Join our EPIC adventure!

If you’re a member the Foundation’s library you can now access 1000s of high-quality electronic publications, including scholarly or professional journals, newspapers, reference materials and images, for free!

It’s been an ambition of mine since I started at the Foundation to open access to this extraordinary collection of electronic resources, called EPIC (Electronic Purchasing In Collaboration).

The Resource & Information Service (RIS), joined a consortium of 170 New Zealand libraries to subscribe to EPIC, which includes a number of multidisciplinary databases that are truly new, exciting and valuable additions to our library resources.

I’m very excited because it is a free service to members that extends our capability to bring you the best and most up to date mental health information.

We subscribe to four database suites, each with unique content and focus, and  providing an incredible range of information - from general interest through to research materials - presented in a wide variety of electronic formats. Much of the content is available in full text and coverage includes both international and New Zealand specific information.

Enhanced database features offer basic to advanced search functions, as well as sophisticated options for saving and managing the retrieved information.

It is designed to be as user-friendly as possible with online search guides available but, if you need it, personal assistance is readily available from our helpful library staff.

The EPIC databases are accessible through our online catalogue.  Go to our library page and click on Search the Online Library Catalogue - OPAC Login with your user name and password, click on OPAC in the Liberty menu and look for the EPIC Databases link on the right side of the page.
 
I encourage all our library users to explore these databases, discover what lies inside and please tell us through this blog what you think!

Any feedback you might like to offer will help us monitor the popularity and use of these resources.


Sarah Knight, RIS Manager, Mental Health Foundation

Online library catalogue goes live

Virtual access to the Mental Health Foundation’s library catalogue is here!

Today we go live with our ‘Liberty3’ catalogue, aka OPAC (online public access catalogue) – which is now available through our website’s Library homepage; just remember to look under Lending Library and Special Collections.

Anyone, anywhere, with access to the internet is now able to search our library, which includes books, journals, videos and DVDs. The focus of the collection is mental illness, mental heath and general wellbeing, and information on specific conditions. Searching is free and you don’t have to register.

Once in the catalogue, you can choose to search by a specific field (eg, author, title, subject) or do a ‘super search’ across all available fields. Most of the book records come with an abstract and/or table of contents and an image of the cover, to give you a good feel for the content. Other materials are not quite so fully described, but the nature of each resource, eg, DVD, is noted. The current status of each item is also identified, eg, available, on loan.

In addition to the search function, there is a login area for registered Mental Health Foundation library members, who can now access their membership details, check current loans and overdues, and reserve titles online - a great convenience in today’s busy world.

The library itself is located in our offices in Eden Terrace, and anyone in the Auckland region is still very welcome to come and browse. Remember, you do have to come in person to become a library member, before you can login online. There are no joining fees or any other ongoing costs. Knowledgeable and helpful library staff are available to offer assistance should you need it.

We can’t circulate (post) books outside the Auckland region, but anyone can borrow on interloan from the collection through their local public library.

Getting the catalogue ready for launch has been a labour of love for the library staff who have spent the best part of a year working on the records to ensure the quality of the content. However, as with all electronic systems, gremlins may lurk undetected, so please comment here or email us info@mentalhealth.org.nz if you experience any problems while searching.

Having the catalogue available online meets two of the Foundation’s strategic goals: to increase access to information, and to increase the reach and availability of our information. In doing so we continue to support the mission of ‘making mental health everybody's business’.

We really do hope you make good use of our catalogue – and we urge you to comment back here about the experience.

Sarah Knight, Library Manager