Levy Library Blog

The Levy Library is happy to announce that Mount Sinai's subscription to resources from BMJ offers new benefits for our community. 

For publishing:

Mount Sinai corresponding authors can publish for no-cost in BMJ Open Quality for their articles accepted between April 1, 2025 and March 31, 2028.

BMJ Open Quality accepts original research, local, national, and international quality improvement projects, value-based healthcare initiatives, and educational improvement work.

To submit an article to BMJ Open Quality:

• Visit BMJ Open Quality's author page to review submission guidelines.
• Submit your article via the BMJ Open Quality Submission Portal.
• Enter the Icahn School of Medicine's institution discount code to confirm your affiliation and waive publishing fees.

We are continuing our agreement for no-cost traditional publishing in BMJ Case Reports.  

For journal and database access:

We now have full text access to all BMJ Journals and our BMJ Best Practice tool now includes the Comorbidities Manager (learn more on the BMJ website) 

The Levy Library is pleased to announce the following upgrades to QIAGEN Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA), effective immediately:

• Access to the full version of IPA (IPA Analysis Match Explorer CL), including RNAseq Analysis Portal for processing NGS data
• Unlimited concurrent users (no one gets locked out!)

IPA is available for use by all faculty, students, residents, or staff with Mount Sinai or Icahn School of Medicine credentials. New users, login to IPA with your Mount Sinai email address when prompted and you'll be authenticated via single sign-on.

If you are new to IPA or want to dig deeper into its functionalities, visit the IPA Learning Portal or sign up for one of QIAGEN's upcoming virtual training sessions, including a New User Training on January 7th.

Dear Mount Sinai Community,

The Library team reviews the use of journals, books, databases and knowledge management tools each year to ensure we subscribe to the resources Mount Sinai needs for learning, research and clinical care.  We have a few new and restored journals starting in January as the result of swapping out lesser used resources.  

With the financial challenges facing health care, Mount Sinai's budget for library resources for 2025 could not support all of our subscriptions. Based on usage data, costs and contract limitations, we made the difficult decision to stop subscribing to the journals and databases listed at the end of this post. Many of these will not be available online to you starting January 1, 2025.  For others, the subscription ends later in 2025 on the listed dates.   

We recognize that the loss of immediate online access is an inconvenience, but you can still get the materials you need from the Library by request. Please use our interlibrary loan service (ILL) to request articles you need from any journal at no cost to you. You will typically receive them within 2 business days, rush requesting is available, and we use the data from ILL to make decisions about the need for future subscriptions.  If you do not have an ILL account, please register now so that when you need something, you are ready to request it seamlessly.  

For the databases and tools, below we identify alternatives that you can use or other locations where you can access the resources. If you have any questions, please contact us at library@mssm.edu.  

Hearing from you about how you are impacted by these budget reductions will allow us to prioritize restoring the most needed resources should the budget situation improve.  We welcome partnerships with others that may have funds to support subscriptions to titles that we cannot currently afford.  

Sincerely yours,  

Kris Alpi, Associate Dean of Libraries and Information Sciences

New Resources starting January 1, 2025

Journal additions through swapping:

• Dermatitis
• International Journal of Adolescent Medicine and Health
• International Journal of Gynecological Cancer

Platform additions:

• McGraw-Hill Access Neurology
  Includes titles such as Adams and Victor's Principles of Neurology, Current Diagnosis & Treatment: Neurology, and Lange Clinical Neurology
• McGraw-Hill Access ObGyn
  Includes titles such as Williams Obstetrics, First Aid for the Obstetrics & Gynecology Clerkship, and Current Diagnosis & Treatment: Obstetrics & Gynecology
• McGraw-Hill Access Pediatrics
  Includes titles such as Current Diagnosis & Treatment: Pediatrics, Rudolph's Pediatrics, First Aid for the Pediatrics Clerkship

Resources stopping / Cancellations as of December 31, 2024

Journals cancelled or swapped:

• AI Precision in Oncology 
• Chem
• GEN Edge 
• Integrative and Complementary Therapies
• Journal of Chiropractic Humanities
• Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology 
• Matter
• Pediatric Dentistry

Databases and ebooks not renewed:

• Encyclopedia of Reagents (EROS) 
• McGraw-Hill Primary Care eBook Library - The publisher is discontinuing this collection. The Levy Library catalog provides a number of comparable online books as an alternative.

