This book brings together health information practitioners with a huge variety of experience across health information work within healthcare knowledge and library services in the NHS in England. If there is one overarching message that can be taken away from this book, it is that healthcare knowledge and library services offer a valuable gift to their medical practitioner colleagues – the ‘gift of time’. This clearly shows why these services offer vital ongoing support in this important sector.

Each chapter focuses on an essential aspect of health information work and provides a practice handbook and an insight into how health information services operate. The provision of healthcare knowledge and library services continues to develop. With this in mind, it should be noted that Health Education England (HEE), which is mentioned in every chapter, ceased to exist and was replaced by NHS England on 1 April 2023. Given that the vast majority of the work took place under the auspices of the HEE, we felt it fitting to recognise and record that contribution here. The work remains as valuable as ever, but remember to bear in mind that the organisation now has a different name.

The chapters do not need to be read in order and you don’t need to read them all. They are standalone, but they are cross-referenced where appropriate. There is a wealth of case studies to show how the ideas put forward here are put into practice. Each chapter has a reference list and there are suggestions for further reading as appropriate.

The book contains an introductory chapter setting the scene and detailing the structure of the NHS and the health information landscape. What follows is a series of in-depth, practitioner focused chapters that describe all aspects of healthcare, knowledge and library work in the health sector.

Chapter 1 is an exploration of the wider healthcare environment, including an overview of the complex structure of the NHS and how the healthcare, knowledge and library services work within this framework.

Chapter 2 foregrounds how the training development needs of health information practitioners are identified and met.

Chapter 3 explains how information, knowledge and library services support the critical area of evidenced-based practice that is necessary for a successful health service.

Chapter 4 describes how information practitioners successfully advocate for their services by building meaningful relationships between the service, medics and decision makers.