Knowledge and Library Services

BSol Knowledge & Library Services (KLS) is here to support all Birmingham and Solihull colleagues in finding high quality, evidence-based information to support patient care, research and education.

The KLS can help save time and money by helping colleagues who do not have the time or resources to search for evidence during their busy day.

We can help with OpenAthens accounts, evidence searching and training

Birmingham and Solihull Offer

To help you with your evidence needs, colleagues can register for a University Hospitals Birmingham NHS OpenAthens account. 

An OpenAthens account enables you to securely access the full-range of free, high quality electronic resources, including e-books, journals, study aids, databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, etc.) and social policy information available.

To register for a UHB OpenAthens account, click here

**Important – when registering for your OpenAthens account, in the Please enter your organisation field, type in University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust to ensure the correct organisation is selected**

BSol Knowledge & Library Services can carry out systematic, in-depth evidence (literature) searches to help colleagues with patient care, academic courses, audits, guidelines, care pathway development or policy.

The evidence search will involve looking at the large medical databases such as PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL, etc. Colleagues will receive a PDF evidence search report, complete with journal abstracts and full-text links to articles and papers where available (you will need an OpenAthens account to access these full-text links). The search history based on keywords and phrases provided by colleagues will also be included to assess the effectiveness of the results provided.

Contact the Knowledge & Library Services Specialist for more details and help.

The NHS Knowledge & Library Hub is a ‘one-stop shop’ for quickly finding evidence-based information. 

The Hub connects colleagues to high quality, NHS-funded, knowledge and evidence resources in one place, using a single search box.

The Hub includes seamless access all journal articles, e-books, guidelines and evidence summary tools provided nationally and by BSol Knowledge & Library Services. It avoids the less-reliable sources you might find in a general web search.

Don’t forget, you will require a UHB OpenAthens account to fully access the sources on the Hub.

Phil O’Reilly is our Knowledge & Library Services Specialist in BSol.

Do get in contact with him if you need more support.

Email: philip.oreilly1@nhs.net