Levy Library Blog

This month we want to recognize the amazing work of our dedicated Levy Library staff for National Medical Librarians Month.  

From providing access to cutting-edge, vetted information resources to helping you learn, our Mount Sinai learners, faculty, and staff can rely on the expertise of our library team. 

• Check out our calendar of events and classes to learn about special topics such as AI in Teaching and Learning, managing and organizing information, evidence-based clinical tools, databases, and more!
• Need a training for your group? Browse through our educational offerings and submit a request for instruction. 
• Consult with librarian experts for your next literature review or evidence synthesis project. 
• Librarians develop knowledge-based library guides on popular topics and research support as well as curate special collections and preserve historical materials in the archives. 

Medical librarians fill a wide breadth of roles such as:

• Teaching health professionals how to access and evaluate information
• Connecting electronic resources and decision tools to electronic health records
• Designing and managing health information websites, Internet blogs, and digital libraries
• Serving on patient safety, quality control, and accreditation committees in their hospitals

A study* in 118 hospitals with more than 16,122 participants found that 95% reported that information provided by a librarian resulted in better-informed clinical decisions. 

Who benefits from library services? Everyone! 

Residents and fellows, faculty, nurses, physician assistants, hospital administration, pharmacists, allied health professionals, and patients!!

Did engaging with a Mount Sinai librarian have a positive impact on you and your work?  We would love to hear about these stories! 

If you have a story you would like to share, please fill out this brief form.

*Marshall, J. G., et al. (2013). The value of library and information services in patient care: results of a multisite study. Journal of the Medical Library Association: JMLA, 101(1), 38–46. 

Today is National Library Workers Day, a day to highlight the contributions of all library workers. The Gustave L. and Janet W. Levy Library and the Mount Sinai Health System libraries are staffed by over twenty people serving on the following teams: Access Services, Education and Research Services, Instructional Technology, and Licensing and E-Resources. These teams work together to ensure the Mount Sinai libraries are accessible for studying and learning and that they are places where students, faculty, and staff can request and receive library support services. The following locations have dedicated library staff to serve the wider Mount Sinai community: Mount Sinai Phillips School of Nursing, Mount Sinai West, Mount Sinai Morningside, and Mount Sinai Beth Israel/Downton.

The mission of the Gustave L. and Janet W. Levy Library is to support the educational, research and patient care activities of the faculty, students and staff of the Mount Sinai Medical Center. Our vision is to be the leading provider of biomedical information for the Mount Sinai Medical Center, using innovative and emerging technologies to facilitate medical education, research and clinical practice. None of this would be possible without the dedication and expertise of our library workers. Today on National Library Workers Day, please join us in celebrating our amazing library team!

For more information about our library locations, services and staff, see the links below:

• Levy Library: https://libguides.mssm.edu/about_us/levy-library
• Phillips School of Nursing Information Commons: https://libguides.mssm.edu/PSON
• Mount Sinai West Medical Library: https://libguides.mssm.edu/MSW
• Mount Sinai Morningside Information Commons: https://libguides.mssm.edu/MSM
• Mount Sinai Beth Israel Library: https://libguides.mssm.edu/MSBI_Library/home

For more information about National Library Workers Day and National Library Week (April 23-29), check out these links:

• National Library Week: https://www.ala.org/conferencesevents/celebrationweeks/natlibraryweek
• National Library Workers Day: https://ala-apa.org/nlwd/

Kerry McKee, MLIS (She/her/hers)

Associate Director, Public Services

Did you know that Tuesday April 5, 2022 was National Library Workers Day - a part of National Library Week. It’s a day we recognize the valuable contributions made by all Library workers, especially our own library staff members who continue to work hard to support our school, research, and hospital communities every day. Whether they are making journals, e-books and databases available to the public, promoting library services and engaging with our communities online, answering questions at the front desk, ensuring our physical spaces are clean and welcoming, protecting our collections, or participating in a variety of other remote services, our library staff members continue to dedicate their time and energy to ensure that the Mount Sinai community is supported.

