Information Scotland The Journal of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland ISSN 1743-5471 Issue contents | Journal contents | About the online edition of the journal June 2007 Volume 5(3)

Special collections

Knowledge for practice

Ian Watson from the Scottish Institute for Excellence in Social Work Education and Nada Savitch from the Social Care Institute for Excellence explain how they are working together to enable social care staff to access the knowledge they need.

Social work is changing. The emphasis on evidence-based practice is increasing along with a belief in the importance of research for improving social care services. Encouraging the development of policy and practice based on evidence derived from research is seen as a key aspect of the drive to modernise social care. As a result individuals may find they have a bigger burden of responsibility to keep themselves informed.

The social care sector is diverse in terms of type of organisation, client groups and workforce. The term ‘social care’ covers home care and residential care for older people, supporting children, young people and families, and assisting people with physical disabilities, learning disabilities and mental health problems. Meeting the knowledge and information needs of such a diverse group is a challenge.

Both the Scottish Institute for Excellence in Social Work Education (SIESWE) and the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) are dedicated to enabling effective knowledge transfer between the key stakeholders in education, training and research, thereby helping social care agencies incorporate research findings into practice and to share examples of good practice

Taming the internet
SCIE and SIESWE recognise that the amount of knowledge “out there” can be daunting and are committed to the effective use of knowledge management technologies. Google may be excellent and easy to use, but over-reliance on such tools will not necessarily yield the best results.
Both organisations offer different but complementary online collections. The collections share key features which ensure that they provide the best sources of knowledge in the field of social care. Key features include:

• Specialist cataloguing and classification schemes which enable users to search on specific terms of interest
• Careful selection of material that is relevant and up-to-date.
• Efficient search and browsing facilities to cater for different types of user
• True online collections – access to the full resource, not just an abstract or description.

The Learning Exchange
The Learning Exchange is SIESWE’s interactive library of learning resources. Its rich and varied content includes new multimedia materials created by SIESWE to explain key concepts. As well as this ‘rich media’ material the Learning Exchange catalogues many resources available on the open Internet, making them much easier to find. Much of the material in the Learning Exchange can be modified for teaching or training purposes and for this reason considerable effort is devoted to ensuring the content is appropriately licensed.
Access is available, via Athens, to staff and students of the nine collaborating Scottish universities and, through an arrangement with NHS Education Scotland, to anyone employed in statutory, voluntary or private social work agencies in Scotland.

ReSearchWeb
ReSearchWeb is a specialist collection of information on all aspects of social care in Scotland, produced by SCIE. It is available freely on the Web with no passwords or registration required. It contains a comprehensive database of reports, journal articles and websites. The database uses the same search and browse facilities as Social Care Online but each article links to the full-text. ReSearchWeb also has a current awareness service which links to news items of interest to social care professionals and conferences throughout Scotland as well as highlighting new additions to the database.

Encouraging use of these specialist collections
Many practitioners report difficulties in keeping up-to-date, whether through lack of time or lack of access to the internet. However, one of the main barriers to practitioners accessing online sources may be a lack of knowledge about these collections and how easy they are to use. Various initiatives are underway to embed knowledge and research awareness in the day-to-day life of the social care workforce.

The future – get involved
Both SCIE and SIESWE are keen advocates of the effective use of technology to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and information. With this in mind SIESWE has set up a Knowledge for Practice Special Interest Group. The group is for anyone who works or has an interest in knowledge management, information services, research dissemination or knowledge transfer in health and social services in the voluntary, statutory or education sectors.

SIESWE was established in 2003 as a collaboration between the nine Scottish universities that teach qualifying social work programmes and is now a charitable company limited by guarantee. See or join the mailing list

SCIE’s aim is to improve the experience of people who use social care by developing and promoting knowledge about good practice in the sector. Using knowledge gathered from diverse sources, SCIE develops resources which are shared freely, supporting those working in social care and empowering service users.

Access the Learning Exchange e: support@learnx.sieswe.org.

reSearchWeb

Knowledge for Practice Special Interest Group contact e: ellen.daly@strath.ac.uk

Information Scotland Vol. 5(3) June 2007

Information Scotland is delivered online by the SAPIENS electronic publishing service based at the Centre for Digital Library Research. SLAINTE (Scottish libraries across the Internet) offers further information about librarianship and information management in Scotland.