I spent this morning being shown the resources available via the NHS Library for Health website. The NHS pays for its emplyees to have access to a large range of resources which they can currently access using an Athens password. Some resources linked from there, such as the Cochrane Library, are available free to anyone too.
Different journal providers supply different journals to libraries and usually users have to log into each individual publisher's site, however the National Library of Medicine Beta resources 'search 2' available from April 1st will be able to search across a variety of databases.
You can do a 'quick and dirty' search (as the delightful terminology goes) across a range of types of resource and the results come back with different tabs for the different types of resource, so you can select 'images' 'books and journals' etc. Or in the Beta search you can select the type of resource you want to search before you begin, so for instance you may want to select 'books and journals' to do a literature search in just that type. Apparently this will replace the current resource 'DIALOG' which is being phased out.
The Beta search consists of resources which have been bought from Ovid, but also CINHL which comes from Ebsco. Some people find the EBSCO interface difficult to use but on the NLH website they can search all the resources using the NLH interface which may be easier for them.
The trainer, Andy Richardson, explained that it is usually recommended that only one database at a time be serached, and showed us how to do this using the Clinical Databases advanced search.
The NLH site also provides 'specialised libraries'; a section of its website with subsections showing current news and resources for users in one of several particular subjects.
The NLH are trying to negotiate better Athens access so that users do not have to click several publishers pages, registration pages and demands for athens login whilst they are already logged in, which is the sort of thing they have to face if trying to log in from home. Librarians are often not aware of these problems, as library machines often have automatic access to resources.
I wondered if it was not worth having an online computer in one's library that was not part of the institutional network so that Librarians could replicate the internet access problems of users and hence identify their access problems easier. This would possibly only be a matter of giving a terminal an ip address that did not fall within the institution's allocated range. (?)
The "my library" view shows the user all the resources to which they have access. This will include the NHS core collection but may also include resources subscribed to by their particular region (the South Eastern region has access to ZETOC [a table of contents biblographical database] at the moment, for instance, whilst negotiations are still continuing as to whether to get this at the national level or not.
Some of the old images databases are being dropped, but registered users can get access to copyright free images from the Grays Anatomy resource.
Users can also choose to search Guidance and Medical Dictionary resources, which are a good basic grounding in a subject and may be suitable for patients. There is also a Clinical Knowledge section which provides evidence-based resources such as the systematic reviews provided in the Cochrane Library.
The National Library of health train library staff in information skills, but they also provide advice on demonstrating value for money and they have a section providing copyright advice.
There is a 'for Librarians' section with continuous professional development information on the state of the art in resources etc. and pages providing training and exercises in how to use the site.
It struck me that this site is an excellent example of what prophets have been foretelling: the decoupling of the front and back end of resources. By this I mean that users on this site can search for journals and get direct access in many cases without having to visit the publisher's websites at all.
It struck me that there are so many different ways of searching for and getting access to journals these dayss' via a library's website, via 'My athens' and via the National Library of Health as well as other gateways. I wondered if libraries whose clientel were entirely composed of Health Service Users would not do better to abandon trying to create their own lists of links and instead rely on the NLH rather than its own website lgateway to provide links to offsite resources, so that users did not have a duplication of service.
The library we visited seemed quite small to me (One room about 25ft square,) and I was told that it was one of the larger ones. By contrast the online information market seems to be a developing and expanding sector.
Different journal providers supply different journals to libraries and usually users have to log into each individual publisher's site, however the National Library of Medicine Beta resources 'search 2' available from April 1st will be able to search across a variety of databases.
You can do a 'quick and dirty' search (as the delightful terminology goes) across a range of types of resource and the results come back with different tabs for the different types of resource, so you can select 'images' 'books and journals' etc. Or in the Beta search you can select the type of resource you want to search before you begin, so for instance you may want to select 'books and journals' to do a literature search in just that type. Apparently this will replace the current resource 'DIALOG' which is being phased out.
The Beta search consists of resources which have been bought from Ovid, but also CINHL which comes from Ebsco. Some people find the EBSCO interface difficult to use but on the NLH website they can search all the resources using the NLH interface which may be easier for them.
The trainer, Andy Richardson, explained that it is usually recommended that only one database at a time be serached, and showed us how to do this using the Clinical Databases advanced search.
The NLH site also provides 'specialised libraries'; a section of its website with subsections showing current news and resources for users in one of several particular subjects.
The NLH are trying to negotiate better Athens access so that users do not have to click several publishers pages, registration pages and demands for athens login whilst they are already logged in, which is the sort of thing they have to face if trying to log in from home. Librarians are often not aware of these problems, as library machines often have automatic access to resources.
I wondered if it was not worth having an online computer in one's library that was not part of the institutional network so that Librarians could replicate the internet access problems of users and hence identify their access problems easier. This would possibly only be a matter of giving a terminal an ip address that did not fall within the institution's allocated range. (?)
The "my library" view shows the user all the resources to which they have access. This will include the NHS core collection but may also include resources subscribed to by their particular region (the South Eastern region has access to ZETOC [a table of contents biblographical database] at the moment, for instance, whilst negotiations are still continuing as to whether to get this at the national level or not.
Some of the old images databases are being dropped, but registered users can get access to copyright free images from the Grays Anatomy resource.
Users can also choose to search Guidance and Medical Dictionary resources, which are a good basic grounding in a subject and may be suitable for patients. There is also a Clinical Knowledge section which provides evidence-based resources such as the systematic reviews provided in the Cochrane Library.
The National Library of health train library staff in information skills, but they also provide advice on demonstrating value for money and they have a section providing copyright advice.
There is a 'for Librarians' section with continuous professional development information on the state of the art in resources etc. and pages providing training and exercises in how to use the site.
It struck me that this site is an excellent example of what prophets have been foretelling: the decoupling of the front and back end of resources. By this I mean that users on this site can search for journals and get direct access in many cases without having to visit the publisher's websites at all.
It struck me that there are so many different ways of searching for and getting access to journals these dayss' via a library's website, via 'My athens' and via the National Library of Health as well as other gateways. I wondered if libraries whose clientel were entirely composed of Health Service Users would not do better to abandon trying to create their own lists of links and instead rely on the NLH rather than its own website lgateway to provide links to offsite resources, so that users did not have a duplication of service.
The library we visited seemed quite small to me (One room about 25ft square,) and I was told that it was one of the larger ones. By contrast the online information market seems to be a developing and expanding sector.
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