TRIMESTER - Rotunda Library Newsletter June 2013 | Page 3

3 Volume 6 Issue 2 June 2013 Visible Evidence The Health Sciences Libraries Group Annual Conference 2013 T he Annual HSLG Conference for 2013 got off to an enthusiastic start with a keynote presentation from Jean Shipman, University of Utah, entitled SHELLI Says: Ideas for re-shaping Information Provision and Support. This was a timely presentation following the chair’s address which outlined the work of the organising committee and the SHELLI working group during the last year. Ms Shipman discussed the concept of lean health reform in the United States and the role it plays in developing and reshaping library services at the University of Utah. Its objective was “to develop an inter-institutional virtual and physical collaborative space that serves clinical and translational researchers by providing a shared workspace and access to a variety of relevant resources and tools.” This in turn changes the traditional role of the librarian. Librarians become community creators, educators and supporters, integral parts of research, education and innovative teams. “Libraries are no longer concerned with storing information but creating it.” The concept of changing roles was further developed by Donna Ó’Doibhlin from the University of Ulster. She described their project in developing space for teaching and research support entitled Realising Your Research Value. This ranged from issues of finding research to reference management and maximising research publication and impact. Positively it discussed forging relationships between library staff, academics, researchers and the confidence building attributes of this work. To facilitate the design of these initiatives Krishna Dee discussed appropriate marketing plans for libraries to create greater exposure to organisational research and to use new technologies to highlight our research activities and output. Later in the morning, Anne Murphy, Chair of the SHELLI Working Group and Aoife Lawton, briefed delegates on the work in implementing the recommendations of the SHELLI Report. HSLG members are thankful to this working group for the valuable work they do on their behalf. Librarians Supporting Clinical Audit was a well received presentation delivered by Dr Ian Callanan of St Vincent’s Healthcare Group. It was an informative and entertaining presentation supporting the audit process and separating it’s role from that of research. He indicated that “good audit reflects local services and measured standards. It should simplify not complicate.” Further speakers discussed the role of critical appraisal and correct representation of research data and different types of research tools used in bibliometrics to create an institution’s research profile. Gethin White discussed the results of the CLICKS Survey which reviewed best practice in delivering results of clinical queries in a joint RCSI/HSE library group. I was fortunate in being given a slot to showcase Research Activity in the Rotunda through our research database development and its contribution to the LENUS database. Other afternoon presenters showcased other initiatives including the Health Well website and library planning and strategy. Dr Helga Sneddon and Mairead Mullaney of the Centre for Effectiveness Services, gave a shared presentation on the work of the centre in providing evidence to support practice including focused searches and specific studies. Other methods discussed were the need for evaluated methodology, data collection methods and data analysis. The development of knowledge sharing strategies and document sharing practices and knowledge management were discussed. Other presenters on day two included Greg Sheaf, Trinity College, who gave an informative account of his teaching experiences and the effectiveness of information literacy for training undergraduate midwives, dispelling the myth of the Google generation and that “youth are good at searching!” Michelle Dalton, in line with the earlier CLICKS presentation, shared her experience of evaluating a clinical query service and showed effective strategies for evaluating this service. Joanne Callinan further developed evaluation methods for her bibliotherapy service. The conference ended with an appeal to delegates to consider the possibility of mentoring a less experienced colleague and advised that the development of a mentoring register on the HSLG website would shortly be facilitated. The conference finished on this positive note. Delegates returned to their work lives renewed through a sense of shared experience and new information.