Category Archives: About Resources

Disability Pride Month: Library Edition

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This month we celebrate Disability Pride Month, marking the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) being signed into law by President George HW Bush on July 26, 1990.

Nearly 1 in 4 Americans live with some type of disability, and despite nearly 40 years since the ADA’s passage, many Americans with disabilities still live with significant barriers to living their lives to their fullest. Barriers can be physical, such lack of ramps, elevators, and ADA-compliant spaces. But they can also be less visible, including design and function of technology.

Accessible Library Resources

As library resources shifted to a predominantly digital format, the importance of these resources providing accessible and inclusive information for users of all abilities has become even more vital.

The Rehabilitation Act of 1978 defines and protects the same individuals as the ADA, but covers a different scope. In 1998, it was amended to include Section 508, which focused on the accessibility of electronic and information technology products and services that federal agencies buy, create and use.

Section 508 mandates that individuals with disabilities have access to information and services that is comparable to the access and use available to non-disabled individuals. It also provides guidelines to follow to ensure electronic resources are accessible, including making websites and apps accessible to assistive technologies (screen readers, alternative mouse and keyboard devices like motion trackers, magnification software, etc).

The Library Accessibility Alliance (LAA) is an organization made up of multiple library consortia across the country that advocates for improving library e-resource accessibility and shifting library culture to one that promotes justice and inclusion for people with disabilities. The group provides independent accessibility evaluations of library resources, training and toolkits for libraries and librarians, as well as specific licensing language for libraries to use or adapt to address concerns with electronic resources vendors.

LAA hosts a searchable database of independent evaluations of over 100 electronic resources.

ADA Compliance Tools

Vendors are recommended to provide documentation that shows how their hardware or software is accessible.

An Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR) is a document that explains how information and communication technology (ICT) products such as software, hardware, electronic content, and support documentation meet (conform to) the Revised 508 Standards for IT accessibility. Use the ACR to make specific statements in simple recommended language to demonstrate how the features and functional characteristics of your product meet the Section 508 standards.

There are multiple products and tools available to help create ACRs, including the VPAT.

Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT™)

Vendors that offer software, hardware or electronic content can voluntarily provide a VPAT™ that discloses how they support accessibility guidelines. The VPAT™ outlines the Revised Section 508 Standards for accessibility, and allows vendors to indicate their conformance with each standard. 

However, even if a vendor provides a VPAT™, it doesn’t guarantee that the vendor’s resource is actually Section 508 or ADA compliant.

W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)

WCAG are guidelines and criteria produced by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) to ensure that websites and electronic content are accessible to all. They provide quantitative means of evaluating websites for accessibility, and should be used by both developers and content creators.

There are currently two standards in use today: WCAG 2.0 and WCAG 2.1 which added additional criteria to address accessibility for mobile devices, people with low vision, and people with cognitive disabilities. 

Popular Biomedical Resources: ADA Compliance

If you are interested in learning more about different resources and their ADA compliance status, see the lists below which feature some of the MSK Library’s most popular resources.

Literature Databases

Citation Management tools

Clinical Databases

Understanding Image Manipulation and Duplication

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Image manipulation/alteration and image duplication have been getting a lot of attention in the news media and in journals lately – for example:

It is in the best interest of all involved in the research process to ensure they have a good understanding of best practices for image processing and for detecting any misconduct.

The following resources are good options to have a look at:

1) From the MSK Library’s e-book collection:


2) From ORI – The Office of Research Integrity:


3) From STM Integrity Hub – STM (stm-assoc.org):

Questions? Be sure to Ask Us at the MSK Library!

What are the Differences Between Google Scholar, OneSearch and Bibliographic Databases When Looking for Journal Articles?

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Bibliographic databases contain references to journal articles (as well as sometimes other formats such as book chapters, etc.) with metadata that may typically include a title, authors, publisher, publication date and place, pages, abstract, index terms, etc. Examples: PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Scopus, and PsycINFO.

When you search bibliographic databases you are actually searching for metadata, so you can specify what “field” you want your search terms to be found in (eg. title, abstract, author, journal, etc.). Available full text is linked to references/bibliographic records but cannot be searched.

Advantages to Searching Bibliographic Databases

  • The ability to use database functionality to do the best quality search and retrieve the best results. Such functionality in biomedical databases includes advanced functionality such as subject heading (e.g. MeSH) mapping.
  • Searching only essential information (title, abstract, author supplied keywords, index terms/subject headings) when searching on a topic may be a safeguard against overwhelming a searcher with an abundance of results.

    Unlike in bibliographic databases, searching for journal articles via OneSearch (the library’s catalog found on our homepage) or Google Scholar involves searching the full text of journal articles.

    Searching OneSearch
  • OneSearch is a library catalog plus, available at many Libraries, including MSK Library, that allows finding journals and other serials, books, etc., and also databases, newspapers, dissertations, and other print and electronic media typically available in the library’s catalog.
  • It also is able to search the full-text content of e-journals and e-books (owned/subscribed to by the Library) such as journal articles and book chapters.
  • Advanced Search also allows keyword searching in the Title, Author or Subject fields alone, as well as searching in Any Field, which includes the full text of an article.
  • OneSearch relies on keywords and phrases (using quotations), but does not include any mapping or controlled vocabulary.


Searching Google Scholar

  • In Google Scholar you can find journal articles by searching within their full text.
  • Google Scholar includes multidisciplinary content (e.g. Medicine, Physics, Computer Science, Humanities)
  • The articles come from journals that Google Scholar has authority to search regardless of and well beyond any institutional subscription.
  • You have poor control of how you design and execute the search and view your search results (no proper search tools, no abundance of limits and sorting options typical to bibliographic databases).
  • As you are searching the whole “universe” of journals with Google Scholar search, you will find articles that your institution does and does not have access to. An older MSK Library blog post explains how to get access to the full text or request the full text.

Disadvantages of Searching OneSearch and Google Scholar

-The lack of advanced search functionality. While essential search functionality is available (better in OneSearch, worse in Google Scholar) it is still not as advanced as in major biomedical databases.

-Searching the full text in either OneSearch or Google Scholar may end up in the overwhelming number of search results because you are searching the full text of journal articles.

Takeaways and Recommendations

  • Using OneSearch or Google Scholar involves searching the full text of journal articles.
  • To find journal articles, use bibliographic databases as the first choice; use OneSearch and Google Scholar as complementary to using bibliographic journal literature databases.
  • Searching OneSearch and GoogleScholar are most effective when the content being searched is likely not found in the title or the abstract, and thus searching full-text is required.