hint: Health Information News and Thinking
Volume 3, Issue 1 February 2005
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hint: Health Information News and Thinking Volume 3, Issue 1 February 2005 |
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Hello all, and welcome to the first issue of HINT in 2005. In this issue we have first hand experience of the changeover in the health services from Jean Harrison in HSE North Eastern Area and updates form the committee on strategic planning and Policy & Procedures HSE: A Rose by any other name… I suppose in a way it could be described as a bit of a non–event. It reminded me of the Millennium predictions; it’s the end of the world as we know it (REM). There would be no money in the ATM machines, no water in the taps, lifts and elevators would break down, traffic lights, God forbid, wouldn’t work and some people even headed for the hills with their tin openers and cans of bully beef. Would the changeover from the eight health boards to the unified HSE on January 1st 2005 deliver over night chaos to the health services? Thank God no, apart from the disappointment of our new Chief Executive refusing the job at the last post and the threat of industrial action by Impact over perceived threats to some administrative jobs and rumours about problems with paying salaries in January (we did get paid) the new order arrived on our door steps like a bleating lamb rather than a roaring lion. Overall structure: Changes have happened though, but to–date mainly on paper: there
are now four regional areas under the HSE: At these regional levels there will be four administrative sites; Cork, Galway, Kells and Tullamore (see map http://www.tohm.ie/download/pdf/reg_map.pdf The central corporate executive will be based in Naas, Co. Kildare and will provide leadership, strategic guidance and support. It will comprise of nine directorates, each with its own director and, two, three or four assistant directors. Currently, health, community care and personal social services are being delivered by Health Service Executive Areas (former health boards). The former CEO's of the health boards have been renamed Chief Officers and they will remain in place for the first six months of the year. At that point, responsibilities will transfer to the new National Directorates of the HSE Some senior administrative staff in the old health boards have left on secondment or promotion to the new administrative sites. Our email addresses have changed but you can still contact us on the old ones for the time being. New stationery has been printed; all publications now have to have the new HSE logo, so we have had to change complimentary slips, information brochures, handouts and Intranet documents. We were hoping that the new eportal would be available from January 1st with the abolishment of the old health board web sites. The HSE has established a web presence (www.hse.ie) and the old web sites and intranets are still in existence, now displaying the HSE logo prominently on the top of the home page. National Hospitals Office: The re-organisation of the acute hospitals will bring all 53 statutory and non-statutory acute hospitals into a single unified structure. Ten hospital networks will be created with a director who will manage resources and the delivery of services. This network will also include the Dublin Area Teaching Hospitals. Libraries: And where do libraries come in the new order you might ask and so did we! In the old system each Regional library (where they were in existence) operated within different departments. Some came under HR, others under Corporate Learning and others again under the hospital manager or CEO. Will this change? Will we all be unified under one Directorate and will it make a difference to the organization and development of libraries within the HSE? One thing which will matter is where will our budgets emanate from now in 2005 and beyond, will they be affected? How do we organize the purchase of databases journals and Athens access for the new Regions, taking into account the suppliers’ insistence (and rightly so) on exact bed numbers and FTE staff numbers to allocate costs? Are health care staff who have hitherto belonged to one former health board now entitled to use the libraries and library resources of the new combined regions? What repercussions will this have on library staffing, resources and budgets? Despite the fact that many health board libraries are based in acute or psychiatric hospitals, Regional libraries provided and still provide also a service to staff in the community, i.e. public health, health promotion, child and family centres to name but a few. Will we be able to continue to provide this service? Things are moving slowly, apparently very slowly, which is not a bad thing. There has definitely been no big bang! Life in the Regional libraries continues on its merry way for now but watch this space!! Below is a flavour of the new email addresses for some former health board, now HSE librarians. The first person who can inform me of the significance of the different letters for each region’s email address will receive a well deserved copy of the DaVinci Code. Jean