TRIMESTER - Rotunda Library Newsletter March 2012 | Page 3

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Volume 5 Issue 1
March 2012

Irish Health Libraries: New Directions
Health Sciences Libraries Group Annual Conference

T

his years Annual Health Sciences
Libraries Group (HSLG)
Conference centred around the
recently commissioned and published
report:
Irish Health Libraries: new directions.
Report on the status of health librarianship and
libraries in Ireland.
The significance of this report, also
known as the SHeLLI Report, is
paramount to the current status and
availability of access to health libraries,
during a time when resources and staffing
are limited. There are 110,000 health
service staff in Ireland and the health
service is a “knowledge-intensive industry.”

Access to information is essential in our
environment and the report outlines the
importance of libraries and librarians in
facilitating the access to indispensable
resources and information.
At the conference, we were all invited
to share our ideas, our problems and our
solutions to implementing the many
recommendations the report outlines for
healthcare libraries and the HSLG.
These recommendations, discussed at
length and in-depth, included:
• Limiting the Skills Gap
• Defining our Current Roles
• Developing our Future Roles
• Access to Information Technology
• Demonstrating the Value of our Library

The SHeLLI Report inspires health
libraries and librarians to target our
attention to the realization that the library
we see today is far removed from where
we were five years ago and to embrace the
changes.
Health librarians perceive their role to be
changing, and expect a greater emphasis in future
on user training and induction, literature searching
and analysis, and involvement in clinical meetings
and ward rounds.
Changes in the health library sector,
HSLG, in I. T., in publishing and even in
government policies encourage us to
naturally focus our roles as librarians
and deliver the service that is needed
and required by our users.
Implementing the findings of the SHeLLI
Report can only improve our standing in
the health sector as a positive influence
on patient care. As one health librarian
has said “information saves lives.”
The SHeLLI report outlines further in
the following way:
The need for health care managers to support
their decisions with evidence is a growing necessity
in health care and essential in corporate governance.
Librarians play an invaluable role in making
relevant information available to practitioners
when and where it is needed.
For us here at the Rotunda we
understand this to already be our role.
We appreciate and understand the
environment we support and strive to
expand on our roles so that we can assist
you, our users, in the best possible way.
This years conference programme
imbedded the SHeLLI Report into every
aspect of the conference agenda. We
learned about the arduous and necessary
task of Systematic Review Searching at
NICE UK, we discussed TeachMeets,
E-Learning with HSE-Land and the
challenges of journal provision in a HSE
regional setting. By conference end, Louise
Farragher’s presentation on developing the
role of an embedded librarian summed up
our developing roles and suitably closed the
conference for another year.
At the core of it all we simply say “Help
is at Hand.” We left the conference with
the affirmation that our role in the
Rotunda Hospital is essential and
necessary. And with your support long
may it continue.

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G Walsh