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Access is available to all with a valid ID card.
Staffed hours are Monday to Friday 8am – 6pm.
See the Library Essentials guide to find out more about getting started with using your library.
This month our popular Library Loves series returns highlighting Pharmacy and Pharmacology resources available through St George’s Library.
Websites
Journals
Databases
Reference, Summaries & Point of Care resources
Regulatory Agencies
Societies & Professional Associations
The following websites form a comprehensive selection of online resources providing guidance, information and support on the use of medicines; along with news and analysis on topics relevant to pharmacy and pharmacology.
NICE Medicines and Prescribing
https://www.nice.org.uk/about/nice-communities/medicines-and-prescribing
A comprehensive suite of guidance, advice and support for the delivery of quality, safety and efficiency in the use of medicines.
Chemist + Druggist
http://www.chemistanddruggist.co.uk/
Featuring the latest UK community pharmacy news Chemist + Druggist is a weekly magazine containing news on clinical and business issues, alongside articles and training courses to assist pharmacists with their CPD.
electronic Medicines Compendium (eMC)
https://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/
the eMC contains up-to-date, easily accessible information about medicines licenced for use in the UK. With over 10,600 documents, all of which have been checked and approved by either the UK or European government agencies which licence medicines.
RxList
http://www.rxlist.com/script/main/hp.asp
RxList is an online medical resource dedicated to offering detailed and current pharmaceutical information on brand and generic drugs.
Specialist Pharmacy Service
https://www.sps.nhs.uk/
Specialist Pharmacy Services (SPS) aim to be “The first stop for professional medicines advice” SPS brings together expertise from Medicines Use and Safety, Procurement, Quality Assurance, Technical Services and UKMi. Delivered by senior pharmacy professionals and with a focus on hospital care, Specialist Pharmacy Services (SPS), underpin the safe, effective and efficient use of medicines across the country.
Cochrane Library
http://www.cochranelibrary.com/
The Cochrane Library is freely available and consists of several databases supporting evidence-based medicine.
These journals comprise a list of ‘key titles’ for pharmacists and pharmacologists which the Library recommends for those wanting to keep up to date in this field.
All titles are available through the library. Staff and students of St Georges, University of London can access the Journals via the St George’s Library Journals A-Z list: accessing titles offsite will require you to enter in your SGUL username and password.
NHS staff can access these titles via the NICE Journals A-Z search using their OpenAthens account details.
Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin
The DTB provides rigorous and independent evaluations of, and practical advice on, individual treatments and the overall management of disease for doctors, pharmacists and other healthcare professionals. Published monthly by the BMJ the journal aims to provide informed and unbiased information on medical conditions, medicines and other treatments to enable readers to make informed choices and ensure patients get the best care.
British Journal of Pharmacology
The BJP gives leading international coverage of all aspects of experimental pharmacology.
Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics
Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics is an international journal concerned with the effects of drugs on the human gastrointestinal and hepato-biliary systems, particularly with relevance to clinical practice.
British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology
Published on behalf of the British Pharmacological Society, the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology contains papers and reports, research and review articles on all aspects of drug action in humans.
Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy
Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (AAC) features interdisciplinary studies that build an understanding of the underlying mechanisms and therapeutic applications of antimicrobial and antiparasitic agents and chemotherapy.
Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry
Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry is an international and multidisciplinary journal which aims to ensure the rapid publication of authoritative reviews and research papers dealing with experimental and clinical aspects of neuro-psychopharmacology and biological psychiatry.
European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology
The European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology publishes original papers, short communications, and letters to the editors on all aspects of clinical pharmacology and drug therapy in humans. Coverage includes therapeutic trials; pharmacokinetics; drug metabolism; adverse drug reactions; drug interactions; all aspects of drug development; prescribing policies; pharmacoepidemiology; and matters relating to the safe use of drugs.
Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics
Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics (CPT) is a cross-disciplinary journal in experimental and clinical medicine devoted to publishing advances in the nature, action, efficacy, and evaluation of therapeutics.
