TRIMESTER - Rotunda Library Newsletter June 2014 | Page 2

2

Trimester
Rotunda Library Newsletter

Synergy: skills, standards and collaboration among health librarians
Health Sciences Libraries Group 2014 Annual Conference

T

he Health Sciences Libraries Group (HSLG)
hosts an annual conference which gives us the
opportunity to meet with members of the
Library Association of Ireland and HSLG to explore
and determine our roles in healthcare as librarians and
information professionals. The conference is the perfect
platform for us to share our individual knowledge, play
with new ideas and experiences and learn from our
colleagues in other health science libraries.
As we always say and from what you as our users have
experienced, the services we provide and the resources
you need change rapidly with new and emerging
technologies often taking priority over older and
outdated methods we were all so familiar with. It is our
job to quickly respond to these changes and growing
trends to help you ease into newer and often more
effective methods.
The 2014 conference was held on the 22nd and 23rd
of May and focused on various topics which allowed us
as a group to explore our roles and determine the future
direction of health librarians and libraries. A cross
section of colleagues delivered talks on varying topics to
enlighten and guide us.
Eli Harris (Bodleian Health Care Libraries) addressed
the methods we can and should use to “reach out and
draw them in”, encouraging our users to see the library as
a protected space. Dr Kathleen MacLellan (Department
of Health) discussed national clinical guidelines and how
we as librarians can engage and support such endeavours.
Laura Rooney Ferris (Irish Hospice Foundation)
deliberated the Distracted Librarian. An interesting talk on
the extras we undertake that somehow get embedded and
added to our role over time.
Further talks by our colleagues made us think honestly
and strongly about our roles in education, service delivery
and evidence based practice and the way these roles
change or evolve.
Now that the conference for 2014 is over and we have
garnered new ideas and information you can expect us to
explore these ideas and hopefully bring them to the
Rotunda. The traditional components of the librarian are
often hidden behind the non-traditional but the most
important and stable element of the responsibilities we
undertake is to provide you with the information you need
as quickly as we can. And yet as information professionals
we all know that there is so much more that we strive to
do for you. So, you can guarantee that you should Watch
this Space.

~ Geraldine Walsh

Anne Murphy, pictured left,
(Tallaght Hospital) along with
Jean McMahon (Tallaght
Hospital) and Niamh Lucey,
pictured middle, (St Vincent’s
University Hospital), engaged
the audience with a proactive
discussion on Making Evidence
Evident.
The discussion enabled us to
deliberate the direction of our
libraries and our information
services in line with the Repor t of
the Status of Health Librarianship
and Libraries in Ireland (SHeLLI)
which was launched in 2012.
As members of the SHeLLI
working group they are guiding
us in implementing the report.

Eli Harris - Reaching Out to Draw Them In