The Library aims to support the education, training and research needs of all health care staff eligible to use its services.  These include:

• all the staff of the North West London Hospitals NHS Trust
• all staff of the Central and North West London Mental Health Trust
• all health care personnel of the area served by the Trust (general practitioners, dentists, health care staff , etc.) for whom appropriate contributions to the library budget are made.
• Members of other organisations which make appropriate contributions to the library budget

Full library membership is available to the above people, on completion of the registration form.  Some form of identification, such as a staff card, will need to be shown on registration.
People not eligible for full membership may use the library for reference only, on appplication to the Library Manager.

The library houses about 4000 books, and has current subscriptions to about 130 journal titles.  

There are special collections of books on psychiatry, child and adolescent psychiatry, psychotherapy, and general practice.

Journals, other than a few archival titles are kept for 12 years.  Articles from journals not held in the library can normally be obtained from other libraries.  A complete list of the library's journal holdings is available from the library.  The Journal Holdings list is also available in electronic form.

The catalogue of books and journals available in the library can be searched here. These are only available to users on the Trust network.

f you would like the Library to buy a particular book or subscribe to a particular journal, the library staff would be pleased to consider your request.

Full members may borrow up to four items at a time.  Each item must either be issued by a member of library staff or recorded on a loan slip.  There are separate loan slips for books or journals.  Please fill in all sections of the form.
Most books may be borrowed for three weeks.  Closed access books are for overnight or weekend loan only.  Reference books may not be borrowed.

Single issues of journals, except the current issue, may be borrowed for one week.  The current issue of journals may not be borrowed.

Books on loan may be renewed twice, provided another member of staff has not asked for them.   To renew a loan, either ask one of the library staff, or fill in a new loan slip marking it "Renewal".

Either return items to one of the library staff, or leave them in the green box outside the office.

You will be reminded if you have forgotten to return any items, and will be expected to pay for any that are not returned after three reminders.

Photocopying.  There is a copier in the library, operated by cards which are available for purchase from library staff. Please remember the law of copyright: you may not photocopy more than one article from any single issue of a journal; you may not photocopy more than one chapter (or 20 pages) from any book.

Inter-Library Loans. Items not in stock can usually be obtained from other libraries within about a week. Please fill in a request card for each item you require. There are separate cards for books and for journal articles. There is a charge of £1 for both books and journal articles. Books and journal articles cost 50p if they are available at Northwick Park Hospital. The service is expensive to provide, so please only ask for essential items relevant to your work for the hospital. Students should use their college or university library for items related to their course.

Health Care Databases. Medline, CINAHL, Embase, the British Nursing Index, Clinical Evidence and the Cochrane Library Databases are available through KA24. Please ask the library staff if you need help or tuition on the use of the databases. Guides to searching the databases are available in the leaflet rack. Please ask if you would prefer one of the library staff to do a search for you. Alternatively, there is a form you can complete. Please fill in all sections of the form: your search will be much more appropriate to your needs if you provide all the relevant information.

Internet. Access to the internet is available via NHSnet on the public access computers in the library, provided it is for work or coursework-related purposes. Please ask the library staff for help in use of the internet. Introductory guides to searching the internet are available in the leaflet rack. A charge is made for printing from the internet.

Current Awareness. The library can help you keep up to date using services such as zetoc and Current Awareness Bulletins. Zetoc allows you to set up free regular email alerts from journals and conferences. These can take the form of electronic tables of contents or subject based searches. The zetoc database has a wide coverage of scientific, medical and technical subjects but also covers social sciences. The Current Awareness Bulletins for nurses, midwives and allied health professionals are based on selected journal holdings of London NHS libraries. It provides a current awareness service highlighting important/relevant research and developments of interest to qualified nursing and allied health professionals.

Telephones.  You may answer your bleep from one of the telephones in the office, or from the telephone in the centre lobby.