Pharmacology & Therapeutics
Pharmacology & Therapeutics presents clear, critical and authoritative reviews of currently important topics in pharmacology.
Trends in Pharmacological Sciences
Trends in Pharmacological Sciences is a monthly review journal focusing on pharmacology and toxicology.
Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy
The Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy is a journal of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC) and is among the foremost international journals in antimicrobial research.
These databases contain relevant articles and papers for those interested in pharmacological research. The Library provides access to the EMBASE and MEDLINE databases for SGUL staff and students and NHS staff.
SGUL staff and students should follow the relevant links from the database entry on the A-Z database list, offsite access will require an SGUL username and password.
NHS staff will need an NHS OpenAthens account to access these databases using the updated Healthcare Databases Advanced Search (HDAS) platform.
ChemIDplus is freely available and does not require a login.
EMBASE
The EMBASE database covers biomedicine and pharmacology; particularly strong in the areas of drugs, toxicology and psychiatry; indexing over 3,500 international journals.
MEDLINE
Medline is a general medical database produced by the U.S. National Library of Medicine. The database contains millions of citations, derived from thousands of biomedical and life science journals.
ChemIDplus
ChemIDplus contains over 400,000 chemical records. More than 300,000 of those records include chemical structures. ChemIDplus allows you to search by name/synonym, physical properties or toxicity in order to identify chemical substances.
British National Formulary (BNF)
The BNF provide prescribers, pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals with sound up-to-date information about the use of medicines. Covering medicines generally prescribed in the UK, the BNF includes key information on the selection, prescribing, dispensing, and administration of medicines. Updated twice a year the BNF is available in print or online on MedicinesComplete or NHS Evidence.
British National Formulary for Children (BNFc)
Like the BNF the BNF for Children aims to provide prescribers, pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals with sound up-to-date information on the use of medicines for treating children.
Both the BNF and the BNFc are available as iOS and Android Apps; you will need an NHS OpenAthens account to access the content. More information can be found at the NICE apps for smartphones and tablets page.
Medicines Information Services
Information on any aspect of drug therapy can be obtained from Regional and District Medicines Information Services.
St George’s pharmacy department
Lanesborough Wing, 020 8725 1765
DynaMed Plus
An evidence-based knowledge system that helps healthcare staff make the right decisions at the point of care. It covers over 3,400 clinical topics, providing evidence-graded treatment recommendations as well as diagnostic and other information. Access via NHS Open Athens, the trust intranet, or download the mobile app, for information on the go.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency regulates medicines, medical devices and blood components for transfusion in the UK. MHRA is an executive agency, sponsored by the Department of Health. Recognised globally as an authority in its field, the agency plays a leading role in protecting and improving public health.
European Medicines Agency
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is responsible for the scientific evaluation, supervision and safety monitoring of medicines developed by pharmaceutical companies for use in the EU. The EMA supports scientific excellence in the evaluation and supervision of medicines ensuring that all medicines available on the EU market are safe, effective and of high quality.
Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI)
(ABPI) represents innovative research-based biopharmaceutical companies; companies who supply more than 80 per cent of all branded medicines used by the NHS and who are researching and developing the majority of the current medicines pipeline.
Royal Pharmaceutical Society
The RPS is the professional membership body for pharmacists and pharmacy in Great Britain and an internationally renowned publisher of medicines information.
The British Pharmaceutical Society
The British Pharmacological Society is a charity with a mission to promote and advance the whole spectrum of pharmacology. The Society leads the way in the research and application of pharmacology around the world.
International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP)
The International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) is the global body representing pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences. Through 139 national organisations, academic institutional members and individual members, FIP represent over three million pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists around the world.
General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)
The GPhC is the body responsible for the independent regulation of the pharmacy profession within England, Scotland and Wales. Responsible for the regulation of pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and pharmacy premises.
British Pharmaceutical Students’ Association (BPSA)
The British Pharmaceutical Students’ Association is the official student organisation of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society; founded in 1942 it is the only national body that solely represents pharmacy students and pre-registration trainee pharmacists.
