Conference season has arrived for many of us in the Library and as we plan who should attend what conference this year, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the reasons why staff should attend.  Are there any benefits? Do the benefits outweigh the cost?

Perhaps the key for me is ensuring that the conference will support at least one of our yearly goals.  I see this strategic approach as a critical factor.  While the conference can certainly be positioned as a learning experience, it really is about the “takeaways” and how they will be implemented when the staff member returns.  Innovation and providing cutting-edge services cannot happen without the opportunities to see what is beyond the walls of the Library.

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While we have a small and dynamic print collection, our focus over the years has been to deliver content to our user community via our Website.  With our user community spread across several locations, providing a digital collection makes good business sense. In fact, in early 2010, we discovered that our electronic resource collection surpassed our print offerings. Continue reading →

This month I have certainly seen a great many emails, tweets, and blog posts all focused on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy and their efforts to enhance compliance. The NIH recently released a new Notice that affects all NIH-funded researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering and applies to awards they receive with anticipated start dates on or after July 1, 2013 (view:  NIH NOT-OD-13-042). Researchers need to know that these changes also impact those publications where they have used a core facility that is supported by NIH-funds.

This delay in processing of non-competing continuation grants will take effect in tandem with NIH requiring the use of the Research Performance Progress Report (RPPRs) for all Streamlined Non-competing Award Process (SNAP) and Fellowship awards. As the notice states, all NIH grant-related publications need to be deposited into PMC (formerly PubMed Central) within three months of the official publication date, otherwise they will be flagged as non-compliant and action will be taken. Continue reading →