Library Notes

On January 1, 2019 the MSU Libraries had 48 full-time employees. We have several positions that are currently unfilled, with at least one search getting underway.

Thirty-five (73%, up from 69% in FY14) of our full-time employees are females, and thirteen (27%) are males.

In FY19 four of the six highest-paid employees are females, compared to just one of the top six in FY14.

In FY14 the average (mean) salary of female full-time employees of the MSU Libraries was $39,072. For men, it was $59,814.

Today the average (mean) salary of female full-time employees of the MSU Libraries has risen to $47,894. For men, the average salary has declined slightly to $57,292.

Meyer Library Special Collections & Archives is now home to a first edition copy of Cindy: A Romance of the Ozarks, by Rose Wilder Lane. Lane is the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder and Almanzo Wilder.

Published in 1928, this work precedes Lane’s successful novels Let the Hurricane Roar and Free Land as well as her mother’s celebrated Little House series. Prior to writing Cindy, Rose had written biographies of Art Smith, Charlie Chaplin, Henry Ford, and Herbert Hoover, a couple of non-fiction travel books, and several other works of fiction.

The Historic Springfield Collection (M 26) in Meyer Library’s Special Collections and Archives contains photographs of properties and publications created or collected by the not-for-profit corporation named Historic Springfield. The corporation formed in 1999 to promote the preservation of Springfield’s “cultural resources” and provide historic consultation throughout the community. Historic Springfield aspired to demonstrate historical preservation through the restoration of The Mosher House on East Walnut Street as the Living History House Museum.

The bulk of the collection consists of photographs of properties in downtown Springfield, including interesting decorative details, such as the leaded glass in the Mosher House. The collection also contains materials given to the Mosher House, including the diary of Frances Ann Bishop, a Walnut Street resident in the 1890s. In addition to numerous Abstract of Titles and reports, the collection holds other publications collected by the corporation, including postcards featuring images of local properties such as Doling and Fassnight Park, and informative reports and pamphlets regarding the historic districts in Springfield, Missouri.

For more information, please contact Special Collections and Archives.

To encourage recycling, and by extension reduce the amount of trash generated from public spaces, Meyer Library is conducting a trial of two sets of new recycling and trash containers. Each set consists of one paper, one bottle/can, and one trash container.

For the trial Meyer Library chose Rubbermaid Untouchable 23 gallon containers with lids. The trash container is black with a square-holed lid. The paper recycling container is blue with a narrow slot while the bottle/can container is green with a round hole.

Visual cues play a part in recycling – both encouraging recycling and providing guidance on which containers items go into. The colors were chosen because recycling containers need to be easily identifiable as to their purpose and noticeable within their surroundings. The traditional colors associated with recycling  are blue and green.  Containers of these colors, along with the universal recycling logo, and shape of the hole in the lid help as visual prompts on their presence and purpose. The trash container is labeled “landfill,” emphasizing the destination of items placed in it.

For this trial, one set of containers is located right next to the public elevators on the second level. The other is located right next to the Music and Media service desk on the second level. Please use them!

Please help us celebrate the Tenth Anniversary of the Springfield AARI (African American Read In) in 2019!

Save the date of Friday, February 1, 2019 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm to attend the Opening Reception for the showing of the “Telling a People’s Story:  African-American Children’s Illustrated Literature Traveling Exhibit” at The Library Center on S. Campbell Avenue for an evening of songs, dramatic readings, games, and other festivities.

The reception will begin several months of events in conjunction with the exhibit, including a visit by one of the exhibit illustrators, AG Ford, book signings and panels with Q & A forums.

Lindsey Taggart, an assistant professor and Director of Resource Management and Discovery in the MSU Libraries, was awarded an ACRL 2019 Early Career Scholarship. The scholarship includes registration and a travel stipend to participate in this year’s ACRLConference, to be held in Cleveland, Ohio, April 10-13.

Lindsey is also the winner of the 2019 ER&L First Timer Award. The award covers registration and lodging for the Electronic Resources & Libraries conference in Austin, Texas, March 3-6. Congratulations, Lindsey!