For help in viewing or downloading online journals, or accessing databases pop along to the Research Enquiries Desk in the Quiet Study Area of the Library, Mon-Fri 11am-4pm.
If you are an NHS user and are having problems with your OpenAthens account, please contact your OpenAthens administrator Zena Ali at zali@sgul.ac.uk or 020 8725 5433.
Information on accessing and using some of these resources can be found on the Library website help page.
We are excited to be celebrating LGBT History Month with a display of our new LGBT book collection. The books were selected from recommendations given to us by the LGBT staff network at St George’s. We have a varied collection including memoirs, an LGBT casebook for healthcare professionals, graphic novels, stories and a well known play from 1979, first performed by Ian McKellan. We would also like thank Margot Turner (Senior Lecturer in Diversity and Medical Education) for donating two novels from her own collection to the library.
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Last Year on Saturday 25th June, staff and students from St George’s joined the celebrations at Pride in London for the second consecutive year. The Pride in London festival aims to celebrate Lesbian Bisexual Gay and Transgender life and challenge prejudice.
Here is a great selection of photos from the day, shared with us by John Hammond, chair of the Equality and Diversity Committee.
Some of the banners and a LGBT timeline can be found in the corridor between Hunter and Grosvenor wing. Go take a look!
There are some great events planned for the month, including:
For more on what’s happening around the campus please follow:
ST Georges LGBT Staff Network
e-mail:lgbtstaffgroup@sgul.ac.uk Twitter: @LGBTStGeorges
PRIDE St Georges LGBT student society
email:lgbt@su.sgul.ac.uk Twitter: @SgulPrideLgbt
As well as taking centre stage during November for our Library Loves Archives promotion, this month the St George’s Archives will be taking part in a campaign to encourage everyone to explore archives. Explore Archives runs from 19th-27th November and last year over 300 archives from across the UK and Ireland took part.
This is the first time St George’s will be taking part in the archives campaign, which aims to show the potential of archives to excite and bring people together, and tell amazing stories.
Last month we introduced you to the St George’s Archive Project, and now we are holding an archives handling session inviting staff and students to get hands on with history with a selection of treasures from our archives.
The Explore Archives handling session will be held on Monday 21st November from 12.30pm-1.30pm and staff and students are invited to attend to see what is held in our archives and hear what stories they can tell us about the history of St George’s.
Booking is required and places are limited, so please contact archives@sgul.ac.uk to reserve your place. We’ll also have exclusive postcards featuring some of our archive treasures for attendees to take home.
During Explore Archives week we will be tweeting throughout with interesting facts and items from our historical collections. Follow @SGULlibrary and the hashtags #stgeorgesarchives and #explorearchives
Find out more about Explore Archives (http://www.exploreyourarchive.org/)
View a timeline of the history of St George’s, University of London
This post is about getting the know the Moodle team and also includes a brief introduction to the pronunciation guide for students.
“The Learning Technology Services team (with an emphasis on Learning) look after existing Technology Enhanced Learning platforms – like our Moodle VLE and Myprogress.
There’s a lot I like about our role in St George’s – for example it’s nice that staff and students can just drop in to see us during the working week. This connects us with our users so we can address issues quickly and make improvements where necessary. I really like the variety, one minute we’ll be helping someone to make a screencast and the next we’ll be helping staff design a learning activity in Moodle – like the pronunciation guide with Dr SanYuMay Tun – which speaks unfamiliar medical terms out loud.
It’s quite interesting that no one can seem to agree on what a Learning Technologist is – or for that matter the job title which seems to be different at every University, but it’s really a bunch of different skills covering technology and pedagogy.
It’s taken me a while to realise this, but you really do learn all the time – and skills you don’t even think about from years ago come in very useful. For example I did a BSc in Biological Sciences and recently a PG Cert in Online and Distance education with the Open University – but I regularly draw on experience from every other random thing I’ve ever done – I was in a band, produced videos, developed web sites large and small, was an online journalist, teaching assistant, photographer, sound engineer, ambient DJ and electronic musician. Funnily enough it all helps.”
