Hello Library Linkers!

Happy Spring! Just like Springtime, the Library has several amazing projects blooming! Check them out here:

This year, St. Joe’s celebrates a century of exemplary care in the west end of Toronto!  The St. Joe’s 100^th Anniversary Archives Working Group has been meeting since last year to find fun and innovative ways to incorporate the Health Centre’s rich history into its centenary celebrations.

Those initiatives include:

• An updated timeline of St. Joe’s milestones and medical “firsts”.
• A digital photo book featuring familiar and never-before-seen images from our vault of historical documents.
• Bi-weekly Throwback Thursday posts on the Library’s Twitter feed highlighting fun facts and archival photos.
• Archival display cases located near the cafeteria exhibiting antique medical devices, nursing school memorabilia, and many other historical artefacts.

• COMING SOON: A “memory walk” in the hallway between the cafeteria and the Our Lady of Mercy wing will present a series of posters.  With two posters for each decade – one tracing the building development of St. Joe’s and one presenting a personal interest story – we hope viewers will round out their knowledge and appreciation of some of our many accomplishments.  
• COMING SOON: A virtual version of the “memory walk” will be available soon in the format of an interactive map. 

You’ll be able to click each step of the way down the walk for more information!  Check back soon!

Longwoods™ publishes healthcare research, reports, and news for academics, scientists, clinicians, policy makers, and health administrators. One of its missions is to promote exchanges between researchers, health professionals, policy makers, and other stakeholders, especially in the Canadian context. Through Library Services, you have access to the following journals:  

• Healthcare Quarterly
• Nursing Leadership
• Healthcare Policy / Politiques de Santé
• HealthcarePapers
• World Health & Population

It also offers access to various information formats such as videos and podcasts, news articles, a Canadian Jobsite, and a list of conferences in health care. You can use the search box or browse articles by topics. There are various topics to select from, including quality improvement, leadership development, long-term care, health care human resources, and more.  

You can access Longwoods directly from the publisher website or see our databases list at St. Michael’s, St. Joseph’s, or Providence. We encourage you to sign up for free to receive the Longwoods eLetter. An eLetter includes Resources Newsletter, Career, Event Alerts, and New Issue Alerts. To see samples, see here.  

Hello Library Linkers! Welcome to the March newsletter!

In this issue we wanted to remind you how library services can support you and your teams! Including,

• On-demand workshops
• New resources
• All the different ways library services can connect with you!

The Archives at St. Michael’s Hospital are excited to announce 80 newsletters from the Alumnae of St. Michael’s School of Nursing have been digitized! We invite you to experience the collection for yourself and share the collection with colleagues, family, or friends who might enjoy this historical content. These newsletters are filled with a wealth of information relating to the nursing graduates and Canadian nursing and healthcare history. Visit the collection here: bit.ly/smharchive. If you have any questions about the collection, please reach out to our archivist Teruko.Kishibe@unityhealth.ca

Welcome to the Library’s February newsletter! There are so many exciting things happening this month including,

• On-demand library workshops
• New databases
• Black history month resource list
• and more!

Click on the newsletter below to see a PDF version of the newsletter!

As we find ourselves spending more time at home, the need to engage with the world outside our walls becomes increasingly important. Here are some of the ways the team of Library Services are celebrating Black History Month (or Black Futures Month) virtually and remotely.

Learn about Local Black History.

Take Online Courses

• Anti-Racism 1: From Freedom Rides to Ferguson: Narratives of Non-Violence in the Civil Rights Movement
• Learning About Racism (Canadian Race Relations Foundation)

Look to other Libraries

Help Make Canada a Better Place

Our Library catalogue

Black History Month coincides not only with new stay at home orders, but also the migration of the University of Toronto Libraries and our library catalogue to a brand new platform. So while we are ironing out the kinks with our new library catalogue (which we’re excited to share with you, you’ll love it), we hope you enjoy and take advantage of the outside resources that highlight some of the ways our staff is celebrating Black history this February.

We are always interested in adding to our Anti-BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Colour) Racism resources and partnering with other initiatives at Unity Health. Please contact us if you have any ideas, suggestions or feedback.

We wish you a rewarding and enlightening Black History Month!

Happy New Year and welcome back to Library Services’ Library Link Newsletter! 2021 will be a big year for Library Services and we look forward to sharing all of the exciting things to come. Click on the newsletter image below to view a printable PDF edition.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to reach out to hslibrary@smh.ca. Thank you, and happy 2021!

Hello and happy December Unity Health Toronto!

Welcome to Library Service’s newsletter! This is a special edition of our newsletter representing 2020 as a whole. All of the numbers you see below represent some of the accomplishments Library Services are most proud of! Please click on the newsletter or the file below to view a PDF version of the newsletter!

If you have any questions please feel free to reach out to hslibrary@smh.ca

Since September 2020, the Library Services team has completed Phase 2 and is nearly finished Phase 3 of the Collection Harmonization Project. This work has involved the detailed analysis of all library resource subscriptions at our three sites; notably with usage statistics from 2017-2020, cost-per-use trends, overall cost, site-specific clinical specializations, interlibrary loan request statistics, and identified information needs based on the Needs Assessment Project (2019). Subsequently, building upon our evidence-based approach, we shared proposed collection changes with Education Council and received approval to proceed with cancelling and expanding licenses to library subscriptions. The results of this work are, firstly, a huge improvement for equity of access to library resources across the network, and secondly the establishment of a core collection of shared resources available to all of Unity Health Toronto staff and physicians.

In November we shared details about the changes for access to ClinicalKey at St. Joseph’s, and also previewed new databases which will soon be available to St. Joseph’s to supplement gaps in lost resources from that cancellation. We are very excited to share a glimpse of the new Library Services “core collection” of shared resources for Unity Health Toronto, listed below. These databases comprise the core collection of shared resources across the network.

Many of these new library resources and changes will take effect in January 2021. These changes will also include expanded access to journal titles across the Unity Health Toronto network, and will be shared in January. The Library Service team will ensure to communicate all of these changes as far-reaching as possible to make certain that staff and physicians at all sites are aware of their new access to brand new resources.

If you have any questions, comments or concerns related to this work, about the new library resources, or to propose other new resources, please get in touch! Please contact Zack Osborne, Manager of Health Information & Knowledge Mobilization at zachary.osborne@unityhealth.to, or contact hslibrary@smh.ca.