CILIPS Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland
Navigation Close
Join CILIP
Home>Advocacy/Campaigns>Our Campaigns>The Right Decision>The Knowledge Network

The Knowledge Network

Over the last 14 years NHS Education for Scotland (NES) has developed a digital knowledge management platform to support health and social care staff in Scotland. NES funds the subscription resources to ensure equity of access to research and evidence to support education and decision making across the sectors with a once for Scotland approach. During this time, NES has developed the expertise to manage access to this vast body of knowledge. We are constantly evolving to make it easier for staff to quickly access what they need. This has led to the recent implementation of a new Library Search, increased automatic sign on when on NHSS premises (i.e. no need to use OpenAthens username), as well as access to point of care resources direct from patent record systems, such as TrakCare.

What is available?

The Knowledge Network is the home to

  • 6 Evidence summary services
  • 37 Databases
  • the Library Search where users easily find content from 9614 eJournals, 19634 eBooks and the print collections of all the NHSS libraries
  • Current awareness services delivered by many NHSS librarians and some national subscription services to help all staff to keep up to date in their areas of expertise
  • 250 community websites (small websites owned and managed by local administrators to share documents, links and discussions)
  • A library of mobile websites and apps
  • People Connect – a social directory of people with an NHSS OpenAthens username

How do people use the services-

  • Clinical decision support – evidence summaries e.g. DynamedPlus and BMJ Best Practice
  • Research – bibliographic databases to search for journal articles then link straight to full-text or request papers if we do not subscribe
  • Education – ebooks, print books and journal articles and of course evidence summaries support work-based learning
  • Management and leadership books and journals, GoodPractice.net summaries of a broad range of topics all conveniently collated by National Services Scotland librarians on the Health Management Online portal
  • Social Services Knowledge Scotland ssks.org.uk portal provides quick links to important organisations and documents to support practice
  • To manage their loans and requests for items in the libraries

What do the librarians do?

NES works closely with all the librarians in NHSScotland to reach their wide and diverse audience working in health and social care (see the case studies section).

Within NES Digital Group a team of 10 librarians:

  • Manage access to subscriptions and liaise with providers
  • Manage authentication via OpenAthens
  • Configure the Library management system
  • Provide a help desk for librarians and end users
  • Train and provide ongoing support to community website administrators
  • Develop and manage promotional materials
  • Promote services via a range of routes including Twitter (@NESKnowledge)
  • Provide training sessions both online and face to face
  • Develop on-line help for people to find, share and use knowledge knowledge.scot.nhs.uk/k2asupportcentre

Visit The Knowledge Network to find out more or contact knowledge@nes.scot.nhs.uk for promotional material to share with your team.

Skip to content