Derek Boyle, Senior Specialist Lead, Knowledge services, NHS Education for Scotland and Carol Hallesy, Evidence Manager (Knowledge Services, Patient Information and Translations), NHS Lanarkshire
Library and Knowledge Services in NHS boards across Scotland undertake a variety of work on behalf of the staff and services within their board.
Between April 2024 and March 2025 NHS librarians in Scotland provided over 1300 literature searches, evidence summaries or evidence synthesis.
Case studies highlighting the impact of some of these searches have been summarised in the NHS Scotland libraries value and impact report 2024/25.
Main themes from the impact case studies fall into four broad categories and some case studies span more than one.
- Direct patient care: these studies examined a clinical related question that would address practice within a clinical area and possibly a change in policy and service delivery
- Continuing professional development and education: this included how a service assisted a journal club or how a literature search impacted on a career framework
- Policy development: This covered national and local organisations and was looking at reviewing policy and guidelines in a subject area. It included public health questions, national reviews for emergency medicine and improvement in prescribing
- Research support: this consisted of a background search to allow for future research to take place
Impacts included:
- Staff ability to effectively horizon scan
- Development of toolkits to support reflective practice
- Identification of mental health outcome measures
- Staff being successful in their CPD or academic achievements
- Research and case study publication support
- Improving communication with service users
- Saving staff time
- Staff were able to follow best current practice
- Treatment planning and patient pathways were evidence based
- Support of service reviews and research
- Influence on national guidance
- Supported applications for areas needing further research
- Financial cost savings for a service
Originally developed by NHS England, the case study templates were adapted with their permission.
The following example highlights one of the case studies included in the report.
NHS Lanarkshire: Efficacy of prescribing incentive schemes for General Practitioners
Question: NHS Lanarkshire were examining ways of improving prescribing practices and prescribing costs. The requestor wanted to find out if there were incentive schemes and the ways they impacted, particularly around inequality, and if there was evidence of long-term, sustained gains from the use of incentive schemes.
What was done: The Library and Knowledge Service undertook an initial search of the literature. Further work was undertaken to provide a summary of the information based on key papers chosen by the requestor.
Outcomes: The immediate impact was that the results were used to underpin a paper. In the longer term it may help decisions on incentive schemes within the board. The search and summary have informed the information given to the board is an informed decision.
What was said: “… one of the immediate impacts was to reassure me that there wasn’t a wealth of evidence that I wasn’t aware of and that was really important…It helped consolidate my knowledge around the current evidence…Another impact that it had was it helped me manage my workload.”
Read the full report at: NHS Scotland libraries value and impact report 2024/25 report
An infographic has also been created to showcase the work of NHS librarians across the NHS in Scotland.
Value and impact case study infographic
Value and impact case study infographic transcript
Looking ahead NHS Scotland librarians will continue to capture impact case studies as a business-as-usual activity and widen the scope into other areas, such as training and outreach activities and partnership working.
Health Libraries Group 
