CILIP | Case Studies. Why my sector? Health Librarians working in an NHS Library

Why my sector? Health Librarians and Working in an NHS Library

Vanessa Bell, Librarian – Selly Oak Hospital Library, Birmingham

(This article originally appeared in Impact: Journal of the Career Development Group Volume 7, No.2, pages 27-28.)

Being a health librarian is more than just searching for medical information. You could work as a solo librarian, as part of a small team, or have a specialised role within a larger team. Health Librarians might work for the NHS, government organisations, universities and colleges, professional associations, national libraries, public libraries, voluntary and charity organisations, private industry and patient information libraries.

Users of health libraries are not only doctors but also nurses, physicians, allied health information professionals, students and patients. As I am familiar with the NHS, it is this area that I will speak about, first by providing a snapshot of what I do and then by outlining other possible roles within NHS libraries.

I started working at the University Hospital Birmingham (UHD) NHS Trust as a Systems Librarian. Our Trust has two libraries, one at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and one at Selly Oak Hospital. We currently have seven professional librarians, each with their own specialist role. I am currently the Librarian at Selly Oak Hospital Library and the Systems Librarian for the Birmingham and Black Country Health Libraries Consortium.

The roles of NHS librarians have developed and changed in line with government legislation. A key area is the impact of clinical governance on patient care and evidence-based practice. Libraries have a major role to play by helping healthcare professionals update their information skills, and by providing access to materials and up-to-date information.

As the Librarian at Selly Oak I am responsible for developing the service at this site. In order to achieve this, I find that I am using the collection management, cataloguing, and financial management skills that I learnt at library school. I have also updated my searching skills, in line with new technologies and resources.

A large part of my time is spent conducting literature searches for staff on databases such as Medline, CINAHL and Cochrane, and dealing with reference enquiries. When I first joined the Trust my knowledge of medical terminology was mainly the result of doing science ‘A' levels. However, through cataloguing and conducting searches this has now increased immensely.

I manage a library assistant who helps me three days a week, but as this is a small library I also spend two days of the week at the library counter, where most of my time is given over to dealing with inter-library loan requests and serials management.

We are currently looking to develop the promotion of the library by establishing closer working relationships with other departments. Two pilot schemes have arisen as a result of this, a dedicated library service and a current awareness service. The aim of the dedicated librarian scheme is to have a nominated librarian working with the department helping them to make optimal use of the library and its resources. The scheme offers help with literature searches and runs training sessions.

As with other areas of librarianship we are also looking to consolidate and improve electronic resources. The purchasing of key electronic resources (books, full text journals and databases) has been achieved on a national basis through the NHS Workforce Development Confederations as part of their Core Content Project, and through the National Electronic Library for Health (NeLH) Internet site. This aims to “complement and supplement the skills of NHS librarians and the resources in NHS libraries rather than trying to overlap the traditional functions of NHS librarians in providing books, journals or databases” (NeLH, 2004)1.

The site draws together high quality electronic resources and provides access to them for health professionals. Again, this is one area in which the library is playing an increasingly important role, as we promote the site and help users access and understand the information.

Amongst our professional staff we have a dedicated Training Librarian and a Clinical Librarian. The Training Librarian provides training on information retrieval techniques to all NHS staff. Training is given on how to conduct searches using the clinical databases; the resources available on the NeLH; how to search the Cochrane library and how to find quality Internet resources. A typical Training Librarian would have an advanced knowledge of literature searching, may evaluate training programmes and often produce literature and training packs to supplement the training sessions. Training sessions may be group based or one to one. This role has developed because many users are unable to access the library during the day and wish to learn how to conduct searches themselves.

The Clinical Librarian aims to support evidence-based health care by; attending ward rounds, teaching sessions and meetings; providing mediated literature searches; providing digests of critically appraised literature; and supporting the development of clinical practice guidelines.

Other roles which a health librarian may have within the NHS are as a Patient Information Librarian or as an Outreach Librarian. The former provides details of self-help groups, liaises with PALS (Patient advice & liaison services) and produces specialist collections of patient leaflets on conditions. This role may require counselling skills. The latter establishes links with primary care and community-based staff, visiting regularly to establish their information needs. They also conduct mediated literature searches, act as a consultant to practice libraries and may also offer training.

In summary the key skills needed by health librarians are good communication and interpersonal skills, as many roles involve training users on how to use medical databases. Similarly, excellent searching and retrieval skills are also needed, as we have to provide up-to-date information to support evidence-based medicine. It is also an advantage to be extremely computer literate and to have an interest in electronic resources and digital libraries.

To find out more about how libraries play an active role in the health sector visit the librarian portal on the NeLH site ( http://www.nelh.nhs.uk/librarian ).

The British Library also has a section on health care information ( http://www.bl.uk/collections/health/health.html ).

CILIP's Health Libraries Group (HLG) is devoted to information professionals working in health and community care (http://www.cilip.org.uk/groups/hlg).

In addition there are two subgroups of the HLG: Information for the Management of Healthcare (IFHM) ( http://www.ifmh.org.uk ); and Libraries for Nursing (LfN) ( http://www.cilip.org.uk/groups/hlg/lfn ).

References
1. http://www.nelh.nhs.uk/faq.asp (last accessed 28th April 2004)

Updated: 24 October 2005