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Library Knowledge Services (North)

Springboard programme reflections

I took part in the Springboard women’s development programme which consisted of 8 free workshops that was delivered virtually over the period of four months - from February to May 2021. The workshop was for two half days in a month, and the objectives of the programme are; • To take clear practical realistic steps to take more control over your life. • To find out what you value. • To make decisions and take action based on your core values.…

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Poetry in health libraries workshops – a collective response

In June 2021, a group of NHS library staff dared to stretch our comfort zones a little wider by attending two poetry workshops delivered by Betty Doyle. The workshops were part of a pilot research project being conducted by MMU, exploring whether there was such thing as ‘poetry anxiety’ amongst health library staff. In just 4 hours (and in some cases 2!), we were transformed into poetry explorers, appreciators and creators.…

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Liberation and creativity through poetry

I work as a Library Assistant in the Leeds Teaching Hospital Trust, one of the biggest acute NHS trusts in the country. In June I volunteered to participate in a series of poetry workshops. Staff from Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) were conducting an action research project on poetry in health libraries, and they needed a diverse group of Northern NHS Library staff to explore an intriguing question: ‘Can poetry add to the existing NHS Health Library offer?’.…

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Poetic ingredients in the mix

The opportunity to take part in a research project about poetry and wellbeing, by participating in online workshops, appealed to me because I have not previously associated poetry with health libraries and I was interested in discussing the potential benefits. I hadn’t anticipated writing much of my own poetry during the workshops, but that revealed itself to be the focus.…

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Anyone can write poetry (and it doesn’t have to rhyme!)

Like (I suspect) many people, the word poetry fills me with anxiety and takes me back to excruciating English lessons at school when people would be asked to read lines of poetry aloud to an unreceptive and giggling bunch of teenagers. I enjoy reading novels but I rarely read poetry for pleasure and I feel that my school experiences did put me off.…

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Hello from East Lancashire's new Assistant Librarian

My name is Amy Ward and I’ve just joined the team at East Lancashire Hospitals Trust. I will mainly be supporting our Clinical Librarian with literature searching and outreach activities. I completed my library traineeship at the University of Bradford in 2014/15. This is where I got my first taste of health librarianship, shadowing the health studies librarian Donna delivering PICO research sessions to the students. I graduated from my MA in Librarianship in 2018 and I have previously worked in further and higher education libraries.…

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By Royal Appointment

In June 2017 a library colleague and I were discussing the celebrity recipients of the Queen’s Birthday Honours. We began to toy with the idea of nominating one of the clinicians who uses our service for an award. The clinician was well regarded in her field, an active researcher with numerous published works and a long career in the NHS. Definitely the sort of candidate you’d expect to be honoured. We presumed it would be an easy process, fill out a couple of forms and then wait for the invitation from the palace………

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