Category Archives: About the Library

Guest Post: Understanding the Benefits of Preprints

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This post was written by our Guest Blogger, Zheng Ser, PhD Student, Kentsis Lab, Tri-Institutional Program in Chemical Biology.

What are preprints and how can they benefit scientists?

To answer these questions, Dr. Leslie B. Vosshall (@pollyp1) and Dr. John Inglis (@JohnRInglis) shared their experiences and knowledge to an audience of scientists and other curious attendees from the New York City area. The event was jointly organized by eLife ambassadors (Michiel Boekhout, Lilian Lamech, Zheng Ser) and Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Library Director (Donna Gibson) as part of the Advancing Authorship: Library Series. Continue reading →

Dr. Carla Hayden and Her Special Forces

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In early June, I attended the SLA Annual Conference in Baltimore and the opening keynote speaker was Dr. Carla Hayden, Librarian of Congress, speaking on “Special Libraries are the Special Forces of Libraries”.  Dr. Hayden was sworn in as the 14th Librarian of Congress on September 14, 2016. She is the first professional librarian appointed to this position in over 60 years, and is the first woman and first African American to serve in this role!

What caught my attention during her talk was how she compared the Congressional Research Service Librarians to “Special Forces” that serve congress by delivering unbiased, nonpartisan information. This phrase hit home for me as the MSK Research Informationist team strive to deliver the best search results based on the clinical or research questions submitted. They focus on developing search strategies that will uncover the evidence and don’t let their own opinion influence the end results that are sent to the client.

The theme that encapsulated her speech was about service and she ended her talk with a question for the audience – What can the Library of Congress do for you? This question applies to all information professionals – whether they work in a public library, special library, or research library. A Library is made up of more than just the collections that are acquired, managed, and made accessible. It truly is the “special forces” or staff that not only bring these collections to life but support their user communities for all their information needs. Our challenge is to determine the services that will meet the needs of a diverse group of users with differing information-seeking behaviors through conversations and engagement.

Donna Gibson
Director of Library Services

Three Questions – Ryan

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This month, I asked three questions to Ryan McComas,

What areas can you help MSK users with?
I primarily work with our print and electronic collection, meaning I am responsible for access to databases, books, and journals. I am available to take any new resource recommendations, catalog new acquisitions to make them discoverable in our catalog, and to help our users with any access problems they have with library content.

What projects have you been working on recently?
MSK library recently migrated all our records to a new library management system called Alma/Primo and its new discovery and access tool, OneSearch. This next generation system is customized to allow MSK library staff to manage patron and catalog records, circulate materials to users, and produce usage statistics for analyzing our collection. In addition, my new summer project will consist of analyzing and weeding our entire print collection to make room for newer library acquisitions.

If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
I actually enjoy vacationing to cold weather places, so my ultimate experience would be travelling to and around the Antarctic peninsula via Patagonia. Maybe not realistic, but hopefully someday!