As Knowledge and Evidence Specialists in the Surveillance team, our remit is to support Local Authority Public Health (LAPH) teams primarily with evidence relating to COVID-19 response and recovery. We will also be on-hand to provide a library service to LAPH teams who do not have access to library support via an existing agreement with another library, or who do not employ an information specialist ‘in house’. Carly will be looking after the North East, Yorkshire & Humber regions, and Tanya will focus on the North West, working together where there is any crossover.…

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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!…

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This time last year the library team started working from home, our library spaces remained open for self-service loans, PC and study space however the rest of our services started being delivered remotely. We started with only enough laptops for 4 members of the team but eventually managed to obtain laptops for the whole team. We restarted our physical library service at end of July 2020 with some staff at work and some at home on a rota basis and we have continued with this model of working. We have developed online training via teams, inductions videos, increased our eJournal and eBook provision.…

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Last year was one of ‘reimagining’ and adapting when circumstances are not ideal, and of course the CILIP Conference was no exception. Having only begun my role in health libraries in late March 2020, I was absolutely delighted to receive a YOHHLNet Bursary for November’s CILIP conference, an event that I have always been keen to participate in but never previously managed to attend. Unlike previous years (but maybe setting the precedent for several years to come), instead of getting to head off merrily on a train to some far flung destination (or Manchester), and spend break times chatting over complimentary coffee with librarians from near and far, I attended the CILIP Conference from the PC in my bedroom.…

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I began my apprenticeship in customer service not long after starting a new role as a library assistant in March 2019. The library assistant job is completely different to my previous roles so I had to learn it pretty much from the very beginning. In my previous role my job was to assist patients. Switching to the library meant that now was to help staff. Around two months after starting my new role, I was offered the opportunity to do an apprenticeship. The objective of the apprenticeship was to get me to a point where I could perform my role with confidence and accuracy.…

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2020 was a year like no other. In March 2020 with the rise of Covid19 cases and the country going into lockdown, 3 of the 4 library staff were redeployed, at very short notice, to support HR and managers with the recruitment and induction process. This involved contacting all new starters and sorting badges, IT log ins etc etc and doing a local induction. This was a time consuming process, taking on average 4 hours per new starter. At any one time each library staff member had approximately 20 new starters at various stages of the process.…

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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.…

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There’s been a big turnaround of staff at Bradford! The physical library space was closed to readers at the beginning of the pandemic and we also said goodbye to Lead Librarian Federica Bianchini, who moved on to Bradford Care trust. After a nine month period where the service was delivered by library assistants Louise and Caroline, I was appointed as Knowledge and Resources Librarian at the start of January. It’s been a steep learning curve, never having worked in an NHS library before, and I’m grateful to everyone, both at Bradford and in the wider network of librarians in the North, who have been there to answer all my questions.…

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I have recently completed a Libraries, Archives and Information Services Level 3 Apprenticeship. As I started my apprenticeship in late 2019, it was delivered as a Framework; however the course has recently been replaced by a Library, Information and Archive Services Assistant apprenticeship standard. Due to the change this post will focus on my experience of completing an apprenticeship, rather than the content of the course itself.…

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The library team is much depleted and currently consists of me at the moment as both my library assistants have moved on recently. Linda retired and went to live in Spain and Sam found another job outside the NHS. I hope to appoint a new assistant librarian shortly.…

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