Easter Closing Dates
Friday 2nd to Tuesday 6th April
8 Mar 2010
The
Service office will be closing over the Easter period, from Friday
2nd to
Tuesday 6th April inclusive.
Please note that (as always) the on-line catalogue and booking/ordering facility will be available as normal right through Easter.
Also you can have lending items out over Easter as long as the start date is before the 2nd April and the return date is after the 6th April.
Happy Easter from the Resources Team
Possible New Collection Point for West
Berkshire
1 Mar 2010
We are aware that there is a need for additional Collection/Return Points in the West Berkshire area and we would be interested in people's views on possible locations.
We have seven collection/return points across the county but the majority are in the central and East areas. It is true that these are the more populated areas but there is a definite need for more in the West. There is currently only one at the West Berkshire Community Hospital in Thatcham, apart from the one in Reading.
Need for the Points
The Points are necessary for our clients that do not have the NHS Internal Post system at their place of work. We use the system exclusively to deliver and return items but many clients do not have access to it. Some of the non-NHS clients that would use the Points are school teachers, lecturers, youth and voluntary group workers, etc.
(Please note that if you DO have the NHS system then 'Internal Post' is always the best option for delivery as items come straight to you, rather than having to be collected from a point.)
How they work
The Points are located in venues that are served by the system so we can get items there and back easily. They act as access points into the system for external users.
We send items marked as "To be collected by..." and they are left in a collection area. Items can then be returned there too (if showing our return address) and they are brought back to us via the post system.
Your suggestions please
We would be very interested to hear from people in the West Berkshire area who would use a new collection point, with suggestions for where a new one could be located.
We need to know of suitable NHS locations that might be able to provide this service for us. The most likely venues are GP surgeries.
The requirements are:
- Must have the NHS Internal Post service
- Have a suitable area for items to be left for collection (cupboard, shelf, etc.)
- Located away from the existing points at the West Berkshire Community Hospital and at the PCT offices in Reading
Please email any suggestions to: ann.willmot@berkshire.nhs.uk
3 to 4 New Items Added Each Week
Are you checking them?
12 Feb 2010
We are constantly adding new items to our lending and supply service, and on average we are adding three or four items each week, so it is important to check our 'New Additions' link regularly.
It is very easy to check, just click the New Additions item in the blue menu on the left of our catalogue page. This will list all the items added to our service in the past month. Also, whenever items are listed (e.g. in a normal search results list), any item added in the past month is labeled as NEW in red.
Keep up to date
It is important to know what new items are available. It is very easy to get into a habit of relying on the same few items, not realising that there may be newer better things.
There is nothing wrong with using older items as long as they are still relevant and reliable, and we tend to keep things as long as they are still being used. However things do become obsolete and newer items often use more modern and effective presentation techniques.
Check your topic
If you have not checked for new additions recently then it is worth doing a general search on your topic of interest to see the full range of what is available now.
It is very easy...
- Go to our on-line catalogue
- Log in (Optional - only required if ordering items)
- Select your topic of interest in the SUBJECT box
- Click the Search button at the bottom of the screen
Child
Safety Week - Make Time for Safety
21-27 June 2010
26 Jan 2010
Child Safety Week is an annual campaign run by the CAPT - Child Accident Prevention Trust. This year's campaign will run from 21—27 June.
This year's campaign is titled "Make Time for Safety" and it is highlighting that fact that some injuries can take months or years to heal, but could often have been prevented with just a moment of quick action.
Support and Materials
There is a CAPT website dedicated to the Child Safety Week where you can register your interest in the campaign and request support materials. There is advice and news about the event and you can also request a booklet and poster with ideas for running events for the week.
Child Safety Week website - www.childsafetyweek.org.uk
CAPT website - www.capt.org.uk
Puberty
& Sexuality for Children and Young People with a Learning Disability
New Pack - Also to download
14 Jan 2010
There is a new teaching pack available, both as a lending item from us and as a FREE download. It has been produced by the Childrens Learning Disability Nursing Team at Leeds PCT.
It can be downloaded and printed from the website: www.sexualhealthsheffield.nhs.uk/publications/index.php
At 158 pages it is quite a large pack, so we have produced a printed copy and made it available as a lending item in our library. You can find it by typing puberty & sexuality into the TITLE box and clicking Search on our catalogue search page.
Request
Access for Video Previews on NHS Network
4 Dec 2009
If you are using our on-line catalogue on a computer on the NHS Intranet network then (as standard) you are unable to watch the video preview clips. But you can request to the IT Department for access to them.
By default several types of file are blocked for transmission over the NHS network, and this includes video clips.
Request
Access
If you need to watch the preview clips then you can apply to the IT Department and have the block removed for your personal log-in account. Unfortunately this has to be done on an individual basis. There is an on-line form to be completed by your manager.
Blocked
Content
Generally speaking there is a good reason for this as the idea is to block content that the majority of NHS staff will never need to access. This then keeps unnecessary data transfer to a minimum, thereby increasing the over-all speed for everyone.
However this is very inconvenient for the users of our service as they can not watch the previews of our items with DVDs or videos. This does not affect the other types of previews - reading leaflet PDFs or viewing photographs.
Our preview clips are very small and low bandwidth and there will never be many clips being watched simultaneously, so we have looked into getting the block removed universally for videos on our site, but this is currently not possible on the system.
Preview
Benefits
The ability to preview DVD and video items helps in many ways. We serve the whole of Berkshire so the ability for clients to preview items remotely is very important. This also benefits the environment by reducing the number of items being transported across the county just for preview purposes.
Other Organisations
Other large organisations may have similar blocking policies on their networks, such as local councils, etc. So if you find you can't play the video clips then contact your local IT Department and you may be able to request access.