Hi Kieran,

My main concern was the databases as initially, I thought they may just
easy search them, but thankfully it looks like they have acknowledged
the advanced search and thesauri. So like you I will be very impressed
if they manage to make NLH search all the different thesauri
effectively. I suppose all we can do is wait and see.

However, I am concerned that they are not worrying about the interfaces
because of the changes planned for NLH, because if they do not
re-procure Dialog and the NLH interface is not ready in time, we will
have an uncomfortable transition.

Finally, when they refer to only wanting one or two abstracting
services are referring to an aggregator like Dialog or Ovid or are they
are proposing to only subscribe to say Embase and Medline?

Thanks,

Vicky. (01244 364429)



Vicky Sergeant
Outreach Librarian

Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Trust
St Catherine's Hospital
Library and Knowledge Service
Academic Unit
Church Road
Birkenhead
Wirral 
CH42 0LQ

0151 678 7272 x3437

0151 604 7333

Mobile 07768 745783

Vicky Sergeant
Outreach Librarian

Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Trust
Library and Knowledge Service
Effective Clinical Practice Centre

[log in to unmask]

Chester - 01244 364 429
Birkenhead - 0151 604 7333
Mobile 07768 745783

>>> Lamb Kieran <[log in to unmask]> 05/02/07 9:32 am >>>
Logical Hubs will as far as I can see either be topically defined e.g.
mental health or media defined e.g. e-books and e-journals.  For the end
user it should make the whole search experience easier because it should
be more intuitive to them.  Mind you I agree with Dave, what makes sense
to me doesn't often to a lot of other people!
 
The more important line in the report though is
 
search query syntax mapping -translating search syntax used within NLH
to that of the underlying targets
 
Effictively this means that we can benefit form the advantages of
controlled vocabularies outside of the sources we use and tems should be
translated into a variety of controlled vocabularies at once via
something like a taxonomy server.  If this is achievable it'll be
mightily impressive!  The key thing for me is this must be married with
the ability to develop complex searches along the Dialog/Cochrane model
of search histories as opposed to the Google model of bang the search in
and either get it right or wrong.
 
The other aspect that concerns me slightly is that the emphasis on
developing Research Pane technology seems to ignore the fact that NHS IT
seldom works at the cutting edge of Microsoft technology despite the
licensing agreements allowing us to do so.  We've still not rolled out
XP here let alone Vista, I suspect we aren't alone.  Office 2000 is
still the preferred software not 2007.
 
If anyone has comments that need taking to TDAG can you let me know.
 
Kieran

 

Kieran Lamb 
Head of Library Services 
Fade Library 
Liverpool PCT 
Regatta Place 
Brunswick Business Park 
Summers Road 
Liverpool 
L3 4BL 

Tel: 0151 2854495 
Fax: 0151 2854499 
www.fade.nhs.uk <outbind://6/www.fade.nhs.uk>