Today I went to work. It's a strange time there; I work for one of the NHS Evidence Specialist Collections, and on 1st April the collections transfer to new private-sector providers, whose identity was revealed yesterday. A lot will change and fit's unclear how many of us will have jobs.
Nevertheless, we bash on, and today I spent most of my time preparing our next Annual Evidence Update, on retinal vein occlusion, something of a hot topic in ophthalmological circles at the moment. This is interesting work; while it inlvovbes me in sifting large numbers of references (my intital search found some 1,100 items), it's a real insight into the varying qulaity of evidence in tghe medical literature. I fin dvery few systematic reviews, a few randomised controlled trials, but heaps upaon heaps of case reports.
My favourite find of the day was an insight into the retina of the Iberian mole, Talpa occidentalis; it won't go in the update, but it intrigued me nevertheless:
If you enjoy the byways of the biomedical literature, I heartily recommend NCBI ROFL. Beware: the humour is sometimes a little undergraduate, but it's all taken from the NCBI databases.
In other news, a sandwich exploded and covered my keyboard with bits of rocket (arugula for North American readers) and I went for a lunchtime run.
Lesson for the young would-be librarian: bash on!