusive copy you need in our collection, we can procure one from another Library through the Inter Library Loan system. Ooooh.

Same goes for journals. Can’t find what you need? Either we can chase it down for you, or it doesn’t exist. In which case we can help you do the research to make it exist! Amazing. That’s teamwork.

In summary then, I’m new, come say hello! The library is awesome; you should try it out sometime. If you do already, great! Maybe we have a resource or tool that you were unaware of that can make your job easier. We want to help. It’s our job, and we love it.

Hope to see you soon!

New Books in the Library

We love books. Here are the new ones we’ve got.

Title	Authors	Shelf Mark
Moorfields manual of ophthalmology	Jackson, Timothy L.	WW100
Oxford handbook of clinical haematology	Provan, Drew	WH140
Student nurse infection control	Smith, Barbara	WC195
Oxford handbook of endocrinology and diabetes	Wass, John A. H.	WK100
Neurological examination made easy	Fuller, Geraint	WL250
Rheumatology and orthopaedics	Elias-Jones, Cameron	WD900
Prostate cancer	Tewari, Ashutosh	WJ752
Colorectal cancer	Scholefield, John H.	WI435
Haematology	Hatton, Chris S. R.	WH100
Rapid infection control nursing	Ross, Shona	WC195
ABC of colorectal cancer	Young, Annie Miller	WI435
Minor injury and minor illness at a glance	Morris, Francis	WD450
ABC of major trauma	Skinner, David V.	WD450
ABC of prostate cancer	Dasgupta, Prokar	WJ752
Moving and handling people	Ruszala, Sue	W372
Moving and handling of plus size people	Muir, Mary A.	W372
Textbook of adult emergency medicine	Cameron, Peter	WD450
Wilkins' clinical assessment in respiratory care	Heuer, Albert J.	WF141
Harrison's pulmonary and critical care medicine	Loscalzo, Joseph	WF100
Harrison's rheumatology	Fauci, Anthony S.	WD900

Things you probably should be using but aren't.

In this section you can find a list of things that you'll find useful, but probably don't use, for whatever reason as a top 5 list. Because everyone likes Top 5 lists.

In no particular descending order...

5. The calendar on your phone. Really useful. I've used it a grand total of once to check what day of the year my birthday is.

4. That hedgehog boot scraper you bought. No one wants to stamp on a hedgehog.

3. Anatomy TV! OK, this one is serious. Anatomy TV is a brilliant tool accessible for Athens users. Liam wrote a piece on it earlier this year. Find it by scrolling down.

2. The E-book and E-Journal facility available to you through the Library. A massive resource. If you think we have a lot of journals in the Library, you should look online. It goes on for miles.

1. What we've all been waiting for... Us! The staff at your friendly Healthcare Library will help with any queries, searches or requests you may have, but we can't help you unless you let us.

An App for you?

2014-08-19T10:04:00.000+01:00

Mobile Apps that can assist health care professionals

"There's an app for that!" it's a common phrase these days. Making your photos look professional, helping your kids with their maths homework, arranging a table plan for your wedding - there's an app for pretty much anything and it's the same with medicine. High quality, evidence-based apps have the potential to be a useful tool in either medical practice or education and can make some tasks a little easier. There are apps that have videos or interactive 3D models, which can be useful as a teaching tool. Other apps allow you to access medical references at the touch of a button or carry out drug calculations. But with so many apps out there, all with varying degrees of quality and cost, it can be really hard to find the best app for you.

The library has created a page with the latest news and reviews on medical and health care apps. This page will hopefully give health care professionals a helpful insight into choosing the right app and also creating awareness of new apps that could be a welcome asset to their work. Health care apps that have good reviews could also be recommended to patients as way to manage conditions such as diabetes. You can read the full text review or news item of any of the apps by simply clicking either the title, image or source link.

The Library Healthcare and Medical Apps page

You can search for a topic or speciality by clicking on the filter icon in the top right corner of the page. Clicking on any of the tags will only bring up any apps with that topic heading.

We hope you find this page helpful. If you have any opinions or experiences, good or bad with any of the apps on the page please feel free to contact us or leave a comment, it'd be great to get some feedback.

http://www.scoop.it/t/medical-apps-by-healthcarelibrary

Until next time...

