Category Archives: About the Library

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

Three Questions: Christina G., Special Project Librarian

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For our next Three Questions interview, we spoke with Christina G., Special Project Librarian.

What areas can you help MSK users with?

Image of Christina in a shop in NYC.

Christina enjoying an NYC souvenir shop.

I work directly with Synapse, the Library’s authoritative database of MSK authors and their publications.  Synapse houses publications produced by MSK’s researchers, clinicians, nurses, and healthcare professionals and arranges them by author profiles. I can provide assistance to users who are interested in learning how to use and navigate Synapse, as well as help MSK authors update their profiles.

What projects have you been working on recently?

The Synapse team tracks and adds new publications by MSK authors into the database on a monthly basis, importing bibliographic records from Scopus, Web of Science, BIOSIS Citation Index, CINAHL, and PsycINFO. However, this requires the Synapse team to cross-reference these records with original PDFs to ensure the data were adequately imported and missing data, such as PMIDs and PMCIDs, are included. We also use information from MSK’s Human Resources to ensure we associate each publication with the correct MSK author’s profile. The process is vigorous, therefore I spend most of my time working on this!

If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?

I unfortunately haven’t traveled as much as I would like to so I would be happy to go literally anywhere in the world. The only requirement I ask is that it is somewhere with a beach since I love swimming and the ocean.

New MSK Library Help Page, Question Form, & FAQs

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At MSK Library, we are always looking for ways to improve the user experience. With this in mind, we are pleased to announce the launch of our new Library help page!

On this page, you can view the Library’s contact information, chat with us (Monday – Friday, 10:00AM – 4:00PM), search our FAQ knowledge base or submit a question, browse our LibGuides, databases, and classes, and get in touch via our new and improved question form.

To access our question form, select “Submit a Question” on the right-hand menu. Once you fill in your name, email, role, and department, you will be asked what you’d like to do. You can ask a general question, submit a literature or PICO(T) search request, or request a resource for purchase. 

Please complete this brief feedback survey to share what you think about our new Library help page. 

Questions? Please contact us at asklibrarian@mskcc.org