Service standards

We have service standards in the following areas:

1. Access & membership
2. Environment
3. General enquiries
4. Mediated searches
5. Collections
6. Document supply
7. Induction & information skills training

1. Access & membership

Our libraries and services are available to all members of the University of Oxford, the OUH Trust, and other organisations with whom a Service Level Agreement is in place. A current list of these organisations can be found on our webpages. There is no charge for membership of the library for staff or students affiliated with these organisations.

Our staffed and opening hours vary from site to site. The current staffed and opening hours of each site are displayed on our Webpages.

1.1. Under normal circumstances, our libraries are open from Monday to Friday excluding statutory and University holidays, days on which the buildings are closed, and other periods as agreed in advance by BHCL and the OUH FT. Opening times for each site and alterations to these times will be advertised in our libraries and on our Webpages.

1.2. Under normal circumstances full members of the library have physical access to facilities (excluding books) 24 hours a day, seven days a week at the Cairns Library and (for staff and students with a NOC security fob) at the library at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre. Access to book stock in all libraries is restricted to staffed opening hours, however where budgets permit we will aim to provide access to online copies of heavily borrowed books.

1.3. All those eligible for membership will be able to join Bodleian Health Care Libraries and use our services immediately when our libraries are staffed between 9am and 5pm.

2. Environment

BHCL provides a range of user, study and learning spaces. Facilities available may vary from site to site but will include: quiet study areas; PCs on the OUH and (except at the Horton) Bodleian networks; WiFi; printing and scanning facilities (charges for which are displayed in our libraries and Webpages). Group study rooms, training rooms and casual seating areas are available at the Cairns Library and the Knowledge Centre. Written guides to services are available from all of our libraries and our Webpages.

2.1. BHCL will maintain a pleasant and clean working environment in our libraries. BHCL materials will be re-shelved (unless materials are in use) each working day. Display racks and notice boards will be checked monthly to remove out-of-date material.

2.2. Stock will be kept in good order and in a satisfactory condition and replaced when necessary and when budgets permit.

3. General enquiries

Under normal circumstances:

3.1. Responses to general enquiries (e.g. quick reference or bibliographic assistance) will be given within 5 minutes during staffed opening hours.

3.2. Non-urgent requests for help with OpenAthens accounts will receive a response within 1 working day

3.3. Non-urgent telephone enquires will receive a response within 1 working day

3.4. Non-urgent emailed enquiries will receive a response within 1 working day.

3.5. Urgent enquiries within staffed hours will be responded to within 2 hours or sooner. If received outside of staffed hours they will be responded to within 2 hours of the next working day

4. Mediated searches

On request, BHCL staff will carry out mediated literature searches of the clinical and non-clinical literature to support research, service development and clinical care.

4.1. Mediated searches will be completed within 3 working days unless otherwise agreed with the user.

4.2. Urgent requests for clinical information received within staffed hours will be responded to within 2 hours. If received outside of staffed hours they will be responded to within 2 hours of the next working day.

4.3. We aim to ensure that, when surveyed, 90% of respondents will indicate overall satisfaction levels of “good” or above for searches undertaken.

5. Collections

BHCL provides access to collections of print and electronic books, journals, bibliographic databases and other resources. Our collections cover clinical and non-clinical areas of relevance to the staff and students of the Medical Sciences Division and the OUH FT.

5.1. Where budgets permit, the most current editions of popular/”core” nursing, allied health and medical textbooks will be available.

5.2. The most current editions of medical student reading list textbooks will be available.

5.3. Clinical material held will not normally be more than ten years old except in the case of historical or special collections, or in fields where older material is still relevant.

5.4. Our print and electronic book stock will be reviewed annually for currency and for missing items.

5.5. Use of our electronic resources will be monitored to ensure relevance to our readers and cost effectiveness.

5.6. Book purchase requests that are in line with the BHCL collection development policy will be fulfilled where budgets permit. Users will be informed about the status of their requests.

5.7. Journal subscription requests will be checked for price and added to the BHCL journal desiderata list for consideration when funds are available.

5.8. Our collection development policy will be made available via our Webpages and will be updated every 18 months or more frequently if required.

6. Document supply

If the book or journal article required by a reader a Document Supply service is available at all of our libraries to all members of the University and the OUH FT. A charge will be made to supply books from other libraries or for copies of articles from our own stock or from other libraries. Current charges will always be displayed on the BHCL Webpages and in our libraries.

6.1. Photocopies of items supplied from BHCL stock will be dispatched within 3 working days of a signed request and upon payment being received. Urgent clinical requests will be supplied within 1 working day.

6.2. Request for books or articles to be supplied from other libraries will be processed within 2 working days. Urgent clinical requests will be supplied within 1 working day (subject to availability from suppliers).

6.3. Inter-library requests that we are unable to supply will be reported to the requestor as soon as the outcome is known.

7. Induction & information skills training

BHCL makes available free on demand, information skills training sessions or tutorial sessions to all members of the MSD or OUH FT on a group or one-to-one basis. Our sessions aim to help readers to develop their search skills from beginner to advanced level. Most sessions include hands-on practice. Sessions are available in our libraries or at a location to suit the reader.

7.1. An initial induction session for individual members of at least 10 minutes duration will be offered at the time of registration. Group inductions are available on request by prior arrangement.

7.2. Information skills training sessions or tutorial sessions will be held within 1 week of a request being made, unless otherwise agreed with the user(s), and will be timed wherever possible to meet the requirements of the user(s).

7.3. We aim to ensure that, when surveyed, 90% of respondents will indicate overall satisfaction levels of “good” or above for information skills sessions attended.