Collection Policy

We welcome feedback on the following draft collection policy for The Knowledge Network index. Please send feedback to: Dr Ann Wales, Programme Director for Knowledge Management, ann.wales@nes.scot.nhs.uk

1. Background:

What is The Knowledge Network index?

1.1 NHS Education for Scotland Knowledge Services Group (NES KSG) provides The Knowledge Network (www.knowledge.scot.nhs.uk) as the national online knowledge service for Scotland's health and social care workforce.

1.2 The Knowledge Network  uses FAST Enterprise Search technology, which harvests content from many external providers into a single integrated local index.  This creates an "NHS Google"-style search across a vast range of content.  The content of this index is quality assured - only resources that meet the quality selection criteria defined in this document are included in the index. 

1.3 The content in this index then populates, not only The Knowledge Network website, but also portals designed for specific audiences, and websites managed by partner organisations and sectors using NES's information-sharing model. Examples of partners using this shared index include Social Services Knowledge Scotland (www.ssks.org.uk); Health Management Online (www.healthmanagementonline.co.uk) and Borders Health in Hand (www.bordershealthinhand.scot.nhs.uk).

1.4 NES's information-sharing model encourages partners to  contribute information and learning resources to the Knowledge Network index, and to make use of the resulting shared pool of content to deliver services for their own stakeholders.

2. Purpose of this document

2.1 This document aims to make clear the principles behind inclusion of resources and the exclusion of others from The Knowledge Network index. The intention is to ensure  clarity, quality and  consistency of content.

2.2 This document supersedes the previous content collection policy for the NHS Scotland e-Library.

2.3  It  includes:

  • Content scope and coverage
  • Intended audiences and access arrangements
  • The types of resources collected
  • The quality criteria for selecting and evaluating resources
  • Outline policies regarding the ongoing maintenance and development of The Knowledge Network content.

2.4 This document is intended for the use of NES Knowledge Services Group staff, as well as potential partner organisations who may wish to contribute materials to The Knowledge Network index or to make use of this index to support  development of their own online knowledge services. Equally it may inform users about the nature, extent and accessibility of The Knowledge Network resources.

3. Scope and coverage

3.1 The scope of The Knowledge Network index encompasses the holistic view of health, care and wellbeing expressed in NES's national knowledge management strategy Enabling Partnerships: sharing knowledge for a mutual NHS (NES, 2009) and the knowledge management strategy for social services developed jointly by NES and IRISS - Sharing Knowledge, Improving Practice, Changing Lives (NES and IRISS, 2009). This recognises that the content we provide needs to reflect the many social and environmental factors impacting on health - including political, educational, economic and technology drivers.

3.2 Management practice, core knowledge and skills (eg communication, problem-solving), and the knowledge needs of administrative, clerical and support staff, are fully within scope, in addition to content suited for the medical and social models of care.

3.3 As a national knowledge service, coverage needs to reflect the priorities expressed in national strategy for health and social care - currently the Better Health, Better Care Action Plan (Scottish Government, 2007) ; A Force for Improvement (Scottish Government, 2009) and the Changing Lives Report (Scottish Government, 2007).  These national policies are in turn reflected in the knowledge management strategies for health and social services. For example, at time of writing, the emphasis within Better Health, Better Care on self-management and long-term conditions is reflected in the commitment in Enabling Partnerships to improving knowledge services for these aspects of healthcare. This in turn influences our resource development plan, including  the selection of long term conditions charities and patient information sources for the Knowledge for Care index.

3.4 Wherever possible, content will be identified to support educational curricula and training programmes directed at health and social services employees.

3.5 Additional factors determining decisions about subscription (ie. paid-for) content include:

  • Cost
  • Evidence of usage and impact (where resource is already available in electronic or print form to enable this to be measured)
  • User requests and feedback
  • Recommended lists from educational providers, library standards documents and experts in the field.
  • Active consultation with users through NES Knowledge Services Group communication channels.

4.1 Geographic coverage

There are no restrictions on the geographic origin of resources. We do strive to have a particular focus on content produced by Scottish organisations and/or applicable specifically to the Scottish context.

4.2 Language coverage

The preferred language is normally English but resources in other languages are eligible for inclusion. In particular, the index includes patient information material in foreign languages as identified by NHS 24 and Health Scotland for the Health in My Language portal (www.healthinmylanguage.com).

5. Intended audience and access

5.1 The intended audiences for the content in The Knowledge Network index include: 

  • NHS Scotland employees and contractors.
  • Social services employees and contractors  in all sectors - public, voluntary and independent.
  • the Scottish Government;
  • local authority staff working in partnership with health services - e.g., through community health partnerships
  • health care staff in the prison service, nursing and care homes,  hospices, armed forces and emergency services;
  • Members of Scottish Royal Colleges; 
  • Voluntary organisations working in partnership with health and social services; Undergraduate and postgraduate students who undergo placements or training with the NHS or social services;
  • those providing education and training to NHS or social services staff and students;  researchers working in partnership with the NHS;
  • retired NHS staff. 

5.2 NES's knowledge management strategy Enabling Partnerships is founded on the principle of the "mutual NHS", ie  staff, patients and carers working together as active partners to achieve the highest standards of care. The mutual NHS depends on equity of access to information and knowledge and on effective sharing of information between practitioners and patients.   For this reason, we aim to include quality assured information designed for patients and carers in The Knowledge Network index. Although The Knowledge Network website is designed for the workforce rather than direct use by patients and the public, health and social services staff use it to support patient education and shared decision-making. And partner organisations such as NHS 24 and NHS Borders use the content in The Knowledge Network  index to support their patient-facing services.