Spreading the good word

2014-07-15T15:23:00.000+01:00

Head Librarian Jenny with our eye catching UpToDate display in Springs

If you've been to Springs today for your lunch or a sneaky bit of chocolate, you'll probably have noticed our lovely display boards with loads of information on 'UpToDate'. Hopefully this will answer questions like, "What is it?" "How do I access it?" "Is it evidence-based?"

You'll also find some handy 'user guide' leaflets on the tables that show all the features of UpToDate, feel free to take away one for you and your colleagues.

Pick up a UpToDate leaflet in Springs or in the Library

General interest and usage of UpToDate is on the up and hopefully the display boards will encourage more healthcare professionals to make good use of the resource.

Also this week...

Jenny Lewis from UpToDate will be giving a presentation at the next Hospital Round on Friday and we hope there will be a good crowd of enthusiastic listeners in attendance... or at least a decent crowd of people taking advantage of the free lunch!

If you would like to book one to one or a group training session on UpToDate please contact us and we'll arrange a time best suited to you. Feel free to get in touch if you ever have any questions or queries.

Finally I'll leave you with some nice comments from some of our UpToDate users:

"I've used Up-To-Date for some time now for ENT information, and can highly recommend it. The site is comprehensive and has the most current evidence."

“…Using UpToDate helped consolidate my knowledge and reassure me that my clinical management was based on recent evidence base.”

“I am really enjoying having UpToDate - that has changed my practice - it is a really good quick source of information for when I am on the wards and need to look something up.”

Until next time...

8 Reasons to use Anatomy TV

2014-07-02T16:59:00.000+01:00

Explore the human anatomy in extraordinary detail

Anatomy TV is a free resource for all Salisbury staff and students who have an NHS Athens account. We in the library were given an online demonstration on how Anatomy TV works and what it’s capable of and I must say that we were all mightily impressed. Now we’re not medical professionals of course but even we can see what a great reference and teaching tool Anatomy TV is. Here's some of the reasons you should try Anatomy TV if haven't already.

Multiple 3D layers of the anatomy

1. Amazing 3D Models

Going into the Functional Anatomy link on the homepage will take you to a 3D model of the human anatomy. From here you can add or remove muscle, tissue and skin layers. You can also rotate the model 360 degrees so that you can get exactly the right view of the body you need.

2. Information

Clicking on any of the structures within the image (bone, muscle, organ etc.) will bring up information on that particular structure in a text box. The text box contains general information, articulations and muscle attachments. (This will probably mean more to you medical folks then it does to us... sounds good anyway!)

Skeleton run

3. Animations and Movies

This is my favourite! You can view short videos or animations on all the major body parts. The videos have ranges of motion showing bone and muscle movements. You can also view the 3D model performing gross motor movements in animations including sit-ups, jogging, climbing stairs and standing jumps, and just like the static 3D model you can rotate the image. There are also movie clips with human models performing the same motor movements.

4. MRI's

Compare a 3D model to an MRI

Again, something that means absolutely nothing to us but would certainly be of interest to any Radiologists or for those who need to use an MRI for educational purposes. You can view an MRI of all the major organs and compare them to a detailed 3D image. Linking the two images allows you to highlight a particular area in the organ and this will show up on the MRI, clever huh!?

5. Saving and using the content

I said right at the beginning that this was an excellent tool for teaching and learning. All of the content and features are fantastic but one of the best things about Anatomy TV is the fact that you can save and use all the images, videos, animations, slides and text for presentations or demonstrations. It is so easy to save and import any of the content into PowerPoint (or any other presentation software for that matter) and there is no copyright restrictions providing it's used for educational purposes. How impressive would it be to bring up a detailed, animated model for your next teaching session?

6. Online tutorials

When you first log on it can be a tad overwhelming but fear not because there's simple to follow tutorials to help. You can choose to have an overview of how it works in text format or watch a video outlining all the functions and how to use them.

7. Accuracy

The software has been created in collaboration with a team of expert clinicians and educators and is currently being used as a key learning resource at a number of medical education establishments, including the Royal College of Surgeons. So don't just take our word for it.

