Information skills training

Royal Free London Library Services provides a wide range of training and support for UCL staff and students and staff of the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust.

Regularly scheduled training

We offer a monthly timetable of scheduled training sessions covering a range of aspects of information skills. For information about what each course covers, please see sessions available. All sessions are freely available for UCL staff, students and staff of the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. For session dates and times and to book online please see the training calendar (filter by location to 'Royal Free Hospital Medical Library'). If you are not able to attend any of our scheduled sessions, please email rlibrary@ucl.ac.uk to arrange training at a time that suits you.

Bespoke and individual training

You can also arrange a bespoke individual or group session, which can take place in the library, on the ward or in your workplace and can be tailored to your specific needs or requirements.To arrange a bespoke group or one-to-one session, email r library@ucl.ac.uk.

All training takes place at the Royal Free Hospital Medical Library

Library inductions

This session is available to all new staff members and students based at the Royal Free Hospital / Royal Free campus. Guides to resources and services are available to take away. A tailored programme of further training can be arranged.

The session covers:

A tour of the Medical Library. Introduction to the resources available to Medical Library users. Library services of particular interest to you as a researcher, member of NHS staff, teaching staff, administrative / support staff or student. Basics of using Explore to search the library catalogue. Registering to use the library and online services.

Searcing for journal articles

Staff at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust can access a comprehensive collection of databases through HDAS (Healthcare Databases Advanced Search) with their NHS OpenAthens account. These include MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, and PsycINFO. Links to full-text articles are available where access allows. This course is suitable for NHS users only. Please ensure you bring a valid NHS OpenAthens userID and password with you to the course.

This course covers:

Introduction to the databases and interfaces available
Developing an effective search strategy using the HDAS interface
Printing and saving results
Working with more than one database.

Medline: Searching for journal articles

This course covers searching MEDLINE through the OvidSP interface, which also provides access to other databases including EMBASE. OvidSP databases are available to UCL staff and students and to NHS staff using their NHS OpenAthens username and password. The session is designed to give an introduction to the databases and their features, both for novice searchers and for those who wish to refresh their skills. There will be an opportunity for hands on experience of the databases using participants' own queries to search for information (prepared exercises can also be provided).

The course covers the following:

Developing an effective search strategy using Ovid Medline
Printing and saving results
Saving searches and creating alerts

PubMed: Searching for journal articles

PubMed is a version of the MEDLINE database, one of the premier sources of bibliographic information on the primary medical literature. PubMed is freely available to anyone with a computer connected to the Internet and has many useful features not available in other versions of MEDLINE. The session is designed to give an introduction to the database and its features, both for novice searchers and for those who wish to refresh their skills. There will be an opportunity for hands on experience of the database using participants' own queries to search for information (prepared exercises can also be provided).

The course covers the following:

Developing an effective search strategy in PubMed
Printing and saving results.
Saving searches and creating alerts

Searching for nursing and allied health literature: CINAHL

CINAHL is a key database for searching for journal articles and other literature in the fields of nursing and allied health. This course covers searching CINAHL through the EBSCO interface, which is available to NHS and UCL users.

The course covers the following:

Developing an effective search strategy using the EBSCO interface
Printing and saving results
Saving searches and creating alerts

EndNote: Organising and citing references

EndNote software is used to organise reference information and to insert citations and bibliographies into Word documents. It is especially useful for those who collect reference information and for those writing papers and theses. Staff and students of UCL have access to EndNote software via the UCL desktop, and can also download the software onto home PCs via the UCL software database. Staff on a SLMS computer may download EndNote from the UCL ISD software database.

This course covers:

Understanding what EndNote is and what it can do;
Creating, opening and closing an EndNote library;
Adding references to an EndNote library
Inserting citations and bibliographies into a Word document.

Mendeley: Organising and citing references

Mendeley is a freely available application which can be used to organise reference information and to insert citations and bibliographies into Word documents. It is especially useful for those who collect reference information and for those writing papers. Mendeley is freely available but in order to make use of the citing capabilities the desktop version must be downloaded to your computer, for which you require administrative rights. Staff and students of UCL have access to the software via Desktop@UCL.

The course covers:

Understanding what Mendeley is and what it can do
Creating and editing references by importing from electronic sources or manually
Working with full text attachments
Inserting citations and bibliographies into a Word document

Critical appraisal of biomedical research

Critical appraisal is an essential element in evidence-based decision making. The Medical Library offers facilitated group sessions on critically appraising systematic reviews, randomised controlled trials or qualitative studies.

By the end of this course participants will be able to:

Understand what critical appraisal is
Select appropriate CASP checklists to use to appraise different study designs
Use a CASP checklist to appraise a paper

Introduction to systematic review search techniques

Provides a basic introduction and outline to undertaking a search for a systematic review, including an overview of the process of planning and conducting systematic reviews of interventions.

This course covers:

Drafting and scoping your search Fine tuning, translating and evaluating your search strategy

This course is held as and when required. Please contact the training team to arrange a suitable time.

Advice regarding databases and sources of grey literature
Recording and reporting your search methodology
Training on reference management software including EndNote
Advice regarding different systematic review support software (screening tools)