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Library Profile: RCN Library, Edinburgh

Enid Forsyth

Some of you will think of us as L/RCN in the Union List and others may know us as that small nursing Library near the Astley Ainslie Hospital in South Edinburgh. So who are we exactly? We are part of The Royal College of Nursing of the United Kingdom (RCN), which was established in 1916 and incorporated by Royal Charter in 1928. Today it is the largest professional body/union for nurses in the UK with over 360,000 members. It has 12 geographical sections covering Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and nine regional boards in England. In Scotland there are more than 34,500 members with about 75% in the NHS and about 25% in the independent sector. Council is the governing body of the RCN with elected member representation from all four countries. This body sets objectives, develops priorities and policies for the RCN. Additionally Scotland (like Wales, Northern Ireland and the 9 English regions) has its own local Board of elected members that develops policies and priorities in the Scottish context. The work of RCN staff is to implement the policies and objectives set by Council, the Boards and Regions. The RCN supports members by

  • Lobbying government and other bodies to develop and implement policies that improves patient care and raises the importance of the roles of nurses, health visitors, health care assistants and nursing students

  • Lobbying for better pay and conditions for nurses

  • Providing workplace support including health and safety advice

  • Giving professional support to members in their fields of practice

  • Providing representation, legal advice and professional indemnity insurance

  • Supporting Education and continuing professional development

  • Providing library and information services

  • Organising conferences, study days

  • Providing a wide range of RCN publications covering topical issues relevant to today’s nurses

  • Providing the 24-hour helpline, RCN Direct, to support members 24 hours a day

  • Giving counselling support, immigration advice and help following illness or injury

  • Publishing 11 specialist nursing journals plus the Nursing Standard

  • Hosting a value-packed website with material for the general public as well as a members’ only area at www.rcn.org.uk

The RCN Library and Information Services is a network of libraries based in London, Belfast, Cardiff and Edinburgh. The RCN Library in London dates back to 1923 and houses the best collection of nursing books in Europe, if not the world, and its policy of keeping earlier editions of classic works in store allows the rest of the RCN libraries to concentrate on holding current material only. It also has an excellent range of nursing and core healthcare journals and databases and acts as a backup library to the British Library. The RCN Scotland Library is at the other end of the spectrum with just over 75 current journals, a small book collection and access for all members and staff to 7 databases and 12 e-journals through 4 public area PCs. NHS members using the Library also have access to the NHSScotland e-Library. Whilst the RCN Scotland Library is small, its particular strength is the personalised service it can offer to members and staff. We give extensive help with using online services, take detailed search histories before undertaking searches on behalf of others, give advice on the use of specialist sources and use national and international services to help supply material. Expert searching for end-users is a large part of what we do as quite often people have tried to search themselves and have found very little relevant literature or they have been let down by their IT equipment. Another aspect of our work is undertaking detailed research support when members of staff undertake projects. One recent comment was “I felt I had my own personal librarian”.

Devolution and the differing political cultures of the four countries determines health policy which in turn affects the health care and information needs of the countries. Because of this, the collections and services of the four libraries reflect these differences.

All four libraries contribute to Webcat our electronic catalogue (available on the public part of our website) and we purchase our paper journals through a consortium of libraries, which includes the RSM and King’s Fund. Shared databases are now purchased centrally with all libraries contributing to costs. Back in 1999 the RCN Library and Information staff took a bottom-up approach to developing an Information Strategy, which included running focus groups with members across the UK, and then consulted widely with members and staff. The main outcome of this strategy was the development of the RCN’s e-Library, now in its third year. Whilst this replicates some of the NHSScotland e-Library coverage, user feedback indicates that its specialist focus eases navigation and use by busy nurses. Usage continues to rise and the demand to extend provision is ever present. Entry to the e-Library is now by member surname and membership number, which has removed the barrier of having to provide individual IDs and passwords. Access to the e-Library is instant if members have their membership number to the ready.

Opportunities to work with non-library colleagues abound. On the marketing front the Scotland Library is well supported by other staff, particularly our industrial relations colleagues, who actively promote the service at events, meetings and on a one-to-one basis. More recently I have been working closely with our Senior Lifelong Learning Fellow who has been developing the RCN Learning Zone (bite-sized chunks of learning linked to an online portfolio in the members’ area of the website) and with our Professional Support Facilitator who has been organising the training and development of Learning Representatives (activists who support learning in the workplace for members). Together we have been running workshops to help the Learning Representatives make best use of the RCN’s Learning and Information Resources.

As our user base covers the whole of Scotland and includes members working in the independent sector (nursing homes, industry and the Scottish prison service) as well as the NHS we can have calls from Motherwell to Campbeltown to Orkney all in a day’s work. Most of our work is remote - by telephone or email. When we looked at how the Library was being used we found that over three quarters of members were using it to support study, around a fifth to help them prepare for interviews, just over a quarter for clinical or managerial updates and more than a half for continuing professional development. We often don’t see our users but can get to know them quite well by the frequency of their requests and their voices on the phone. And then out of the blue we can meet someone through work or socially who says “Ah, you’re the person who sent me all that stuff on clinical supervision".

Enid Forsyth
Librarian
RCN Library
Edinburgh