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>