A day in the life of a clinical librarian

Hello and welcome to 'A day in the life of a clinical librarian' blog series. This is a monthly series sharing what a day at work for those working in clinical librarianship actually looks like and finding out about the person behind the job.


This month we're interviewing Lisa Lawrence from Derby Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Who are you and where do you work?

I'm Lisa Lawrence and I work as a Clinical Librarian at Derby Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. I'm based at the Royal Derby Hospital, but work cross-site, particularly as one of my CL departments, Dermatology, is based at our other site, London Road Community Hospital.

How long have you been there?

Longer than I care to remember! I've been in this post for nearly 10 years, and have worked for the Library & Knowledge Service here for 13 years. Before that I worked in a further education library, and before that I was in public libraries... (and have the storytime for the under 5s dressing up pictures to prove it!) I started in libraries after completing my undergraduate degree in Literature and History, and I guess I developed a taste for it, so have stayed in the profession, since qualifying with a Masters degree in Library & Information Studies.

What attracted you to Clinical Librarianship?

Never a dull moment! Every day is different. You never know what you're going to be asked, you get to meet so many people and learn so much - I enjoy searching for information and like to find answers to questions...  I also get real job satisfaction in doing my bit to ensure that our patients get the best evidenced care. You're part of great multidisciplinary teams, where eveyone is valued for their specific skillsets. We all contribute to providing the best quality healthcare for our patients. There's real people, with real outcomes on the end of everything we do. You can't really get better than finding out that something you've done has assisted one of your clinical colleagues to improve the treatment of a patient...

What does an average day at work involve?

Erm...  no such thing as an average day! Usually it will involve checking emails, doing some literature searching, going to a clinic or an MDT/education meeting, catching up with curent awareness, doing some more literature searching, checking emails again, providing some training or going to journal club, doing some more literature searching, answering an urgent telephone enquiry, and of course, doing some more literature searching...

If you weren’t a Librarian, what would you be?

Lottery winner!!  Feet up - cocktail in hand!
But seriously -  I've always had a bit of a hankering to be a novelist...

Tell us a joke or a non-work fact about yourself

My jokes are generally awful, so a non-work fact it is!
I'm a committee member of the Derbyshire Amphibian and Reptile Group - we're dedicated to doing our best for native amphibians and reptiles in our area. I've previously been scared of snakes and I never ever thought I'd take a liking towards toads, newts, lizards and snakes, but now I can't seem to get enough of them! Every spring you'll find me working hard on Toads on Roads crossing patrols, getting toads safely to their breeding ponds. I've got a real soft spot for our toads...

Call for abstracts at the joint meeting of medical librarians and health information professionals!

It's abstract submission time for the largest gathering of medical librarians and health information professionals in the world at the joint meeting of the Medical Library Association (MLA), the Canadian Health Libraries Association/Association des bibliothèques de la santé du Canada (CHLA/ABSC), and the International Clinical Librarian Conference (ICLC)! The theme of our meeting is:

You can submit a presentation, lightning talk or poster, on any research you have done or project you have worked on. We are keeping the submission process very open so that any interesting topic can be included. You don’t need to include finished results in your abstract, those can follow later.
Please submit your abstract by September 15th 2015, guidance and a lot of other helpful information below:

https://www.mlanet.org/meetings/am/mla16/index.html

Clinical Librarian Vacancy

Opportunity to join the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (Part Time)

We have a wonderful team and the role is hugely rewarding.

A chance to join University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust's ground-breaking Clinical Librarian Service. Become a part of one of the UK's longest running Clinical Librarian teams in this part time role, working 22.5 hours per week, supporting a variety of clinical areas and providing the best available evidence to assist patient care and world class research.

Further details available here: NHS Jobs Clinical Librarian Vacancy

STUDY DAY: Guidelines – what’s new and the librarian’s role.

A study day for health librarians on what’s new in supporting the production and management of guidelines for your organisation and how librarians can contribute.

Do you want to make your service indispensable to your organisation - supporting guideline production and management is a good area where libraries can extend their influence and value to their organisations. We are running a study day for Health Librarians on Tuesday 3^rd November 2015 on Guidelines – what’s new and the librarian’s role.

To be held at The Clinical Education Centre, Glenfield Hospital, Groby Road, Leicester, LE3 9QP, United Kingdom.

Booking forms and further information available here