Library and Information Health Network Funded by the Northwest … · 2019-08-12 · Library and...

Library and Information Health Network Northwest NewsletterBY HEALTH LIBRARIES, FOR HEALTH LIBRARIES

Funded by the NorthwestHealth Care Libraries Unit

Printed on 100% Recycled Paper

ISSUE 51SUMMER 2016

IN THIS ISSUE

The War of the Wounds Information Dissemination 2

The Three ‘R’s: Reading, Reflecting & Revalidation 4

A Lot of Work for 5 Questions:Understanding Value and Impact inNHS Library & Knowledge Services 5

Developing the ELHT brand 7

New Starter Lorna Dawson 9

The Value of LIHNN Survey results 10

YOHHLNet: Yorkshire and the Humber Health Libraries 11& Knowledge Network

How to deliver a memorable induction 13

“Turn over a new leaf” or “How to make your 14library visible”

Patient Information Forum Conference: 16The Power of Partnership

Dr Lumpy’s guide to accessible material for 17library/information trainers

The Land of Geek: Recommender Systems 18

Make some noiseBlowing our own trumpet,selling ourselves, shoutingfrom the rooftops anddemonstrating our impact.

Not things that everybody feels comfortabledoing but whether Brexit leads us to the sunlituplands or to wrack and ruin it’s unlikely thatNHS funding will become more generousany time soon so we need to demonstrateour usefulness as much as we possibly can.

Finding evidence to demonstrate our impacthas long been the LKS equivalent of thesearch for the philosophers’ stone. The Valueand Impact Task and Finish Group, set up aspart of the Knowledge for Healthcareprocess has been beavering away trying todo just that and has come up with fivequestions to help services. Find out how theygot there with Susan Smith’s article onpage five. Making an impact on her Trust,and on the number of patients suffering withpressure sores, was Alex Williams fromWarrington & Halton Hospitals NHSFT, whoidentified an increase in pressure sores, did aliterature search to find best practice, ran withit and is now writing articles, submitting casestudies and entering awards all over the shop.

As far as selling ourselves is concerned plansare afoot to refresh the LIHNN brand (see p.10) but East Lancashire Hospitals Trust LKShave already started work on their ownbrand identity – and uniforms – and you can

see them looking resplendent in them andread about their rebranding exercise inGraham Haldane’s article on pageseven. Also getting their message out therewere members of staff from Northumberlandand Tyne and Wear NHS FT’s LKS whoturned over a new leaf (or at least goteveryone else to write about doing so) at thebeginning of the year – find out what theydid on page 14.

Many people’s first contact with their Trust’slibrary service is during their induction somaking it count is an important part of ourmarketing efforts. On page 13 SarahWoodhall from Lancashire TeachingHospitals shares a few tips from LIHNN’srecent ‘How to deliver a memorableinduction,’ course. Most staff joining Trustswill need to revalidate at some point andWarrington & Halton have been getting inon the act by participating in their Trust’sstudy days – you can find out more about thisin Helen Kiely’s article on page four.

Connecting with Trust staff is vital but it’s alsoimportant to build bridges with the widerpublic. On page 16 Dominic Gilroywrites about the annual Patient InformationForum conference at the Royal College ofPhysicians while on page 17 Daniel Parkfrom Leeds Teaching Hospitals gives a fewtips on writing accessible information forlibrary users.

Finally LIHNNKUp would like to extend awarm welcome to Lorna Dawson whorecently started at the Manchester Healthand Wellbeing Service (page 9) and to our

colleagues in YOHHLNet, over the Penninesand in and around the stamping ground ofcelebrity librarian Philip Larkin (page 11).

John GaleMID-CHESHIRE HOSPITALS NHS FOUNDATION TRUST

LIHNNK UP 51 v9_Layout 1 12/07/2016 14:54

In July 2015 I attended aNursing and MidwiferyAdvisory Committee meetingat which it was identifiedthat there had been asharp increase in theincidence of device-relatedpressure ulcers.

I identified this as a topic for furtherinvestigation and supplied theAssociate Director of Nursing inScheduled Care with a literature searchto look at the ways of combatting this risk. We were particularly interested inThomas Splints and Plaster of Paris andso I compiled a list of contacts fromother organisations so that we couldexplore potential areas of best practice.

A multidisciplinary task and finishgroup was established and it wasagreed that we would track the successof the interventions from literature

search to governance data toinvestigate the impact. Based on theevidence and feedback fromspecial is ts , the key act ionsimplemented were as follows:

a red band around people’s plastercasts to make high-risk patientseasy to spot

a single point lesson for all staff

a red alert sticker for the patient’snotes

core competencies for orthopaedicnursing staff to support high qualitycare

The group adopted a Plan, Do, Study,Act (PDSA) approach to introducing theimprovement (Institute for Innovationand Improvement, 2008) and I wasfortunate enough to work alongside thegroup.

Since adopting theapproach, there has not been a

single device-related pressure ulcer inour organisation.

At the end of the six month project, Iwas asked to share what we hadlearned so that others could benefitfrom the innovative way of working.This was a new challenge for me and auseful way of using the transferableskills that we Information Professionalspossess.

I was asked to write up the project andsubmit to the following:

The Nursing Times: this formalarticle is due for publication in theJune 2016 Patient Safety SpecialEdition.

Any awards currently open tosubmissions: this included thePatient Safety Awards, the NursingTimes Awards and the HSJ Awards.

eWin: we were published as a casestudy demonstrating the teamaspects of implementing theinitiative as well as the benefits forimproving workforce confidence -http://www.ewin.nhs.uk/tools_and_resources/preventing-device-related-pressure-ulcers

The Academy of NHS FabulousStuff: we were chosen as RoyLilley’s Pick of the Week and thisensured we had broad exposure -http://www.fabnhsstuff.net/2016/02/24/preventing-device-related-pressure-ulcers/

This task enabled me to strengthen myskills in writing for publication,submitting for awards and sharing bestpractice. I was also the key contact forindividuals from other organisations whowanted further information and so Iworked c losely wi th the externalcommunications team to respondeffectively.

There were several challenging aspectsto this experience, most of whichcentred on garnering accurate

2

The War of the Wounds INFORMATION DISSEMINATION


information from many differentparties. There were issues aroundownership of the initiative and I had tomaintain a neutral and sensitiveposition in co-ordinating the write up. If I wasinvolved in a project of this natureagain, I would ensure that people’sroles and ownership of ideas wereaccurately recorded throughout.

The award submissions also required afull costing of the project. This waschallenging as there were manydepartments involved with varyingroles and time commitments including:the Plaster Room Technicians, the TissueViability Nurses, the OrthopaedicPhysiotherapists and the Matrons. Toovercome this I worked closely with theAssociate Director of Nursing, whochaired the group, to establishtimeframes and staff responsible andused the NHS Core Cost Framework toidentify a total cost for the project as£1,478.16. This was complex to doretrospectively and in future I wouldinsist upon group members recordingtheir own time spent on their areasusing Process Sampling formsto allow for an accurateand timely costing.

