17 NHS trusts in Greater Manchester have used a tailored version of OLIB, the integrated library software, to collect all the catalogue information and make it available in a single catalogue.

Users will have access to the catalogue, which contains listings for 30,000 books and reports, through WebView, a web-based interface.

“The project is about ensuring that all Greater Manchester NHS staff and students can access the evidence base and information services that they need, at a convenient location,” said Jean Williams, library services manager at Royal Bolton Hospital, and project lead for Greater Manchester Health Libraries Online Public Access Catalogue (GMOPAC).

The decision to create the single catalogue was made as part of a wider programme, the Greater Manchester Health Libraries Project.

The aim of the project, which is run by the librarians themselves, is to improve access to library and information services for NHS staff and students.

Since 2005, all NHS staff and students in Greater Manchester have been able to use any of the 28 NHS libraries, not just their own local library.

“Any NHS staff member can now join any NHS library taking part in the project,” said Williams. “GMOPAC has meant that all NHS staff in Greater Manchester, irrespective of job and location, can now see what books and audiovisual resources, including e-books, are available.

“They can therefore request those resources through their ‘home’ library or join another library to borrow the items.”

The catalogue is being hosted by OCLC PICA, the European library

co-operative.

The NHS libraries wanted to maintain their own separate library management systems, so OCLC PICA provided a bespoke version of OLIB that would harvest the data from each system into a single repository.

“The librarians wanted to deliver a shared service, but they didn’t want to go through a migration of the system,” explained Georgina Devane, marketing executive at OCLC PICA.

“Part of this project was about achieving it as simply as possible,” she added.