2. Establishing your
relationship with users
What do we want users to know about us?
Something old
Something new
Something borrowed
Something blue
3. Why should I engage?
Information skills training can be
used during appraisals.
Doctors - prepare to revalidate!
Engaging with the library ensures
best practice and current
awareness.
4. Outreach activities
Assisting in the running of a
Journal Club by providing
copies of articles and literature
searches.
Encourage ongoing debate
through hash-tagging.
#croydonjc?
Unconferencing: hosting
casual events for clinicians and
librarians to share best
practice, tools and resources.
5. DIY Information Skills
Encourage users to identify skills gaps - put the fear of god into them!
St. George’s University uses self-assessment involving information skills in
believable scenarios.
Use of open source software such as VUE or licensed software such as
DecisionSim.
The outcome? Half of their students used the self-assessment resource,
with around half of the participants subsequently signing up for training
sessions.
Participation was incentivised with certificates of completion, plus credit.
6. There’s an app for
that...
Guy’s & St. Thomas’ currently provide an
iPhone app detailing hospital policies.
Can Croydon offer something similar?
How can an OPAC be integrated into such
an app?
Hi-tech wards may be a pipe dream, but
we should prepare to be catering to tech-
savvy clinical staff with next next
generation hardware. Be ready to meet
their expectations!
8. Echo chamber 2.0
Too many libraries implement social media tools without considering their
impact.
It is vital to create performance indicators for social media as one would
any other operation.
Nobody listening? Change your tactic, try harder, or stop wasting time.
Talking to yourself isn’t engaging anyone!
The key is to engage and discuss as well as simply broadcast. Don’t just
be social, network!
9. What have you done for
me lately?
Co-creation and co-curation builds a library
community to supplement the library service.
User input can be valuable - catalogue 2.0 and
wikis can build further upon a library’s key
resources. “By users, for users.”
Library input can be equally as valuable - a
regular mail-out could publicise e-holdings of
staff publications and raise impact, awareness
and morale.
There could even be...
10. ...A hospital repository?
While copyright and embargoes may stand in the way of an institutional
repository for research published in journals, internal presentations and
reports may benefit from deposit.
Audits, teaching materials, and presentations would be available to all staff:
knowledge runs free and impact is raised.
Staff producing these materials would engage with the library to secure
smooth deposits of their work and receive help when necessary.
One step further towards greater transparency and availability of research
within the NHS?
11. Good old-fashioned
paper
We might be tech-savvy, but clinical staff will
be from a diverse range of backgrounds, ages
and skill levels.
Some doubt the ability of hospitals to go
paperless - not to mention the desirability of
such a prospect!
Embrace the new, but don’t reject the ‘old’
or we risk alienating potentially vital
stakeholders.
Postcards and posters on wards, in offices,
and in the mess with contact details.
Literature search and training session forms.
12. Non-medical stock and
playing to library stereotypes
We needn’t stock only Davidson - what about
Zhivago?
Introducing fiction can help users to see the
library in a different light - as a space to unwind
as well as space to research.
It can also increase user involvement through a
book exchange scheme.
13. How do we craft a service
more users engage with?
Creativity
Relevance
Awareness of audience
Foresight
Tradition
