New on the website: Guides and Video Tutorials

We regularly blog about the in-person workshops on offer. These are great introductions to our online catalogues and full-text resources -- if you happen to be in London. And what about other help, such as learning how to use the various Library catalogues or knowing which database or journal to consult for your topic? If you’re working from home, be it in London or on the other side of the world, figuring out where to start with the Wellcome Library’s collections can be a bit daunting.

Getting help and getting started just got easier today with the launch of a new section of our website: Guides and Video Tutorials. You can link directly to it from the Popular links on our homepage.

This section features guidance on searching the Wellcome Library catalogues, as well as finding introductory information on the history of medicine, medical humanities and social science, and current health and biomedicine. You’ll find:

• guides to help you get started researching a broad topic
• workshop materials, such as database guides, resource lists and presentation slides
• links to subject-relevant journals and databases
• short video tutorials to show you how to make the most of the Library catalogue, Archives and Manuscripts catalogue, and Wellcome Images.

More topic-specific guides and video tutorials are in production over the next few months. At present we have three video tutorials on offer: Requesting materials from closed stores, Searching Wellcome Images, and Browsing 17th and 18th Century Medical Recipe Manuscripts in the Archives and Manuscripts catalogue.

During the eight-month development of this section we spoke to students, historians, and members of the public, in order to make it relevant and useful. But the section is still a work in progress, and we still need your input. If you have any particular topics you think we should cover in our video tutorial series, please do let us know – either by comment or by email: library@wellcome.ac.uk.