“I graduated last summer with a BSc in Biomedical Sciences. As part of my degree I completed a placement year at St George’s as a Learning Technologist enabling me to gain experience and new skills. After graduating I worked for a while in electronic clinical trial assessment before rejoining St George’s in November. I am interested in science communication/ education and I enjoy creating online learning resources and activities such as quizzes.”
“With a degree in BSc in Managing Business Information and subsequent qualifications in learning and technology I have had a varied background in IS/IT. I have enjoyed developing systems, training users and managing the implementation/upgrade of various technologies. I am currently supporting Myprogress (the ePortfolio system used at SGUL) for both students and staff which keeps me busy. Aside from work I love arts and crafts, knitting, music, singing and the simple things in life. I do try to incorporate creativity into my work as long as time, resources, ‘brain power’ permit. “
“I am currently studying a Computer Science degree at Brunel University London. For my placement year, I am working as a Learning Technologist at St George’s University to gain work experience in relation to my degree. Alongside the Learning Technology Services team, my role involves tasks surrounding Moodle and Myprogress. By the end of my placement, I hope to gain skills that I can use in the future, potentially for my Final Year Project, and further understanding of the career fields I could possibly get into.”
The pronunciation guide is a new resource created for students by Dr SanYuMay Tun, with the help of the Moodle team.
She gave us a few words on how she came up with the idea for the guide.
In my teaching sessions, I was finding that students were sometimes hesitating to contribute in discussions because of uncertainty over how to pronounce words they had only come across in written form.To help with this, I developed an audio pronunciation guide so that you can hear the words spoken aloud and practise saying them confidently. The concept is that I add new words according to requests, which are anonymous. There’s also a feedback page so suggestions and comments would be great. Give it a try!Dr SanYuMay Tun
The guide can be found in the Student Help Area in Moodle.
Tying in with 10 Days of Wellbeing programme (SGUL login required) run by St George’s Staff Development team, we are running a book swap in the library foyer from Monday 20 June to Friday 1 July, to promote reading for relaxation and pleasure, as well introducing a new collection of books.
From 20 June – 1 July, we’ll be putting out a trolley of fiction books in library for you to enjoy. St George’s staff and student are free to pick a book to read (initial collection kindly donated by Library staff) and to drop off a book on the trolley for sharing with others.
We have also added a brand new collection of mood-boosting books for our users. This collection includes poetry, novels, essays and more, picked from a list suggested by the Reading Agency. Keep an eye out for the display in the Library, the mood-boosting books collection will be available for borrowing from 20 June 2016.
What books do you read for rest and relaxation? If you’re on Twitter, use #sgulwellbeing to let us know on Twitter . If you enjoyed a book from the book trolley we’d love to hear your comments.
This month we are promoting IT Training at St George’s Library. Fiona Graham is our IT Training Manager who has over 15 years of experience in Microsoft Office training at St George’s, University of London, also covering Faculty of Health, Social Care and Education (joint with Kingston), and St George’s Hospital.
We’ve put a few questions to Fiona about how she helps users at St George’s.
I can help users, students, teaching staff, admin staff, NHS staff, with anything related to using Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Access, Projects, OneNote and Outlook. I run training sessions on Microsoft Office for staff and students at beginner, intermediate and advanced levels. I also offer 1-2-1 training and run a twice-weekly drop-in clinic [details below].
What I help people with varies from day to day. I’ve helped several staff members working in Student Registry. One staff member who maintain spreadsheets with student information, wanted the quickest and easiest way to produce some reports with charts, and to use that information collected in a PowerPoint presentation. I demonstrated pivot tables and showed them how to link their data to PowerPoint. I also showed them how to tidy up the data, add drop down lists for consistent data input, and how to auto-update reports and charts by refreshing data in pivot tables. This meant they did not have to keep creating new tables, saving them time in the long term. That’s just one example of what I can do.
