Moving away from HDAS - training now available

Moving away from HDAS - training now available.

Now that the report and recommendations following the Expert Search Early Adopters Pilot Project have been published, work is being undertaken to begin the process of supporting KLS staff to move away from using HDAS and towards provider interfaces (EBSCO, ProQuest and Ovid).

The training program has now been finalised and sessions are available for any KLS staff to book on to. You can book on as many sessions as you like, and we encourage you to attend training early if possible.

The Early Adopter pilot demonstrated that KLS staff need time to become confident in using the provider interfaces. By providing training well in advance we hope you’ll have the opportunity to consolidate new skills and information and then attend training again closer to March 2022 if you feel the need to. 

We’ve tried to ensure there are training opportunities for everyone, regardless of their role or how frequently they use databases. There are 2 different sets of sessions available – Provider Training at Basic and Advanced levels, and Expert Search Training delivered by a team of KLS professionals. 

Provider Training sessions are an hour long and are delivered by trainers from EBSCO, Ovid and ProQuest. They will be delivered regularly from now until March 2022, and dates for July and August are now available. New dates will be added regularly every month, so if you don’t manage to book on to a session straight away then check back again for more dates.

Basic sessions are suitable for staff who use databases occasionally. Participants are shown how to:

  • access databases
  • carry out a simple search
  • find out if they have full text access to an article
  • email a set of results.

Advanced sessions are suitable for staff who use databases regularly to carry out evidence searches.

Participants are shown how to:

  • carry out an advanced search
  • use thesaurus terms
  • combine searches
  • apply limits
  • save searches
  • save results in a variety of different formats
  • export results to reference management software

Expert Search Training sessions are 90 minutes long and are delivered by trainers who regularly use provider interfaces to carry out evidence searches, led by the Cambridge University Medical Library. They will use real-life complex search examples, follow a search process from start to finish, provide examples of best practice as well as hints, tips and shortcuts.

These sessions are aimed at KLS staff who regularly carry out literature searches. They were trialled during the early adopter pilot and were very well received by participants. They will be delivered in two phases – August and September, and then again in January and February.

Sessions are available on all 3 interfaces, and dates for August and September are available.

We recommend you work with your colleagues to map out a plan as to how you’ll begin to move away from HDAS and start using the provider interfaces.

Future blog posts will have more information on Refworks, the reference management software that will be available to all KLS staff, peer support activities for searchers, as well as showcasing how services are making the move in advance of March 2022.

If you have any questions about the training program, please contact Emily Hurt at [email protected]