Monday 21 April 2008

Ten of the best: 3 myResource Lists

Ten of the best: 3 Star Resource Lists

Your course readings can be accessed via Star Resource Lists. These may include links to electronic resources such as full text journals and websites in addition to items in the Library.

 Access

There are three ways to access the Resource Lists:

  1. Via the useful links listed at the right of this blog

  2. Via Minerva. Click onto your appropriate Online Handbook and then click onto the Recommended Reading List. This will take you directly into the Resource List.

  3. Via the library catalogue (Star). Clicking on the Star Resource Lists button will take you into the Resource List welcome page.


Search tips

To view all the lists for your department select from the drop down list on the Welcome page and click go. You can also use the search box in the header bar and from here you can search by keyword, module name or lecturer.

You will need to be logged into MUSE to view the lists with fulltext links.

If you want to print all or part of your list click on the printer icon and a printable version will load.

If you cannot find the list you are looking for please ask at the Library Enquiry Desk and we will investigate.

Frances

For further help and advice please contact me f.ludlow@sheffield.ac.uk

Clinical medicine eBook

Hi

There is currently a problem with access to the e version of Kumar and Clarke's Clinical Medicine. This is a combination of technical problems and problems with negotiations with the publisher. Our techie people are on the case of this and I'm hoping it will be resolved soon. In the meantime there are multiple copies of this texbook in both of the Health Sciences Libraries at WB 102 (K) and in the Information Commons at 616 (K). I'll post a note when access is restored.

Vic

Tuesday 15 April 2008

Evidence based medicine: a soft option?

Evidence based medicine: a soft option?

On Saturday I went along to Weston Park Museum to visit the Medical Students’ Teddy Bear Hospital.

Photo of green teddy visiting radiology

Green Teddy visits Radiology!

As a medical librarian I was keen to find out if clinical decisions in the teddy bear hospital were being made according to the best evidence!

Take Green Teddy for example, brought in by my 6 year old daughter Annabel who was concerned that his obstinate refusal to go in the washing machine set him at high risk for contracting an infection. Fortunately a thorough consultation was undertaken by Dr Hannah who quickly spotted that poor old Green Ted was also suffering from what appeared to be the early signs of alopecia. She was rightly concerned that washing Green Ted might aggravate his alopecia and that this was perhaps a contraindication in his care.

I spoke to Teddy Hospital organisers, final year medical students, Abi Jones and Emily Lees to find out how their decision making was influenced and if they would use the research available from the Health Sciences Library to influence their decisions!

As Abi quickly pointed out, the evidence base for treating soft toys is very limited and is largely based on the judgement and experience of the teddy bear doctors!
However I was assured that clinical guidelines, systematic reviews and randomized controlled trials would be used to influence their decision making, whenever they were available.

The library might not always be able to help with soft toy medicine but it is here to support evidence based practice in the clinical setting. We can guide you through the hierarchy of evidence to support your clinical practice. Here are some resources that you might use …

The National Library of Guidelines is the index to retrieve all clinical guidelines
www.library.nhs.uk/guidelinesfinder/

The Cochrane Library indexes all systematic reviews
www.thecochranelibrary.co.uk

Ovid Medline is the key resource for searching for randomized controlled trials (retrieving just rcts from Medline can be done using the publication type limit)
Connect via MUSE-Library-Databases

Thank you Abi, Emily and all involved, for organising the Teddy Bear Hospital. My children and their friends had a fantastic time. As for Green Teddy … we have settled on a gentle hand wash :-)

Photo of the doctors at the teddy bear hospital
Dr Abi and Dr Emily with a 'patient'

Monday 7 April 2008

The Subject Librarians are in the Infomation Commons

Just a reminder that throughout this semester, specialist subject librarians will be available in the Information Commons to give you in depth help and advice with using all types of library and information resources. So if you have an assignment or dissertation but are unsure about how to access, evaluate and organise the information needed, drop in for a chat.

No need to book, we’ll be at the first floor help desk in the Information Commons every week,
Mondays 2-4pm
Thursdays 11am-1pm


If you want to see me, it is my stint this Thursday :-)

And, on the subject of the Information Commons, the Dental School students have made a YouTube clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D08XykTvOIo

I'm waiting with bated breath for the Med School one as I'm sure you guys can do so much better!

Vic

Thursday 3 April 2008

Bookmarking eResources in your Web browser

Ok, so you all keep telling me that connecting to a Library eResource involves too many clicks and I have to say I am inclined to agree. At the moment our eTechnologies  team are working on a project which will authenticate access to the resources using a different system to Athens (Shibboleth) and I am hopeful that the access will then be much quicker and more straightforward.

In the meantime, if you have resources which you visit frequently then it may be worth bookmarking them. This must be done in the following way to ensure access is facilitated:

eJournals and eBooks

  • Open your preferred browser

  • Connect to the a-z eJournal or eBook listing

  • Right click on the required title

  • Add to favourites (IE) or bookmark this link (Firefox)


Databases

  • Open your preferred browser 

  • From the a-z list select the required database

  • Right click on the 'connect to ...' link in the quick links box

  • Add to favourites (IE) or bookmark this link (Firefox)


When you return to your bookmarked page you will be asked to log into MUSE to meet with our legal obligations. You only need to do this once per browser session. Hope this helps.

I'll keep you posted on the Shibboleth developments.

Vic