To mention a few of the queries that I get the most, they are:
I deliver training that cover these queries and more, users can also see me at my Drop-in Clinic if they have a quick question they want to ask, or arrange to meet me at my desk or their own desk. I’m always happy to help.
The biggest satisfaction that I get is when I get to help students with their dissertation or thesis. I sometimes get distressed students coming to me, they’ve got their content, but they just can’t get the format or layout right; the page numbers aren’t in the right order, they don’t know how put in different headers and footers for different chapters, or don’t know how to make specific pages a different orientation to fit in an image or a chart, or are not sure how to generate an automatic contents page. With my expertise, I help the students solve all these issues. Later on, when I bump into them again and they tell me ‘I may not have passed if it wasn’t for your help’, that makes it all worthwhile.
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Many thanks to Fiona for taking the time to answers these questions. Fiona not only helps with problem solving Office Application issues, she also offers training in ECDL, a world-wide recognised IT user qualification, as well as offering online MS Office training materials.
Below are extracts from some of the testimonials from staff and students.
“The tremendous help I received from you, is invaluable. Your kindness, patience help to remove the stress out of the work.” “I don't know if you realise you are an excellent teacher, remaining calm even when I got flustered. To sum it up all, u know your stuff !!!!!!!” Leonie Campbell Kingston Student (dissertation)
“I asked for Fiona’s help in adapting an Excel spreadsheet to fit a certain size page... I found Fiona’s help most useful, her manner was professional and patient. I left the session feeling I could approach Fiona again with any help I needed with IT issues.” Trevor Ewart McIlree SGUL Site Services Supervisor
“Fiona worked with us to support MSW [Masters in Social Work] students to attain ECDL… Fiona, not only delivered teaching sessions but equally effectively managed students’ anxieties for whom IT skills was a very new thing” Wilson Muleya Associate Professor MSW Course Director Deputy Head of School of Social Work and Social Care
“Its official* …. FIONA GRAHAM offers top class student support to MResCP [Master of Research in Clinical Practice] students and is in their words ‘utterly brilliant’ !!! * *student evaluations from cohort 4. Well done Fiona. Shame you were not there to hear all they said about your abilities and kindness it seems you pull out all the stops for them … but of course we all know you’re great .” Dr Cheryl Whiting EdD, MSc, DCR, SFHEA Associate Professor Course Director for MResCP Lecturer in Radiography
More information available on the Library Training Pages or contact Fiona Graham directly:
Phone: 020 8725 5662 (ext. 5662)
Email: ITtraining@sgul.ac.uk
Library, 1st Floor Hunter Wing
MS Office Drop-in Clinic in the Library Foyer
Monday 11am – 1pm
Friday 11am – 1pm
Continuing the Library’s new series of monthly promotions – Library Loves – this February we are taking a closer look at Point of Care Resources – what they are, and what’s available via St George’s Library.
Content
Introduction to Point of Care Resources
Evidence Based Healthcare
DynaMed Plus
BMJ Best Practice
BMJ Clinical Evidence
Pop up library and upcoming training sessions
Point of Care Resources refers to a range of resources that are designed to make the latest research and guidance available to healthcare staff/students at the ‘Point of Care’ in order to support their clinical decision making, and enable the practice of Evidence Based Healthcare.
Point of Care in this context simply means any location that is in the vicinity of patient treatment – from the patient’s own home, to the GP’s consulting room or the hospital bedside.
Evidence Based Healthcare (EBH), also referred to as Evidence Based Medicine (EBM), is the practice of applying high quality, up to date evidence in the process of clinical decision making, alongside the expertise and experience of the healthcare practitioner and the needs of the patient, enabling the most appropriate course of treatment to be identified. Clinical Evidence, one of the resources we will look at in more detail below, includes an excellent introduction to Evidence Based Medicine in their Learn EBM section. There is also an Evidence Based Healthcare section on our Library website, where you can find more information.
