1. Breakthroughs in outreach with online advent calendars
Veronica Phillips
Reader Support Assistant, University of Cambridge Medical Library
@librarianerrant

2. What are systematic reviews?
Systematic reviews are a specific type of literature review, which aim to find and synthesise the evidence of multiple studies. They follow a specific, transparent methodology, determined before analysis begins, and emphasise replicability and thoroughness.
They are considered the ‘gold standard’ of medical evidence.
The Medical Library offers training and links to systematic reviews resources on its website.
This is not always noticed by users.

3. The solution?
An online advent calendar, introducing users to systematic resources, as well as further support.
Most sections of the advent calendar linked back to support offered by the Medical Library.
This was not an entirely original Medical Library idea – I’d been inspired by the 2016 scholarly communication advent calendar put together by Claire Sewell at the Office of Scholarly Communication. I asked her for advice.

4. This was the result
The advent calendar can be accessed at
Each ‘window’ of the calendar – the images on the website – opened at 8am every day from December.
The resources revealed followed the structure and methodological process that a researcher would follow when conducting a systematic review.

5. The calendar proved popular…
The calendar itself also received hundreds of hits every day from all around the world.

6. Top tips Use Pixabay for free images with CC0 licenses.
Write all content in advance.
Automate as much as possible (Wordpress allows scheduled posting).
Register for websites/platforms using a shared library address (this is good practice for all projects, not just library advent calendars).

7. Thank you.