Author Archives: Donna

Do Top 10 Lists Catch Your Attention?

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The months of December and January always mark for me the time when I start to see “top 10” lists appearing on discussion forums, blogs, websites, and via direct mass email services. For some reason they catch my attention and peak my curiosity.  Depending on the theme of the list, I often wonder if I can predict what the list might reveal!

Some of the lists I review are for sheer entertainment, for example: 

Other lists provide useful insights and prompt me to reflect on how the MSK Library is supporting our knowledge workers, and to consider whether there are any additional approaches that we should be using to engage our library user community.

And still other lists provide me with a chance to see what the top science research stories were last year — how scientists impacted the world of scholarly communication by sharing their research findings and how interested readers reacted.

I hope you take a moment to view my “top 10” list from 2017 and if you have one that you think worth sharing, please don’t hesitate to let me know.

Donna Gibson
Director of Library Services and Avid List Reader

Ready. Set. OneSearch. Improving Our Users’ Search Experience!

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One of our goals last year focused on improving our user community’s experience when searching for information, journals, books, and resources from the Library Website.  We are very excited to share that this month (January 2018), users will see an improved search feature on the Library Website.

Primo is the next generation discovery and display tool from ExLibris that will help promote the visibility of MSK Library services, resources and more.  The MSK Library team decided to call this tool “OneSearch” to drive home the message that users will be able to search more ….faster!

To get a sense of what to expect, please take a peek at our beta OneSearch. This is what users will see by end of January, when searching on the Library Website.

* Basic search from the Library homepage (Click on image below to enlarge in a new window)

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* Advanced search, click “Advanced Search” to access (Click on image below to enlarge in a new window)

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OneSearch allows users to search more at one time, by accessing catalogs, databases and collections all in one place.  OneSearch is a next-generation discovery tool that searches not only for books and journal titles, but articles and databases to retrieve relevant materials, and since it is not restricted to just a keyword or title, you can search by almost anything…..and not just from your workstation as OneSearch is also accessible from your mobile device.

This discovery layer has been configured to search the MSK collection and beyond, sharing availability of physical, electronic, and online materials.  Within the OneSearch interface, users will be able to manipulate the search results and sort by relevance, date, popularity, author, and title.  In addition, searches can be refined by using the various facets on the left of the search results webpage. If a researcher, clinician, nurse or other library user is working off campus, then s/he would be able to restrict the search to only look for resources available online.

The MSK Library team is looking forward to implementing OneSearch.  We will also be planning training sessions and providing opportunities for feedback as we adjust the new system to best suit the needs of our user community.

Stay tuned as additional information will be forthcoming. We plan to post to our blog and Twitter account.  We also plan to send out important information via OneMSK and direct emails.

During post-launch we hope to hear from you. Curious and want to learn more, feel free to ASK US.

Wrapping Up the Year

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In less than two weeks, 2017 will be over.  This year has been incredibly busy for the library staff.  In addition to the day-to-day services that we provide, we have been able to achieve the goals that we outlined at the beginning of the year.

We published our first Synapse Publications Report which covers the 2016 scholarly research works of our MSK authors.  We also launched the first version of our Library Dashboard to showcase and share a few key usage metrics.  We upgraded the software (ILLiad) which supports our Document Delivery Service and solicited feedback about this service via an online client satisfaction survey.  The response from users was excellent, with 592 individuals sharing their thoughts about the value this service provides to them, as well as, their ideas for improvement.

Finally, we spent a large portion of the year working on Tri-Cat’s replacement and on improving our user community’s experience when searching for information, journals, books, and resources from the Library Website.  In 1Q2018, users can expect to see a new discovery feature configured to search the MSK collection and beyond.  By using this search interface, users will be able to manipulate their search results and sort them by relevance, date, popularity, author, title and more.  I hope that I have peaked your interest……stay tuned as information will be forthcoming on our blog, via Twitter (@MSKCC_Library), OneMSK, and email announcements.

In closing, on behalf of the MSK Library Staff, we want to take a moment to wish our User Community a delightful holiday break and a “very” extra special New Year.

All the best and see you in 2018!

Cheers!
Donna Gibson
Director of Library Services