LIBRARY

About the library

Membership
The John Aitken Library was opened in 1994, following the merger of the libraries of the Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology and the Wirral Postgraduate Medical Centre. As a multidisciplinary library, it is open to medical and nursing staff, PAMS, technical, scientific and management staff of Wirral Hospital Trust, Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology (including St. Johns Hospice and Claire House), Wirral and West Chesthire Community Trust, as well as all Primary Care staff. Support is also available to medical and all other students on placement or studying on courses held at Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology, Clatterbridge Hospital, and the Dept. of Community Psychiatry. Others, such as Social Services staff, may be admitted for reference access only on application to the Librarian.

The library services and resources listed below are here to support your work and studies. Please ask the library staff if you need any assistance in finding information or using the facilities.

Staff
Librarian - Joan Richardson, BA Hons, ALA
Asst Librarian - Linda Ireland


Opening Hours
The library is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday.


Location
The Library is situated in the Wirral Postgraduate Medical Centre at Clatterbridge.

How to contact us
Telephone: 0151 604 7419 (Direct Line) or 334 4000 ext 4404
Fax: 0151 604 7419
Email: [email protected] or [email protected]

Services

Membership
Library membership is open to all Wirral NHS staff as described above, qualified or unqualified, and to students on placement or studying on courses held at Clatterbridge Centre of Oncology's Dept. of Clinical Education. You just need to complete a registration form to use any of the library's services or resources.

Advice
The Librarians will help you with any query and advise you on the best source to locate required information.

Book Loans
Each library user is allowed a maximum of 10 books at a time. Books are issued using an automated circulation system, called Heritage. The standard loan period is 28 days. Users can browse the stock that we have available by using our online catalogue.

Inter-library Loans
If you need a book or a journal article not held by the library, you may request it through the Inter-Library Loans service by completing an interlibrary loan form. The librarians will check the online catalogues of various other libraries to try to speedily locate a source for your request, which are normally fulfilled between 2 days and 2 weeks. Sometimes delays may occur - such as when an item is already on loan to another British Library customer, so do try and ask for your requests in good time. If you have a particularly urgent request, let us know and we will always do our best for you. Please ask for details of any possible charges

IT Facilities
The library has 5 computers offering:

  • DATABASES - for literature searching
  • WORD - for word processing
  • EXCEL - for spreadsheets
  • ACCESS - for database building
  • POWERPOINT - for preparing presentations
  • INTERNET - access to work-related information


    Databases: Titles available include:
  • MEDLINE
  • CANCER-LIT
  • BNI (British Nursing Index)
  • CINAHL (Cummulative Index to nursing and allied health literature)
  • AMED (Allied and complementary medicine)
  • COCHRANE LIBRARY
  • Minor Surgery & Skin Lesions
  • National Research Register

INTERNET
It is possible to access the Internet using the library computers. As well as a wealth of information sources on all health topics, many journals are now becoming available on-line, some offering contents pages with abstracts.

PHOTOCOPYING
A photocopier is available at 5p/page. Please read the Copyright Law poster adjacent to the copier.

ITEMS FOR SALE
At the request of our members, we now offer:

  • Pre-formatted floppy disks - 50p
  • Transparencies (acetates for overhead projectors) - 25p

USER GUIDES
The following user guides are available in the library:

  • John Aitken Library - guide to the library's services & resources
  • Databases available - with descriptions of scope and coverage
  • Medline user guide (applies also to other Silverplatter databases)
  • List of journal holdings

Training

Training sessions are available to all library members, on a one-to-one or small group basis.
Help is offered in basic library skills, as well as information retrieval skills using the Internet or the medical and allied health databases.

Suggestions and feedback

Please let us know whether you find the Library is meeting your needs. This is a developing multidisciplinary facility and the nature of information sources changes rapidly, so please let us have your views.

Latest news

A "Quiet Study Area" is being created within the library in response to requests from readers and we hope you will find this facility helpful.

In the near future, the library catalogue will be networked and made available across all of the PC's in the library, as well as those in wards and departments.



About the Library

Services

Training

Suggestions

Latest News


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Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology | Clatterbridge Road | Bebington | Wirral | CH63 4JY
tel: 0151 334 1155 | fax: 0151 482 7675 | [email protected]
Last Updated May 2001