| Autumn 2012 |
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From the Desk of Professor Cleghorn
In my ruminations regarding what I would submit to you for my initial offering for 2012 I decided that it was perhaps an opportune time to examine how others consider their medical libraries. I decided to go to the pinnacle, that is, the famous Countway Library of Medicine at that Harvard Medical School which, by the way, is a simply amazing place to visit and to take in the palpable history of the place. It claims that its mission “is to foster the advancement of education, research, scholarship and professional practice in medicine, biological sciences, public health and dentistry by:
The two highlighted points to me typify what the editors of this newsletter are trying to achieve and for that I congratulate them on yet another very informative and useful edition. Geoff Cleghorn, Deputy Head (Clinical Schools), The School of Medicine National Year of Reading
Australian libraries and library associations have joined together in a campaign to turn 2012 into the National Year of Reading (NYR). The National Year of Reading is about helping Australians increase their reading confidence, literacy, vocabulary and general knowledge. The aim is to develop a reading culture for all Australians to understand the benefits of reading as a life skill and a catalyst for well-being. I am the University of Queensland's representative on the Queensland Consultative Committee for the National Year of Reading. The patron for the NYR is author and actor William McInnes. McInnes wrote recently: “Reading comes in all shapes and forms these days, but one element remains unchanged. The basic idea that through accessing information, through the understanding and exchange of ideas, through the firing of a mind's imagination, the power of reading is unleashed. McInnes referred to the psychological power of the constructed word as a “bridge to get people across that river of doubt”.2 “Reading takes you out of yourself. It can make you see, no matter how alone you may think you are and however desperate that place you might find yourself in, that somewhere through all our histories, someone has been there before”.3 Later this year, Nick Earls will speak at UQ at an event hosted by the Fryer Library. Nick is a Queensland Ambassador for the NYR. On 8th August he will speak about his new book, to be released in July this year and also about the changes he has seen in learning and publishing during his writing career. Nick is an alumnus of the School of Medicine. He worked as a G.P. before turning to writing. 1_3William McInnes. “Weekend World,” The Courier Mail, March 3-4, 2012, 5.Roslyn Follett, Director, Research Information Service, r.follett@library.uq.edu.au
Research Skills and Patient Care in Action:
The Princess Alexandra Occupational Therapy department has 62 clinical staff who work across nine different clinical specialties. In 2002, stimulated by professional practice trends, the Director and clinical team leaders recognised the need to assist therapists integrate evidence into practice. An evidence-based practice project team was established and a strategy to drive this agenda. The resulting Research and Evidence in Practice (REP) programme, and the strategies for its implementation, have been published (Caldwell et al 2008; Caldwell et al 2011). Within the REP programme, the department's EBP Co-ordinator mentors all occupational therapists in consuming and translating research evidence into practice. The Research Fellow guides staff in the processes necessary for generating or participating in research. The partnership between the EBP Coordinator and Research Fellow provides the opportunity for identified gaps in evidence to be strategically researched. The REP model has proved to be a valuable structure for the coordination and mapping of knowledge translation and research activity within the PAH Occupational Therapy Department. Librarians from the PAH, Christine Dalais and Jill McTaggart have played an invaluable role in the success of the programme by assisting occupational therapy staff and students search for the high quality research evidence that is required to inform clinical practice. This support has not only enabled busy therapists to gain timely access to evidence, it has also increased their confidence in searching databases to obtain high quality research. Over the period 2007-2010, 37 evidence-based practice (EBP) reviews were completed; staff published 45 journal articles and 10 book chapters, and a further eight publications were in press. The findings of the EBP reviews and research projects have also been disseminated through multiple conference presentations. Libby Caldwell, EBP Coordinator, Occupational Therapy, Princess Alexandra Hospital
Research Skills and Patient Care in Action:
The Department of Allied Health at the Princess Alexandra Hospital has implemented an Evidence based Practice methodology of researching information to apply to patient centred activities, projects and education. It is of great importance as it informs patient care with the most current evidence. Allied Health staff follow a prescribed methodology when searching the literature and record their search strategy and results. To ensure comprehensive searching, various databases are searched including Cochrane Library, PubMed, CINAHL, EMBASE as well as The Joanna Briggs Institute, OT Seeker and Pedro. The process begins in the department where occupational therapists each discuss their chosen topic with the department's EBP Coordinator, Libby Caldwell. The next step involves consultation with one of the librarians who will advise on the search process, and the search strategies which will be most useful to retrieve high quality research articles on their topic. Searches have been conducted on a broad and interesting range of topics including use of the Wii in therapy, group cooking activities for spinal injuries patients and the latest research in post-traumatic amnesia. We enjoy this aspect of our work because we know that there is a direct relationship between the literature found and patient care. It also aligns with the emphasis of the Research Information Service on close engagement with the research programmes of clinical staff in the hospital. Jill McTaggart and Christine Dalais, PAH/PACE Library QCIF: enabling eResearch in Queensland
