The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 271 No 7278 p795
6 December 2003

Society summary

How the library and information service helps pharmacists keep up to date

This article, by staff of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's Information Centre, describes ways in which the library and information service can help pharmacists keep their knowledge and skills up to date

Pharmacist prescribing, continuing professional development, pharmacogenomics, Agenda for Change, the new pharmacy contract — the opportunities and challenges facing pharmacists are many. A problem for pharmacists in any discipline is getting the information to keep their knowledge and skills up to date. The many routes to maintaining knowledge include making use of the services offered to the Society’s membership by its library.

Traditional library services The backbone of any information service remains its collection of material. But what relevance does a printed collection have in the 21st century information age? Is there a future for the “traditional library service” in the light of the expansion of electronic information provision and its delivery over the internet? Certainly all these things have an impact on how the library delivers information. However, in 2002 over 125,000 new and revised book titles were published in the UK alone. Worldwide the learned journals market is estimated to involve some 17,500 publishers publishing millions of articles in about 35,000 journals. These publishers certainly do not seem to accept that print is dead.

Although this printed output for one year does not match the number of “pages” on the internet, estimated at one billion, most of this printed information undergoes a rigorous editorial procedure, unlike the bulk of information on the internet. Health care professionals cannot afford to ignore this printed material, some of which is also available by electronic methods.

Loans So, with this in mind, what traditional services does the library offer? The vast majority of the collection of 60,000 volumes is available for loan to members in the United Kingdom. Members can borrow up to five items at any one time for an initial period of 28 days. Loan periods can be extended for two further 28-day periods if the item is not required by another user. Because most members cannot easily visit the library in person, we will post books out to any address in the United Kingdom.

Reference We hold a large and unique reference collection that allows the Technical Information Service to answer a great many enquiries immediately. This collection is also available to any visitor to the library.

Photocopy service We operate a photocopy service to deliver documents to users anywhere. UK copyright law requires that we charge for this service but we have advantageous prices for members and believe our service to be extremely competitive in terms of scope, price and speed. This service allows us to deliver to members copies of journal articles or short sections of books for research and private study only.

Enquiry answering Our staff are trained and experienced in dealing with enquiries on a wide range of subjects. Specific clinical and drug-related enquiries are handled by the Technical Information Service and other enquiries by library staff. We can help trace obscure references or hard-to-find publications. We can carry out research on specific topics to locate journal articles, books and web resources. We can track down organisations that specialise in certain medical conditions. We can help navigate the maze of Government and health publications. We can offer access to an unrivalled UK collection of pharmacy-related information.

The library has access to a range of electronic databases that are the key to unlocking information contained in the specialist literature. Visitors to the library can search Medline, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts and Pharmline as well as the in-house database RPS e-PIC. This bibliographic database, produced by the Society’s information pharmacists, is a key resource in opening up the journal literature on UK pharmacy practice and has complete coverage of The Pharmaceutical Journal from 1991 to date.

We can carry out extensive literature searches at the request of members. For most simple and short searches, using databases to which we have desktop access, no charge is levied. However, where a search incurs charges from external databases or where we have to carry out a considerable amount of work, a charge is made.

Internet “café” The library also offers members visiting the Society access to the internet at no charge. From checking your e-mail to carrying out extensive research fast, dedicated access is available. Facilities also include the standard Microsoft software packages as well as electronic and printed training material on the use of Word, Access, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. Personal laptops can also be used in the library.

The “hybrid” library Much has been made recently about the impact of the internet and other new communication technologies on the importance, role and availability of information. In the light of a review of the work of the library in the context of the Information Centre, we have set out on a programme of work to extend our services beyond the confines of the head office building. We want to marry the strengths of our existing services and collection with the opportunities that electronic communication channels provide. This approach has been termed a “hybrid library” — a hybrid of a traditional service and a completely “virtual” service.

Our first step towards providing this hybrid service was the launch of our catalogue on the internet in April. This gives members the chance to search the library collection for books, reports and monographs of interest to them. No longer does a pharmacist have to wait for the library to be open to discover if we have an item. However, the catalogue does not stop there: for nearly 10 per cent of items on the catalogue, we provide a seamless internet link to the full text of the item, making these resources available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Recently, interactive facilities have been introduced to the catalogue that allow members to reserve, request and renew items online.

However, the library catalogue is just one plank in our desire to deliver a proactive library service to members as part of a hybrid library. We are looking at ways to use the Society website to deliver services directly to members. We are looking at providing guidance and pointers to information available on the internet to help pharmacists both in their daily work and with lifelong learning. We hope to provide links to electronic books and journals, to respected information resources and to world-renowned organisations in every field of pharmacy and medicine.

If you visit us, we will be happy to show you how to use the range of electronic resources or how to get the best out of the internet. Some of this internet advice, including use of the on-line library catalogue, can also be provided over the telephone.

We want to be able to provide a resource which pharmacists will view as a first port of call when looking for information and advice on medicine, medicinal products and therapeutics. We can offer up-to-date information on frequently asked questions, we can direct pharmacists to specialist resources that can answer their questions and we can offer quality information resources to help with continuing professional development.