In December of 2018, Bill and Virginia Darr donated $13,000 to the MSU Libraries. Their generosity was in response to a one-page wishlist of items that had been inserted into the annual progress and highlights report that the MSU Libraries mailed last fall to friends and supporters of the Libraries.

These funds will be used in the following manner:

• $1,000 to enhance the Pillars of Public Affairs Collection
• $1,500 to purchase two Cricut Maker die-cutting machines, enabling MSU students, faculty, and staff to make teaching aids, displays, and other learning materials
• $2,500 to digitize another episode of the Ozark Jubilee, a live, nationally broadcast television program that emanated from the Jewell Theater in downtown Springfield in the latter half of the Fifties
• $8,000 to acquire and make available a laser cutter/engraver

All the employees and users of the MSU Libraries thank Bill and Virginia Darr for their generous support.

Outreach is an important component of the public affairs mission of the MSU Libraries. Many faculty and staff members of the MSU Libraries engage in outreach activities on a continuing basis. For instance, on Monday Dean Tom Peters gave a talk about the Weaver Brothers, Elviry, and the Home Folks during the monthly luncheon gathering organized and sponsored by the Music Monday of the Ozarks group. Approximately 40 members of the public attended, including several descendants of the Weaver family from Christian County, Missouri.

Today, Thursday, Jan. 10, 2019, at 10 a.m. Dean Peters will be a guest on the “W Factor” radio show on KWTO AM560, hosted by Larry Freund and David Eslick. They will be discussing the vitality of old-time music venues and jam sessions in the Missouri Ozarks.

MSU Libraries’ digital archivist, Shannon Mawhiney, was recently elected Vice-Chair of the Missouri Hub Steering Committee.  The Missouri Hub (or MOHub) consists of several partner institutions from around the state, including Missouri State University, and is currently sponsored by the MOBIUS consortium.  MOHub aggregates information about digital objects, such as letters and photographs digitized in Meyer Library’s Special Collections, and supplies these records to the Digital Public Library of American (DPLA)—which makes content discoverable through a single search interface.  This allows the items in Missouri State University’s Digital Collections to be more widely accessible and discoverable by researchers using DPLA.  Other organizations from around the country that contribute material to DPLA include the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), HathiTrust, the Smithsonian Institution, the New York Public Library, Internet Archive, and many, many more.

The Tenth Anniversary of the Springfield African American Read-In (AARI), a community literacy initiative, begins on Friday, February 1, 2019 with an opening reception for the traveling exhibit Telling a People’s Story: African American Children’s Illustrated Literature.  This is the first major museum exhibition devoted to the art found within the pages of African-American children’s books. The reception, free and open to the public, will be held from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm at The Library Center (4653 S. Campbell Avenue), with ample parking. 

The Telling a People’s Story traveling exhibit will be on display at The Library Center from February 1 through March 31, 2019, followed by a showing at the Duane G. Meyer Library, Missouri State University, from April 3 through May 22, 2019.

In conjunction with the exhibit, special guest speakers and public forums are planned, including a presentation visit by New York Times best-selling illustrator, AG Ford, one of the artists featured in the exhibit. Mr. Ford will give presentations at both The Library Center and Meyer Library on Thursday, March 28, 2019. 

The Telling A People’s Story Exhibit follows the journey of African American people from Africa past to America present through children’s books. The exhibit, highlighting original art, began at the Miami University Art Museum in Oxford, Ohio, initially displayed during the summer 2018. Through a grant from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation in Cleveland, it was reformatted into a traveling exhibit. 

Current displays of the exhibit and programs are sponsored by the Springfield African American Read-In, a collaborative partnership of Missouri State University Libraries, Drury University, Springfield-Greene County Library District, Springfield Public Schools and the Springfield NAACP Chapter. Additional support is provided by the Community Partnership of the Ozarks, the Springfield Regional Arts Council, and Friends of the Library.