Resources stopping later in 2025:

• Nursing Specialties from Board Vitals
  • Access ends January 25, 2025.
  • PSON students have access to NCLEX and other nursing exam prep materials through PSON. 
  • Nurses at Mount Sinai studying for NCLEX have access to LearningExpress Library (through New York Public Library) --everyone at Mount Sinai eligible for NYPL card. Choose "Careers" and then "Prepare for Nursing Exams"
• DynaMed
  • Access ends July 1, 2025. 
  • Comparable point of care resources available include UpToDate, Dynamic Health, and BMJ Best Practice.
• Market Research
  • Access ends September 30, 2025.
  • Market research data sources available from New York Public Library (NYPL)--everyone at Mount Sinai eligible for NYPL card. 

Dear Mount Sinai Community,

The Library team carefully reviews the use of journals, books, databases and knowledge management tools each year to ensure we have the resources Mount Sinai needs for learning, research and clinical care.  There will be a few new or restored resources starting in January as the result of swapping out or cancellation of lesser used resources.  

With the financial challenges facing health care, Mount Sinai has reduced the budget to support library resources for 2024. Based on usage data, costs and contract limitations, we made the difficult decision to stop subscribing to the journals and databases listed at the end of this post. This is the initial list of resources that will not be available online to you starting January 1, 2024.  During 2024, there will be other resources impacted and we will add those to the list as decisions are made.   

We recognize that the loss of immediate online access is an inconvenience, but you can still get the materials you need from the Library by request. Please use our interlibrary loan service (ILL) to request articles you need from any journal at no cost to you. You will typically receive them within 2 business days, rush requesting is available, and we use the data from ILL to make decisions about the need for future subscriptions.  If you do not have an ILL account, please register now so that when you need something, you are ready to request it seamlessly.  

For the databases and tools, below we identify alternatives that you can use or other locations where you can access the resources. If you have any questions, please contact us at library@mssm.edu.  

Hearing from you about how you are impacted by these budget reductions will allow us to prioritize restoring the most needed resources should the budget situation improve.  We welcome partnerships with others that may have funds to support subscriptions to titles that we cannot currently afford.  

If you are having access issues with resources not on this list, please check the blog post Access to Library Resources Evolves in 2024 to see if your issue is a known problem. 

We appreciate your understanding during this challenging time.   

Sincerely yours,  

Kris Alpi, Associate Dean of Libraries and Information Sciences

New Resources starting January 1, 2024

Scriver

As we step into 2024, the Library is transforming the ways you can access Library-subscribed online resources. A significant part of this transformation is the introduction of OpenAthens, our new authentication tool that provides secure access to Mount Sinai's licensed online resources via single sign-on (SSO) technology.

Accessing Library Resources with OpenAthens

OpenAthens streamlines the login process by providing single sign-on access to a wide range of library resources, allowing you to enter your institutional credentials once to access multiple databases and journals. You can learn more about OpenAthens and how to sign into library resources on our Connect to Resources: OpenAthens Guide at https://libguides.mssm.edu/login/openathens.

Temporary Access Issues

As we integrate OpenAthens, you might encounter issues accessing library resources. If you're facing difficulty in accessing a resource off-site, it might be temporarily be available on-site at Mount Sinai locations or through VPN only. Here are resources where Open Athens access is still in progress and therefore they are currently available on-site or while connected to VPN. This list is updated to reflect the latest changes. You can request that we send you materials from these resources by contacting us at refdesk@mssm.edu. If you have issues with a resource not on this list, please also let us know.

Navigating Changes to Subscriptions

Access issues may also be due to changes in the Library subscriptions as there are several resources which will not be available for direct online access to Mount Sinai in 2024. For the most current information about our subscriptions and access, read about these changes and view the list of impacted resources at: https://libguides.mssm.edu/blog/2024subscriptionchanges.

We're Here to Help

If you're unable to access a resource, please reach out. Our Library team is always ready to assist you in accessing the resources you need for your research, studies and clinical care. Contact us at refdesk@mssm.edu with the title of the resource you are looking for, and we'll work with you to get the information you need.

