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Written by Alison Murphy, Student Intern and Jeopardy Winner and her mentor, Joe Barchi

Growing up, I remember coming into the kitchen and watching Jeopardy reruns with my father while he cooked dinner. I have always loved trying to guess the Jeopardy answers, but most of the time, the topics were so obscure that I did not know the answers. My father, on the other hand, knew the answers even when the Jeopardy participants did not. When the Jeopardy tournament was announced, I signed up at the “gentle prodding” (translated: “You WILL participate Alison”!) of my mentor, Dr. Joe Barchi. At first, the memories of not knowing the answers made me nervous to compete in the tournament, but when I told my father about my reservations, he said, “You’re a Murphy! Trivia is in your blood!” Obviously, he ended up being right, but my doubts were not fully resolved until after the first round of the Jeopardy Tournament where I fell back in love with trying to guess the Jeopardy answers. During this round, I experienced the thrill of buzzing in and the satisfaction of guessing the correct answer. After the first round, I remembered why I loved watching Jeopardy as a child, and it brought me back to those nights in the kitchen. In the end, I think that those nights taught me the necessary rules and strategies of Jeopardy that ultimately led to my success in the NCI Frederick Summer Student Jeopardy Tournament. I had a great time and an experience that I will always remember. If it were not for Dr. Barchi’s encouragement and the hard work of the NCI-Fredrick Scientific Library staff, I would not have competed in the Jeopardy Tournament and I would not have been able to experience the joy of Jeopardy again.

Library Orientation

Library Orientation sessions are held monthly via Webex on Thursdays from 2:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.  The dates of upcoming sessions are October 13, November 10, and December 8.  We invite all employees to attend these sessions to learn about the many services and resources offered by the Library.  Registration is not required.

If you are not able to make it to our scheduled webinars, our librarians can work with your schedule to provide one-on-one training at your convenience via Webex or Microsoft Teams.  For questions, or if you have a suggestion for a class offering, please contact us with your thoughts.

NOTE: All Library Instruction during Fall 2022 will be given via Webex webinars.

RESOURCE TRAINING

The Library’s instruction team is pleased to announce that the Fall 2022 Resource Training Schedule is available on the Library’s Orientations and Classes website.  Class dates and descriptions are also listed on the Events Calendar.  Registration announcements & WebEx meeting links will be sent on the NCIF community listservs. 

MANAGING REFERENCES WITH ENDNOTE

Thursday, October 20, 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

DICTIONARY OF NATURAL PRODUCTS

Thursday, November 17, 3:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.

PHARMAPROJECTS: AN INTRODUCTION

Friday, December 16, 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Each month the Library will feature a different resource and offer to provide more supporting information about this resource.  Watch for announcements about the resources highlighted in 2022 or e-mail the Library for more information:

OCTOBER – HSTALKS

HSTalks (Henry Stewart Talks) provides immediate access to over 3,000 online, seminar-style talks by many of the world's leading scientists and clinicians.

NOVEMBER – WEBCSD

WebCSD allows online searching of the experimentally determined small molecule structures deposited in the Cambridge Crystallographic Database. Results are displayed in 3D and 2D with experimental, chemical, and crystal details provided along with the structure. Citation links are also provided, making this database particularly useful to those in the fields of medicinal chemistry and chemistry education.

DECEMBER – MICROMEDEX

The industry standard for more than 40 years, Micromedex provides hospitals and healthcare providers with a single source of clinical information—from need-to-know drug, pediatric, disease, lab, and toxicology information to comprehensive resources for patient and consumer education.

cBioPortal for Cancer Genomics provides cancer omics data from large scale cancer studies freely to the scientific community through an easy to use, online interface that allows you to visualize the occurrence of genes and mutations within samples and make comparisons between groups of interest.

Bayesian Thinking in Biostatistics          

Boca Raton, FL, CRC Press, 2021.

Description: With a focus on incorporating sensible prior distributions and discussions on many recent developments in Bayesian methodologies, Bayesian Thinking in Biostatistics considers statistical issues in biomedical research. The text includes an overview of Bayesian statistics, a discussion of many of the methods biostatisticians frequently use, such as rates and proportions, regression models, clinical trial design, and methods for evaluating diagnostic tests.  The book emphasizes greater collaboration between biostatisticians and biomedical researchers.

CRISPR-/Cas9 Based Genome Editing for Treating Genetic Disorders and Diseases 

Boca Raton, FL, CRC Press, 2022.

Description: CRISPR-/Cas9 Based Genome Editing for Treating Genetic Disorders and Diseases is a unique resource for those interested in learning about the broad range of applications of CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors. Some topics included in this book are: the role of the CRISPR/Cas9 system in neuroscience, gene therapy, epigenome editing, genome mapping, cancer, virus infection control strategies, regulatory challenges and bioethical considerations.

Chemistry and Pharmacology of Anticancer Drugs

Boca Raton, FL, CRC Press, 2021.