Harrison, patrick.fitzgerald@mailp.hse.ie As you will have seen from the AGM back in November, an enormous amount of work is being done on behalf of the group by the HSLG committee. What I would like to do with each issue of HINT, is explain a little about the committee, how it works, and what this means for all HSLG members. You elect us to work on your behalf, and on your behalf, we try to provide strategic leadership and work for the sector as a whole. The committee meets every two months, usually from 11am - 4pm, or thereabouts, which means we meet about six or seven times a year. Three of the meetings are in Dublin and three outside of Dublin (for those of who work in remote locations!). We have been extremely fortunate these last few years, in having a committee of 14 or 15, (15 again this year) and the intention with the committee is to be as representative of our sector as possible. Each meeting is usually a mixture of fixed items (i.e. reports from officers) and discussion on various issues, either long term, or our on the agenda by committee officers and/or HSLG members. As the work of the committee has evolved the number of committee officers have grown. These are elected at the very first meeting of the committee each year. The current officers on the committee are: ChairpersonSecretary Treasurer / Finance Advisory Group Leader Communications Officer International Liaison Officer Cochrane Library Liaison Officer Continuing Professional Development Working Group Leader Website Working Group Leader More about each of these another time, but as you will see over half the committee have specific areas of responsibility. Committee meetings involve both discussion and decision-making, but a lot of work is actually done between meetings. The work we are doing is work that involves us all. It cannot be done by the committee alone, and that is the main reason, for the creation of Working Groups in the last 12 months. More in the next issue. CPD Aoife L Policies & Procedures: Those of you that attended the Annual General Meeting in November, will know that there was considerable discussion about the proposed policies and procedures document, which had been circulated to all group members in advance, via the Topica IHSLG mailing list. This is an important document for all of us, and in these brief few words, we'd like to explain why this was put forward, and what will happen next. We'd also like to thank all those who have contacted us subsequently with messages of support for this work. The work of the HSLG has over the last few years, made giant leaps forward. The reports from all the different committee officers at the AGM are testimony not only to the amount of work that has occurred over the last twelve months, but also the systematic and organized way, in which those who attend committee meetings,work on behalf of the membership as a whole group. The proposal to adopt a code of policies and procedures is intended to give recognition to the progress that has been made, and to ensure, that there is a firm platform in place, both for the consolidation and the further development of the work of the group. There is nothing unusual in such a document being proposed to the membership of the HSLG. Many of our sister organizations such as;
have written policies and procedures in place already. Each of the above was consulted as part of the drafting of our own document, and a great deal of what is in these documents, can also be found within our own. Before being submitted to the Annual General Meeting, the draft document was also comprehensively checked against the LAI Articles of Association and Roberts Rules of Order, to ensure compliance with best practice elsewhere in Ireland. Committees and Groups, if they are to be effective, cannot operate in a vacuum, or in a random way, governed by just the powerful or the vocal few. Committees are elected by eligible members to represent the interests of the group as a whole, and to provide strategic leadership. Policies and procedures lay down exactly how all this happens, and exist to ensure that power and responsibility are exercised for the group as a whole. These policies and procedures, which, as stated above, have been researched and derived from those of our sister agencies, actively promote democracy among us, and empower everyone, since everyone will, for the first time ever, in the history of our group, be able to see transparently and clearly, how the committee operates and how they can become involved, if they so wish. It follows quite logically therefore, as stated in paragraph 5.2 "that the committee shall be the legislative body for the group." Obviously, where extremely important matters are concerned, such as these policies and procedures, and more recently the Standards document, the committee makes every effort to ensure that there is wide consultation of the membership. As you will know, an opportunity was given for all to comment on the Standards document. Similarly, the policies and procedures document was circulated to all in advance of the AGM. However, it has never been the case that the committee puts every single issue to the entire membership for vote or discussion. This