Do you need: To share data with a geographically diverse team? Safe and secure storage for your research data? Access to high performance computing for your research? QCIF provides access to and support for eResearch services, data storage and management, high performance computing, and cloud services. See what other UQ Researchers have to say about their involvement with QCIF. “I can now use Microsoft's OS X RDC client on my MacBook and I am up and running Windows on the QCIF virtual machine with barely any of my local computer's resources used. Add in VPN and I can access my Windows session from anywhere that I have an internet connection. Effectively I can have my Mac running Windows specific statistics software, like SAS, processing away even when my computer is off. The QCIF infrastructure has added value to my system and saved me time.” Simon Forsyth, Research Officer with the Health Information Systems Development Unit, at the University of Queensland. “I have found that having access to the virtual machine on the QCIF infrastructure was a very helpful tool for my simulation studies as I could run very large simulations that continue to run without interfering with other items running on my computer. This service provides a huge boost for researchers like myself.” Suhail Doi, Associate Professor of Clinical Epidemiology with the Clinical Epidemiology Unit at the University of Queensland. If you are interested in gaining access to QCIF infrastructure, or if you wish to learn about the new national Research Data Storage Infrastructure, please contact: Justin Clark, ph: 3346 4334, mob: 04 0895 1782, e: j.clark@qcif.edu.au Faculty of 1000
Faculty of 1000 (F1000) is a new resource for the UQ Library that provides evaluations of the top 2% of articles from the wealth of published biomedical research. Since 2002, expert researchers and clinicians have selected over 100000 articles for evaluation, highlighting the most important papers and explaining why they are important. F1000 allows biomedical and clinical researchers to more easily identify key articles across a range of disciplines, to discover important research when unable to read the full article and to view other opinions on a paper that may help confirm that the paper and the research are important. Each evaluated paper receives an F1000 article factor (FFa) which is calculated by adding the highest rating awarded by a Faculty Member (FM) to an increment for each additional rating from other FMs, eg the FFa of the citation below is 9, based on two evaluations - a must read review (8 points for the highest evaluation) and a recommended read (a 1 point increment). 
To see the articles in F1000 that your peers are reading also look at the All time top 10, the Current top 10, Hidden jewels, and Naturally Selected, the F1000 research blog. The top 10 lists are regularly updated as the highest ranked articles in each discipline are evaluated. Additional features such as storing searches and setting up email alerts in an area of interest are available by registering for an individual login at http://f1000.com/registeruser. Access to F1000 is available to UQ staff and students throughout 2012 at library.uq.edu.au/record=e1002774~S7. Continuation of F1000 beyond 2012 is dependent on your comments and the use of this innovative resource. Contact your UQ Librarian for more information. Lucy Cartmel, UQ/Mater McAuley Library Meet the Librarians - Nursing and Midwifery 
Christine Dalais UQ /PAH & PACE Health Sciences Libraries  Michael Fagg Ipswich Library 
Ruth Browne Mater McAuley Library 
Jackie Devenish Herston Health Sciences Library Over the course of their degree, Nursing and Midwifery students are based across various clinical locations, including the Ipswich Campus and three hospitals, the Mater, Princess Alexandra Hospital and Herston Campus. At each of these sites, a specialist librarian support and actively engage with students to develop information literacy and research skills. All students attend mandatory information skills classes, with training further supported by one on one research assistance including Endnote workshops and help. The librarians work with the Nursing and Midwifery educators to provide access to the resources needed for each course by organising course materials access, checking of reading lists, copyright management, and creation of links to readings that are posted on course Blackboard sites. Strong collaboration and consultation between the librarians and teaching staff ensure that required content is sourced for new and revised courses. The librarians also provide support to the School's researchers and research students through all stages of the research life cycle by offering individual consultations for research questions, training in research skills and referencing software such as Endnote, assistance with managing research data, advice and support in scholarly publishing, digitalisation and UQ eSpace. In addition to working with university staff and students, the librarians based in the hospitals actively support the information needs of hospital nurses and midwives by providing individual consultations for research and patient related clinical topics, conducting literature searches, attending and assisting with journal clubs, and offering library updates in the form of in-service sessions to the wards and departments. This is a particularly rewarding part of our work especially when we receive feedback on how the Library has played a role in providing evidence to support a change in clinical practice or patient care. Staff News
Two new staff members have joined the Library team at the PAH campus. All team members are now based in the PACE Library, and also work in the PAH Library on a rostered basis. Liz Jordan came across the river from St Lucia at the end of January to take up the Manager's role. Liz has had several years of experience in various libraries on the St Lucia campus, and also worked in Library Corporate Services in quality assurance, projects and planning. Liz Jordan, Ph: 3346 1185, e: e.jordan@library.uq.edu.au
Scott has most recently worked in the Law Library, and now takes responsibility for liaison with the hospital nursing and allied health staff. He is enthusiastic about this appointment, having enjoyed working with nursing students in a previous position. Scott Macintyre, Ph: 3346 1181, e: s.macintyre@library.uq.edu.au
Editor: Jenny Hall |