Another challenginge l e m e n t w a saccountability. I feltthat I was responsiblefo r success fu lshort listings andif we failed towin, it would bedue to my writeups. The way Iovercame thisw a s b ye n g a g i n go t h e r k e yfigures in theorganisation tos h a r e t h eresponsibility withme. This not onlyr e l i e v e d t h epressure but alsomeant that mysubmissions wereproof read severaltimes by differentp e o p l e w i t hdiverse viewpoints.Members of staff inCommunications,

Corporate Nursing as well as PersonalAssistants helped with the submissions.This improved my own confidence andalso taught me important skills inwriting.

The experience I have gained frombeing a part of this project has beeninvaluable. It built upon the skills Iacquired in implementing animprovement initiative during my timeon the NHS Leadership Academy’sMary Seacole Programme:http://www.leadershipacademy.nhs.uk/programmes/mary-seacole-programme/I was able to engage with key clinicalmicrosystems (small, interprofessionalgroups of people who come together tolook at a particular patient population)as well as promote the wide range ofskills the library team possesses to alarge Trust-wide audience.

The reason for sharing this experienceis to inform others who may beengaged in a similar process. Our rolesoften mean that we are positionedperfectly to co-ordinate the sharing of across-sectional description of suchinitiatives as well as ensuring that theyare evidence-based. As a by-product, ithas given the team an insight into the final destination of the results of a literature search and thishas allowed for the evaluation ofaccurate impact despite organisationalboundaries.

Alex WilliamsINFORMATION SPECIALISTWARRINGTON & HALTON HOSPITALSNHS FOUNDATION TRUST

3


The Three ‘R’s: Reading, Reflecting and Revalidation

4

Nurse Revalidation. It’s oneof the big topics at themoment, with many nursesfeeling unsure or over-whelmed by the prospectof submitting their portfolioto the NMC.

Working with colleagues in our division,the Knowledge and Evidence Servicehere at Warrington and Halton NHSFoundation Trust is now involved in aneducational study day programme,aimed at explaining revalidationrequirements and allaying fears aboutobtaining the needed evidence anddocumentation.

When we were first asked to participatein the study days, we examined differentways of approaching the session.

First, we established the key topics wewished to cover in our hour and a halfslot, these were identified as:

Explaining CPD

Understanding the resources wecould provide to help them

We tried several methods in the earlypilot sessions, including a variety oflecture styles and interactive tasks suchas identifying abstract types, buteventually settled on a format we feltworked best.

Beginning the session

We begin each session by establishingwhat the group already know about ourresources and what counts as CPD. Thegroups are often mixed in terms ofexperience and understanding so welike to make sure we pitch thesubsequent presentation at the rightlevel. We give a short presentationabout what an Athens account is, andfacilitate a discussion about the differenttypes of resources they can access. Dueto the numbers of attendees we do notgenerally have access to PCs to give a

hands-on session so instead we providea quick overview discussion about theresources and make the nurses awarethey can call into the library for a morein-depth demonstration.

We then progress to discuss differenttypes of CPD, including reading andreflecting on books and articles, andreflective discussions with colleagues.

Practical Tasks

We provide a selection of short one-page articles that are broad enough tonot be specific to a speciality, coveringtopics such as revalidation, nursingemployment, staffing, and developingcompassion and emotional intelligence.

We allow them to choose an article andgive time for them to read and makenotes, providing prompts. Then, in pairs,they each take turns describing thearticle and their thoughts and feelingsabout it to their colleague, whose job isto prompt further discussion byencouraging their partner to developtheir thoughts further and elaborate ontheir responses.

They record their discussion onworksheets, which then allow them tosign for one another to say they havehad a reflective discussion. Thesediscussion sheets have been designed bythe trust Practice Education Facilitators,and can be used in their portfolios aspart of their evidence of CPD.

The group then feed back about howthey found the task, and we discuss inmore detail how they could accessarticles or pieces in the future toundertake similar reflective exercises,and what they would take back to theirown practice and to their colleagues.

Facilitating Feedback

As part of the teaching and learningcycle it is important to gain feedbackfrom each group to establish whetherlearning has taken place. However, asthe nurses are already required to fill ina detailed feedback form at the end ofthe day, to close our session we providethem with sticky-notes and ask them towrite either one example of CPD or onething they will do as a result of thesession and pin them onto a board,discussing them with the group as theydo so.

This is really helpful as it provides anopportunity to reiterate lessons learned,and allows us to see what key messagesthe staff will take away from the session,and what they felt was the mostimportant part. This is generally wellreceived and often brings up interestingpoints for discussion, which will beuseful to the nurses when completingtheir CPD reflections. The interactivity ofthe reflective task is a key factor in this asit gives a tangible example that thoseattending can take away from thesession.

Helen KielyWARRINGTON & HALTON NHS FOUNDATION TRUST


5

A Lot of Work for 5 Questions:Understanding Value and Impact in NHS

Library & Knowledge Services

At last the Value and Impact Task &Finish Group (V&I TFG) has somethingto show for itself.

The journey began back in May 2015, where the groupwas asked to create a set of tools to help better understandthe value and impact of Library & Knowledge Services(LKS). Sorry it has taken a while, but we had to ensure thatour thinking and solutions were robust.

First we had to understand what was meant by value andimpact, and luckily there is a standard that provided ourdefinitions.

Value: the importance that stakeholders attach tolibraries and their perception of actual or potential benefit(BS ISO 16439:2014 - 3.75).

Impact: is part of value and is the difference or changein an individual or group resulting from their contact withlibrary services (BS ISO 16439:2014 - 3.25).

Impact is difficult to assess as by its very nature, LKS canonly contribute to outcomes. Our work aimed to refreshand broaden an existing toolkit to make it applicable tomore sectors and services. Our target was for 95% ofNHS libraries to be using it by 2020.

Members of the V&I TFG were selected by regionallibraries’ leads for their interest and expertise in thearea as people who could link into the different regionsand the healthcare sectors. The first step was to recruita ‘virtual reference group’ from academics/specialistsin the field and through an open invite to all librariansacross the UK to help scrutinise the work of the group.

We reviewed the literature to look at the different wayslibraries have of measuring their impact. We used SurveyMonkey to see what local libraries were doing and whatthey wanted us to come up with. Library leads were askedto share their returns.

From the questionnaire 136 services (63%) out of the 215services identified in Knowledge for Healthcare (KfH)responded. Results show that 95.5% of respondingservices collect impact information. The LQAF submissionswere shared by regional leads from 25 services. The maintool requested was a short off-the-shelf questionnairewhich could be applied to all sectors and all services. Thiswould be used as a scoping tool with interview guidelinesfor use with the Critical Incident Technique to ‘dig deeper’for qualitative responses. All tools identified were cross-referenced against the framework established from thegroup remit, literature and questionnaire and a set of 5core questions identified. The resulting impactquestionnaire was tested by the V&I TFG members inpractice with local LKS clients with 214 respondents acrossservices.

After testing we revised the tools and developed new guidance.Alison Brettle was commissioned to develop a value mappingtoolkit to incorporate the tools (Figures 2 & 3), which wentlive on the Knowledge for Healthcare Blog June 2016: http://kfh.libraryservices.nhs.uk/value-and-impact-toolkit/

Mapping tool to required purpose

Logic model for understanding outcomes

Continued over...


6

Finding out what people value and what has a goodimpact will affect the way libraries develop in the future.We know there is still work to do and the V&I TFG haveagreed to continue until March 2017. In this time we willbe looking to further evaluate and improve the toolkit andlook at how it links in with other working groups, includinga revised LQAF.