8. Easy to access

I'm sure most of you have now registered for an NHS Athens account and if you have you can simply link to Anatomy TV from the SWICE homepage (see below). When you click on the link it will bring up a box asking for your Athens username and password, enter the details and you're away. If you're already logged into Athens then you won't need to worry about logging in again.

Link to Anatomy TV from the SWICE homepage

Hope you enjoy getting the most of Anatomy TV and like with anything we're always here to help if you have any problems or queries. We'd also be happy to provide any training or demonstrations to individuals or groups, just let us know.

Until next time...

Fancy some UpToDate training?

2014-04-25T16:02:00.002+01:00

All Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust staff now have access to UpToDate courtesy of your friendly neighbourhood Healthcare Library. "What is UpToDate?" I hear you say. UpToDate is an electronic evidence-based clinical decision making support tool, written by expert clinicians for clinicians. It is designed to help answer clinical questions quickly, increase clinical knowledge and improve patient care... sounds pretty good right? You can access UpToDate from the intranet home page or remotely with an NHS Athens account.

We want the staff in this trust to be make the best possible use of this excellent resource so we have set up a drop-in training session on Friday 2nd May for anyone to attend. The session will be held in the library training room and staff are free to drop-in at any time between 12 and 3pm. If you have absolutely no experience using UpToDate but want to see what it's about or if you've used it in the past but want to learn a bit more, come along and we'll show what it can do for you.

There's no need to book just pop in and bring your lunch, we've also got a hot drinks machine in the library if you fancy a coffee.

Our lovely little training room

If you want any more information on this session or on UpToDate in general please do contact us, always happy to help. Likewise if you're unable to make this date but would like some training. We'd be more than happy to arrange training for individuals or groups, either here in the library or in your department.

As a special treat here's some impressive numbers of what UpToDate contains:

380,000 - References

27,000 - Graphics (including Graphs, Charts, Flow Charts, Photos and Videos)

10,000 - Clinical Topics

5,100 - Drug Monographs

5,100 - Authors and Editors

1,500 - Patient Information Leaflets

135 - Medical Calculators

21 - Specialities (more on the way!)

Right that's it for the sales pitch, look forward to seeing you there on 2nd May.

Until next time...

Happy Easter everyone!

2014-04-16T11:44:00.000+01:00

Just to let you know that the library will be unstaffed on Good Friday (18th April) and Easter Monday (21st April). As usual library members will be able to access the library by using their trust ID badge. If you're not sure if your membership is up to date and you desperately want to use the library over the weekend, contact us before Friday and we'll get it all sorted for you. The membership form can also be found online here.

*NOTE* If you find your ID badge isn't working, and you're sure your membership has not expired, try updating your badge on one of the silver boxes. The nearest silver box to the library is outside the IT department, just up the corridor. Hold the badge up to the box until it flashes from blue to green.

While the library is unstaffed you library members can self-issue books (with your SWIMS card), use the computers, print and photocopy. You will also be able to get a hot drink in the library too, no need to hike down to the main entrance or springs restaurant.

So from all of the library staff, we wish you all a very happy and hopefully sunny Easter weekend.

The trust open day experience

2014-04-14T16:42:00.001+01:00

Coming in on a Saturday was tough I’m not going to lie. I’ve been a wee bit sleep deprived for the past 6 weeks thanks to the arrival of my baby daughter and I’ve really come to appreciate those precious weekend mornings when I don’t have to get out of bed early. But duty calls and I got myself spruced up, in the car and into the education centre in good time ready to meet and greet the general public. And I’m glad I did. Straight away you could tell there was a positive vibe in the room and it was evident that the members of staff who had made the effort to come in were keen and excited to demonstrate the work that they do.

Visitors to the open day were given interactive tours of some of the wards in the hospital, plus a viewing of displays in the education centre from various departments within the trust. We focused our display on the literature search service that the library provides. As I’d said in my previous post, we really wanted to share with the public some of the important work that they might not necessarily associate the library with being involved in. So, with this in mind one of our display boards proudly boasted some of the projects that have been in the media and which the library found evidence to support. Things like;

· The trial of blue plates to encourage elderly patients to eat more.

