We’ve been asking ourselves lately if we could make our service more accessible and inclusive. What we did wasn’t the result of requests or suggestions from library users. Instead we wanted to have things in place that we did as standard so that we didn’t have to rely on people telling us if something was creating a barrier for them…
As part of Libraries Week (7th- 12th October), the Library and Information Service at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals ran Digital Libraries Week to celebrate the library’s digital collection and its role in supporting patient care, research, and education.…
Although not technically a new starter, after moving from Wirral to Chester after almost 16 years is certainly a new beginning. Having qualified in 1999, I worked for Wirral Libraries before moving to Arrowe Park in 2003 to a new Site Librarian role.…
Some time during 2016, shortly after joining Health Care Libraries Unit North (HCLU), Linda Ferguson casually dropped into conversation the expectation that members of the team obtain Fellowship with CILIP. “Yes of course, maybe next year” I replied in a confident fashion. In truth my thoughts were quite different. Had I done anything that had made significant contribution to the profession? Probably not. Chartership is one thing but surely only people like David Stewart or Andrew Booth are worthy of Fellowship?…
If you have worked in information for any length of time you are likely to have encountered Ranganthan’s Laws. They have been described as, “for librarians… timeless objectives that put our profession’s goals in perspective” There has been an array of alternatives presented since their first appearance such as Gorman’s ‘Five New Laws of Librarianship’. However Ranganthan’s laws - although almost 90 years old - still resonate today. But how relevant are they to modern libraries – in particular to health libraries?…
This Hop Tu Naa (the Manx version of Halloween), there’s been a few spooky changes in Keyll Darree Library. There’s an old adage that Manx people aren’t fond of newness, but our library team always feel better for a refresh, so we’re bucking the perceived trend!…
I was invited onto this course at Keele University by a physiotherapist whose CAT (Critically Appraised Topic) group I’d joined earlier this year to help them find the evidence they need for their CATs. For those of you who haven’t heard of CATs, they are basically clinical questions arising from daily practice. My group meets roughly once a quarter to discuss their chosen specialist areas, progress being made and any possible gaps in the evidence.…
Recently Health Education England funded me for a two-day course at Henley Business School on Advancing your Change & OD Practice. Their purpose was to support the Knowledge for Healthcare agenda on knowledge mobilisation. My purpose was to understand where we fit in the Trust’s OD agenda. Over the last couple of years we’ve given increasing amounts of support to our OD department and chatting to our head of OD has revealed that we’re both interested in the same kinds of subjects.…
Being a musician by training, one might wonder how I’ve come to librarianship as a career! After completing my PhD in Music in 2016, I realised that whilst I wanted to continue my activities as a researcher, I also wanted to pursue something else as my daily job. As a student, I really enjoyed working as a writing mentor and helping other students gain more confidence in key skills. So working in libraries really appeared to provide what I was looking for.…
2018 was a big year for me. After deciding to pursue a mid-life career change away from higher education teaching and research, I started my professional journey as a librarian by enrolling in a Library and Information Management postgraduate course at Manchester Metropolitan University.…
