Making the most of the NHS Knowledge and Library Hub

 Avoid the hit and miss of searching google and find the evidence you need quickly by searching the NHS Knowledge and Library Hub (the Hub). Complete simple searches across a range of good quality, healthcare-specific, online resources via the Hub and get easy access to full-text.

You can check the resources available via the Hub search from our blog post.

There are a number of tools linked to the Hub that can help you get the information you need.

Using the Hub

You can log on to the NHS Knowledge and Library Hub from our NHS Resources page or set up a desktop icon so that you can get there quickly.

Looking for a Journal Title

Want to check which journal titles we have for your specialty? Check the Journals list via Browzine. Here you can browse through the table of contents of a wide range of healthcare-based journal titles. If we have the issue in full-text you can link straight to the articles. Otherwise complete the pop-up form to request an article.

Access Browzine:

• Via the “Browse Journals” list on the Hub
• Via the Health Library journals page
• Learn more: Using Browzine to view NHS Journals

This flow chart shows you a quick 4 step process to find a journal title:

1. Go to the journals web page
2. Select the Browzine list for your organisation
3. Search for the journal title
4. Access full-text options

Looking for Articles for a Topic

For the latest evidence on a topic you will need to complete a literature search. You can use a number of sites to start your search and tools to make accessing full-text easier:

1. NHS Knowledge & Library Hub
2. Bibliographic Databases
3. Google Scholar
4. Academic sites and Pubmed

The flow chart below lists the possible search points.

Simple searching

Search via the Hub interface, across a range of resources for a quick list of relevant content. Use the filter options to focus your results. Link to the full-text easily. Our help page has links to guides, tutorials and videos to help you to make the most of the Hub.

Advanced searching

Link to the bibliographic databases from the Hub interface and complete sophisticated literature searches using keywords, boolean operators and thesaurus terms. Link directly to the full-text where available. Check our databases help page for more help on using bibliographic databases.

Google scholar searching

You can link your Hub collection of full-text content to google scholar. That way when you find an article you need you can check the full-text options. Get the instructions from our blog post Link to NHS full-text articles in Google Scholar.

Finding full-text from academic websites and Pubmed

If you look for articles via academic websites such as pubmed, wiley or academic publishers you can link directly to your full-text by installing LibKey Nomad. This browser extension will place a button on an academic website and then link you to the full-text options. To learn more read our blog post Get LibKey Nomad for one-click access to NHS full-text anywhere.

Looking for a full-text article from a reference

If you already have an article reference and want to find the full-text there are a number of tools you can use: Search by

1. Start at the library page Articles for the NHS
2. DOI using the LibKey DOI tool
3. Article title using the Hub
4. Journals title and issue table of contents using Browzine

Learn more: Find full-text articles and journals for the NHS  

The flow chart below shows the 4 steps to take:

Looking for eBooks

A number of NHS subscribed ebook collections are available within the Hub. You can search for a title or enter your keywords and limit the results by source type.

1. Find a list of the ebook collections you can access from the Health Library ebooks page.
2. For more help looking for ebooks on the Hub see our blog post Finding eBooks on the NHS Knowledge and Library Hub – step-by-step instructions
3. Some NHS-based ebooks are available on Library Search (the library catalogue)
4. You can link directly to the main collections via the Health Library ebooks page

The flow chat below lists the steps to follow when looking for ebooks:

Linking to the Hub tools from the Health Library website

The pages on the Health Library website can guide you to the right tools that you need to find the information you want.

NHS Resources

For links to the Hub and an A-Z list of subscribed and freely available good quality, healthcare-specific resources go to our NHS Resources page.

Articles for the NHS

Know the article you are looking for? Use the tools on this page to get straight to the full-text.

Journals

For links to all our journal collections go to the Journals page on the Health Library website.

eBooks

For links to the key NHS-based ebook collections go to our ebooks page.

More help

• Online guides and support for guides, tutorials and videos
• Training opportunities, including courses, workshops and 1-to-1 sessions delivered by our training team
• Information Skills etutorials blog for up-to-date information about resources and skills development
• Contact the eResources Librarian