News

Keep up to date with library news, and new developments in health information resources and services

Changes to staffed opening hours at Telford Health Library

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From 7th July 2025, Telford Health Library will be reducing its staffed hours to 8.30am - 4.30pm Monday to Friday.

Out of hours access is still available to eligible members. Please ask library staff for further information or call 01952 641222 (ext. 4440).

If you need to speak to a member of  library staff after 4.30pm, Shrewsbury Health Library will remain staffed until 5pm Monday to Friday and can be contacted on (01743) 492512 or extension 2512.

We apologise for any inconvenience and will regularly be reviewing our opening hours.

New Wellbeing Zone opening at Shrewsbury Health Library

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We’re delighted to announce the opening of the new Wellbeing Zone at Shrewsbury Health Library on Wednesday 25th June — a dedicated space for staff to unwind, reflect, and breathe.

This calming environment has been thoughtfully created to support the wellbeing of SaTH staff and students, offering access to a specially curated Wellbeing Collection of books focused on common medical conditions, mental health and self-care, alongside a Leisure Collection for light, enjoyable reading. The zone also features a variety of wellbeing resources including jigsaw puzzles, LEGO, colouring books, fidget toys, a zen garden, and an anti-gravity chair — perfect for a mindful break during a busy shift.

And we haven’t forgotten about PRH staff — the Telford Health Library Wellbeing Zone will be opening soon.

This initiative has been kindly supported by SaTH Charity, and we invite all staff to explore and enjoy the space.

Even more full-text articles now available!

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We're pleased to announce that during June and July the Library is trialling two new extensive full-text journal collections for Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust staff - Medline Ultimate and CINAHL Ultimate. These offer a large number of peer-reviewed full-text journals, many without any embargo on the latest content, covering a wide range of topics across medicine, nursing and allied health.

Whether you're searching the NHS Knowledge and Library Hub, using one of the healthcare databases, or browsing the journal collection, you'll notice additional full-text content available for instant download.

To help you access this content quickly and easily, we recommend installing the LibKey Nomad browser extension, provided by NHS England. It flags up full-text availability while you browse and saves valuable time.

Do make use of the additional journals and let us know what you think.

International Nurses Day

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Photo of six library books for International Nurses Day 2025

Happy International Nurses Day to all of the fantastic nursing staff at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust and Shropshire Community Health Trust. Thank you for all you do caring for patients every single day.

The theme for International Nurses Day this year is “Our Nurses. Our Future. Caring for nurses strengthens economies”. There are many ways that the library can help, whatever stage you are at in your nursing career.

Both libraries have wellbeing areas where you can come to sit, relax and pick up a book or try a jigsaw puzzle. We have a wellbeing book collection covering many common physical and mental health conditions available for you to borrow.

The library offers Revalidation Reflective Reading sessions to help with your NMC revalidation. There are also SaTH PCs, Wi-Fi and study space at both libraries to give you a quiet place to work without interruptions.

Whether you are a newly-qualified nurse just beginning your career, working towards your revalidation or furthering your education with post grad courses, the library can offer support with finding books, articles and space for you to study and learn.

Access to e-books, online magazines and audiobooks for patients

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Don’t get bored while you are in hospital. Download eBooks, eAudio and eMagazines FREE from your local public library services.

Use your existing membership number to log in or, if you are not already a member, just join online and instantly get access to thousands of titles for all tastes and ages, from 0 – 120.

Children’s book selection – whether you are looking for an old favourite or wanting to discover something new, just browse or do a search. From Roald Dahl to Jacqueline Wilson, from Julia Donaldson to David Walliams, there are thousands to choose from.

Adults’ book selection – crime, thrillers, romance, modern tales, horror and classics… the range just goes on and on.

Why buy magazines when you can read them completely FREE. Find something to suit all tastes – gardening, TV, gossip, science, cooking, crafts, fitness and so much more.

Click here for an easy step-by-step guide to the eBooks, eAudio and eMagazines services provided by Shropshire Libraries and Telford & Wrekin Libraries. If you are a member of another library service, check out their website as most authorities provide an eService.

Download a step-by-step guide

Join Shropshire Libraries | Access Shropshire Libraries' e-library
Join Telford & Wrekin Libraries | Access Telford & Wrekin Libraries' e-library

Revalidation Reflective Reading Sessions

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The library is running a series of free reflective reading sessions for nurses and midwives to help with NMC revalidation. Download the list of dates for 2025.

Prior to the session you'll be sent an article to read and a small checklist of points to consider when reading, this will earn you 1.5 hours of CPD time. When you attend the session the article will be discussed in a small group, reflecting on points whilst working through the checklist, this will earn you another 1.5 hours of CPD time. The 3 hours of credited CPD time that you earn from these sessions can be used towards the 35 hours of CPD that you need to acquire to revalidate.

The workshops will be led by Louise Stevens, Librarian, over MS Teams. If you wish to attend one of the sessions, choose from one of the dates and email Louise on l.stevens@nhs.net or call ext: 4694.
 

Critically appraising research for antiracism

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When critically appraising research, there are a number of checklists available from CASP for different types or research. However, none of these checklists include questions to help address possible racial bias.

Ramona Naicker, a medical librarian in Australia, has developed a checklist specifically to help identify any issues around underrepresentation and interpretation that may impact on a study's relevancy, validity and reliability.

The tool can be used as a supplement to another checklist (such as one of the CASP checklists) that look at specific research methodologies.

Access Naicker's Critically Appraising for Antiracism Quality Appraisal Tool

Librarian support for systematic reviews

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Are you looking to write a systematic review? Librarians can support this in a variety of ways, and we've put together a guide outlining how we can help and how you can make the most of the service. For example, we can help with:

  • Carrying out scoping searches to check how much literature is available and check for existing systematic reviews on your topic that might duplicate your work
  • Providing advice on suitable databases to search
  • Designing search strategies to retrieve any relevant articles
  • Providing details of search strategies and numbers of results to enable completion of the PRISMA flow chart
  • Provide advice on appropriate search filters if your search is looking for a particular study design or population
  • Providing lists of references in your chosen format (for example, RIS)
  • Providing access to a RefWorks account if you don’t have access to reference management software

Involving librarians in the systematic review process has been shown to produce significantly higher quality reported search strategies. Having librarians assisting in formulating search strategies and performing literature searches across multiple databases helps researchers minimise bias in their reviews.

BMJ Best Practice

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BMJ Best Practice provides access to the latest evidence-based information for healthcare professionals,  with advice on symptom evaluation, test ordering, treatment approach and follow up. It also offers clinical calculators, patient information leaflets and some procedural videos.

BMJ Best Practice offers

  • Daily updates of evidence summaries covering over 1,000 conditions
  • 250 clinical calculators
  • 400 patient leaflets
  • Procedural videos and images
  • Links to BNF and BNF for Children for drug information, and Cochrane Clinical Answers for more evidence

Ask at Shrewsbury or Telford Health Library if you need help or more information. 

Board Games

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The Shrewsbury and Telford Health Libraries can provide you with educational board games to borrow. These are fun ways to learn and revise or can be used as hybrid teaching tools. We have various games covering a range of subject matters, including sepsis, care, nutrition, hydration, domestic abuse and communication. Come and visit us to browse and borrow one now!