Celebrating CILIP NW and Health Libraries Special Interest Group: HLG 2024
A description of Siobhan's visit to the HLG Conference in June 2024.…
The Land of Geek – Save time with these Outlook tips.
This is the first article for what we are calling the Land of Geek. Those of you who used to get the old LIHNNK-UP will recognise the name. The Land of Geek will be a regular slot in Northern Lights dedicated to articles on technology and libraries. Artificial Intelligence (AI), for example, is an obvious topic, but just to prove that not everything has to be about the latest technology, here is an article on that everyday workhorse, Outlook.…
Unexpected Bear Hunts, Parakeets and Cockapoos
Dom gives an account of his trip to the HLG Conference held at Royal College of Physicians in London in June 2024.…
Keepin' the Faith - a Northern Soul reminiscence resource
Our new Northern Soul reminiscence resource is a folder decorated with iconic record labels such as Tamla Motown, Ric Tic and VIP (the idea is to replicate the ‘multiple badge vibe’ of original bags and jackets). Inside, there are large-format photos of places and people, and a ‘word bingo’ game (everyone is a winner) in which all words relate to venues, singers, song titles, etc.; the words have been chosen to be recognisable and synonymous with Northern Soul.…
Emergency! Emergency! Major Incident Planning on the Isle of Man
It’s been a bad few years for hypothetical Noble’s Hospital. Last month an explosion at the Triumph factory caused a cloud of poisonous gas, a few years ago there was a plane crash, before that a fairground ride fell on a crowd, and, of course, there was the horrible accident at the Ramsey Sprint motorbike event. Apart from there wasn’t, because none of these things actually happened, but they could, and that’s why each year the Isle of Man runs a major incident exercise.…
LIHNN visit to LMI
Opposite Liverpool’s Catholic cathedral and next door to the Everyman theatre Liverpool Medical Institute is an unassuming Classical building in Hobnob-coloured stone. Two columns on the main entrance give it the air of a Post Office with delusions of grandeur, or perhaps the home of one of the University’s less-fashionable departments, anthropology or theology perhaps.…
Research and the library – don’t forget about us!
Recently, I attended an event titled ‘Expanding Research within Roles and Developing Partnerships’ hosted by our research team. The event highlighted the diverse research roles within the Trust, showcased current research projects, and featured a range of speakers from both within and outside the Trust.…
Two days in Dundee: the UK Knowledge Mobilisation Forum 2024
I’ve been attending this annual event since I started my PhD researching health and care knowledge and library specialists’ role in knowledge mobilization within and beyond their organisations. Unlike most of the conferences and training sessions that we attend as library professionals, the UK Knowledge Mobilisation Forum isn’t primarily targeted at librarians or indeed any particular professional group; it is aimed at anyone “with a passion for ensuring that knowledge makes a positive difference to society”. Typical attendees include students, practitioners, researchers, academics, policy makers and civil servants. It is always a very interactive event, providing a space for sharing knowledge, experiences and methods through such things as a knowledge fayre, storytelling, an ideas jam and interactive poster plenaries.…
Reflections on the online 'Value and impact in libraries' event
I booked onto the ‘Value and impact in libraries’ event not fully knowing what to expect but aware of the importance of demonstrating how valuable and impactful our work is to our colleagues and stakeholders. In the current economic climate, it feels more important than ever to have evidence at our fingertips for financial decision making, service improvements and meeting quality standards.…
NHS Library and Health Promotion Services: managing funding uncertainty
Funding cuts are the ever-present worry in NHS libraries, forcing Library Managers to constantly re-evaluate how we deliver services with limited resources. And for those of us in the even smaller niche of NHS libraries who still run Health Promotion Resource centres in tandem with Public Health and Local Authorities (there are just a few of us nationally) the threat of funding cuts can be even more existential and dramatic since bankruptcy feels right behind the corner.…