We are just about to start testing centralised SurveyMonkey accounts in a few regions, so collecting impact isas easy as sending a link to your customer. Doing thismeans that data can be easily collected by individualservices and makes it easier for the national collection ofdate for use in national reports.

We have developed a set of core questions which can beused to capture impact-related feedback from a widerange of services and resources provided by libraries. Werecognise that it might not be perfect for some specificsituations and some libraries may consider addingquestions to the survey, but we ask that the 5 corequestions are kept in any adapted survey, so data can becollated nationally. The toolkit also references other tools,some of which can also be used to demonstratecompliance with LQAF criteria 1.3c, including a number ofother questionnaires which can be mapped across to our5 basic questions.

From the survey we carried out, we are aware that anumber of people also want specialist surveys. Wehaven’t forgotten about you! The group is hoping to lookin more detail at how the impact of learning anddevelopment events can be captured.

The toolkit is on the blog and ready to use with promotionsessions planned across the country. The staff groupquestion has been rightly challenged due to its purely NHSfocus and it will be adapted to make it more flexible foruse with local authorities and higher education. If youhave any other feedback, including suggestions for othertools that can be considered for addition to the toolkit, feelfree to email them to [email protected], we wouldlike to know your thoughts.

Article by Susan Smith, Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHSFoundation Trust & Dominic Gilroy, Health EducationEngland working across Yorkshire & Humber.

The V&I TFG: Jenny Turner, East Sussex Healthcare NHSTrust; Alison Brettle, University of Salford; Stephen Ayre,George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust; Douglas Knock, King'sCollege Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; RebeccaMitchelmore, Isle of Wight NHS Trust; Sophie Pattison,Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust.

Susan SmithSENIOR LIBRARIANJET LIBRARY, LEIGHTON HOSPITAL

...continued

A Lot of Work for 5 Questions:Understanding Value and Impact in NHS

Library & Knowledge Services


Starting with trying to ensureconsistent presentation and style in ourprinted publications, this hasdeveloped into a clear ‘brand identity’,which culminated this year in revisedlogos – and library uniforms!

Learning fromothers

Like many Trusts, we have arecommended house-style,which can seem restrictive attimes, but helps when tryingto align library publicationsand services with Trustpriorities. The Trust’sstrapline of ‘Safe PersonalEffective’ has proved useful asa focus when promoting ourservices, and we have usedthose key concepts, forexample, when compilingquestions for impact surveys.

We have also learnt fromvarious LIHNN study days onmarketing, impact and brandimage, and from other services,such as the Wirral andLancashire Teaching HospitalsTrusts, who have developed theirown image and presented theirprogress last year at the LIHNNQuality Improvement Awards.

Previous developments

For several years, we used a librarylogo based on the logo for theLearning & Development department.We adopted the strapline of ‘Bringingevidence & practice together’ to reflectour service aims, and in 2013 – when

we restructured the team – wechanged the service name from ELHTLibrary & Information Services to ELHTLibrary & Knowledge Services.

The development of the ELHT EvidenceHub, our online portal (or ‘thirdlibrary’) and our Clinical Outreachservice, led to the development of twofurther logos, each using a different

Developing the ELHT brand

New banners for library services, clinical outreach and pop-up events

7

Continued over...

Over the last few years we have beendeveloping a clear identity for the libraryservice within East Lancashire HospitalsTrust (ELHT).


image. We used these extensively inpublications and email signatures,along with the corporate Trust colours.

2016 developments – the full ELHT LKS brand

During 2015, we felt that our ‘brandimage’ needed refreshing, and that wecould take it a stage further. One ofthe catalysts was that we wanted toreplace the pull-up banner that waspurchased for all NHS library servicesin the North West some years ago. Itwas looking dated, and also includedsome items which were no longerrelevant (believe it or not, we nolonger have photocopiers in thelibraries!).

We therefore put in a marketing bid tothe Health Care Library Unit’s LibraryDevelopment Fund, and used it topurchase most of the following:

New library banners, which we usein the libraries, at marketing events,and for ‘Pop-Up Library’ visitsaround the Trust

A new welcome sign in the Blackburn library

Library uniform for the whole team.

Related to these purchases, wedeveloped new library logos, with oneconsistent graphic (and using thebroader colour range now available inthe Trust palette of colours) and addedan additional strapline of ‘OnsiteOnline Mobile’ to indicate that we’reabout more than just physical libraries.

After some uncertainty when uniformhas been discussed in the past, wedecided to go for it at the beginning of2016, and it has proved popular withboth the library team and our users. Itgives us a very clear identity, makingus more recognisable when around theTrust, and other teams withinWorkforce Education are now moreopen to the idea of a uniform. Wehave given the team enough options tovary the style – and to cope with thevarying temperatures in the library!

We have two colours of polo shirt, agrey fleece and black and greycardigans (or V-neck jumpers), allbearing the library logo. These areworn with black or grey trousers/skirt.The operational (front-of-house) teamwear the polo shirts all the time,whereas other staff can opt to wearthe cardigans/jumpers over adress/shirt when more appropriatethan a polo shirt.

8

Graham, Charlotte, Judith, Judy, Clare, Lauren & Sarah pose in their new polo shirts!

...continued


Social media

In early 2016, we also finally took thestep of developing our social mediapresence, launching library accountson Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest andYouTube. The Facebook accountfocuses on library news, and we try tocapture pictures of e.g. new studentsat induction or teams that we visit.Twitter is used for promoting healthcare news, including NICE guidelines,UpToDate news, and the latest healthheadlines. Uptake is slower than we’danticipated, and we are currentlyrunning a competition to promoteawareness.

The Evidence Hub(www.ehub.elht.nhs.uk) is also nowgetting a refresh, using not only thenew logo and Trust colours, but alsoimages from a bank which we havepurchased from ‘The Noun Project’.

And finally – the library bear!

Our final marketing innovation for thisyear is to introduce a new member ofthe team – the library bear, completewith its own logoed T-shirt. The bear isan excuse for another competition –it’s currently nameless and genderless– but he/she/they will be going out onvisits around the Trust to pop-uplibraries, the Trust AGM etc.

Thanks

Thanks are due to JudithAquino (E-ResourcesLibrarian) for all heramazing design work, toClare Morton (LibraryOperational ServicesManager) for helping ustake the plunge into gettinguniforms, and to all thelibrary team for adoptingthe changes so well.

Web linksELHT Evidence Hub: www.ehub.elht.nhs.ukFacebook: www.facebook.com/elhtlibrary/Twitter: https://twitter.com/elhtlibrary

Graham Haldane LIBRARY & KNOWLEDGE SERVICESMANAGER, EAST LANCASHIREHOSPITALS NHS TRUST

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The library bear – ready to ‘pop-up’ around the Trust

New Starter Lorna Dawson

In my first year of university,you could probably countthe number of times I visitedthe library on both hands -I studied English Literature.

When I graduated from my MA atThe University of Warwick in 2013,going straight into a GraduateTrainee Library Assistant position atManchester Metropolitan Universitystill felt a little like stepping into theunknown.

The GT year turned out to be aninvaluable initiation into the libraryand information management world.I learnt the language of Dewey,developed a soft spot for printjournals and channelled my creativityinto making video guides forsearching academic databases.

