Expert search and support
Training available for expert searchers.
Database providers
Available provider interfaces
- Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) covers nursing and allied health.
- Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (MEDLINE) covers medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, pre-clinical sciences, and more.
- Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection covers emotional and behavioral characteristics, psychiatry, psychology, mental processes, anthropology, and observational and experimental methods.
- Library, Information Science and Technology Abstracts (LISTA) covers all aspects of librarianship.
- GreenFILE covers all aspects of human impact to the environment.
Supporting materials
Videos and live session bookings
Searching CINAHL Databases - Basic Level Searching.
Searching CINAHL Databases - Advanced Level Searching.
Evidence Searching in the Psychology and Behavioural Sciences Collection.
Systematic Literature Searching in MEDLINE on EBSCOHost.
Seven Steps to the Perfect PICO Search in CINAHL
Creating Alerts in CINAHL and MEDLINE
For an up-to-date list of EBSCO training recordings please go to the EBSCO UK YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVIoL7HRyTSVJpx73j9ztWA
The current list of live, instructor-led trainings are also available via https://nhsresources.stacksdiscovery.com/upcoming-events.
Holdings Link Manager and EBSCOadmin
Full text finder: Holdings and Linking Management (HLM) is a 60-minute webinar which offers a complete review of Holdings Management with EBSCOAdmin, used for managing your collection in Full Text Finder. Follow the Calendly link above to book your session directly with EBSCO. Or view a recording.
Making the most of the NHS Knowledge and Library Hub is a 60-minute webinar providing an introduction to the Knowledge and Library Hub for librarians. Follow the Calendly link above to book your session directly with EBSCO. Or view a recording.
Available provider interfaces
- Embase (Excerpta Medica Database) covers biomedical sciences and pharmacology.
- Emcare covers nursing specialties and the nursing healthcare professions.
- Health Management Information Consortium (HMIC).
- MEDLINE covers medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, pre-clinical sciences, and more.
- Social Policy and Practice covers evidence-based social science research.
Supporting materials
- Ovid NHS Resource Center.
- Ovid Tools and Resources Portal. Click on “Instructor led training” from the menu on the left on this page for free 1-to-1 or small group training from Ovid staff, tailored to your requirements.
- Basic Search on Ovid.
- Ovid Advanced Search.
Videos and live session bookings
See the Ovid NHS Resource Centre for Basic and Advanced Ovid recordings. See under "Recorded Sessions".
Request specific topics of training from Ovid trainers at Ovid Coaching.
Find out more about the Ovid support offer.
Available provider interfaced
- Allied and Complementary Medicine Database (AMED) - Available until 30 June 2025
- British Nursing Index (BNI) - Available until 30 June 2025
- Health Research Premium Collection provides full text journal titles in healthcare
- Medline covers medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, pre-clinical sciences, and more
- PsycArticles (APA) - full text journal articles in the field of psychology, including material from 1894 to the present
- PsycINFO references journal articles, books and dissertations in the field of psychology - Available until 30 June 2025
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) pubs covers traumatic stress
Supporting materials
Videos and live session bookings
ProQuest Basic. See Pro Quest Basic more information, a Pro Quest Basic recording and booking onto a live session.
ProQuest Advanced. See ProQuest Advanced more information, a ProQuest Advanced recording and booking onto a live session.
ProQuest is available until 30 June 2025.
Trip Pro was designed, 25 years ago, as a tool to support clinicians to answer their clinical questions using the best available evidence. This focus remains and a major feature of Trip is evidence-based content (with a focus on evidence at the top of the evidence pyramid). While the focus is on clinicians, Trip is widely used by librarians and other information specialists.
Trip uses colour-coding to highlight the evidence type and the highest quality content is marked in green. This is subdivided in to a number of categories:
- systematic Reviews – these are taken from a large number of sources both published and grey giving unrivalled coverage and include HTAs
- evidence based synopses – covering journal clubs, critically appraised topics and other articles, while not formal systematic reviews, that have undergone additional secondary review
- guidelines – Trip’s guidelines are global in nature but can be restricted to specific areas (e.g. UK, Canada) at the touch of a button. No resource has the diversity and breadth of guideline coverage
- regulatory guidance – This covers content from the likes of NICE Technology Appraisals and national drug approvals such as the FDA, EMA and SMC
Trip is constantly looking for new sources of clinically useful information, typically adding 5-10 new sources per month. Users are encouraged to alert Trip to new sources to ensure the site uses the best evidence in the search.
An important aspect of Trip is understanding how we order the results. This includes three main components:
- Text score – simplistically, a document scores more highly if the search terms are in the document title as opposed to the body of the text. If two documents contain the search terms once in the body of the text, a longer document will score lower due to a reduced term density.
