It’s certainly been a busy and challenging year but we have managed to keep the service up and running and made some great service developments!
COVID-19 ACTIVITY
Services
Covid hit and despite running with a skeleton team (staff redeployed, remote working) we managed to run an effective day to day service.
We kept the Blackburn site open and offered a full service. The numbers of PC’s and study areas were reduced and there were lots of moving of tables and chairs to allow for social distancing. Our Library I.T Suite became Command Room for the HR Team.
Our Burnley site library was unstaffed during this time, however library users still had access. All the risk assessments were in place and the space was rearranged to comply with social distancing so we still could offer 24/7 access to our users. We have now returned to staffing Burnley library Monday – Thursday.
Equipment
The library took on the responsibility of loaning fit mask kits. We have 27 fit kits available for loan and we are using our library management system to keep track of usage and reservations.
As you can imagine demand is very high and this has posed challenges but it also raises the profile of the library service.
Literature Searches & Training
A new journal club has been set up in the Midwifery department which had its first meeting this month. It went really well and it will become a monthly fixture. Searches have been coming in and a lot of support has been given to people undertaking systematic reviews with around 3 from the neonatal intensive care unit alone. The Clinical Librarian has been working closely with the Research department to work on outreach and we are hoping to develop joint teaching sessions for the future.
Health & Wellbeing
We continue to support the ELHT Health & Wellbeing agenda and this has been even more important than ever over the last 12 months. We assisted in the development of Oasis Rooms, mindfulness colouring packs and promoting resources to support mental health & wellbeing during this difficult time.
We did a major move around at the Blackburn site library and created our very own library oasis area. This is proving very popular with ELHT staff and students and is a welcoming space to sit & relax, eat lunch or just have 5 mins peace and quiet. We have just recently taken delivery of new fiction and wellbeing books to put into this section.
We now also have an Inclusion collection available to all staff.
New Current Awareness Service
The library has changed the way it is delivering current awareness. Patrick our Clinical Librarian has worked to create something convenient and interactive that is easily accessible of a mobile device.
Our new bulletins are online and our collections can be followed on the ReadQXMD App. We have integrated our resources with full text links to our holdings giving instant access.
In order to shape the content Patrick has worked with health professionals within various departments and this has also led to increases in searches and training.
We were very pleased to be awarded the LIHNN Service Development Gold Award for service improvement for this. It was great to be recognised in a strong field of submissions during this extraordinary year.
Clinical Guidelines Project
The clinical librarian has been seconded 2 days a week since October working on developing a new system to house the trusts Clinical guidelines and documents. The initial pilot taking Nursing and Midwifery Care plans into the new system on Sharepoint has been successful and is near completion. Central funding was achieved with around £40,000 secured for two years for staffing. It is a large project and it is expected to take a while to complete but the plan is to integrate documents in department by department.
Clare Morton
Library Operational Services Manager
