The National electronic Library of Infection (NeLI)

The National electronic Library of Infection (NeLI) www.neli.org.uk provides a single-point of access to the best available evidence on investigation, prevention, control and treatment of infection. The site is aimed at healthcare professionals but is also available to the public. This is a Specialist Library of the National Library for Health (NLH) www.library.nhs.uk that enables healthcare professionals to find medical information more readily when faced with the overwhelming amount of information on the internet.

The key value of NeLI is the quality appraisal of posted documents, which is conducted in collaboration with major professional societies and expert committees in infectious disease in the UK. Each document considered the best available evidence on a particular subject is assigned a quality tag, called a Reviewer’s Assessment. This provides a critical summary that allows users to swiftly gauge the nature and relevance of the article, by discussing the nature of the study, the methodology used, level of evidence, potential biases and applicability of the results. Reviewer’s Assessments are displayed with the reviewer’s name and affiliations, and can earn CPD accreditation.

Over the 6 years of its existence, NeLI has become a key infectious disease portal in the UK, and hosts a number of associated projects, 2 of which are outlined below:

1. The National Resource for Infection Control (NRIC) www.nric.org.uk is a project developed by and for infection control professionals, in response to the need for a single access point to existing resources of infection control.

Policy and guidance documents are available on the website, which also provides evidence based information organized by settings, clinical practice, modes of transmission, or diseases and organisms.

The level of evidence for each resource is clearly noted, as is the coverage. Each infection resource is quality appraised before being added to the website, and many of the resources have a full review written by infection control professionals for which CPD points may be accredited.

2. The Training In Infection (TII) portal www.trainingininfection.org.uk was launched in November 2004 as an online version of the manual originally developed at Imperial College. The website has recently been given a new look and feel, with new additions such as a news section, integrated search options, and upcoming conferences and meetings.

The TII website is aimed at trainees in the infection specialties, and provides information on courses, societies, conferences, funding, journals, textbooks and more. It identifies and links to relevant resources and covers a broad range of infection related disciplines. Trainees and other users are encouraged to become involved either by suggesting material to be included on the website, or by contributing to the Reviewers Assessments by providing a critical summary of an article on NeLI or NRIC.

NeLI produces a monthly electronic newsletter that contains the latest news and new resources added to the library and its subsidiary projects. This has proved popular in the infectious disease community, and is currently subscribed to by more than 1000 professionals. To sign up, please visit www.neli.org.uk.

The number of unique users across the NeLI family of projects has reached over 12 000 visitors per month.

All feedback is reviewed, so any comments, criticisms, suggestions and thoughts you have are welcome. To become a contributor or find out more about NeLI, NRIC or TII, please contact Faiza Hansraj (contact@neli.org.uk)