My next role was in a FurtherEducation library at The ManchesterCollege where I was primarilyinvolved in promoting the Six BookChallenge. The campaign ran fromJanuary - June and was filled withdisplay making, poster printing,promotion pitching, workshopdelivering and finally celebrating thecompleters’ successes.

After briefly working in primaryeducation, I am pleased to havestarted working in healthcarelibraries as a Knowledge ServiceAssistant for Buzz: Manchester Healthand Wellbeing Service. It’s another

step into new territory but I’menjoying the journey so far.

The KS is an exciting place in itself:I’m surrounded by books, healthpromotion models (think giant teeth,skeletons and beer goggles) andhealth promotion leaflets. Then thereare the stories of how healthpractitioners have used the resources:my favourite so far is teenagers doingrunning races holding fat globs tounderstand the effects of obesity.

I’m enjoying every day of working ina healthcare library, and can’t wait tohear the next story of creative healthpromotion. Maybe one day I’ll knowenough to fill a book.

Lorna DawsonKNOWLEDGE SERVICES ASSISTANTBUZZ: MANCHESTER HEALTH ANDWELLBEING SERVICE


The Value of LIHNN – survey results

You might remember that

late last year, the LIHNN

Coordinating Committee

conducted a survey about

the value of the network.

If so, thank you for filling this in for us. Since

then we have spent time discussing the

results and what we can do to improve the

network. And the time has come to share it

with you all.

Firstly, the survey results were, on the whole,

very positive. The main strengths of the

network were: collaboration and networking,

support, training events and our Union list. It

was also nice to see that the current

membership costs represented value for

money for most people. There were some

queries over why we charge for

membership; your funding helps us fund

conference places for LIHNN members,

supports catering for all day LIHNN events,

supports training activities and is used to

recognise the contribution of long-service

employees in the network and for service-

improvement projects. (Please see the

Treasurer's report from the LINN/HCLU

briefing or email the LIHNN treasurer -

[email protected] - for more

information). Recent purchases also include

paying for the hosting for ADMIRE, NEST

and other projects.

The collaboration of the regions across the

North including: LIHNN, North East and

Yorkshire and Humber, was also generally

seen as a positive step and members agreed

that there could be a number of benefits to

this, including better document supply and

wider access to book loans, a bigger

support network and economies of scale for

purchasing. We are still at an early stage of

joint working, but the committee hope all

these benefits will be achieved and more

besides. The Mental Health Group recently

held a Northern-wide meeting in Leeds and

it was a resounding success, which is great

to see.

However, it would be disingenuous of me to

suggest absolutely everything is rosy in the

garden of LIHNN – of course there were

some weaknesses identified – the biggest

one being the blurred boundaries between

HCLU and LIHNN, a subject that has come

up before and something that both the

committee and HCLU intend to look at more

closely in the coming months. Some people

argued that the geographical spread of the

network was too great, even in the North

West, and this is something we aim to

improve by hosting events in a number of

venues to try and bring more parity to services

on our periphery. We have also been

looking into purchasing WebEx to allow

people to dial into meetings and to allow us

to host more events and meetings remotely

and you should hear more about this later in

the year. Some people also felt that LIHNN is

too NHS-focused. With the majority of our

members working for the NHS this can be

hard to avoid, however, we have excellent

links with higher education and NICE and

we are open to more joint events such as the

Open Access publishing event held last year.

There were also some understandable

concerns about increasing collaboration with

the North East and Yorkshire & Humber,

mainly about dilution of funding for training

events and having to travel longer distances to

get to them. The committee recognises that

one size does not fit all in terms of our networks

and that integration might mean different

things depending on the circumstances.

However the majority of LIHNN members are

happy to open up the network and welcome

new services, which has always been a

strength of this network. Occasionally travel is

unavoidable and we do apologise for that.

We also asked our members, what we

should be doing more of and what we

should stop, and the issue of LIHNNKUp in

print came up. We have held a number of

discussions to this end, with members, the

LIHNNKUp board and HCLU. The conclusion

was that it was important to keep LIHNNKUp

on paper for now, in order to maximise

publicity around Knowledge for Healthcare, and

also to encourage people to have their name in

print when they are writing for publication for

the first time. We felt enough people valued the

print copy coming into their library to continue it

and now that LIHNNKUp goes further afield, we

only get one copy per library, which feels less

wasteful. We do remain open to change and we

will keep tabs on LIHNNKUp going forward.

In terms of what we should do more of, we had

suggestions about improved communication and

external speakers, which we will certainly take on

board and about sending out more information

from specialist groups which has certainly been a

challenge - one we hoped we tackled, to some

extent, at our AGM last month, when those who

went got an update from the specialist groups and

at our Christmas study we tried to have a bit of fun

with a quiz about the different groups. Social

media was also mooted and we are in the process

of improving our presence here, just as soon as we

find the mysterious owner of our Twitter handle…

And finally, we asked about specific marketing

for the network and we received a lot of good

suggestions. In the end we felt something

generic would be the best thing for all our

diverse members and we are looking into chalk

boards and pens, a la Wigan, Wrightington

and Leigh, so please watch this space. One of

the big things we have been looking at this year

is rebranding, so anything we do will be tied

into this. Victoria Treadway has kindly agreed

to look into this with a small task and finish

group, however if you feel you could be of

assistance, please let Victoria know.

To sum up, we are happy that the network

continues to build on its strengths and that

you are mostly happy with the efforts of all

the groups. It’s lovely to see such

representation from all services and all

levels of staff and this has been very

noticeable at National level, where we

lead the way on many things. One last

point however, to the hopeful person who

thought we could drop the LQAF, we

might be good, but we’re not that good!

If you have any questions for the

committee, please email us on:

[email protected]

Lisa McLaren

LIBRARY AND KNOWLEDGE

SERVICES MANAGER,

BRIDGEWATER COMMUNITY

HEALTHCARE NHS

FOUNDATION TRUST

10

Social media was also

mooted and we are in the

process of improving our

presence here, just as

soon as we find the

mysterious owner of our

Twitter handle….


11

Hello everyone – I would like to introduceyo u all to YOHHLNet – the newlyestablished Yorkshire and the HumberHealth Libraries & Knowledge Networkand the work we’ve done to set it up.

Unlike the North East (HLN) and the North West(LIHNN)health libraries in the Yorkshire and Humber area have notpreviously had their own formal network for staff and servicesto work together – instead we operated on a muchmore informal but supportivemodel.

This is most likely due to historicreasons and former boundarieswhen the current Yorkshire andthe Humber region wasrepresented by two differentregions – with the northern partbeing known as the YorkshireRegional Health Authority andthe southern part being part ofthe Trent Regional HealthAuthority. We then all becamepart of the much smaller WorkforceConfederation organisations - it wasonly when they were disbandedand the new regions were created that allof Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire became known asYorkshire and Humber.

For reasons unknown, no formal network was created and wedidn’t have a regional library unit as some other areas had.It was only in 2015 when we became part of the wider Northgeography area and were supported by David and his teamat the Health Care Libraries Unit that the idea of us formingour own network organisation was mooted.

