Introducing the British Library

Science, Technology &

Medicine collections

Elizabeth Newbold, Content & Collections Leader, Science Technology & Medicine

www.bl.uk 2

The British Library

• National Library of the United Kingdom created in 1972 by the British Library Act

• Receives one copy of every publication published in the UK and Ireland under Legal Deposit

• Collections cover all formats; sound, images, video, newspapers, maps, manuscripts, databases, books and journals, much more

• 3 million items incorporated into the collections every year

• Over 16,000 people use its collections every day

• Grows at 12km of shelving per year

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Role of the British Library in Science and

Technology

• Long history of collecting scientific and technical literature

• Origins of the collections in science as a distinct resource for scientists date from 1850 and the Patent Office Library. Medicine became part of the science collections in the early 20th Century.

• Science is an integral part of the British Libraries remit:

• “The British Library Board was established to manage the Library as a national centre for reference, study, and bibliographic and other information services, in relation both to scientific and technological matters and to the humanities…”

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Science Reading Rooms

• Two dedicated reading rooms

• Team of reference librarians to

provide support and training

• Up to 10 years of journals and

books on the shelves

• Access to electronic

resources: ebooks, ejournals

and databases

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Relevance of STM content and collections

to medical charities

• Supports information gathering and across section of users

• Supports interdisciplinary research across key topics, helping to find answers to questions

• Collection covers current postgraduate clinical and research material in all the specialisms of medicine.

• Also cover allied health and nursing.

• Health policy and management

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What type of content do we have?

• Books – Research monographs

– Handbooks

– Dictionaries

– Directories

– Encyclopaedias

• Journals – Peer reviewed academic/scholarly

journals

– Newsletters and trade journals

• Grey Literature – Conference proceedings

– Reports

– Theses

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What type of content are do we have? (cont)

• Electronic resources – including Abstracting and Indexing databases

– Subject specific:

• AMED – Allied Medicine

• British Nursing Index

• CINHAL

• Embase

• Medline

• Midwifery and Infant Care

– General

• Web of Science

• Scopus

• Current Contents

• Newspapers

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How can using the Library help you?

• Access to quality peer reviewed journals, books and trade

magazines

• Keeping up to date and refreshing your knowledge on key

topics or background research on new subjects

• Access to specialist resources

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Finding people/experts/organisations

• Specialist or multidisciplinary databases

– Authors of papers

– Organisation affiliation

Some examples:

– Author analysis

– Organisation analysis

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Scopus – Author analysis

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Web of Science – Organization analysis

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Scopus – Author affiliation

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Web of Science – Funding analysis

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Keeping up to date

• Specialist or general databases – literature review

• Newspapers – press coverage

• New books

• Academic journals

• Trade journals

• Some examples:

– Specialist databases

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Keeping up to date – literature reviews

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Keeping up to date - newspapers

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Specialist databases - BNI

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Specialist databases - CINHAL

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Specialist databases - MWIC

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Explore – British Library Catalogue

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Thank you

• Email: science@bl.uk

• British Library web site: www.bl.uk/science

• Follow us on Twitter: ScienceBL or on Facebook: Science@BL

• Blog : http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/science/