· My Trusty Little Sunflower Cream

· Publication of a Speech Therapy handbook, written by staff at the hospital

· New, better quality uniforms for hospital staff

Our display for the day

There was a board that emphasised our role in supporting the hospital staff to help achieve evidence-based patient care and another with a visual guide to how the literature search service works... very exciting stuff! As a way of demonstrating that we are a modern, high tech library, we also used a laptop to display a looped presentation that mostly repeated the information on the boards, but with some funky animations and eye-catching graphs.

Making it a bit more interesting

Before the visitors arrived Peter Hill our benevolent Chief Executive, walked around and spoke informally to each person manning a stand. He asked me what it was I planned to talk to people about during the day (possibly worried that I wasn’t going to bore the good folk with mundane library stuff) and he seemed genuinely delighted that I would be highlighting the evidence finding work that we do and that I was using some very high profile projects as examples. This point of the morning also gave me a nice opportunity to network with other members of staff and a chance to sell our services to those who hadn’t already used the library.

During the afternoon I also got a chance to meet Nick Marsden the trust Chairman and had a really positive discussion about how the library finds evidence for staff. Not only did he seem very interested, but he’s also promised to make contact about some ways we might be able to help him.

The first visitors arrived in the education centre around 9:30 and from then on it was a steady stream of people until 14:30. Overall the open day attracted over 170 visitors, not too bad really! Each and every member of the public that I spoke to had nothing but good things to say about, not only the open day, but the staff and the hospital in general and you got a real sense of local pride.

I really enjoyed chatting to people who you wouldn’t normally get a chance to discuss the work done by the library with. I feel confident that those who I spoke to came away with a different view of the library and hopefully an appreciation of the role we play in the trust. For those who assumed that we supply fiction books for patients, it was a nice surprise for them to hear that some of the work we’ve done has influenced the care patients receive and how our service benefits the staff and students. The fact that we were involved with ‘My Trusty Little Sunflower Cream’ and the blue plates for elderly patients initiatives really seemed to impress people and again, I think this had a really positive impact. I certainly received some very nice comments and I’m sure it’s not just because they were in a good mood and wanted to be polite.

I was also interviewed by our very own Radio Odstock. As the microphone was thrust in my face I had a flashback to the last time that I was on the radio. On that occasion I had inadvertently slipped into a strange accent of no real origin, so needless to say I was determined not to let this happen again. The interview went fine, with no unexplained voice changes and I reckon I made the library sound pretty impressive, which it is of course.

One of the personal highlights of the day was getting to chat with Michael Beck who was awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM) for services to charity. As you may or may not know, Michael is 80 years old and has been pushing around his trusty wheelbarrow, “Wally” for 10 years, collecting over £175,000 in donations for our hospital charity 'Stars Appeal'. He has become a familiar figure around Salisbury during regular collections at shops and pubs, the livestock market and the hospital, in addition to going along to support annual charity events like the Tidworth 10k and Walk for Wards. Michael had received treatment at this hospital for blood and prostate cancer and he was full of praise for the care he received and immensely proud to have raised so much money for the hospital. We talked about his upcoming visit to Buckingham Palace and his war medals that he wants to get polished up for his meeting with the Queen. It was a short but lovely conversation with such a nice, funny and selfless man.

The open day has been deemed a success from the trust’s point of view, receiving glowing reviews from the visitors on the day and positive feedback from the staff who attended. I thought all of the staff members on day really did this trust proud and it is credit to them that on a weekend morning, standing around for hours with your back and feet aching, they all remained courteous, friendly and good humoured. Well done!

Spreading the good word with staff and the public

The official trust press release of the day can be found here.

From a library perspective I would certainly say it was worthwhile doing. At the end of the day, the public are not the ones who will use the library but it was good to show people behind the scenes and open their eyes to the work we do. It makes me feel proud of where I work and enhances my belief that what we do is important.

Until next time…

Happy 21st SDH!

