Bradford District Care NHS FT – Health Promotion Library
The library team started working from home in March 2020 and have had to adapt quickly to the new environment the pandemic has brought. For example, our library trainee Sonia started cataloguing books from home.
Services
Training and inductions for new users switched to the online modality on Microsoft teams. The library space remained open to staff wanting to use it, obviously we introduced signs to remind staff to stay distanced and wear a mask.
Staff can access the library space with a swipe card. I’ve noticed that our library space is well used, and staff keep borrowing and returning items. If a user wants to borrow material, they just have to complete a form and leave it on the circulation desk.
In the past 6 months our Knowledge Managers, as well as carrying literature searches and training, have been involved in a systematic review on the Charles Bonnet syndrome and a narrative review that looks at the quality of suicide risk assessments.
We have been involved in a number of initiatives to promote wellbeing for staff and patients. For example, during the Health Information Week we prepared a calendar of activities to engage with our wellbeing team like painting, reading, and walking. Carl, our Resource Officer, was interviewed by Bradford's community radio station and promoted the Health Promotion Collection.
We developed a new collection following the Black Lives Matter protest. The principles of equality championed by BLM was and is something that we are not prepared to ignore. Therefore, we discussed what this might mean for our library services and considered how we might best raise awareness of inclusivity and equality via our resources. We selected books on diversity, inclusivity, and challenging stereotypes to start conversations about these issues. Our Trust fully supported this project and sent us a certificate of appreciation. and the collection is proving to be popular.
The annual report showed that the library services kept going despite the lockdown and I also started playing with infographic to make it more engaging. Thank you Canva!
Team
In November 2020 we recruited a new library and research admin, Kirsty who is helping bring our service and the research one closer. You can read more about her on a previous post.
Below a rare picture of the magic team all together 😊
Federica Bianchini
Library Manager
