SCIE media releases 2004
Electronic Library for Social Care undergoing major redevelopment
2 July 2004
The electronic Library for Social Care (eLSC), the foremost information and research resource in social care, is undergoing a major redevelopment which will be launched in early 2005.
The online library, which is owned and managed by the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), is a pivotal tool for front line practitioners, registered social workers, social work students, academics, researchers, managers, and service users and carers and is free to use.
It provides a single point of access to a vast amount of social care knowledge, including practice information, skills tutorials, and around 70,000 abstracts of books, reports, research papers, journals, official publications and articles.
The development project will expand the content and coverage, make it easier to navigate, more user-friendly and accessible, and add an email news alert facility.
The improved eLSC will use a sophisticated subject taxonomy which will recognise a variety of terms, including preferred and non-preferred terms in a search. For example, if a person searched under 'handicapped' it would indicate that this is a non-preferred term and redirect them to the term 'disabilities' instead. Each term will include information about related areas, for example, 'disabilities' would include information about caring for people with different types of disabilities.
SCIE is working with experts to construct the taxonomy, which has been developed following extensive research and consultation with the sector and which will be free for other organisations to use.
New additions to eLSC include the AgeInfo database from the Centre for Policy on Ageing, which contains over 40,000 books, articles and reports on ageing and which previously required a subscription but is free to eLSC users, and the first five research summaries from a SCIE partnership with the Social Care Access to Research Evidence.
Media contact
Margaret Lynch | Press Officer | T: 020 7089 6858 | M: 07834 194 896
Notes to editors
SCIE produces free paper and web-based publications which bring together existing information about a particular area of social care, draw out key messages for good practice and identify areas where more research is needed to inform good practice. SCIE's work includes projects on services for adults, children and families; participation; human resource development; social work education; e-learning and the use of knowledge in social care. SCIE also owns and runs the free electronic Library for Social Care (www.elsc.org.uk). For more information about SCIE visit scie.org.uk.
What can you access on eLSC?
- SCIE practice guides and other SCIE publications
- a database of practice examples, guidance, standards, research reviews and joint review publications covering the breadth of social care field and links to related documents
- around 70,000 referenced abstracts and full documents, updated daily
- online journals
- free and unrestricted access to the Research in Practice website, the Centre for Evidence Based Social Services database and the AgeInfo database (previously these required a subscription)
- online tutorial for social workers on how to find information on the internet
- online tutorial to help critically appraise research
- and much much more!
How can eLSC help registered social workers?
The General Social Care Council requires registered social workers to complete a minimum of 90 hours or 15 days of study, training, courses, seminars, reading, teaching or other activities which could reasonably be expected to advance the social worker's professional development, or contribute to the development of the profession as a whole. You can fulfil your registration obligations at the click of a button by reading the latest on best practice in any particular field, ranging from working with people with learning disabilities, to adoption and fostering, grief work and more.