- Date – the newer the document the more highly it scores.
- Publication score – this is given to an individual publisher and reflects the perceived place in the evidence pyramid. So, NICE or Cochrane (say) have a higher score than a journal such as the British Medical Journal (BMJ) and that scores more highly than a ‘lesser’ journal.
These scores are calculated ‘on the fly’ and the highest scoring document appears at the top of the results.
One final issue to raise, is full-text content. Around 70% of journal articles link out to full-text articles (for Pro users only). In addition to this Trip seamlessly integrates with LibKey which can boost the proportion of full-text articles, depending on the organisational subscriptions.
Trip is IP authenticated as well as via NHS OpenAthens. To set up IP access contact Jon Brassey, quoting the IP address(es) of your organisation.
The Cochrane Library is a collection of databases giving practitioners access to evidence-based information to improve patient care. It includes:
- Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
- Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL)
- Cochrane Clinical Answers
Available provider interfaces
- Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) covers nursing and allied health.
- Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (MEDLINE) covers medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, pre-clinical sciences, and more.
- Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection covers emotional and behavioral characteristics, psychiatry, psychology, mental processes, anthropology, and observational and experimental methods.
- Library, Information Science and Technology Abstracts (LISTA) covers all aspects of librarianship.
- GreenFILE covers all aspects of human impact to the environment.
Supporting materials
Videos and live session bookings
Searching CINAHL Databases - Basic Level Searching.
Searching CINAHL Databases - Advanced Level Searching.
Evidence Searching in the Psychology and Behavioural Sciences Collection.
Systematic Literature Searching in MEDLINE on EBSCOHost.
Seven Steps to the Perfect PICO Search in CINAHL
Creating Alerts in CINAHL and MEDLINE
For an up-to-date list of EBSCO training recordings please go to the EBSCO UK YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVIoL7HRyTSVJpx73j9ztWA
The current list of live, instructor-led trainings are also available via https://nhsresources.stacksdiscovery.com/upcoming-events.
Holdings Link Manager and EBSCOadmin
Full text finder: Holdings and Linking Management (HLM) is a 60-minute webinar which offers a complete review of Holdings Management with EBSCOAdmin, used for managing your collection in Full Text Finder. Follow the Calendly link above to book your session directly with EBSCO. Or view a recording.
Making the most of the NHS Knowledge and Library Hub is a 60-minute webinar providing an introduction to the Knowledge and Library Hub for librarians. Follow the Calendly link above to book your session directly with EBSCO. Or view a recording.
Available provider interfaces
- Embase (Excerpta Medica Database) covers biomedical sciences and pharmacology.
- Emcare covers nursing specialties and the nursing healthcare professions.
- Health Management Information Consortium (HMIC).
- MEDLINE covers medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, pre-clinical sciences, and more.
- Social Policy and Practice covers evidence-based social science research.
Supporting materials
- Ovid NHS Resource Center.
- Ovid Tools and Resources Portal. Click on “Instructor led training” from the menu on the left on this page for free 1-to-1 or small group training from Ovid staff, tailored to your requirements.
- Basic Search on Ovid.
- Ovid Advanced Search.
Videos and live session bookings
See the Ovid NHS Resource Centre for Basic and Advanced Ovid recordings. See under "Recorded Sessions".
Request specific topics of training from Ovid trainers at Ovid Coaching.
Find out more about the Ovid support offer.
Available provider interfaced
- Allied and Complementary Medicine Database (AMED) - Available until 30 June 2025
- British Nursing Index (BNI) - Available until 30 June 2025
- Health Research Premium Collection provides full text journal titles in healthcare
- Medline covers medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, pre-clinical sciences, and more
- PsycArticles (APA) - full text journal articles in the field of psychology, including material from 1894 to the present
- PsycINFO references journal articles, books and dissertations in the field of psychology - Available until 30 June 2025
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) pubs covers traumatic stress
Supporting materials
Videos and live session bookings
ProQuest Basic. See Pro Quest Basic more information, a Pro Quest Basic recording and booking onto a live session.
ProQuest Advanced. See ProQuest Advanced more information, a ProQuest Advanced recording and booking onto a live session.
ProQuest is available until 30 June 2025.
Trip Pro was designed, 25 years ago, as a tool to support clinicians to answer their clinical questions using the best available evidence. This focus remains and a major feature of Trip is evidence-based content (with a focus on evidence at the top of the evidence pyramid). While the focus is on clinicians, Trip is widely used by librarians and other information specialists.