2014-03-21T11:04:00.000+00:00

Salisbury District Hospital as we know it marks its 21st year in 2014. A whole 21 years since the move from the old infirmary in town to where it sits proudly today. As part of the celebrations for this milestone, the trust is holding an open day on Saturday 5th April for Foundation Trust members. The open day will include guided tours with interactive activities on level 3 and a viewing of displays from various departments on level 5.

Mind blowing library display boards

The library will be there on level 5 showcasing some of the work we've done and maybe show people that we're not just about books. We're quite keen to share with the public some of the great things that the library has contributed towards, including searching the evidence for using coloured crockery for elderly patients, finding research and information that helped the Speech Therapy Team produce a new handbook, and carrying out literature searches for the innovation of the now famous 'My Trusty Little Sunflower Cream'.

The literature search service continues to play a vital role in achieving evidence-based health care. This is something we're very proud of and hopefully people will come away from the day with a better understanding and appreciation of the role the library plays within the trust.

While putting together the display boards for the open day, we dug up some pretty interesting stats from last year. Of course numbers alone do not tell the whole story but there's a few from 2013 that I really want to share with you:

139 - Literature searches carried out by the library

304 - Hours spent by the librarians on literature searching - Think how much clinical time this has saved!

1954 - Articles supplied

6195 - References found

Until next time...

Drop-in training sessions

2014-02-14T17:01:00.002+00:00

"Hmmm... maybe I'll just 'Google' it!"

I think it's fair to say clinical staff have a really tough time trying to keep appointments that are not absolute necessities. Things can change pretty quickly on the wards. One minute you've got a free half hour to do some CPD and before you can switch on a PC it's all changed and you're rushed off your feet. We as library staff do not know this from first hand experience of course, but we're reliably informed this is often the case.

Keep a look out for the poster

We also know from various discussions with various people that many staff members working on the wards would like to know more about accessing the online resources. It's all very well and good us telling you all about these things but unless you know a) where to look and b) how to use them, it's not really a lot of use to you is it?

So how do we resolve the issue of supplying the demand for training whilst knowing that staff's spare time can be a fickle thing?

One idea is to hold informal 'drop-in' sessions in our training room. We'll open the room up for 3 hour slots and let you guys pick a convenient time to pop in and learn how navigate yourself around the labyrinth of online resources. Feel free to bring your lunch and a coffee with you.

In these sessions you can find out how to search the databases (Medline, CINAHL, BNI etc.) and get access to online journals.
You can discover Anatomy TV, learn how to use UpToDate and see how BMJ Learning works. If you just want to come along and get help with registering for an Athens account, we can help with that too.

Dates and times for sessions are as follows, these dates are also available on the calendar at the bottom of the blog page. Details can also be found on the poster in the library and on 'Post IT':

14th March 10am - 1pm
2nd May 12pm - 3pm
13th June 10am - 1pm
11th July 12pm - 3pm
26th September 10am - 1pm
14th November 12pm - 3pm

If none of these dates are good for you, but you would still like some training, please contact us. We're always happy to arrange either one-to-one or group training, in the library or at a place suitable for you.

Until next time...

Boost your mood, forget the weather

2014-02-13T11:33:00.001+00:00

What a lovely idea!

Mood boosting books in the Healthcare Library

The weather outside is rubbish! It's cold, wet and seriously windy. It's enough to put anyone in a bit of a grump. But here's something we now have available in the library which we hope can help to lift your spirits - 'Mood Boosting Books'. A selection of uplifting titles picked by readers and book clubs around the country.
Of course these books aren't just for beating the winter weather blues. If you're feeling a bit down about work or in your personal life, it's amazing what a good book can do for your entire outlook on things. The scheme also teamed up with Macmillan Cancer Support to involve readers diagnosed with cancer to produce a list of recommended books.

Why wait until your on holiday to enjoy a heart warming novel or true story? How about getting inspired by some beautiful poetry?

Relax with a hot drink - anytime!

Pop down to the library and find something great to read that will hopefully make you feel so much better afterwards.

If you want to get away from the hustle and bustle of the work place, or if you want a quiet place to have a nice sit and a read, come pay us a visit. You can pick up one of the mood boosting books (or a book on maxillofacial surgery if that's your thing), find a quiet space to sit in and even enjoy a hot drink with our new coffee machine, any time of day or night.

