1st Clinical Librarian Conference
15th March 2002, Leicester General Hospital

The conference included three presentations from practising UK clinical librarians (Julie Anne Watson, Whipps Cross, Lesley Glassington, UCLH, and Mary Publicover, Birmingham Women’s Hospital).  Three very different experiences highlighted how an outreach information service such as clinical librarianship can be defined differently for different organisations.  Two of the projects provided outreach training, guideline support, IT support as well as an outreach enquiry service.  The third project provided specialised information to clinicians in the labour ward setting.  Michael Schott flew in from West Virginia to give us an American perspective.

Catherine Beverley, ScHARR, who has almost completed a systematic review of clinical librarianship, commented on this variation in definition of clinical librarian services.  Catherine also pointed out that there is very little good quality research covering this field – so anyone wishing to set up this type of service should consider how it would be evaluated.  

Four workshops covered topic areas identified as of interest to delegates beforehand: OVID@Hand providing medical literature via a palmtop: Writing a bid (Andrew Booth, ScHARR): A drug query resource pathway (Anne Lusher, Cochrane Collaboration): CPD for Clinical Librarians (Linda Ward).

The afternoon sessions provided additional international views of a clinical librarian service and made us realise how far we have got to go!  Vanderbilt University have a programme of intensive training for librarians in appraisal as well as in a specialised clinical field; they develop extensive medical knowledge of the directorate that they work in. Sharon Straus’ team are editing Clinical Evidence to adapt it to their local environment and distribute it via handheld PCs.

The conference programme is shown below and details of the presentation abstracts, speaker biographies and poster display can be downloaded.
Presentation abstracts
Speaker biographies
Poster display

Conference programme

Introduction: Veronica Fraser

Opening address: Mr Charles Stewart

Systematic Review of Clinical Librarianship: Catherine Beverley

Clinical Support Librarian at Whipps Cross University Trust - two year progress report: Julie Anne Watson

Notes from morning report: a hospital librarian on the bleeding edge of medicine: Michael Schott

The Library and Information Support for Clinical Effectiveness (LISCE) project - an account of outcomes achieved to date: Lesley Glassington

Delivery of Evidence during labour suite ward round: Mary Publicover

Teleconference: Bringing evidence to the point of care: Dr Sharon Straus

Workshops

OVID@Hand, OVID

Writing a bid: Andrew Booth - download materials from this session

Identifying a drug queries resource pathway: Anne Lusher

Continuing professional development for Clinical Librarians: Linda Ward - download materials from this session

Teleconference:  Advancing the practice of clinical medical librarianship:  Dr Nunzia Giuse