Health Library News

 Whether you're settling into university life, juggling clinical placements, or stepping into your first professional role, one thing is clear: being able to find, judge, and use information confidently is a game‑changer. That’s where the Health Library’s Information Skills eTutorials come in. These short, practical online modules are designed to help you build the research and information‑handling skills you’ll rely on throughout your studies and your healthcare career—and you can complete them anytime, anywhere, at your own pace. Why bother with information skills? Searching for good information can sometimes feel overwhelming. Databases, keywords, journals, evidence hierarchies, critical appraisal… It’s a lot. But strong information‑seeking skills don’t just make assignments easier—they make you a safer, more informed healthcare practitioner. Reliable evidence underpins everything from clinical decisions to patient education, and the sooner you feel comfortable navigating it, t...

 You are living in a digital society. Do you have the right digital skills and information skills to study and work to your best? Complete our tutorials to find out: Watch our video What are digital skills? to find out what skills you need and how the Health Library can help you get them Watch our video Introduction to Information Skills to learn more about the skills you need to find information efficiently and effectively Take our quiz Check Your Skills to find out what skills you have. Get your action plan to find out how you can improve them All our tutorials are freely available, no login required. Complete them at your own pace, whenever you want to. Download the reflection document to keep a record of your learning. Please make sure you let us know what you think of our tutorials by completing the feedback form . Try it now Go straight to our Information Skills eTutorials page on the Health Library website to access all our etutorials. Need more help...

  We have some great online learning opportunities for you! You can complete online learning in your own time and at your own pace.   If you need a computer, come to Library to access PCs on either the Keele network or the NHS network. If you just need some quiet space, you can bring your own laptop and plug in via the study desks or individual pods.   We can help you to:   Develop your digital skills – watch our short video for info on how we can support you. Improve your information skills – complete our online tutorials to learn how to find the right information you need effectively. Access online resources – make sure you get the right login to access the resources we have for you. NHS staff can register for an NHS OpenAthens username , whereas Keele staff and students login with their email address and password .   Learn more about how the Health Library can support you in your work and studies. Complete our online inductions:   NHS Library Induc...

 The Internet is a great place to start looking for information and there are some great healthcare based resources available. In your work and studies you need to make sure that you are using good quality, relevant information.  So, how can you make sure that what you find fits that criteria? Make sure you have the right skills to separate the good stuff from the bad. Here's how: From the Health Library Start with a quick checklist - watch this introduction to the CRAAP checklist Complete our presentation Evaluating Information on the Internet  for more information about the checklist. Here are some more resources you might like to look at: How can you spot Fake News? How to spot fake news [poster] . International Federation of Library Associations How to spot fake news [video] . FactCheck.org   What is media literacy and why does it matter? FutureLearn   Check a fact checker - they do the work for you Full Fact Health   Full Fact is a team of indepen...

 Do you need help to develop your skills and get access to online resources? Well, we have a resource to help you. Subscribe to our blog Information Skills for Health and get support delivered to your inbox. You'll get help: Accessing and using key online healthcare resources Step-by-step instructions to use key features of resources Online tutorials to help you develop your digital skills Videos demonstrating how to get started with resources Tips and tricks to help you to effectively work online Instructions on how to access full-text articles Support for literature searching Information about bugs and problems - with work-rounds where possible Details of bulletins and current awareness Why not subscribe today - go to the blog , click the subscribe option (on the top menu) and follow the instructions.

There are many opportunities these days to complete online learning and you will most likely come across this either at university or work. You may opt to develop your own skills through online professional development. The Library also offers you an online, technology-enriched environment, helping you to develop the right set of information skills to find the information you need. eLearning wordle on a laptop screen You can complete our etutorials to learn how to use our resources and develop your skills: Getting Started Information Skills We also have online guides and links to providers support pages to help you to use our resources. You can follow our Information Skills for Health blog . Here we publish posts about different resources, how to use them and how to develop your skills. Our learning opportunities include demos, step-by-step instructions, video, and interactive elements.

You need to understand why it is important to acknowledge and reference others' work – this is an important digital skill. Image of hand writing Referencing Start by taking our etutorial Introduction to Referencing and Plagiarism . If you are a Keele student book onto our RefWorks course to learn how you can use a reference management tool to help you to keep track of your references.

Once you’ve found information that matches your search criteria you need to check that it is valid and relevant for your needs. Image of checklist being ticked You can complete our etutorials or book on training to develop your evaluation and critical appraisal skills: Evaluating Information – get to grips with the CRAAP tool to help you to assess resources Finding Information on the Internet – learn more about good quality, healthcare-specific, online resources Critical Appraisal Tools – learn about the many different tools available to help you to critically appraise articles Evidence Hierarchy – learn how the evidence hierarchy can help you to identify any issues with research papers Critical Appraisal for Absolute Beginners:   Qualitative Study – book on this training course and practice critically appraising a qualitative paper Critical Appraisal for Absolute Beginners: Randomised Controlled Trial – book on this training course and practice critically ap...

Not surprisingly, we’re here to help you to find the right information for your studies, work and CPD. We subscribe to a wide range of online healthcare-specific resources. You can develop your information skills and learn how to search effectively by completing our online tutorials or booking on a training course. Image demonstration multiple resources on a computer Check your main subject page for a full-list of the resources available to you: Nursing Databases (Keele) Midwifery Databases (Keele) Medical Databases (Keele) Healthcare Resources (NHS) You’ll find a list of training opportunities to help you to improve your skills and access our resources on our website: Training Courses for Keele staff and students Training Course for UHNM staff Training opportunities for NHS staff working in the community Information Skills etutorials Getting Started etutorials Make the most of the opportunities at the Health Library so that you can use online ...

Digital literacies can be described as those skills which support people living, learning and working in a digital society. The Health Library provides you with lots of opportunities to help you to develop your skills. Watch our video for a brief overview of all the ways we can help you. For more information about digital literacy skills and competencies see the JISC website .