In early June, I attended the SLA Annual Conference in Baltimore and the opening keynote speaker was Dr. Carla Hayden, Librarian of Congress, speaking on “Special Libraries are the Special Forces of Libraries”.  Dr. Hayden was sworn in as the 14th Librarian of Congress on September 14, 2016. She is the first professional librarian appointed to this position in over 60 years, and is the first woman and first African American to serve in this role!

What caught my attention during her talk was how she compared the Congressional Research Service Librarians to “Special Forces” that serve congress by delivering unbiased, nonpartisan information. This phrase hit home for me as the MSK Research Informationist team strive to deliver the best search results based on the clinical or research questions submitted. They focus on developing search strategies that will uncover the evidence and don’t let their own opinion influence the end results that are sent to the client.

The theme that encapsulated her speech was about service and she ended her talk with a question for the audience – What can the Library of Congress do for you? This question applies to all information professionals – whether they work in a public library, special library, or research library. A Library is made up of more than just the collections that are acquired, managed, and made accessible. It truly is the “special forces” or staff that not only bring these collections to life but support their user communities for all their information needs. Our challenge is to determine the services that will meet the needs of a diverse group of users with differing information-seeking behaviors through conversations and engagement.

Donna Gibson
Director of Library Services

I recently re-read a 2014 editorial in PLOS Computational Biology entitled, “Ten Simple Rules of Live Tweeting at Scientific Conferences” which reminded me of the positive impact that this popular microblogging platform can have when used correctly. When conference organizers do it right, Twitter can be a quick and easy communication channel that attendees can use: to share a comment in real-time, to point others in the Twitterverse to papers of interest, to encourage attendees to join a session, or to promote their own research. All of this accomplished with brief messages of no more than 140 characters, making this online social networking tool a powerful resource.

I have to admit, while I do see the value in using Twitter, I personally don’t tweet very much. I do, however, follow many handles that include key trailblazers in my field, publishers and oncology journals, cancer-related organizations, open access and data management initiatives, and scholarly productivity tools that would be of interest to my library users. In particular, I follow @MSKCC_Library and find this to be an excellent way for me to stay in the know on topics that matter to me.  Scrolling through the tweets on the way home each night takes very little time.  And the time invested usually pays off with me identifying tweets (topics) worth pursuing in greater depth.

With conference season upon us, I thought this was the perfect time to share how tweeting at these events could enhance your overall meeting experience, or perhaps like me, you may benefit from following the conference’s hashtag!

Donna Gibson
Director of Library Services