Description: Chemistry and Pharmacology of Anticancer Drugs is a comprehensive survey of all families of anticancer agents and therapeutic approaches currently in use or in advanced stages of clinical trials, including biological-based therapies.  The book is unique in providing molecular structures for all anticancer agents, discussing them in terms of history of development, chemistry, mechanism of action, structure–function relationships, and pharmacology. It also provides relevant information on side effects, dosing, and formulation. The authors, renowned scientists in cancer research and drug discovery, also provide up-to-date information on the drug discovery process, including discussions of new research tools, tumor-targeting strategies, and fundamental concepts in the relatively new areas of precision medicine and chemoprevention.

Handbook of Laboratory Animal Science: Essential Principles and Practices

Boca Raton, FL, CRC Press, 2021.

Description: Building upon the success of previous editions of the bestselling Handbook of Laboratory Animal Science, first published in 1994, this latest revision combines all three volumes in one definitive guide. It covers the essential principles and practices of Laboratory Animal Science as well as selected animal models in scientific disciplines where much progress has been made in recent years. Each individual chapter focuses on an important subdiscipline of laboratory animal science, and the chapters can be read and used as stand-alone texts, with only limited necessity to consult other chapters for information.  This edition will be useful as a textbook for laboratory animal science for postdocs and as a handbook for scientists who work with animals in their research or for other specialists in laboratory animal science.

The Ups and Downs of Drug Design: Adventures in Medicinal Chemistry

CRC Press, 2021.

Description: The Ups and Downs in Drug Design: Adventures in Medicinal Chemistry highlights the necessity for an integrative approach in medicinal chemistry and chemical biology. As medicinal chemistry is not a monolithic science, it is important to emphasize the other various disciplines that are required for successful drug design. This book presents the author’s own personal experience in this field and describes the "ups" and "downs" that come with drug discovery. It is an excellent companion text for postdocs or fellows who would like further insight into the parameters of drug design, including the challenges that come with this project.

The 15th Annual NCI at Frederick Scientific Library Student Science Jeopardy Tournament played out virtually in July with Alison Murphy grabbing first place honors, followed closely by Esteban Garcia in second, and Kiersten Ropp in third. A nice showing of NCIF employees turned out to cheer these intrepid interns on as Judges Drs. Steve Anderson, Walter Hubert, Rebika Shrestha, and Dina Sigano weighed in on controversial answers. Intern Claire Seibert developed most of the questions for this year’s tournament and provided Science Trivia slides to keep attendees entertained during the break, as Library Staff worked behind the curtains to bring the contest to reality. Aside from experiencing the joy of buzzing in on Jeopardy questions, all contestants also received prizes such as T-shirts and hats graciously donated by R&W Club Frederick. Congratulations to all involved for making this year’s tournament another exciting and educational experience!

Donating Books and Journals to the Scientific Library

Do you have books or journals that are no longer needed in your lab, or department?  The Scientific Library accepts book and journal donations with a copyright of 20 years or newer to enhance our collection.

If your excess books and journals fit this criterion, please email the list of donated materials to the Library’s email or call us at 301-846-1093 to discuss.  A Library staff member will be in touch to assist you regarding your potential donation.

In addition, the Scientific Library welcomes donations of any book you have authored or edited.  We are grateful for authors who, in the past, have generously contributing volumes to our print collection.

We look forward to hearing from you!

2023 Journal Subscription Review Complete

The Scientific Library would like to thank those who took their valuable time to review our 2023 Journal Subscription list.  Input from our users is the most important consideration when making decisions with regards to adding or canceling titles from our journal collection. We consider every suggestion and make it our goal to deliver appropriate information to support your research needs.  While we complete our subscription review every year in August, recommendations are also accepted throughout the year at this link: https://ncifrederick.cancer.gov/scientificlibrary/Forms/BookSuggest.aspx

NCI at Frederick and FNL employees now have access to Business Source Premier—a robust database covering such business and management topics as accounting, economics, finance, international trade, marketing, management information systems, and operations management. Business Source Premier is an essential resource for business research featuring full text access for 849 active, full text, non-open access journals (including such renowned publications as Harvard Business Review); 180 of which are peer-reviewed and are not embargoed.  The database also includes company profiles of the world’s 10,000 largest companies and allows searching by other fields relevant to the study of business, including ticker symbols, product names, geographic locations, and NAICS industry codes.  Other types of sources indexed in the database include:

• Case Studies
• Conference Papers/Proceedings
• Country Economic Reports
• Industry Reports
• Market Research Reports
• SWOT Analyses
• Videos (Associated Press)
• Working Papers

Users can create accounts on Business Source Premier using their NIH e-mail addresses to save favorite documents, adjust settings or languages, or create alerts.  The database does support export into various bibliographic formats including EndNote.  Please contact the Scientific Library if you have any questions or need searching tips regarding Business Source Premier.  Title lists of the database contents are also available upon request.