NHS Knowledge and Library Hub

The NHS Knowledge and Library Hub (the Hub) is a single search box designed to provide easy access to a wide range of resources to support patient care, education and research. It serves as an entry point into Knowledge and Library Services (KLS) for NHS staff and learners in England.

Alongside the core search functions, it guides users to the range of services available from their local KLS.

The search results combine articles from healthcare literature databases with high quality resources, including BMJ Best Practice, the Royal Marsden Manual and NICE guidance. They also integrate details of books and ebooks from the majority of NHS libraries in England and details of materials held in other repositories.

The Hub search box can be embedded in other webpages and accessed via the EBSCO Mobile App or responsive webpages.

The ‘Hub’ is:

• a single search that includes journal articles, e-books, guidelines and evidence summary tools provided nationally and by local NHS library teams
• a seamless route to access full text, as an immediate download or on request from an NHS library
• a way to avoid the less-reliable sources you might find in a general web search

The default entry point is www.library.nhs.uk with logged-in users transferred to localised versions tailored to them.

Overview of the NHS Knowledge and Library Hub - video 

Click the play button to watch a short video about the service.

The video lasts for 1 minute and 55 seconds. 

The Hub is available to all NHS staff and learners in England. 

NHS OpenAthens eligibility criteria are broad and comprehensive, including all those employed or contracted by NHS organisations that provide NHS commissioned care in England. 

Individuals in non-NHS organisations which provide NHS commissioned care are eligible to use the service if they work directly with NHS patients. Provision is included for employees of organisations funded to provide social care services.

The Knowledge and Library Hub search includes a standard set of resources for all users, with additional resources included for organisations that have purchased them. 

A basic search can be carried out without logging in (although some results are obscured when authentication is required). 

By default, the Hub includes a comprehensive discovery experience for articles in peer-reviewed journals and secondary evidence resources such as:

• Cochrane Systematic Reviews
• BMJ Best Practice
• The Royal Marsden Manual
• NICE Guidance  

All users will have access to a collection of full text journals and ebooks.

Where served by a Knowledge and Library Service, users are likely to find details of local book and ebook collections.  

Seamless links are provided to journals where there are national or local subscriptions as well as to articles published open access (free at the point of use).

The aim is to prioritise high quality sources, but materials retrieved should be appraised and considered in context.

The Knowledge and Library Hub is procured nationally by NHS England for Knowledge and Library Services across the NHS in England. 

Use by library services is not mandated but only a few organisations have not adopted the Hub having stayed with previously procured alternatives.

Full access is enabled via OpenAthens login, and as such, the NHS OpenAthens eligibility statement provides detailed information of those able to make full use of the Hub.

The Knowledge and Library Hub is an NHS branded version of the EBSCO Discovery Service tool.  EBSCO provides the core indexes for retrieval and the main link resolver, ensuring that links to online articles are correctly flagged as available.  Additional custom catalogues have been created for NHS specific resources, such as regional Library Management Systems and repositories (such as AMBER and WMER).

Additional development has been completed to integrate enhanced linking via Third Iron products, support user engagement and highlight results from BMJ Best Practice.

The Hub is designed to support quick searches to meet the needs of NHS staff during their day to day work.  It is not designed to replace comprehensive literature searching via advanced interfaces for circumstances where a systematic approach to finding the evidence is required.

Examples of user needs include:

• identifying a recent article on a topic for a journal club
• locating the full text of an article they are interested in reading
• looking up an evidence summary to provide background on a topic or refresh their knowledge
• finding an ebook without needing to know what platform/website it is available on
• looking for people writing about a topic

This service is live and was launched in October 2021.

The Hub is a silver service, meaning it is operational 24 hours a day, 365 days a year but only supported during business hours.

The Knowledge and Library Hub is under continuing development and this roadmap outlines crucial project stages that we are researching or planning to deliver in the coming months.

The default version of the Knowledge and Library Hub can be accessed here.

For full access, users should register for an NHS OpenAthens login.

Most NHS organisations in England have their own version of the Hub.  

Users can go direct to the relevant version using the short links listed at “What’s my local instance?". If users start from the default version, they are transferred to their local version when they login.

Guidance is available for organisations wishing to embed a Hub search box on their web or intranet sites.

NHS Knowledge and Library Hub

The discovery service for NHS staff and learners.