Communicators’ Meeting 30th September 2003
Issues and Recommendations Arising
from Meeting of Marketing and Outreach Group 25th July 2003
At their July meeting, the Marketing and Outreach Group reviewed NHS Scotland e-Library activity
statistics to date. Some of the key issues and recommendations arising out of this meeting are summarised
below as a basis for discussion at the September Communicators’ meeting.
1. General issues arising from discussion of January-June 2003 activity statistics:
1.1 The need to allow time for the learning process and culture change required to achieve more widespread
uptake.
1.2 The need to measure impact of “niche” usage. For example, the Technical Indexes databases will be
used primarily by a specific and relatively small user group and will therefore not register a high level of
total activity, but it will have a high value and impact within the target user community. The same argument
applies to various specialist journals and databases.
1.3 While the considerable effort invested by librarians in promoting the e-Library was very evident, possible
barriers to more extensive marketing were discussed. These included:
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Pilot nature of the e-Library
Need for an improved sense of ownership at service level
Perceived challenge to status quo and potential impact on the familiar librarian role
Conflicting requirements for promoting HE and NHS resources in combined NHS/HE services
Shortages of time, staffing and resources. Differing views on prioritisation of promotion.
Lack of familiarity with the full range of resources
Absence of any guiding framework at local or national level for marketing
2. Major staff groups currently under-utilising the service and therefore requiring focused marketing
were identified as:
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Dentists
Nurses who have not been through the modern educational route.
Auxiliary nurses
LHCC / Community Health Partnership staff
Contractors – community dentists, community pharmacists, GP’s
Estates and Facilities staff.
3. Potential future approaches to more extensive marketing were suggested:
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Linking with national educational programmes, eg Return to Learn
Developing an induction e-Library package to be distributed or demonstrated at all induction sessions.
Establishing e-Library user groups linked with the Library Service in each Board.
Liaison with public library services as outposts for e-Library access in the community.
An “e-Library bus” similar to the Learning Together Bus in 1999 – perhaps linking with mobile public
library services that offer computer access and training.
The impact of dissemination of information by word of mouth through social networks and communities
was noted, and may be reflected by the higher levels of uptake in most of the smaller NHS Boards (less
than 1000 staff). The importance of identifying champions and enthusiasts and developing a sense of
ownership within the user community was agreed.
1
The following tables and figures provide some summary activity statistics to help inform discussion at the Communicators’ Meeting
Table 1: E-Library activity statistics compared with workforce statistics
Group
Medical (hospital)
Medical (GP's)
Dental (hospital &
general practitioner)
Nursing/Midwifery
AHP's
Scientific
Professional &
Technical
Senior management
Admin and Clerical
Estates and Facilities
Workforce % of workforce e-Library
numbers
registrants
% of staff category
registered for eLibrary
% of total eLibrary
registrants
% of eActivity to
Library
workforce ratio
activity 2003
8195
3930
2356
6.80%
3.30%
2.00%
4108
244
47
50.10%
6.20%
2.00%
22.20%
1.30%
0.25%
25%
n/a
n/a
3.68
N/a
N/a
53160
7713
8082
44.40%
6.40%
6.80%
6666
2078
1114
12.50%
26.90%
13.80%
36%
11.20%
6.00%
25%
5.60%
7.40%
0.56
0.88
1.08
1760
19642
11597*
1.50%
16.40%
9.70%
584
355
83
33.20%
1.80%
0.70%
3.20%
1.90%
0.40%
1.05%
1.00%
0.25%
0.7
0.06
0.026
Total staff
119679
*does not include contracted
staff
18512
2
Table 2: ATHENS Registrants per Headcount for each NHS Board
(figures from 24/7/2003)
Health Board
Argyll and Clyde
Ayrshire and Arran
Borders
CSA
Dumfries and Galloway
Fife
Forth Valley
Greater Glasgow
Golden Jubilee Hospital
Grampian
Highland
Lanarkshire
Lothian
NES
NHS Health Scotland
NHS-24
NHSQIS
Orkney
Shetland
State Hospital
Tayside
Western Isles
Overall Total
Total Registered Total Headcount % Registered
@ 24/7/03
in HB
of HB
10.46%
1157
11065
9.50%
893
9392
9.70%
280
2887
11.58%
352
3039
11.64%
478
4107
9.67%
750
7754
9.68%
638
6593
15.90%
4340
27333
19.56%
53
271
13.35%
1799
13478
14.84%
909
6127
12.08%
1325
10967
10.84%
2277
20998
57.34%
125
218
50.00%
42
84
58.93%
198
336
N/A
120
n/a
23.63%
125
529
29.41%
140
476
18.64%
107
574
13.74%
1732
12607
17.66%
169
957
18063
3
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Figure 1: E-Library Usage by Different Staff Groups Jan-Jun 2003
8500
8000
7500
7000
6500
6000
5500
5000
4500
4000
3500
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
Feb
May
Mar
Jun
4
Figure 2: e-Library Usage by NHS Board - Sessions per 100 staff
excluding NHS Education
50
45
40
30
25
20
15
10
5
Health Board
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Level of Access
35
Jan
Apr
Feb
May
Mar
Jun
5
Resource Provider
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Level of Access
Figure 3: Usage by Resource Provider Jan-Jun 2003
25000
20000
15000
10000
5000
0
Jan
Apr
Feb
May
Mar
Jun
6