Dear Mount Sinai Community, 

Since becoming your Associate Dean of Libraries & Information Sciences in July, I have heard from many of you about online resources critical to your learning and work.  The Library team receives many more requests for new resources than we have the budget to fulfill. Combined with price increases from many publishers, this leaves us in the position of making tough choices to cancel resources with low usage or where more affordable alternatives are available.  The timing of these price increases for subscription renewals at the very end of 2022 limited our ability to engage you all about these decisions.  In the future, we will communicate broadly and early about resources being considered for cancellation. If you have questions about any of these resources and their possible substitutes, or would like to offer financial support or use cases to enable their reinstatement, please be in touch.  

We made difficult decisions to cancel the following resources:

Effective December 17:

Human Gene Mutation Database (HGMD) Professional from Qiagen will no longer be available through the Library. There is a less extensive public version of HGMD available with free registration at www.hgmd.cf.ac.uk/. Here at Mount Sinai, there is a group of researchers considering licensing this data--if you are interested in connecting with that group, please let me know. 

Effective December 31:

Scriver's OMMBID - digital version of the four-volume text Metabolic and Molecular Bases of Inherited Diseases. Levy Library subscribes to many other medical genetics books such as these through Clinical Key.. The free resources OMIM (Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man) and MedlinePlus Genetics (formerly Genetics Home Reference) may also be useful. 

JAMA Evidence (aka JAMAevidence) - The Library still provides Users’ Guides to the Medical Literature: A Manual for Evidence-based Clinical Practice. Articles comprising The Rational Clinical Examination are all linked papers in our subscription to JAMA . Other resources that may substitute include BMJ Best Practice (Evidence and Calculators) and the open source Critical Appraisal Tools provided by the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine.

USMLE Easy - The Library subscribes to several other USMLE study resources. Medical students have additional USMLE Preparation Resources through the Office for Medical Student Affairs.

Thank you for reading and please connect with me if you have questions or concerns. 

Kris Alpi, MLS, MPH, PhD

Information, education and conversation is essential in times of social change. As librarians and educators, we want to connect our communities with resources to help us all understand racism in America, to educate ourselves to become anti-racists, to create an open dialogue with each other about bias and privilege, and to take action in our communities to fight injustice and inequality.

Over the past few years, the Library has curated a collection a collection of books specifically addressing race and bias in our society. While many of these books are only in print at this time, we are working to provide access the collection as digital books so all our users can access these titles at any time from their home or mobile device.

In addition to the resources available at the Levy Library, we would like to share with our communities a compilation of book recommendations, articles and podcasts about racism, privilege, bias and inequality.

A special thanks to Sarah Sophie Flicker and Alyssa Klein who created a shared document of resources that we have used in the writing of this post. 

View the Race and Society Special Topics Collection from the Levy Library 

Jump to:

• Recommended collection of resources and lists
• Articles to Read
• Podcasts to Listen 
• The Levy Library Race and Bias Collection

Book to Read:

Recommended collection of resources and lists:

• An Antiracist Reading List | New York Times

• Featured Race & Ethnicity Resources | TeachingTolerance.org

• A Detailed List of Anti-Racism Resources | Medium.com

• Anti-racism Resources | Document compiled by Sarah Sophie Flicker, Alyssa Klein

Articles to read:

• "American Nightmare" by Ibram X. Kendi | The Atlantic (June 1, 2020)

• “America’s Racial Contract Is Killing Us” by Adam Serwer | The Atlantic (May 8, 2020)

• Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement (Mentoring a New Generation of Activists

• ”My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant” by Jose Antonio Vargas | NYT Mag (June 22, 2011)

• The 1619 Project (all the articles) | The New York Times Magazine

• “The Intersectionality Wars” by Jane Coaston | Vox (May 28, 2019)

• Tips for Creating Effective White Caucus Groups developed by Craig Elliott PhD

• ”White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” by Peggy McIntosh

• “Who Gets to Be Afraid in America?” by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi | Atlantic (May 12, 2020)

​

Podcasts to Listen to:

• 1619 (New York Times)

• About Race

• Code Switch (NPR)

• Intersectionality Matters! hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw

• Momentum: A Race Forward Podcast

• Pod For The Cause (from The Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights)

• Pod Save the People (Crooked Media)

• Seeing White

If you would like to contribute to this list or would like to suggest a resource for the library, please contact us at refdesk@mssm.edu