Recognition for library modernisation

Liz Hunwick, library services manager and Sarah Lanney, library resources manager at Basildon Healthcare Library were selected as joint winners of the 2019 Information Manager of the Year Award for the Knowledge and Information Management Awards 2019.

They have been recognised for their work including modernising library services; revamping resources; training and recruiting library staff; and rebranding and promoting library and information services to staff. They received the award at a ceremony in London in November.

Becca Parrott, clinical outreach librarian at Harlow Healthcare Library, on the Princess Alexandra Hospital site, nominated Sarah and Liz for the award.

She said: “Sarah and Liz have both consistently gone above and beyond for everyone using the library, their team and our profession, and I am incredibly pleased they are being recognised for this. They’ve shown dedication, tenacity and endurance, combined with the strategic prowess required to align Harlow Healthcare Library to national objectives such as Knowledge for Healthcare and the NHS Library Quality Assurance Framework (LQAF), while identifying and meeting the needs of our people.”

The Trust was established in April 1995 and provides services at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, the Herts and Essex Hospital in Bishop’s Stortford, and St Margaret’s Hospital in Epping, with an annual income of around £236m. The Trust provides 414 general and acute beds at the Princess Alexandra Hospital and a full range of general acute services, including a 24/7 emergency department, an intensive care unit, a maternity unit and a neonatal intensive care unit as well as outpatient and diagnostic services from the Herts and Essex Hospital, Bishop’s Stortford, and St Margaret’s Hospital in Epping. The Trust employs around 3,500 staff and serves a local population of about 350,000 people living in West Essex and East Hertfordshire, centred on the M11 corridor and the towns of Harlow, Bishop’s Stortford and Epping.