is not practical or desirable, and if it was to be the case, would effectively render null and void the election process for committee members and officials. The whole point of having a committee is to ensure that the group has a dedicated and experienced group of people who can develop policy for all of us. Committee members are very clear that we are all elected to serve the membership as a whole, and are accountable to all of you. Formal policies and procedures guarantee that accountability. It might seem a very detailed document, but is important for us to have a comprehensive document, which addresses all questions and concerns, and which will meet our needs, both now and in the immediate future. If we are to do justice to all the work that has been done these last few years, and provide a framework for decision making and participation, we need these policies and procedures. They ensure justice, fairness, and transparency, and are an opportunity for all to make their voice heard. The document will shortly be made available to all through the HSLG discussion list and via a web page, for those whose firewalls prevent the reception of messages via Topica. This will be followed shortly afterwards by a secret ballot, which will be administered by our parent body, the Library Association of Ireland. The result will be known a short time after the ballot papers have been received and counted. Adoption of these policies and procedures marks a further step in the evolution and development of our group, and gives us all the self confidence to begin implementing the Strategic Plan we agreed at the conference. Sue Faulkner & Bernard Barrett (HSLG Committee) This meeting commits the Library Association of Ireland to initiating
a dialogue with the Health Service Executive, to discuss the future
role of Libraries and Information Specialists within the newly emerging
Irish health service. This Annual General Meeting approves the second edition of Standards for Irish healthcare library and information services and adopts them as an official policy document of the Library Association of Ireland. LAI Cards and newsletter Louise Topica mailing list to go!! Louise
Google Scholar enables you to search specifically for scholarly literature,
including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts
and technical reports from all broad areas of research. Use Google Scholar
to find articles from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional
societies, preprint repositories and universities, as well as scholarly
articles available across the web. Side-by-Side Measurement of Google
Scholar vs. Publisher's own "native" search engines Heanet Health Sciences Section (LOUISE) Unfinished All who attended the HSLG conference in November In between these spells at UCD, she worked at St. Catherine’s College of Education for Home Economics, Blackrock (1978-86), and as a librarian and documentalist in Rome between 1991 and 1995. There she worked for IDOC (International Documentation and Communication Centre), and was librarian at the Jesuit Refugee Service International Office. Since 1995 she has been an active member of the Health Sciences Library Group, and participated ….. Mary’s ceaseless energy and enthusiasm for her work will be greatly
missed by her colleagues at Earlsfort terrace, and UCD as a whole. With
her wide range of hobbies and interests that include bridge, Italian
language and literature, archaeology, as well as travel, she is sure
to enjoy a very active and fulfilling retirement. We wish her all the
best for the future. The HSLG conference also saw the announcement of Tim Collins' (UCG) retirement as HSLG committee secretary and member. Tim has Tim Collins retires as secretary Emma Quinn, Daughter Margaret born 23 December 2004 Vacancy for Library Assistant, Evenings Library & Information Service, Adelaide & Meath Hospital inc. the National Children's Hospital Further details and a job description are available from the Library & Information Service, Tel: 01 414 4852. Applications should be submitted in writing, including a detailed Curriculum Vitae (four unbound copies) together with the names and addresses of three referees before 12 noon on Friday 4th March, 2005. Closing date and time will be strictly adhered to. Please post applications to: Reference number 02/051T New Email Address just a reminder to all non topica members that the new email address for the library in Stewarts Hospital, Plamerstown is library@stewartshospital.com LAI upcoming AGM
Change editorial info Add JH and others HINT is the Quarterly Newsletter of the Irish Health Sciences Libraries Group of the Library Association of Ireland. It is compiled & produced by members of The Irish
Health Sciences Libraries Group of the LAI. Any submissions for future articles should be sent/faxed/emailed
to: All material in this newsletter is copyright ©, 2004. This newsletter may be quoted or forwarded if the quoted or forwarded passage is attributed to the newsletter. If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter, please e-mail the Editors |
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http://scholar.google.com/ Google scholar ABOUT (LOUISE) Unfinished