The ability to think critically and make balanced judgements about any information we find and use. It empowers us as citizens to develop informed views and to engage fully with society.
I submitted an abstract to present at the 14th International Congress on Medical Librarianship on the theme Equity, equality, disparities, to showcase the impact of our profession on health inequalities in Lancashire. I hoped to do the work justice and was delighted to be invited to speak. The next challenge was funding it, which was…
The Christie NHS Foundation Trust recently identified an example of poor-quality, misleading, and unethical research published in a well-known journal. “In spring 2026, we were doing our annual review of the Trust’s research publications. As part of this process, we work with a Christie clinician to analyse publication metrics and report findings to senior stakeholders….
Whether it’s finding information for people or helping researchers to get published librarians pride themselves on being the gateway to high quality information. However, the publishing landscape is becoming more complex. Alongside legitimate open access journals, there has been a significant rise in predatory publishers, and the emergence of hijacked journals. Ease of publication is…
There was a moment in this week’s AI Literacy Knowledge Café where it became clear: Many people are still treating AI like search tool. It’s a useful starting point. But it does explain why results can feel hit-and-miss. Lots of people have tried to convert the PICO (Problem Intervention Comparison Outcome) Framework into searching and…
I was delighted to be able to attend the LILAC conference 2026 on the 30th March through the CILIP bursary. This was my first experience of the LILAC conference and having heard great things about this event, I was excited to learn more about the work various sectors have been implementing to ensure that information…
In the beginning… The team, led by Lancashire County Council, received a grant from the Health Education England (HEE) as part of the National Health and Digital Literacy Partnership with CILIP, Libraries Connected and Arts Council England. Our proposal included the design, creation and maintenance of an online health information hub. An online health hub…
Information literacy doesn’t tend to be a term we use a lot in NHS libraries. Critical appraisal, health literacy and much of the core work we do is clearly inextricable from the concept of finding, evaluating and using the right information. However, the wider discourse and debates around the discipline of information literacy sometimes feel…
