IN DEPTH
A fresh look at literature searching at the Royal College of Nursing
Julie Key and Mandy Watson outline how the Royal College of Nursing Library and Archives Service reviewed and updated its literature search service for staff and members.
IN 2016 the RCN Literature Search Team undertook a signifi cant and far-reaching review of all aspects of its literature search off er. The long-standing service dates back over 20 years and is maintained by two part-time Literature Search Special- ists. This review was the fi rst to be undertaken in over a decade.
Our current service
The Royal College of Nursing is the larg- est professional association and union for nursing staff in the world with more than 435,000 members. Our mediated litera- ture search service is off ered to staff and full members (qualifi ed nurses, health care assistants, assistant practitioners and retired members). The service is not off ered to student members as they have access to support where they are studying, or to other health professionals or members of the public.
Much has changed over 20 years and con- sequently we needed to consider whether the service was still relevant. Nurse train- ing had altered its focus from ward-based education to university-led training in order to meet the needs of a graduate-entry profession. Societal changes have led to a more IT literate population and self-service culture, with users accessing databases and resources online and carrying out their own searches. Is our service therefore still relevant for today’s nurses?
Scope of the review
The service covers the UK with libraries in Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff managed
48 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
Julie Key (
Julie.Key@
rcn.org.uk) and Mandy Watson (
Mandy.Watson@rcn.org.uk) are Literature Search Specialists at the Royal College of Nursing Library and Archives Services.
locally by their own librarians. It was vital to liaise and inform our UK-wide Library and Archive Service colleagues though the review would be focused upon the needs of our England-based members. The review would also evaluate the needs of RCN staff who use our services.
A further aim was to investigate how we could extend and enhance our services. This would need to be managed within current budgetary and staffi ng constraints; while continuing to be a free service as part of members’ subscriptions. We decided to adopt a multi-pronged approach to capture users’ views.
Review of the literature Early in 2016, a review of the literature using Library and Information Science Abstracts
December-January 2017/18
RCN Literature Search Key
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07/12/2017 13:23
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