As those of you who use the library frequently may have noticed, there always seems to be something going on related to facilities in the building these days. In fact, in the next little while, the library will be completely closed from the evening of Fri. Mar. 2 and reopening at 9am on Tues. Mar. 6 to accommodate a complete ventilation shutdown and necessary work for the HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) project. Here is the official announcement.

After-hours access will also be disabled. During this time, you are encouraged to use other branches. Please find branch opening hours here.

The HVAC project, which is set to be complete by June 2018, will see Schulich Library obtain updated heating and cooling facilities. You will find more details on the project here. Please bear with us. Once the HVAC project is finished, the library should be more comfortable for everyone.

In the mean time, there is also now a dedicated email you can use to let McGill Facilities staff know that the building (or any other library building) is too hot or too cold.

Unfortunately, the fun won’t stop with the HVAC project! In the future, the library will be going through exterior masonry work, similar to what is currently taking place and/or what will be taking place very soon in the Macdonald-Harrington Building and the Macdonald Engineering Building. You will find more details about those projects here. When it’s Schulich Library’s turn, there will be interior and exterior work being done simultaneously. Further announcements are forthcoming, once there is a projected timeline for the work in Schulich Library.

Our apologies for all the disruption. A comfortable space is the ultimate goal and unfortunately, sometimes you need to break some eggs to make a cake!

Of course, if you have any concerns or questions, please feel free to come to the service desk on the main floor or send an email to: schulich.library@mcgill.ca

Discovering, accessing, and manipulating data are often necessary tasks in health sciences research and beyond, and they can be particularly tricky. There are a few resources that I would encourage you to check out for these purposes:

• There is a Data Lab in the McGill Library! Located on the second floor of the McLennan Library Building, the Lab has workstations equipped with ArcGIS, MATLAB, NVivo (limited number of licences), R (guide), SAS, SPSS, STAT/Transfer, Stata, and more. As of Feb. 2018, the Data Lab has walk-in hours too from 10 am to 2 pm Monday through Friday, during which you can get basic support
• Have you taken a look at the Numeric Data guide? Resources are broken down by subject and the guide provides information on the difference between aggregate and microdata, how to cite data, and more
• McGill has access to Statistics Canada public use microdata files, mainly through the <odesi> portal
• McGill has access to the Discharge Abstracts Database (DAD) through the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) and <odesi>
• You can request access to the Postal Code Conversion Files (PCCF) (2016 is here!) by emailing data.library@mcgill.ca. Our license for the PCCF does not allow for distribution through a third-party portal such as <odesi> (just the metadata for the PCCF is there), but we’re looking into a secure, local dissemination model that will meet new license requirements. (Clarification added 19/02/2018–thanks, Berenica!)
• Did you know that as a graduate student you can request access to the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) microdata and Statistics Canada master-level files? Our Numeric Data Librarian, Berenica Vejvoda, is a great resource person to help you figure out if you need access and to walk you through those processes

Some other useful and hard-to-find resources include:

• 2009/2010 Conversion Tables: ICD-10-CA/CCI to ICD-9/CCP (English Electronic)
• 2009/2010 Conversion Tables: ICD-10-CA/CCI to ICD-9-CM (English Electronic)

There is also a small budget for one-time data purchases, and knowing what people need, even when the budget is too tight for an immediate acquisition, helps the Library plan for future purchases.

Feel free to contact your Liaison Librarian too!