DynaMed Plus is an evidence-based clinical decision support tool. It covers over 3,400 clinical topics, reviewed by doctors, and provides diagnostic information as well as evidence-graded treatment recommendations. Each summary is split into easy to navigate sections, and many summaries will provide external links to supporting webpages and articles, displaying the abstract or full-text article where available. Content is updated daily and users can opt-in to receive alerts on the latest updates in their specialties. The topic summaries provide links to relevant BNF entries, NICE guidelines, Micromedex Drug Content, images and graphics.
Device information: The website is device responsive so can be used in the web browser of any desktop, laptop, tablet or mobile provided you are connected to the internet. There are also DynaMed Plus apps for Android and Apple iOS (iPhone and iPad) – there is more information about the DynaMed Plus apps in our Guide to Mobile Resources Blog.
Access: You can access DynaMed Plus via the following 3 easy routes:
BMJ Best Practice describes itself as ‘your instant second opinion’, bringing together the latest evidence, guidelines and expert opinion on over 900 topics to support your decision making. Topics are arranged in a standardised way including overview, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up sections to mirror the structure of a patient consultation. Each topic also includes a resources section where you can view a full list of references with links to the abstract or fulltext where available, online resources, images and patient information leaflets to support the idea of shared decision making.
Device information: The website is device responsive so can be used in the web browser of any desktop, laptop, tablet or mobile provided you are connected to the internet. There are also BMJ Best Practice Apps for Android and Apple iOS (iPhone and iPad) – there is more information about the BMJ Best Practice app in our Guide to Mobile Resources Blog.
Access: Use the relevant links in the BMJ Best Practice entry on our databases page.
The BMJ Clinical Evidence team carry out systematic reviews of the evidence available on each topic, which is then presented in various summarised ways to make the findings easy to access and interpret in relation to clinical scenarios. Each topic includes an overview that also highlights any significant developments since the last review was published, background which includes the definitions of terms and methodology for the review, links to relevant patient information, guidelines and references. However, the key features of Clinical Evidence are the interventions tables and the GRADE tables; interventions tables rank interventions on a scale to indicate how likely they are to be beneficial, while GRADE tables use GRADE (a system developed by the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations Working Group) to assess the quality and strength of the evidence available for key interventions.
Device information: The website is device responsive so can be used in the web browser of any desktop, laptop, tablet or mobile provided you are connected to the internet. There are currently no apps available for this resource.
Access: Use the relevant links in the Clinical Evidence entry on our databases page.
Outside Ingredients canteen, 1st Floor Lanesborough Wing
We will be showcasing these Point of Care Resources, alongside the rest of the Library’s services and resources.
Interested in learning more about Evidence Based Healthcare?
Book a place on our EBH training session.
View the full details of the course on our website
Email: liblearn@sgul.ac.uk to book your place
New for 2016 the Library is launching a series of monthly promotions – Library Loves. Featuring different resources and events, Library Loves will support your learning, teaching, research and practice by helping you get the most out of the Library and our resources, and we hope at the times when most needed. So with out further ado, it’s the start of the year, it’s the start of Library Loves and we are looking at Library StART…
With deadlines fast approaching in January, some of these questions may be looming large:
How do I answer my essay question – what information do I need to do it?
How do I find and get that information?
Can I reference Wikipedia? How do I know I’ve got ‘the good stuff’?
What is Harvard Style, how can I make sure I’m getting it right?
Library StART (St George’s Assignment Research Toolkit) has been designed to help you navigate all these questions and more, with specific reference to how you can use resources available via the Library here at St George’s to support your assignments.
You can either work through the whole tutorial for a complete overview of how to find good quality information to support you assignment, or dip in to the section where you are stuck – the main sections are:
Library StART is freely available online, and if you can’t find what you are looking for check the Need more help? section.
Library StART is device responsive so will also work well on your mobile or tablet – watch our YouTube video to see how it works
We’re running a Library StART pop-up in the Social Learning Space outside the Library on Wednesday 20th January 12-2pm
Cupcakes provided!
St George's Library blog 