Category Archives: Director’s Reflections

Learn about the library from the Director’s perspective

The 2021 Synapse Publications Report is Now Available!

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Are you curious about research conducted at Memorial Sloan Kettering in 2021?  Well, we have the resource to answer this question! Check out the 2021 Synapse Publications Report and explore the content.

For 2021, 5,301 works were ingested, and we created 578 new Synapse author profiles. Breaking down the 5,301 works, we noted that 269 works were COVID-related, and the majority of the works fell under four different publication formats: Journal Articles (2,508), Meeting Abstracts (1,445), Reviews (581) and Editorials (350).  This report also contains visuals that showcase our authors’ research collaborations within the United States and Internationally.

Synapse is a public-facing resource and the authoritative bibliographic database of MSK publications, maintained by a dedicated team of information professionals. While this report reflects the year in review, the Synapse database provides a record of the intellectual output written by our authors.

Feel free to send me an email and let me know what you think about this year’s report.

Donna Gibson
Director, Library Services

Now Available Online: Research In Review: An Analysis of MSK Publications 2016-2020

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The Synapse team led by Jeanine McSweeney, Associate Librarian, Scholarly Communications, publishes annually the Synapse Publications reports, showcasing our authors’ contributions to the body of scientific knowledge and their research and clinical activities associated with Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Center.

This year I am delighted to share that we have added a new report entitled, “Research In Review: An Analysis of MSK Publications 2016-2020,” which dives deeper into the publications affiliated with the Center. This report provides insight into the variety of existing metrics used to measure research impact at an article-, journal-, or author-level. In the period covered in this report, the Synapse team retrieved and curated over 25,500 works, and it is with these citations that we share one aspect of a very complex research story. This report highlights the demographics of our author community, existing metrics, and how research impact is gauged. In addition, we share interesting facts about publication-related datasets gleaned from a variety of credible resources such as PubMed Central® (PMC). Our intentions in producing this report are simply to raise awareness of possible ways in which to view research contributions.

Synapse is a public-facing resource and the authoritative bibliographic database of MSK publications, developed and maintained by a team of skilled librarians. This database provides a record of the intellectual output written by MSK researchers, clinicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals.

We hope in the future to produce other “Research In Review” type publications.  Please feel free to reach out to me to share your thoughts about this report.

Donna Gibson
Director, Library Services

Can You Guess Where Our Focus Will Be Over the Next Three Years?

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I am delighted to share the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Library Strategic Plan 2022-2024. This plan was written based on feedback obtained from our user community in 2021, through extensive one-on-one interviews, focus group sessions, Yammer polls, and a large-scale client feedback survey. We also selected four libraries for a benchmarking exercise. A major outcome was the development of three strategic focus statements.

Library Strategic Plan 2022-2024 infographic

Click on the image above to better view, Who We Support, What We Do, and Our Ambition.

As we move forward to implement the goals and objectives outlined, we will continue to keep our users in mind and focus on their information needs. This might translate to adjusting the strategic plan to accommodate changing patient care initiatives and the evolving research environment.

Should you have any questions or feedback, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. 

Donna Gibson
Director, Library Services