Trip uses colour-coding to highlight the evidence type and the highest quality content is marked in green. This is subdivided in to a number of categories:
- systematic Reviews – these are taken from a large number of sources both published and grey giving unrivalled coverage and include HTAs
- evidence based synopses – covering journal clubs, critically appraised topics and other articles, while not formal systematic reviews, that have undergone additional secondary review
- guidelines – Trip’s guidelines are global in nature but can be restricted to specific areas (e.g. UK, Canada) at the touch of a button. No resource has the diversity and breadth of guideline coverage
- regulatory guidance – This covers content from the likes of NICE Technology Appraisals and national drug approvals such as the FDA, EMA and SMC
Trip is constantly looking for new sources of clinically useful information, typically adding 5-10 new sources per month. Users are encouraged to alert Trip to new sources to ensure the site uses the best evidence in the search.
An important aspect of Trip is understanding how we order the results. This includes three main components:
- Text score – simplistically, a document scores more highly if the search terms are in the document title as opposed to the body of the text. If two documents contain the search terms once in the body of the text, a longer document will score lower due to a reduced term density.
- Date – the newer the document the more highly it scores.
- Publication score – this is given to an individual publisher and reflects the perceived place in the evidence pyramid. So, NICE or Cochrane (say) have a higher score than a journal such as the British Medical Journal (BMJ) and that scores more highly than a ‘lesser’ journal.
These scores are calculated ‘on the fly’ and the highest scoring document appears at the top of the results.
One final issue to raise, is full-text content. Around 70% of journal articles link out to full-text articles (for Pro users only). In addition to this Trip seamlessly integrates with LibKey which can boost the proportion of full-text articles, depending on the organisational subscriptions.
Trip is IP authenticated as well as via NHS OpenAthens. To set up IP access contact Jon Brassey, quoting the IP address(es) of your organisation.
The Cochrane Library is a collection of databases giving practitioners access to evidence-based information to improve patient care. It includes:
- Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
- Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL)
- Cochrane Clinical Answers
Expert search training for NHS knowledge and library service staff
These sessions are 90 minutes long and are delivered by trainers who regularly use provider interfaces to carry out evidence searches.
They use real-life complex search examples, follow a search process from start to finish, provide examples of best practice as well as hints, tips and shortcuts.
These sessions are aimed at Knowledge and Library Services (KLS) staff who regularly carry out literature searches. They were trialled during the early adopter pilot and were very well received by participants.
STEP elearning modules
If you’re a member of KLS staff who is new to searching as well as new to provider interfaces, then we recommend that you have a look at the training resources below.
A suite of 7 bite-sized e-learning modules on how to search the literature effectively.
- Select a module
- Click Play and then Continue.
Health Education England (HEE) has funded their development.
Library Knowledge Services (North)
LIHNN’s Literature Searching Modules.
Tools for advanced searchers
These are freely available tools that searchers may find useful.
- SR-Accelerator is a suite of tools from Bond University to help speed up the systematic review process. It includes Polyglot, which translates search strings across databases.
- Library of Search Strategy Resources is for anyone sourcing and developing search strategies for healthcare topics.
- UX Caucus Database Tips contains bite-size tips for expert searchers on how to search more efficiently.
Peer support
There are a variety of activities available to enable KLS staff to support each other as they become familiar with a new way of evidence searching.
These will be regularly updated, and the current opportunities will be listed.
STEP eLearning modules
The STEP eLearning modules are aimed at anyone doing a literature search on a health related topic. They are primarily targeted towards beginner searchers or those who would like a refresher. Each module has a glossary explaining key terminology in further detail.
STEP modules can also help:
- extend training to more staff
- save time spent on developing e-learning and delivering face-to-face training
- improve access to training on literature search skills for healthcare staff who cannot easily attend library training due to location or time
- incorporate elements of the modules into their own training programm
Healthcare libraries are able signpost users to online training without having to create something in-house. The modules are generically branded and so are not tied to a particular library service.
The full series of modules are available on the eLearning for Healthcare website. Upon completion of each module, you will receive a certificate of completion.
A log-in is not required to access the modules. If users wish to track their learning alongside other modules within eLearning for Healthcare, they will need to log in with their NHS OpenAthens account.
If you require assitance with accessing the modules or have feedback, please contact one of the STEP project leads.
- Tracey Pratchett, Knowledge and Library Services Manager, Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust [email protected].
- Sarah Lewis, Library Services Manager, Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust [email protected].
Template slide deck
A group of KLS staff have created a template slide deck which you can tailor for use in local training sessions. The resource includes:
- general principles
- pointers to resources for different searchers and search types
- key functionality for all 3 platforms
- information about managing references and search results
If you have any comments or suggestions about improving the slides, or new tools for advanced searchers or peer support activities, email the Knowledge for Healthcare team on [email protected].
Page last reviewed: 19 January 2024
Next review due: 2 January 2025
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Regional library management systems
NHS England's currently used library management systems, and future plans of consolidation