On behalf of the Mount Sinai community who continue to share how much these resources and services mean to them, I wanted to express thanks and gratitude for the exceptional work that all our team members put in day in and out to keep our libraries going:

• Chandra Weaver joined the Levy Library team in 1986 (yes that’s over 35 years!) as a library assistant supporting our interlibrary loans unit and continues to oversee the daily operations of our borrowing service to this day. You can also findChanda at the Levy Library front desk helping patrons with a myriad of questions from printing to book recommendations.


• Jessica Walker joined the Levy Library team in 2008 as one of our Circulation Services library assistants. Jessica helps to ensure that library physical spaces, equipment, and facilities are maintained, helps answer questions at the front, and occasionally brings in candy for our patrons!


• Luke Clinton joined the Mount Sinai West/Mount Sinai Morningside Library team in 2018 as our Library OperationsCoordinator. You can find Luke managing our library spaces at MountSinai West and Morningside, and supporting both in-person and online patron inquiries. Luke also supports the daily lending operations for interlibrary loan services providing a valuable services to our shared resources network.


• Terrell Artis joined the Levy Library team in 2001 as a Library Assistant specializing in cataloging and continues to oversee the maintenance of our physical collections and technology equipment. Terrell also supports ours physical library spaces and helps patrons every day at our front desk.


• Angelyn Thornton joined the Levy Library team in 2017 as our Outreach Coordinator. From managing our social media channels to designing our digital and print communications, Angelyn has been instrumental in sharing the story of the library and engaging with our community about all the library services and resources that are available.

The Levy Library team has been busy outside of the MSHS community this past month connecting with the professional library community around the country in a few national conferences. We wanted to share a library kudos to our fellow team members who went above and beyond to share their stories and experiences, lend their expertise, and give back to our community:

• Kudos to our colleague Kasi Resau, MA, MLIS who was invited to present a short talk at the Electronic Resources & Libraries (ER&L) Conference.

Kaci's talk, Don't Leave a Mess: Electronic Resources Succession Planning, discussed the importance of succession planning for electronic resources positions. While this is an integral part of risk management for libraries and organizations, many libraries don't do the work. Succession planning, in conjunction with organizational planning and strategic initiatives, can identify key vacancies, provide mentoring opportunities, internal promotion pathway, and assist in knowledge transfer.

You can read more about the short talk on the conference website: https://mtgsked.com/p/31403/s

Kaci was also part of programming planning committee for ER&L and lead several discussion groups as part of her volunteer efforts for conference. Thanks for giving back to our community Kaci!

• Kudos to our colleagues Samantha Walsh, MLS, MA and Lily Martin, MLIS who were invited to present a poster at the Transforming Libraries for Graduate Students Conference. 

The accepted poster titled, Student Engagement AND Assessment in the Virtual Library Classroom? Google Forms to the Rescue! discusses how library instructors used an interactive online form to facilitate the move from technical EndNote instruction to a conceptual session that addresses academic integrity concepts as well as introduces the EndNote software to MSHS user community.

Thanks for sharing your expertise and experiences with our community Samantha and Lily!

You can review the full poster description and listen to the full poster presentation on the conference website: https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/gradlibconf/2022/Posters/1/

Happy One-Year Work Anniversary to Kaci Resau, our E-Resources Manager!

Do you have a favorite resource that you access through The Levy Library? You can thank Kaci for that! In her role, Kaci is responsible for managing the behind-the-scenes library systems that help staff and patrons retrieve materials that they need to either do their job or their research. 

When asked to reflect upon her first year with The Levy Library, here is what Kaci had to say:

"During my first year, I really enjoyed getting to work on the licensing and technical services team. We worked behind the scenes to ensure our electronic resource holdings were up to date, findable, and accessible; with hundreds of thousands of resources, that was no easy feat! We also made enhancements to the discovery layer so that patrons could find and connect to materials more easily. We integrated the option for users to download directly from the discovery layer, when possible, instead of needing to click to a vendor platform to retrieve a PDF. As I move into my second year, I’m looking forward to building on these activities with my colleagues so that we can continue to improve the research experience for the Mount Sinai community."

We are so thankful to have Kaci on our team and look forward to what she in store for 2022!