As the Clinical Librarian representative on HEE’s KLS Library Workforce Workstream Reference Group, Sarah Gardner (Sarah G) was seeking the views of her peers on two topics which were going to be explored at an HEE Workforce and Research Round Table event in May 2022. Fellow Yorkshire & Humber (YoHHLNet) committee member Sarah Hennessy (Sarah H) is YoHHLNet’s knowledge café guru and she was curious whether we could use MS Teams to hold a virtual knowledge café for this purpose.…

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I hope it is not a generalisation to say that librarians are usually quite introspective people. Moreover, those of us who have completed a librarianship qualification or chartership will almost certainly be familiar with the concept of “being a reflective practitioner”. As a result, it can be said that libraries and teaching reflective practice go hand-in-hand. Reflection is something that healthcare professionals are regularly encouraged to do. For example, nurses are expected to submit reflections as part of their revalidation every three years. However, after doing some enquiring, it turns out that they receive very little training on how to write reflections effectively. I theorised that this was a potential gap that the library services could fill. I also felt that designing and delivering my own training session would be an excellent learning opportunity. I thought it could be useful to share my reflections on designing the session and the feedback I received for those interested in developing something similar.…

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I am so grateful to the YOHHLnet committee for awarding me a bursary to attend the Librarians’ Information Literacy Conference (or LILAC for short). It ran from 11th-13th April at Manchester Metropolitan University. Though I was a bit nervous to attend my first in-person conference since 2019, I needn’t have worried at all as I had a fabulous time!…

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Hi everyone, my name is Danielle Davies and I have recently joined Mersey Care as an Evidence Reviewer (Assistant Librarian). This is my first role in health libraries, although I have previous experience of working in multiple academic and public libraries, as well as NHS and university administration. I have a good all-round knowledge of libraries from the many different libraries I have worked in, ranging from activities such as archives and special collections to collection management, cataloguing and providing information literacy sessions...…

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Hello, my name is Tilly Dixon and I have recently joined the JET Library at Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust as a Digital Librarian. I’m new to libraries, my background is in IT, working with large enterprise systems in private industry. My experience ranges from technical projects such as system installs, upgrades and database migrations, to more generic skills like content management and knowledge transfer. I have experience of corporate governance and am qualified in ITIL and internal quality audit.…

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Hello everyone, I’m Stephanie Burns and I’ve recently joined the Library and Knowledge team at Southport and Ormskirk Hospitals NHS Trust as a Librarian. My library background has been predominantly in the HE and FE sector. I’ve worked in a number of places… from the Shetland Isles, where I’m originally from, to the North West of England via Aberdeen and Dubai! However, my very first professional library role was in the NHS many years ago when I worked for the-then Grampian Health Board in Aberdeen. So, when I saw this job advertised, I decided to make the leap back into the NHS and I’m so delighted I did!…

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My name is Karen Storms and I’m a new starter, having just joined as Assistant Librarian at the Royal Oldham Hospital for the Northern Care Alliance. My library experience is mostly in educational settings and small specialty libraries so I am brand-new to healthcare. Most recently, I worked as a consultant librarian, offering my services to institutions that needed a professional librarian but couldn’t afford a full-time post or simply needed my expertise for a short-term big project. All of this work has been done in Hertfordshire so as well as starting a new job, I’m also moving house soon. NCA has welcomed me and got me off to an exciting start! I look forward to being part of the Northern Health Libraries community, and I am certain I will be asking a lot of questions.…

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Hello, my name is Sarah Bowman-Worrall and I have recently joined the Manchester Foundation Trust team as an Assistant Librarian. Whilst I have a Master’s in Library and Information Management, all of my previous library experience related to academic libraries, so it was a big step for me to dive into the world of clinical librarianship. However, I had nothing to fear as everyone in the trust has been so welcoming, helpful, and patient that it has been easy for me to adjust to this new role. I find myself learning something new every day whether that be in relation to outreach, book buying, or literature searching, so I know that this is a role that will never bore me. I am looking forward to contributing to all of the amazing services that the trust has to offer and getting to know more about the world of NHS libraries.…

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My name is Amy Tyrrell and I have recently started the role of Assistant Librarian for Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust. My first library job after completing my MA in Library and Information Management was as a library assistant within a college library system. After building my core library skills in an academic environment, I am very excited to now be in a position where I can help medical staff gain access to the resources they need. As my role is based at North Manchester General Hospital, I’m particularly looking forward to promoting our library service by helping people learn how to search healthcare databases and building and refreshing our collection of core and fiction books.…

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I have been interested in peer review of literature searches for quite some time. At the International Clinical Librarian Conference in 2017 I was intrigued by a conference poster which described risk of bias in published systematic reviews due to avoidable failures in searching. At the same event I attended an excellent workshop on assessing search strategies, where more fascinating, amusing and frankly shocking details of published search strategies were aired. Kate Misso and Janine Ross from Kleijnen took us through using the ROBIS tool to judge risk of bias from common inadequacies found in reported search strategies in systematic reviews. Then we used the PRESS Evidence Based Checklist to evaluate a search strategy. Using what I’d learnt I facilitated a peer review programme at Doncaster & Bassetlaw where once a quarter we each did the same search and then looked our approaches to spot differences, similarities and discuss what worked and what didn’t etc. It was useful, if more than a little artificial, but often it was too hard to justify spending the time on a “fake” search when there were plenty of the real thing coming in thick and fast!…

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