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Extending the librarian role A Conversation Briefing with Linda Ward, Library Services Manager, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust.

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Presentation on theme: "Extending the librarian role A Conversation Briefing with Linda Ward, Library Services Manager, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust."— Presentation transcript:

1 Extending the librarian role A Conversation Briefing with Linda Ward, Library Services Manager, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust

2 Tonight….to mark National “Break Out of the Box” Week…. I am joined on the show by… Linda Ward

3 About Linda “In a previous life Linda trained as a Community Psychiatric Nurse. Since 1997 she has worked as a librarian at Leicester General Hospital, part of University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust. Initially as Information Services Librarian, her remit was to develop and deliver a proactive information service and training in information skills. Along with her colleagues, Linda first “broke out of the box” to develop the Trust's Clinical Librarian Service. The last year has seen Linda “breaking out” into a further role as Library Services Manager for the whole Trust”.

4 Welcome Linda…. could you start by describing how you prepared yourself for the challenging outreach role of Clinical Librarian?

5 Linda: “The way I prepared myself was to get some advanced literature search training – that’s obviously very important – so I did the PreCEPT course. I also did the CASP critical appraisal workshop and, ultimately, I am currently doing a health services research Masters – all of which contribute to developing my own skills and knowledge”.

6 Linda: “I have got a nursing background although I would say it is not necessary to have a nursing or medical background. It is quite useful because you obviously know a little bit about the technology and the jargon – but I know from talking to other clinical librarians that they soon pick that up. I know from my own experience that when you have been working in one clinical area and move to a new area (e.g. from neonatology to cardiovascular) you have lots of new jargon to pick up”.

7 Thank you, Linda. Now what were the major challenges that you faced in that role?

8 Linda: “Getting out of the library is very important – it is important for the clinical librarian to have the dedicated time to go out and develop relationships. Our first contacts were with the Clinical Leads – essentially to get “sponsorship” for working in their area. You being there is not usually a priority for those working day-to-day in the clinical setting”.

9 Linda: “Very often it felt like “cold calling” – a combination of detective work for the literature searching side of it and “cold calling”: trying to sell your service, essentially. But I think that we have all found that once you have got to know the people and do searches for them – once they can appreciate the value of what you can offer then those relationships become much, much smoother. It’s just a question of time and developing your interpersonal skills and confidence in being there”.

10 How did you equip yourself for carrying out that role?

11 Linda: “What we have done is to start small – we have always felt that was quite important – rather than try to develop a big chunk of directorates we tried to develop it in a small area and then you can move to another area once the service gets going”. “I took the opportunity to visit other librarians doing similar roles. Peer support is very important – there is a network of clinical librarians across the UK, built up over the years. There’s a lot to be gained from having that support from people doing the same work”.

12 Linda: “I’ve mentioned the CASP training – going on the CASP week – to just build my confidence and knowledge of critical appraisal – obviously the [MSc in] Health Services Research has helped build that up as well. So I think that it is just over time to take every opportunity to build up your own knowledge and skills – it just gives you that extra confidence to go out into the clinical setting on an equal footing with the clinical staff”.

13 Linda: “We’re not expected to know all the clinical “ins and outs” but we are information professionals and I think that it is important to remember that and that we do have some professional skills to offer”.

14 Did you use any other techniques such as shadowing or secondment to equip you for the role?

15 Linda: “I didn’t actually use any secondment – but as I say I did visit other librarians who were getting involved in similar sorts of work. Especially when you are doing something new and different [i.e. breaking out of the box] it is important to support each other”.

16 To what extent, Linda did you continue to draw on “traditional” librarian skills in your role?

17 Linda: “When your researcher was asking me about this before the programme I had to think “what do you mean by “traditional” library skills? Perhaps you mean book-buying, cataloguing and classifying, working on the issue desk? – all of those things we still do as clinical librarians, as well as literature searching and we do teaching. Book buying is influenced by our knowledge of what is happening out in the clinical setting…Even with cataloguing we make sure that guidelines and critical reading sessions are put onto our Trust Internet and part of that will be indexing material put onto the document management system”

18 Linda: “So I think it is hard to split out traditional skills from what you would do as a clinical librarian because there are so many different skills that you use when you do that job”

19 And finally – what other landmarks in your professional development do you look forward to reaching in the short- to medium term future?

20 Linda: “I have moved on into management now which I am enjoying – but I would be quite happy to go back into clinical librarianship if that was required. I think that what is important for us as a library service and me personally is to ensure that everything we do becomes more integrated within the organisation and that the library becomes central to things that the organisation considers important – and that is the target for us at the moment”

21 Thank you, Linda for sharing those important insights…. later in the programme to mark National “Break Out of the Box” Week…. I shall be joined by Christopher Lee and David Blaine but for now please show your appreciation to my special guest… Linda Ward


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