USBs for sale

If you've left your memory stick at home or it's full, don't forget USBs are for sale in the Library.

Prices:
2Gb £7.00
4Gb £11.00
8gb £20.00

Searching healthcare databases using NHS Search 2.0

NHS Search 2.0 is the new interface to search health care databases: AMED, BNI, CINAHL, Embase, Health Business Elite, HMIC (DH-Data & the King's Fund), Medline & PsycINFO.

It replaced Dialog.

It can be accessed at http://www.library.nhs.uk/booksandjournals/advanced/default.aspx You will then need to login with your NHS Athens username If you do not have an Athens username self-register for one.

Two guides which may help you use NHS Search 2.0 are:

1. Searching healthcare databases using NHS Search 2.0: Quick guide


2. Differences between Search 2.0 (advanced) and Dialog produced by Information Services & Systems, King's College London

Don't worry that it's a new system - help is at hand. Just telephone or email us for assistance or to book a training session.

NEW Books July - September 2008

Check out a list of new books added to stock in July 2008 . Books added in September include Careers books (many aimed at junior doctors) and education books which form our Simulation Library. Please contact us if you wish to reserve any.

NEW!!! Full-text health management e-journals

Over 500 full-text, health management journals are available to those of you with an NHS Athens username from 1 April 2008. The EBSCO Health Business Elite collection has been purchased for NHS England for 3 years. Topics covered include hospital management, hospital administration, marketing, human resources, computer technology, facilities management and insurance. Titles include H&HN: Hospitals & Health Networks, Harvard Business Review (available back to 1922), Health Facilities Management, Health Management Technology, Healthcare Financial Management, Marketing Health Services, Materials Management in Health Care, Modern Healthcare, and many more.

Self-register for an Athens username today.

Athens resources – changes to access

From 1 April there will be changes to the way you are able to access and use Athens resources.

Search 2.0, a new way to search all electronic content has been purchased nationally for the NHS. It is currently being tested by NHS librarians. It will be the main discovery tool to locate articles from the following primary databases:

• PubMed/Medline
• Cinahl
• Embase
• Alternative and Complementary Medicine Database
• British Nursing Index
• PsycINFO
• Health Management Information Consortium (HMIC)

It is designed to simplify searching by ending reliance on different supplier systems to access resources. The planned national launch date is 1 April 2008 and there will be a two month overlap between the Dialog databases and Search 2.0 during this transitional period.

Please note that your saved searches and alerts will not be transferred over from Dialog, and it is therefore your responsibility to record these now so that you can re-create them in the new system.

NLH Search 2.0 will be accessible from the National Library for Health (NLH) website at www.library.nhs.uk and also by clicking the National Library for Health link in the Resources list within MyAthens.

This new searching experience will be structured around a series of collections within the National Library for Health, including:

• Evidence
• Guidance
• Specialist Libraries
• Book, Journals and Bibliographic databases
• Images
• For Patients

NLH Search 2.0 Resource Guides are available at www.library.nhs.uk/forlibrarians/toolkits.

MyJournals, the A-Z list of NHS journals, will remain as the one-stop-shop for locating NHS electronic journal content. From the 1 April the site should reflect changes to journal content so as to include:

• 10 AMA titles - JAMA and Archive Journals titles
• 590 healthcare titles via Cinahl Full Text (Provided by EbscoHOST Database)
• 26 BMJ titles

In time links will appear to articles in these collections from citations in your search results in the Search 2.0 interface. Please also note that the MyJournals service contains links to paper holdings held by your local healthcare library.

Additional journal content may be available from April onwards and negotiations are currently taking place.

Feedback on your experiences with Search 2.0. This will help refine and develop it.

If you have any queries or require help/training as a result of these changes, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Let there be light!

In the November 2007 NEL Library Survey you asked for the lighting in the Main Library study area to be improved and IT HAS BEEN!!! The lighting refurbishment was completed today. Come and SEE what a difference it has made!

We may not always be able to respond to your requests this quickly but do let us know what further improvements you would like!

Winner of Library Survey Prize Draw & snapshot of responses

The prize draw associated with returning completed November 2007 NEL Library Survey forms was won by Patience Rusinga, Homerton University Hospital. We were pleased to present her with a £10.00 book token.

A big thank you to all who responded – over 150 staff and students from Homerton, City & Hackney Teaching PCT and the East London NHS Foundation Trust completed forms. Your views are important to us. A report will be published and individuals contacted to discuss their viewpoints or to provide more information if you ticked the “Tell me more” boxes.

A snapshot of responses from Homerton staff reveal:

Overall opinion of the library
Very good 38.0% - Good 51.9%
Helpfulness of library staff
Very good 70.4% - Good 24.7%
Support for answering questions / finding information
Very good 64.3% - Good 26.2%

The majority of comments received, as expected, related to requests for more book and journal stock, both print and electronic. We continue to work on improving our book stock. Most key texts are purchased in either print or electronic format. Just because a book is not on the shelf this does not mean that it is not available. It could be on loan! The introduction of a 7 day loan period for some titles has assisted circulation of those we have but we also need you to recommend titles. Do you know which e-books are available to you? See a list of some of them at www.homerton.nhs.uk/education/1166624526852.html and when logged into Athens if you select ebooks (MyiLibrary) from the My Resources list you can access a further 470+. New journal titles were requested. Rationalization of our journal subscriptions now takes place annually. No new titles are subscribed to unless there is a deletion of another title to the same value and regrettably, increases in the price of subscriptions mean we are able to subscribe to fewer paper journals each year. However, we have better access to electronic journals and new titles should be made available to us later this year.

Selection of Electronic books
Very Good 18.7% - Good 29.3% - Fair 14.7% – Not applicable 20.0%
Selection of Electronic journals
Very good 15.2% - Good 29.1% - Fair 22.8% – Not applicable 17.7%
Selection of paper books
Very good 22.1% - Good 39.0% - Fair 18.2% – Not applicable 14.3%
Selection of paper journals
Very good 23.4% - Good 39.0% - Fair 19.5%– Not applicable 14.3%

A few requests were for extended opening. With current staffing levels this is extremely unlikely but are you aware we are usually open Monday 11.00-20.00, Tuesday-Friday 09.00-20.00 ie 53 hours per week or that three computers are available for use in the Education Centre café area when the Library is closed/Computer Room full (a Homerton logon is required)? Additionally, key textbooks and journals are accessible electronically with an Athens username and it is possible to borrow most reference texts on overnight loan. You only have to ask!

Opening hours
Very good 38.0% - Good 45.6%

Additional comments included requests to provide services for free, increase numbers of library staff, overhaul the Computer Room, improve lighting, noise levels and study spaces and expand the library. We hope to have a full complement of staff in the new financial year and for all of those of you who were eager for a Computer Room overhaul and improved lighting I have good news for you. These should be implemented shortly. High noise levels, regrettably, are inherent in the building design but we will continue to look at ways to reduce sound. And, completely free services would severely affect our ability to purchase new books etc.

Quality of library environment
Very good 26.3% - Good 45.0% - Fair 21.3%