I can personally recommend the novel This Book Will Save Your Life by A.M. Homes, my wife is currently enjoying A Street Cat Named Bob by James Bowen.

Full list of mood boosting titles can be found here and the Macmillan mood boosting recommendations here... enjoy!

Until next time...

All the wonders of an Athens account

2014-02-11T12:20:00.001+00:00

Hello all. Yesterday I explained about the wonderful things we have in the library to offer. Today, I shall dazzle you with the magic of on-line resources.

SWICE homepage

YOU can search the healthcare databases, access e-books, e-journals and much more by simply registering for a NHS Athens account at the SWICE (South West Information for Clinical Effectiveness... in case you're interested!) page. The registration process is FREE, very straightforward and if you use a trust PC you can activate your account pretty much instantly. For those of you who have registered before, but need to do so again, you will notice that layout is a bit different. This is because of an "upgrade" (apologies for the slight cynical sarcasm) recently, but it works in much the same way. Just make sure you enter 'Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust' as your organisation and a email will be sent to you with the activation link. Click on the link, set up your own password and ta-da!... you now have an NHS Athens account.

So what do you get with an Athens account? Well, as I said previously you'll now be able to carry out literature searches using the healthcare databases including MEDLINE; CINAHL; BNI and more. You'll be able to save, retrieve and print your search results and (fingers crossed!) link to the available full text articles.
You'll also have access to over a 1000 journals on-line. You can search for journal titles and see what access there is here. If there is access to the journal you're looking for, the search results will display the start and end dates of availability. It will also tell you if the journal is available in print at the library. If the journal isn't available electronically or in print and you want an article from a particular issue, let us know and we'll get it for you, no problem.
The e-books that are available can be found here. You'll also be able to find them by searching the library catalogue.

But databases, books and journals are not the end of it, no sir. Your Athens username and password will also let you access lots of other exciting things such as Anatomy TV, BMJ Learning and UpToDate. Links to these sites can also can be found on this blog and I'll go into more detail on each later on... oh the anticipation!

For those of you that haven't already rushed off to register/re-register/renew your Athens account, I'm sorry if this post has sounded a bit like a sales pitch. We really just want you all to make the most of this brilliant resource that will hopefully help you achieve top quality evidence-based care (there I go again... sorry!).

As with anything library or information related, please contact us with any questions or queries we're always more then happy to help.

Until next time...

Hello and Welcome!

2014-02-10T15:30:00.004+00:00

Healthcare Library at Salisbury District Hospital

Hello and welcome to the new blog for all things related to the Healthcare Library at Salisbury District Hospital. On this blog you'll get the latest news on e-resources, training, books and all manner of things relating to information for health care... sounds exciting right!

Space to study

Let me just give you a little background info on the library for those who don't already know. The library is situated in SDH Central near Hedgerows coffee shop. The library is staffed by one full time librarian, two part time librarians and two full time library assistants. There will always be a member of staff in the library from 9 to 5 (Like the Dolly Parton song), Monday to Friday excluding bank holidays. Library members can access the library 24 hours a day, 7 days a week using their trust ID badge. You can register for library membership either in the library or by completing and returning a form.
There are 13 PCs in the library, all connected to a colour printer. 9 of the PCs reside in our handsome little training room which also has a large plasma screen, perfect for training sessions or watching a DVD (educational DVDs of course, we don't encourage you to sit in there and watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy!). If you desperately want to use a computer and they're all in use, fear not because we also have 6 brand new laptops you can use in the library.

Self-issue machine

As you might expect the library has books, around 27,000 titles in medicine, surgery, psychology, nursing and management. Most titles are loaned for 28 days and can be renewed twice providing they have not been reserved by another reader. Library members can come in at 3 am on a Sunday and take out books thanks to a nifty bit of kit we like to call 'the self-issue machine'.
We've also got over 400 journal titles in the library. You can't take the journals out but you can photocopy articles.

So that's the physical library. We also have loads of brilliant electronic resources which I'll explain at a later date.

I hope you find this blog useful and mildly entertaining. Any constructive criticisms or compliments are always welcome.

Until next time...