With funding provided by Health Education England inYorkshire and the Humber and support from HCLU, we held a‘Refocusing the Network’ event in November 2015 where asmany library staff as were able attended to consider how wemight take things forward. The day was led by Jane Plighting,a Leadership and OD Consultant with the support of membersfrom the region. We heard about initiatives and benefits of anetwork from members of LIHNN and the SustainableImprovement Team at NHS IQ. It was then over to all of us –we held a World Café session where we had round tablediscussions about what a future network might look like. Therewas an overwhelming response of ‘yes’ – this was somethingwe wanted and we could make it work’. We also looked intodeveloping Communities of Practice, which was a very

interesting and varied session – one around CPD is already upand running effectively and there are more eager to follow suitin the next few weeks and months.

The outcome of the discussions held at the ‘Refocusing theNetwork’ event were written up and circulated, providingideas of the aims of a future network and how and why itmight operate. Early in 2016, we held a vote using SurveyMonkeyand decided that the network name would be ‘Yorkshire andthe Humber Health Libraries & Knowledge Network’

(YHHLKN). In the Spring of2016, a call went out to all staffacross the region for volunteerswho were interested in steeringthese thoughts and ideas intosomething that could becomeworkable – and in March 2016our inaugural Steering Groupcame together to begin the firststeps in developing andestablishing our formalnetwork.

This inaugural Steering Groupwas made up of a cross sectionof staff from all parts of theregion – everyone has

different experiences and skill sets thatthey bring to the table and above all the

enthusiasm to take our new network forward. At the initialmeeting, we reviewed the outcomes from the ‘Refocusing theNetwork’ event, elected our officers and started:

Developing and drafting a Constitution so that we had anofficial remit and purpose.

Consolidating the aims and objectives and outlining thebenefits of being a member of the network.

Considering our web presence; for the foreseeable futurewe are going to use the LKS in the North wiki site athttp://resources.lihnn.nhs.uk/wiki/Yorkshire_and_Humber_LKS.MainPage.ashx

A Task & Finish Group to work on the wiki site to make itmore user friendly, updating the appearance, etc.

A programme of CPD events and opportunities, ably ledby our CPD Officers and the CPD Community of Practice.

We met again in April 2016 and set the timetable for signingoff our Constitution, following wider consultation with all staff

YOHHLNet: Yorkshire and the Humber HealthLibraries & Knowledge Network

Continued over...

Janet Sampson YOHHLNet Chair


12

across the region and HCLU and a presentation at the YHLibrary Managers Meeting in May, for our meeting in June2016. We decided to change the name from ‘Steering Group’to ‘Committee’ as this would read better in any Constitutionbeing presented to back up our application for a bankaccount. We also:

Circulated the final draft of the Constitution for widerconsultation and feedback.

Held a survey to decide what the acronym for ourNetwork would be as some members thought thatYHHLKN did not flow easily; we gave a choice betweenYHHLKN and YOHHLNet (a late entry!), with YOHHLNetwinning by a small majority.

Confirmed that we will meet every two months and thatmembers of the committee should attend at least 3 of the6 meetings each year.

Committee members began loading their biographiesonto the wiki site, outlining a brief background to theirworking history, their current role and listing the skillsthey have along with a photo – something everyone lovesto do! We will be encouraging other staff to add to thisas we start signing up members in the near future so thatwe have a well-developed skills register that all memberscan tap into.

Started work on developing a register of rooms availablefor booking which prospective members have alreadystarted to respond to – this will allow memberorganisations to see at a glance what room bookingfacilities are available across the region when planningmeetings and events.

Another Task & Finish Group have been working onputting together a template for Terms of Reference forCommunities of Practice for everyone to use. This will beavailable shortly on the wiki site and has already beenused by the CPD Community of Practice.

We are now official! At our meeting in June 2016 theConstitution was accepted following overwhelming supportfrom prospective members and YOHHLNet was fullyestablished.

What next:The Constitution will be made available on our wiki siteshortly – it just needs the relevant signatures of everyoneand we were finalising our membership form.

We have started to set up our bank account.

The call for library and knowledge services to sign up asmembers will be going out shortly so we expect to havesome if not all of our members signed up by the time thisgoes to print. David has already announced that HCLUwill be signing up as one of our first memberorganisations!

Planning of CPD events continues and we hope to befunding some places at the forthcoming CILIP HLGConference in September.

We want to encourage other prospective Communities of Practice to establish themselves and start working together.

We want to encourage our specific groups, e.g. PrimaryCare & Public Health Librarians and Mental HealthLibrarians to establish their terms of reference so that theycan seek support from the Network.

Providing opportunities for collaborative purchasing and working.

We look forward to working with LIHNN and HLN incoming together at specialist events and meetings,following on from the recent successes of the MentalHealth Librarians Xtra and Primary Care + meetings.

We have also decided that we are going to have acompetition for a logo – which reflects our acronymYOHHLNet and which we will be able to use on anycorrespondence and web presence we have and any otherweb, social media or other communication presence we maydevelop in the future. Our competition for this closes at theend of July – it was open to all staff of prospective membersand the lucky winner will receive some High Street GiftVouchers for themselves and free membership for their servicefor 2016-17. We will be releasing the design once the winnerhas been chosen.

If you want to contact any of the officers of the YOHHLNetCommittee, they are:

Janet Sampson (Chair) - tel.: 01302 642895, email: [email protected]

Jo Marsden (Vice-Chair) - tel.: 0114 222 7338 , email: [email protected]

Becky Williams (Secretary) - tel.; 01274 223900, email: [email protected]

Helen Rotherforth (Treasurer) – tel.: 01924 543899, email: [email protected]

Helen Barlow (Co-CPD Co-ordinator) – tel: 01709 427139 ,email: [email protected]

Katherine France (Co-CPD Co-ordinator) – tel.: 01709 427139, email:[email protected]

We look forward to seeing you all and welcomingyou to a YOHHLNet event in the future.

.

Janet Sampson YOHHLNET CHAIRKNOWLEDGE, LIBRARY & INFORMATION SERVICES MANAGERDONCASTER AND BASSETLAW HOSPITALS NHS FOUNDATION TRUST

...continued


13

The aim of this course,which was expertly deliveredby Deborah Dalley, wasto enable us to designand deliver inductionswhich are engaging,interactive and memorable.

To ease us into the day we had thepleasure of watching Victoria Treadwaydeliver a deliberately dry anduninteresting (yet humorous) inductionwhilst enjoying a bacon sandwich (thegroup – not Victoria). This led us nicelyinto a discussion on what was wrongwith Victoria’s induction and thereforewhat should be avoided whendelivering inductions. Slides being toowordy and the font being too small,negative messages, no introduction asto who the speaker was, anuninterested delivery and informationimparted which we did not need toknow, all came out as examples of badpractice when delivering an induction.

To help us think about how to startplanning an induction Deborahoutlined the following steps:

PurposeThink about the following:

Why are you delivering theinduction?

What do you want the group to get out of it?

Why should the person you aretalking to join the library?

What is in it for them?

**The most important thing toremember when planning an inductionis it needs to be benefit led and notservice led**

ContentWe were asked to think of the mainmessage we wanted our induction toget across to our audience and to thinkabout how the library can help deliverthat message. To do this a spiderdiagram is useful to note down all theinformation you want to include in yourinduction.

Logical OrderDon’t forget to start by introducingyourself and explain why you aretalking to them. They say people have a7 minute attention span so try andbreak up your talk with a video or anactivity.

Visual AidsOnce you know what information youwant to include in your presentationthen start thinking about your slides. Fillthe PowerPoint slide with images ratherthan sentences.

