Editorial

HLG Nursing Bulletin Vol 34 (1)

Welcome to the first issue of LfN Bulletin for 2014, which we hope finds you all well and looking forward to a number of differing and interesting pieces and items we aim to bring you throughout the year. As always we have articles for you, as well as the usual round up of current awareness, and news from the LfN Committee.

Despite being told that the economy is on an upward swing, the Age of Austerity is still very much upon us, and libraries are having to watch their pennies and make every pound count in providing services to their users. This, combined with the suggestions from higher institutional powers that libraries “move with the times” and devote ever more of their resources to the provision of electronic material, has meant that libraries and librarians are required to continually adapt themselves to their changing circumstances. To help in this, many books have been published that can advise and instruct librarians on the best ways of maximising their limited budgets to encourage their users to come in and use their services. Melissa Griffiths provides us with a review of one such book, which goes by the virtuoso title of The Machiavellian Librarian.

The increasing technical aspects of the profession mean that the role of the library assistant is becoming an ever more important one, with the result that Continuing Professional Development for people at LA grades is taking on more and more prominence. LAs are being encouraged to go to training and study days run by various organisations, with a particular one dedicated solely to library assistants being run annually by London Health Libraries. Amy Holvey attended the most recent one and has provided us with a write-up of the day.

We introduce in this issue the first of what will hopefully become a semi-regular feature of “Top LfN Top Tips”, to paraphrase a particular individual. The aim of this is for those of us on LfN to briefly describe practices that they have come up with in their own organisations, that they then think could well prove useful in similar contexts. We start off with a look at how services and/or resources can be marketed by virtue of the new OpenAthens interface.

We also include an old occasional feature as part of our committee news, with what might be termed as “Pen Pics” of two of the more recent entrants to LfN Towers, Elen Wyn Davies and Johsua Jenkin, as well the regular Current Awareness list.

As we were about to go to press, the LfN Study Day on Technologies in Libraries took place in Bristol. A write-up of the day will appear in the next issue. If you have an idea for an article, whether a book review, a report on a training day, a new resource you’ve obtained or a procedure you’re undertaking, let us know.

Phillip Barlow and Emma Jane Ramstead
LfN Bulletin editors