Worcester Health Libraries

A case study of an institutional repository success.

Worcester

Worcestershire Health Libraries have created a publications database to showcase all the published literature from NHS staff in Worcestershire.

The database highlights publications from Worcestershire Acute, Worcestershire Health and Care Trust and GP practices in the county. It links to the PubMed abstract of the articles. The database was created after a meeting with research and development highlighted the fact that no one knew, or was recording the research that was getting published by NHS staff in Worcestershire.  

We knew that Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Library had a publications database so we copied their system which uses our web development software (Easysite) functionality and is driven by a basic Excel spreadsheet.

Automated PubMed searches are run every month and highlight any new research from Worcestershire. We then add the new articles to the database. We publicise the database regularly through our communication channels and pick an article every month to make available in our libraries for staff to come and read.  

The system is maintained by library staff and I would love to see it become a repository so that people can access the PDFs of the articles rather than the PubMed abstracts.