Using this format our task for thesecond session was to prepare a 15-minute induction using our new foundknowledge. This would give us achance to practice our induction at thenext session and get feedback from thegroup.

I already had a prepared induction thatI delivered to various groupsundertaking the ILM qualification in theTrust so using what I had learnt from thefirst session I made the followingchanges:

I included a video of a previous ILMcourse participant explaining how

How to deliver amemorable induction

Continued on page 15....


14

In January of this year,members of NorthumberlandTyne and Wear NHS FT (NTW)Library & Knowledge Services(LKS) Team left our libraries andwent ‘out and about’ to tell Trust staff about the services andresources we provide and toencourage them to ‘resolve’ to dosomething new in 2016 to enhancetheir practice and work life –preferably something library-related!

Why did we do it?Apparently we are invisible! To behonest that came as no surprise and Iexpect it reflects the perception ofmany other NHS libraries. Anindependent review of NTW LKS in2015, however, confirmed it. Theresults of three focus groups found thatthe majority didn’t even know we existand were most surprised when theyfound out more about the services wedo offer and what we can do forthem. The minority who used ourservices, however, did think we were‘the best thing since sliced bread’.Granted there were only about 30people interviewed, but it is stillsomewhat disappointing when youknow that you are constantlyworking as hard as you can to getthe message out there and still peopledon’t know. Considering that one of thefocus groups was held with staff on asite where the library is right at themain entrance and they must walk pastit at least twice a day, one begins towonder if they go around with theireyes closed. Or is it the fact that thelibrary in question is called theKnowledge Centre that has muddiedthe waters? Whatever the reason, wedecided it was time to take action.

Why ‘Turn over a new leaf”?We planned the promotion for themonth of January to link in with the

New Year and the opportunity to makea work-related New Year’s resolution,for example to be more evidence-basedand clinically effective. Although ‘turnover a new leaf’ was a reference to a‘leaf’ in a book, we did fully embracethe image of a leaf in our displays.

What did we do?We produced posters about thepromotion, and included them inpacks of information.

We emailed Service Managers inthe Trust to inform them about thepromotion and sent out 57 packs attheir request. We handed out afurther 60 training packs at the fourteam meetings we were invited toattend in response to our emails.

We went along to the Trust QualityPriorities Workshop as participants,

but we also took our stand. Youcan’t afford to miss an opportunity,and it paid off as we were able todemonstrate how libraries supportthe Trust in achieving its goals.

We put up displays in our sitelibraries.

We acquired some ‘freebies’–how they love a freebie.

As a further incentive, wepurchased three Amazon vouchersas prizes – one for a new librarymember, one for a newOpenAthens registration, and onefor use of library services andresources during the month. Ourloyal users were a little peevedwhen they thought we were only

offering a prize for new members, andwe must keep our regulars happy,hence the third voucher.

We booked the café areas on 7 NTW hospital sites for ourroadshow.

We set off on our travels,setting up our stall over the lunchperiod so we could catch themunawares as they headed in orout of the café.

Was it worth it?Yes, we think so. It was a lot of hardwork but we thoroughly enjoyed gettingout and about to talk to our staff andstudents, and some patients and carers.Particularly valuable were theconversations we had with those staffbased on the sites where NTW doesn’thave a physical library. Many weremost surprised to discover how easy itis to connect with library staff andresources wherever they are based andwhatever their role.

At the end of the month:

97 new members had joined the library

“Turn over a new leaf” or“How to make your library visible”

At Ferndene Hospital andLisa Jenkinson, Senior Library Assistant.

was happy to be in the photo!

Outside St Georges Park CaféNB. None of the staff wanted to be in the

photo!


15

42 new OpenAthens accounts hadbeen created

303 existing members used thelibraries in January to borrowbooks; request journal articles ora literature search; to sign up toour Current Awareness Bulletins;to book a literature searchingsession, or to use the librarycomputers and space for study,research and hot desking.

397 used the intranet to accesselectronic resources.

We had also asked them to write on a‘leaf’ how they planned to turn over anew leaf.

Here are some examples of what theysaid:

“I plan to engage more with researchand teaching-related activities”

“I will be turning over a new leaf bycutting down on sugar-laden foods! I think the library and staff areexcellent”

“This year I want to face my fears ☺”

The winning ‘leaf’ said, “I am going toturn over a new leaf, and keep up withnew developments – and help light afire for my students”, and quoted W.B.Yeats, “Education is not the filling of apail, but the lighting of a fire”. Thewinner was presented with a bag full offreebies.

Would we do it again?Yes we would, but don’t ask me when.We are still recovering from the lastone!

Sheena HanesHEAD OF LIBRARY AND KNOWLEDGESERVICES. NORTHUMBERLAND, TYNEAND WEAR NHS FOUNDATION TRUST

[email protected]

the library had helped themthrough the ILM course.

I included a picture of the libraryteam and used some photo’s Ihad taken of the facilities in thelibrary.

I made my plagiarism exercise atthe end interactive by splitting thegroup into pairs to answer somequestions, whereas before I haddone this as a whole group.

I found being able to practice the newinduction useful as there was chancefor feedback from the group at theend. I discovered my plagiarismquestions caused a bit of confusion soI will now adapt them to make themless woolly. I will also ensure myYouTube video is played full screen toavoid the distraction of videos youmay be interested in at the side of thescreen!

After we had all presented wediscussed what we had learnt fromthe sessions. The most pertinentpoints are below.

Make your induction benefit-ledand not service-led

Use real testimonials, examplesand pictures of your service and staff

Make the session interactive –encourage questions and groupactivities

If you only have a few minutes atthe end of a corporate induction,choose 3 key messages you wantthe audience to take away withthem

Don’t be afraid to use humourand props where appropriate

Put facts to support theinformation you are saying inhand-outs

Standing in front of a group andpresenting is not something Iparticularly enjoy doing but byattending this course I gained newideas of how to make the sessionmore entertaining and interactivewhich takes some of the pressure offyou as the presenter. I will use theinduction I created for this course inthe future and know that I amcreating a better impression of thelibrary which will hopefullyencourage those listening to use us.

Sarah Woodhall OPERATIONAL LIBRARIAN AT LANCASHIRE TEACHING HOSPITALSNHS FOUNDATION TRUST

How to deliver amemorable induction

...continued


16

The annua l Pa t i en tInformation Forum (PIF)Conference took place atthe Royal College ofPhysicians (RCP) in May.

I had signed up to represent the HealthCare Libraries Unit North, initially withsome reluctance. The topic of healthinformation for the patient and publiclay well outside my comfort zone –something which I imagine many NHSLKS colleagues will relate to. Public andPatient Information, however, had beenidentified as one of the newKnowledge for Healthcarepriorities so there was an incentiveto find out more about how ourservices might tackle this vast area.

The day was filled from the startwith interesting facts and snippets ofuseful information which sparkedideas for possible engagement atlocal level. One of the first talks wasby Kate Betteridge who has livedmost of her life with RheumatoidArthritis, being diagnosed in herteens. Kate provided a perspective ofhow someone living with a long-termcondition might seek health information.Themes from Kate’s discussionsincluded:

1) There is a need for both pro-activeand responsive information. Ifpatients ask they expect a response –however they sometimes fail to askfor information because they don’tknow it is there – hence proactiveservices are vital.