5.3 We make access to The Knowledge Network content freely available as far as possible, in line with the principles of equity and the mutual NHS.  Where access restrictions apply due to license constraints by  commercial publishers, NES Knowledge Services Group will take all possible measures to try to secure arrangements for public access - e.g. through "walk-in" access on NHS sites or in public and Further Education libraries.

6. Resource types and categories

6.1 The Knowledge Network index includes metadata (ie brief descriptors such as title, author, publisher, date of publication) and / or content for the following resource types and categories:

  • Journal articles
  • Books
  • Journal titles
  • Databases
  • Evidence summaries
  • Systematic reviews
  • Guidelines
  • Care Pathways
  • Patient information and health promotion leaflets
  • Websites and web pages
  • Contact details for support groups, locations of care, helplines, advice services, libraries and learning centres,
  • e-Learning
  • Statistics
  • Online communities
  • People's profiles

6.2 Metadata in The Knowledge Network index may refer to resources in electronic, print or other media.

6.3 This is not an exhaustive list. It will change and grow over time.

7. Selection of resources

7.1 Identifying resources

Resources for The Knowledge Network are identified  from a variety of sources: 

  • Consultation and research with user groups
  • Published research on the information and knowledge needs of different user groups.
  • Recommendations from  practitioners, librarians, teachers, researchers, managers and other stakeholders.
  • Commercial providers of peer-reviewed health and social care research literature
  • Organisations in NHS, voluntary sector, education, local authorities, social services, government, and others, making their content available through the NES Knowledge Services information-sharing model - for example,  harvesting of websites, databases, catalogues; uploading of e-learning content objects.
  • Online discovery tools such as trusted Internet gateways and blogs.
  • References.
  • Reading lists.
  • Educational curricula and training courses
  • Email lists and discussion groups.
  • Alerting services.
  • Links from trusted sites.

 

7.2 Exclusions

The Knowledge Network index will not include:

  • Resources which contravene laws within UK jurisdictions including, but not  limited to, the laws relating to defamation or obscenity.
  • Resources which do not meet the selection criteria outlined in  this document.
  • Resources designed solely for the marketing, advertising and sale of commercial products.

 

7.3 Quality criteria

7.3.1 NES Knowledge Services is committed to providing quality assured knowledge

content relevant to the needs of  health and social care in Scotland.  Content included in The Knowledge Network index is required to fulfil the majority of the following criteria. We welcome proposals for new content, and suggest that  you explore the following issues to ensure that any resources recommended meet the necessary quality standards.

7.3.2 The majority of content in The Knowledge Network index is harvested through automated means. However in a minority of cases we carry out manual cataloguing - eg where the effort involved in configuring automated harvesting exceeds the benefit from the resource available, or the proportion of relevant content within a given source is low. The following quality criteria normally apply to the overall collection - e.g. a website or database - rather than to individual items of content - e.g. reports or articles.  

7.3.3 It should be noted that the intellectual content of a resource takes priority over the form in which it is delivered or displayed.

Core criterion

  • Useful for work and/or learning to support delivery of care and improvement of health.

Authorship / Authority

  • Who has authored the items in this source/collection?
  • Who owns the copyright to the source/collection or its individual content items?

Currency

  • When was the source created?
  • Is the information more than a few months old?
  • How likely is the age of the information to affect its accuracy?

Context

  • Who is the intended audience?
  • Are there appropriate disclaimers about the scope of the information (especially if it is intended for the general public?)

Clarity

For individual resources:

  • Is the information well presented and laid out?
  • Does it use appropriate language for the target audience?
  • Does the use of colour, font, graphics etc make the information
  • more attractive and easy to use or is it distracting and confusing?
  • Is there a provision of user support and documentation
  • Are the terms and conditions of use defined?
  • Is there clarity of presentation and navigation?

 

8. Review and updating

8.1 NES KSG will maintain a regular schedule of automated updating of content from harvested sources. Frequency of updating is determined  on a source by source basis.

8.2 We will also maintain a regular schedule of checking sources to identify any changes in site structure or scope that would affect the automated updating process.

8.3 A regular automated check will be made of URL's for those resources that are catalogued manually,

8.4 Records should be removed from the index:

  • If the resource is no longer available.
  • If the currency or reliability of the resource has lost its value.
  • If another Internet site or resource offers more comprehensive coverage.

 

9. Harvesting content from third party sources

9.1 We will harvest content from third party sources only where:

a) We are confident that the source owner will be 'pleased or indifferent' about this means of enabling access to their content.

or

b) We have negotiated harvesting permissions from the content provider - e.g. from commercial content suppliers.

9.2  All Terms and Conditions displayed on the harvested source will be respected.

9.3 Where content providers make their content freely available for crawling or other harvesting methods, we  do not routinely notify  them of  our intention to harvest,  unless such notification is explicitly requested by the source owner.

 

10. Withdrawal of content

10.1 NES Knowledge Services reserves the right to and will act, as expediently as is reasonably possible, to remove illegal, objectionable or inaccurate resources from  The Knowledge Network index, upon receiving notice or becoming aware of their existence.

10.2 Every effort has been made to ensure that nothing in The Knowledge Network infringes UK law and to trace rights owners where relevant.

 

11. Rights

11.1 In The Knowledge Network, the holder of copyright and intellectual property for individual resources is the creator or contributor themselves. All contributors of content are encouraged to make rights information explicit.

11.2 NES Knowledge Services encourages contributors of information and learning resources to use Creative Commons licenses[1]. With a Creative Commons licence, you keep your copyright but allow people to copy and distribute your work provided they give you credit - and only on the conditions you specify.

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[1] Creative Commons is a non-profit organization that provides a free alternative to the restrictions of the traditional copyright laws http://creativecommons.org/international/scotland/