IFMH Inform Volume 10, Number 3

CONTENTS:

The competence agenda: developing a new LIS skillset
Margaret Haines, former Chief Executive, Library and Information Commission
This article briefly reviews the five year history of the Commission and then describes in more detail the work of the Commission in promoting new competencies for the library and information profession.

An open approach to CPD
Rachel Whittlestone, West Midlands Regional Library Unit
In recent years, health information staff have seen their jobs augment with new roles and responsibilities. The librarian is increasingly a key figure in the hospital organisation and with increasing challenges, librarians have needed to develop new skills. When time is at a premium, training opportunities must be flexible and learner orientated. This paper describes Project APPLE, which was developed in the West Midlands as a flexible approach to meeting the training needs for these new skill requirements.

Supporting researchers: issues and opportunities
Julie Glanville (1), Carol Lefebvre (2) and Betsy Anagnostelis (3),
(1) The NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, University of York, UK; (2) The UK Cochrane Centre, NHS R&D Programme, Oxford, UK; (3) Medical Library, Royal Free and University College Medical School of UCL, London, UK, and search advisor to the Systematic Reviews Training Unit, Institute of Child Health, London, UK
Information professionals face ever greater opportunities to make a difference in the work of health professionals. Alongside these opportunities are the challenges involved in making their skills and expertise known and appreciated. Many health care professionals are becoming involved in conducting systematic reviews, particularly within the Cochrane Collaboration. The impact of this on librarians and other information professionals is that they will receive increasing numbers of requests for extensive information support from researchers conducting systematic reviews and other information intensive research. Noting this trend, this paper describes a one day training session for librarians organised by staff of the NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, the Systematic Reviews Training Unit and the UK Cochrane Centre and which was intended to investigate some of the possible opportunities and to propose some alternative levels of support for researchers.

Professional development in healthcare by distance learning
Dr Barry Eaglestone and Dr Peter Bath, Centre for Health Information Management Research (CHIMR), University of Sheffield, {B.Eaglestone / P.A.Bath} @sheffield.ac.uk
This paper describes the evolution of new Distance Learning professional development programmes in Health Informatics in light of the Information Management and Technology (IM&T) Strategy of the NHS (NHS, Information for Health, 1998) and explains in detail the new Masters degree in Health Information Management created by the Department of Information Studies at Sheffield University.

Surf's up
Lucy Johnson, King's Fund Library and Information Service
A review of selected Web sites.

Continuing professional development: a resource guide
Bertha Yuen Man Low, Regional Library Unit, West Midlands Collaboration for Quality
An annotated listing of useful resources relating to continuing professional development.

Sidelines
Compiled by Su Golder, Lisa Mather and Julie Glanville, NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, University of York.
A selection of recent articles of interest to health professionals.

National electronic Library for Health - Managers: can they manage without it?
Andrew Booth, Director of Information Resources and Senior Lecturer - Evidence Based Healthcare Information, School of Health and Related Research, University of Sheffield (A.Booth@sheffield.ac.uk)
This paper describes the development so far of the Virtual Branch Library for Managers, an important yet minority component of the National Electronic Library for Health.

Progress on developing the NeLH
Ben Toth, NeLH Team
Ben Toth provides an update on progress made in the NeLH office and activities and developments associated with the whole NeLH project.
 

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