2) Patients, particularly those with long-term conditions are rarely physicallyin a healthcare setting for the overallduration of their condition. Ratherthey will be working or at homegetting on with their lives. This has anumber of implications forhealthcare information in that itneeds to be online - accessibleoutside an NHS location. It alsoreinforces the need to make “everycontact count” in terms of makingsure patients can be signposted togood healthcare information bytrusted professionals on the fewoccasions they do come into contactwith the system.

3) Patients value information mostwhen they get their diagnosis. This isusually a point at which patients arein touch with the healthcare system.Is this an opportunity for NHS LKS to help ensure patients areprovided/signposted to goodinformation?

4) Patients like personalised not genericinformation. I am not “patients” or“the public” I am me. How do werespond to these specific needswithin the limited resourcesavailable.

Later in the day Jane Fox from NHSEngland gave an overview of theInformation Standard and the newAccessible Information Standard. Theformer provides a kite-mark of goodquality for any organisations willing toabide by the principles of the standard.The latter is a new obligatory standardwhich requires certain governmentaland other bodies to ensure that anyinformation they provide is accessibleto those with particular needs. Severalaspects of the presentation stood out interms of applicability to NHS LKS:

I. One of the principles of the InformationStandard is that information is onlyused from up-to-date, relevant, andtrust-worthy evidence sources.Surely NHS LKS staff are in a greatposition to assist colleagues withinorganisations to achieve this?

II. Clinical Commissioning Groups(CCGs) have a responsibility toensure that any organisations theycommission services from (includingNHS Trusts of course) conform to therequirements of the informationstandards. Is this something thatNHS LKS can assist with?

During the keynoteconversations in the

afternoon Casper Thomson(Executive Director of NAM – an HIVinformation provider) spoke candidlyabout his experience of partnershipworking. He described the dangersthat can come about if partnerships arereduced to little more than “lunch, alaunch, and a logo” with nothing in theway of longer term outcomes. Effortsneed to be made to ensure worthwhilepartnerships are established that aremore than this.

I attended a workshop led by ClaireCohen who spoke about engagingBritish Minority Ethnic (BME) groupsin a short video about CervicalSmear Testing. Melanie Thomasand Kimberley Littlemore thenspoke about using films to provide patient information forlymphoedema patients in Wales.An emerging theme was the use ofmultimedia – particularly films – inpatient information provision.

All in all the event was a clear eyeopener for me to the vast range ofactivity taking place in the area ofhealthcare information provision topatients and the public. The largenumber of credible organisationspresent on the day reinforced themessage for me that there is already agreat deal of useful information outthere for patients. NHS LKS are in aunique and privileged role in that manyare physically based on a site wherehealthcare is delivered and as such arein a great position to help to signpostand deliver these vast reams ofinformation to the patients that need it.Many of us also have a presence on the websites of these healthcareorganisations and have a chance –working with other Trust departments asappropriate – to signpost patients touseful and authoritative sources ofhealthcare information using thesewebsites.

You can use the hash-tag #pifconf2016to retrieve tweets from the event.

Dominic GilroyNHS LKS YORKSHIRE AND HUMBER – LEEDS

Patient Information Forum Conference: The Power of Partnership

Leeches Jar from RCP Museum Collection


17

Dr Lumpy’s guide to accessible material for library/-

information trainersThe nurse’s smile collapsedas I handed her the guidebooklet just before thetraining session was due tobegin. Perhaps she wasmore of a “see it and do it”sort of person, rather thanan avid reader, I thought.

“Don’t worry; it’s really more of areference guide. We’ll go through the mainparts in detail during the training today”

Her momentary blank stare dissipatedinto a weak smile. “No, it’s not that. It’sthis really tiny writing. I haven’tbrought my reading glasses. Don’t youhave anything in large print?”

When you’re preparing a trainingcourse, you’ll most likely be consideringhow people will understand whatyou’re telling or showing them. But, nomatter how hard you try, chances areyou’ll be doing it from the point of viewof someone who can read andunderstand information comparativelyeasily. You may not have considered thepossibility that some people you’retraining simply won’t read andunderstand information in quite the waythat you do.

In November 2015, at a meeting torevitalise the Yorkshire and the HumberHealth Libraries and KnowledgeNetwork, we had a session in whichpeople were encouraged to form“communities of interest” groups towork on shared projects. These projectscould then be circulated to assist healthlibrarians and information workerswithin the regional group and perhapseven beyond. Having been rightlychallenged by that nurse less than aweek before, I was determined thatnone of my colleagues would have toface the same sort of question without aproper answer.

The “Barriers to Access” group startedout rather small. It was, in point of fact,only me. I was joined later by ourcolleague Maria Simões, who wasabout to move from Calderdale to LeedsCommunity Health libraries, allowing

me to benefit from her expertise asBradford University’s former disabilitysupport librarian at a closer distance.

I also made contact with a number ofspecialists in the field, such as AlistairMcNaught, the accessibility andinclusion specialist at JISC andmembers of the Open Rose Group, an

affiliation ofregional academic librarians with apassionate interest in disability accessmatters.

The result, “Removing accessbarriers to health libraries: aguide for staff involved ininformation skills training” is byno means a comprehensiveencyclopaedia. I have written it to be asimple, common-sense (one might evenpresume to suggest Yorkshire common-sense) guide to the most obvious issuesyou’re likely to come across at atraining session from a learner withsensory, mental or learningimpairments. Many people working inhealth libraries assume that cliniciansand related staff do not have suchimpairments. However, just like thebarriers themselves, many impairmentsare invisible, and we are wise to beprepared to encounter them in thecourse of our work.

The guide is aimed squarely atlibrary/information staff providingtraining so, for example, it containssimple guidance on approachingpublishers for materials in alternative

formats under the Copyright Act 1988,2014 amendment (they’re not obligedto, but many do). However, the truepurpose of this guide is to providestraightforward practical advicebacked up by a useful bibliography tohelp you to research further. I will try tokeep the guide updated periodicallyand include any relevant newinformation that is sent on to me. I amalso regularly updating a basicspreadsheet of contacts that I canapproach if people need to ask a morespecialist question after consulting theguide.

As a taster of the advice in the guide,I’ve taken the liberty of…ahem…”rearranging” some of the mainlearning points into the followingmemorable acronym!

D itch jargon/be straightforward

R emain friendly and approachable –there’s no such thing as a stupidquestion!

L isten to learner and adjust to theirneeds

Use copyright law (2014 amendment)to request/copy published material

Maximise comfort, minimise stress foryour learners

P rovide training materials before thecourse begins so learners have timeto adapt it

Y ellow or white non-glossy paper, witha typestyle 18 pt., Arial, Black workswell for most people with visualimpairments

A copy of the access guide leaflet andlarge print version is available at thefollowing URL:http://tinyurl.com/yhtrainingaccess

It’s still not too late for members of theYHHLKS to get involved in thisCommunity of Interest group so anyoneinterested may feel free to contact me [email protected]

Daniel ParkASSISTANT LIBRARIANLEEDS TEACHING HOSPITALS NHS TRUST


18

THE LAND OF GEEKRECOMMENDER SYSTEMS

This revolution in software development inthe mid 90's may have passed you by.However, if you have shopped onlinerecently, and who hasn't, you would havecome across a recommender.

