Ch‐Ch‐Ch‐Changes

Were a librarian to receive a blow to the head and travel back in time, as currently en vogue in popular TV drama (Life on Mars [BBC TV], Ashes to Ashes [BBC TV]), to 1984 what health information landscape would they encounter? 1984 is essentially a feudal system of NHS Regions, each carefully crafted in their Regional Librarian's image, and ‘Royals’—the Colleges, Societies, Councils and Associations. Automation is just beginning its relentless march, primarily in the form of co-operative cataloguing and dial-up online services. The latter involves strapping a pair of Mickey Mouse ears, known as an acoustic coupler, to a regulation British Telecommunications hand-set and communicating in a sequence of dolphin-like whistles. Current awareness typically involves receiving a once-monthly form of computer printout, detaching it at its perforation and then sending its constituent parts to individual requesters via the internal mail. For those whose search request maps conveniently to a single MeSH heading, a photocopying serf painstakingly copies all the annual volumes of Index Medicus and, in the dreaded month of December (before the annual volume arrives) up to 11 individual monthly issues each up to a hand-spans’ width. Professional updating is carried out through one of a handful of generic journals or through a photocopied article circulated over months until it accumulates a full set of staff initials. This is a world nearly a decade before evidence based practice, where finding out what is being innovated just a mile down the road might be a key determinant in changing practice. A world, too, where isolated libraries, keenly await the arrival of the Bulletin of the Thames Postgraduate Regions for details of latest news and developments. Yet these are halcyon days where advice and know-how are freely sought and freely given, where a regular monthly programme of visits allows library staff to visit different libraries and to acquire knowledge of specific areas of Library operations. Across the channel, in geographical proximity but, in actuality an entirely different realm, the librarians of Europe are making their first important steps towards formation of the European Association for Health Information and Libraries/Association Europeenne pour l’Information et les Bibliotheques de Sante (EAHIL). At our epicentre is a kitchen table in Pinner, the home of Leslie Morton and location, of Health Libraries Review's (HLR) gestation and delivery. As a vehicle for promoting and disseminating ideas, Health Libraries Review quickly assumes an important role on a continuum of activity that starts with the above-mentioned Bulletin and which culminates in the improbable prospect of a peer-reviewed article in the US based Bulletin of the Medical Library Association. Thus an aspiring author who has started with a news piece in the Thames Bulletin, might then contribute a letter or brief communication to HLR before proceeding to the exalted heights of joint or even single authorship! The Editorial presence at this time is significant but unassuming. It would be 5 years before the first Editorial nailed its colours to the masthead. Response to a submitted manuscript comprises intricately woven comments of encouraging and constructive criticism. The same air of graciousness presides over every letter whether accepting, revising or rejecting. Awake from such a coma in the later 1990s and the world presents a very different landscape. Regional networks are very much a co-operative venture with the Regional Library Adviser now as likely to be first violinist as conductor. The Internet and World Wide Web is an omnipresent tool in the corner of most libraries. Navigation is effected with the assistance of an array of subject gateways and portals and it is as easy to check whether an item is on the shelves of a library across the world as it is to check your own library stock. Evidence based librarianship is on its way to becoming a movement and continuing professional development is delivered through an impressive patchwork of regional activities and study days from the Interest Groups. Across Europe a now established rotation of EAHIL Conferences and Workshops yields plentiful opportunities for wider networking and visits to increasingly exotic locations. In the midst of this era London invites the international community to Converge for the Eighth International Congress on Medical Librarianship (ICML). For the soon-to-be ‘made over’Health Information and Libraries Journal (HILJ), the kitchen table is replaced by the Boardroom table. In an era of effectiveness and efficiency editorial team meetings are choreographed to an exacting standard. The position of each manuscript in the production pipeline is plotted with infinite accuracy. One can identify which manuscripts have endured a difficult and protracted birth, which authors, columnists or reviewers have difficulties with turnaround or deadlines. Copy flow is a perpetual concern with precious pages eked out through a growing number of regular columns. High quality is assumed and demanded—contributors blossom under hard won praise and fools are not suffered gladly. Roused from a post-prandial nap in the noughties you find the familiar insignia of the National Library for Health increasingly stamped across library activities. Blogs, wikis and podcasts emerge as vehicles for networking, teaching and continuing development. Evidence and evidence based products are the common currency and databases, journals and even specialist libraries lie very close to the surface of visual display screens or within the tendrils of a network of wireless connections. Why meetings and even continuing professional development can be delivered virtually! For those who still choose face-to-face interaction, cooperative study days from the HLG Interest Groups or the latest offering in a programme of NLH workshops rolls evenly across the horizon. Now of sufficient maturity to be planning its longer term strategy EAHIL is engaged in a vigorous programme of focus group and survey activity, linking its members and non-members alike. Cross-fertilisation of ideas and issues across countries and continents is increasing common with delegates’ lists at conferences always likely to yield visitors from another hemisphere and the once de rigeur pilgrimage to the Medical Library Association being challenged by the prospect of trips to Australia, Brazil, Canada, Finland, Poland or Romania. For HILJ the Boardroom table has been replaced by the Coffee table and a confederation of Features editors assembles in a convivial atmosphere to discuss strategy and competitive advantage. The team accesses illustrative data on subscriptions and downloads, acceptance rates and impact factors. Discussion turns to themes, hot topics and supplementary issues. Meetings are facilitated, team members are empowered. The grip on the rudder is always firm but ever ready to negotiate around obstacles or even to change tack where necessary. Awakening from such reveries we find, as with most dreams, the overall feeling is unerringly familiar but frustratingly lacks detail. Where are the names? The exact dates? The actual voices? The journal in its various incarnations has been fortunate to have in its editorial triptych Shane, Judy and Graham, editors who have been singularly appropriate for each prevailing zeitgeist. Each assembled a supporting cast of eager beavers or leading lights to carry forward their vision of what the Health Libraries Group journal should be. So you have Nicky and Paul, Leslie, Susan and Suzanne, Penny and Betsy, Jane and Peter, Donald, Margaret, Jeannette and Maria. Last but not least are the production and publishing staff, Gail, Anne and Richard, Abigail and Martin. The format for this 25th Anniversary issue is the product both of focus groups and of extensive editorial discussions. After a celebration of the editorial and production processes we highlight in turn each of the major themes that has commanded our collective attention over the last 25 years. Each theme looks first backwards and then forwards, Janus-like, on either side of a Practitioner Commentary on a Landmark article, reproduced for your convenience. The issue then concludes by inviting key opinion leaders to share their personalised vision of a future that HILJ will continue to document, to reflect and to shape. Of course, the final voice for this, your journal, is that of you the reader. We have tried in this 25th Anniversary issue to incorporate an unmistakeable flavour of our growing readership. You have shaped the journal over the last 25 years and, beyond any shadow of doubt, will continue to do so onwards into the future. AB has declared no conflicts.

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