Who is eligible to join?

All health and social care staff working for the NHS in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire and students on clinical placement in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire.

 Access Policy:

·        NHS staff should register at their nearest and most appropriate library by filling in and returning a membership form.

·        Each library will offer full membership rights (i.e. reference facilities, loans from stock, photocopying, literature searching, document supply and enquiry services) to all NHS staff.

·        Students on clinical placement will, as a minimum, be offered reference rights by the library of the hospital in which they are based.  These include photocopying of books and journals, use of some databases, the Internet and IT equipment in the placement library and access to the advice of professional library staff.

·        At the discretion of the local librarian, additional rights may be granted to students on clinical placement (e.g. loans from stock, inter-library loans - perhaps at a nominal cost).  However, all Trust library staff will impress upon students that the University library should be their library of first resort in all instances.

·        Individual staff and students have reference access to other libraries within the Alliance, provided they have registered as full library members at their ‘home’ library.

Loans from Stock:

Materials normally available for loan at each library may be borrowed by any full member of that library.  Individual libraries will highlight any special collections to which they wish to limit access.

Photocopying Services:

·        Where material is available in-house, users should carry out their own copying whenever possible

·        Users requiring photocopies to be obtained from another library’s stock must place the request via their local library

·        Users may travel to another Alliance library to obtain a photocopy if that is their choice

·        Charges for this service, where applicable, are displayed next to photocopiers

Document Supply:

·        Each library will offer a document supply service to all full members

Literature Searching:

·        A literature searching service should be available to all full library members, however, users will be encouraged to undertake their own searches after suitable instruction

·        Students on clinical placement may have limited access to literature searching facilities

How can we help you?

Services

Services include:

·        Professional and experienced library staff to support NHS staff in the delivery of evidence based practice, clinical governance, national service frameworks etc and to direct clients through the maze of information resources currently available in digital and print format.

·        Assistance with studying, research, continuing education and personal and professional development.  Provision of equipment and study facilities.

·        A large combined collection of books, journals and databases held by the Alliance.

·        Requests, inter-library loans, loans from stock, photocopying, literature searching, user education and training, current awareness, enquiries service, contents page service, computer assisted learning packages, electronic textbooks and internet facilities.

Training

We can train you to use any of our databases and the Internet.  Formal and informal training via workshops and one-to-one sessions are available.

Ask library staff for details and assistance.

For training workshops contact:

Gill Jones

based at the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital

Tel: 01707 365360

e-mail: gill.jones@britishlibrary.net

Gill covers training requirements across East and North Herts.

Janet Reynolds

based at Watford General Hospital

Tel: 01923 217437

e-mail: janet.reynolds@whht.nhs.uk

Janet covers training requirements across West Herts.

Yvette De Souza

based at Bedford Hospital

Tel:  01234 792114

e-mail: yvettedesouza@beds-med.demon.co.uk

David Johnson

based at Luton and Dunstable Hospital

Tel:  01582 497201

e-mail: david.Johnson@ldh-tr.anglox.nhs.uk

Wherever you are working in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire you will be able to take advantage of the free training and library services that are available.