“If you bought this, you might also like this… “ or “People whobought rated it 5 *…“ It’s an algorithmic driven associationbased on ratings, items, the characteristics of items, yourprofile and the profiles of people like you. It may be just oneof these a combination or hybrid. If you are interested in thenuts and bolts the most used model is content based filtering(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recommender_system). See Beel et al. for a review of the literature of research - paper recommender systems (2015),http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00799-015-0156-0

Recommender systems are being applied to scholarlyliterature as a solution to information overload. You knowthe type of thing. If you don't have time to select relevantpapers let our recommender system do the selection for you.

Recommenders are divided into a number of categories.Stand alone web applications or bundled in as one featurewithin a suite of software tools. Recommenders, this is just apersonal observation not a market analysis, are the nextwave of development in a niche that was previously occupiedby web based reference management tools like Mendeley and Zotero.

Stand AloneRecommenders

Sparrho [ https://www.sparrho.com ]This is one that I have experimented with. You set upchannels that address specific topics using keywords youselect. Your channels are populated with suggestions. Youcan apply more filters such as journal title. I chose to use justkeywords. Settings are quite flexible. I get a daily eMail ofthe top three suggestions and login to see the rest. It hasturned up useful references in journals that I wouldn't haveotherwise been aware of. These are tweeted to@NWASLibrary.

PubChase [ https://www.pubchase.com ]PubChase makes recommendations from PubMed (NLM)based on your imported references either as BibTex files ordirectly from Mendeley. PubChase also has presetrecommendations on in major topic areas, for exampleclinical research.

Special Cases

Scizzle [ http://www.myscizzle.com ]Scizzle isn't really a recommender. More it's a way of settingalerts in PubMed. Scizzle forwards the top 25 results (orless) to your Scizzle account or your eMail account. It workswith channels and searches with the addition of abookmarking tool, The Scizzling Pot. While the metaphor isa bit wearing this is a simple and useful tool.

Google Scholar [ http://scholar.google.com ]Google Scholar has a recommendation engine if you use theMy Library - Google's reference management tool, and MyCitations - Google's profile and personal metrics tool.


19

Babel [ http://babel.eigenfactor.org ]Babel is a testbed which you can throw your own home builtrecommender system at if you have the skills to build one.Fun to use, it’s very stripped down, and gives you a goodidea of how recommender system works.

Recommender as part of a bundle

ReadCube [ https://www.readcube.com ]ReadCube (comes in Freemium and Paid/Pro versions) is a.pdf management tool that has a desktop and web version.You populate it by importing references either from: 1) .risfiles or 2) from searching free to access databases or 3) froma web importer add-on. You can sync your web anddesktop versions, however, this is a Pro feature. You getrecommendations based on what is in your Library. It worksand looks a lot like Mendeley.

Mendeley [ https://www.mendeley.com ]Mendeley is both a reference management tool and a .pdfmanagement tool. The recommender is called Suggest.Mendeley analyses your document library to come up withsuggestions.

Docear [ http://www.docear.org ]Docear is an Open Source document management suite. It isa graphic / mindmap based pdf management system.Powerful but hard to learn. I don't claim to have masteredDocear but buried in there is a recommender system. Theinterface has a dated look. Younger colleagues might find itinteresting to see how software used to look before the Weband Apps!

F1000 [ http://f1000.com ]Only available as a subscription service, $9.95 a month. It’sa recommender system, document management tool and anOpen Access publisher that promotes post publication peerreview.

Recommender systems, either stand alone or as features insoftware bundles are a useful tool for students andresearchers. For librarians recommenders are another areawhere with a little expertise and knowledge we can offersupport to researchers. People who read this article alsoread… just kidding.

Matt HollandNWAS LKS@NWASLIBRARY

References

Beel, J., Gipp, B., Langer, S. and Breitinger, C., 2015. Research-paper recommender systems. International Journal on Digital Libraries, Online, July 2015. Available from:http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00799-015-0156-0[Accessed 29 June 2016].


20Design & Print by Heaton Press Ltd Stockport Tel: 0161 442 1771

Editor’s Column

How you can contribute to the NewsletterAll members of LIHNN are welcome tocontribute to LIHNNK Up. We particularlyencourage contributions from para-professional staff and anyone who has notpreviously written for publication. Membersof the Editorial Board would be pleased to“mentor” new writers and provide adviceon what makes a good readable contribution.

What could you write about?Really it is up to you as we are looking fortopics of interest to health library staff. It could be:

something new that you have used oryour library has introduced

an overview of a piece of software suchas a social media tool

lessons learned (good or bad) fromdoing something differently in the library

good news that you want to share with LIHNN

an account of events and coursesattended. For conferences and coursesplease include what you found mostvaluable and what you will dodifferently from having attended theevent or course.

Format of contributions and other “rules”1. Please send your documents as Word

(i.e. either .doc or .docx) files.

2. Photos and artwork should be submittedin JPG format. Please don’t embed themin the Word documents. They should besubmitted as separate files with ameaningful caption.

3. Don’t forget your name, location, title ofarticle and date of article.

4. Please give full details of events, coursesand conferences attended. This shouldinclude:

The name of event and location

Date of event

Name of organising or sponsoring body

Details of how any support materialscan be obtained e.g. website urls

Full references to any publishedreports, articles etc.

5. All acronyms should be written out in full for the first occasion they are used in the text.

PDF copies of back issues and indexes to the newsletter are available at:http://www.lihnn.nhs.uk/index.php/lihnn/lihnnk-up/read-the-newsletter

Contributions should be submitted to:[email protected] For queries please contact:[email protected] Tel: 01772 524763

About Library andHealth Network NorthWest (LIHNN)Website: http://www.lihnn.nhs.ukfor details of the groups and their activities

LIHNN Chair: Graham Haldane (East Lancashire Hospitals),[email protected]

LIHNN Co-ordinating Committee:[email protected]

GROUP CHAIR (S ) E -MAIL

Cheshire & Merseyside Librarians Chair alternates around the Group

Clinical Librarians Eva Thackeray [email protected]

Rosalind McNally [email protected]

CPD Committee Caroline Timothy [email protected]

Cumbria & Lancashire Librarians Chair alternates around the Group

Greater Manchester Librarians Emily Hopkins [email protected]

Information Governance Tracy Owen [email protected]

Inter-Library Loans Steve Glover [email protected]

LIHNN Co-ordinating Committee Graham Haldane [email protected]

Mental Health Libraries Daniel Livesey [email protected]

Newsletter Andrew Craig [email protected]

NWOPAC Tracy Owen [email protected]

Primary Care/Community/ - Michael Cook [email protected] Librarians

Quality Laura Drummond [email protected]

Trainers Jane Roberts [email protected]

Emma Child [email protected]

L I H N N C H A I R S

Andrew Craig (Chair)Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHSFoundation Trust [email protected]

Jenny DoranRoyal Liverpool & Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS [email protected]

Linda FergusonHCLU [email protected]

John GaleMid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation [email protected]

Steve GloverCentral Manchester University HospitalsNHS Foundation [email protected]

Matt HollandNW Ambulance Service NHS [email protected]

Katie NicholasManchester Mental Health & Social Care Trust [email protected]

Gary SuttonWarrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust [email protected]

L I H N N E D I T O R I A L B O A R D


Library and Information Health Network Funded by the Northwest … · 2019-08-12 · Library and...

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