After months of discussion of and searching for a good, compelling, unique name for the new Interdisciplinary Space in the southwest corner of the Third Level of Duane G. Meyer Library, we finally settled on a name: ASPIRE: Achievement Studio: Promoting Interdisciplinary Research and Education. Jan Johnson, our Distributed User Support Specialist, and her husband came up with this name, and therefore are the winners of the naming prize, a $50 Amazon gift certificate. Congratulations and thanks, Jan!

ASPIRE is designed to be a shared community space where students work with faculty to develop the technical and soft skills that are essential to advanced workforce development and business success in the 21st century. ASPIRE encourages and enables faculty to step out of their individual departments and work collaboratively to engage students in discussions, to develop team-based projects designed for active learning, and to participate in interdisciplinary research.  Library leadership provides a guide to developing interdisciplinary scholarship that aligns with the goals of developing educated persons, business expectations of college graduates, and the greater good of Missouri communities. The program includes emerging technologies that will have growing importance on the workforce and regional economy in the near and distant future. The creation of a program that supports interdisciplinary scholarship within a technologically enhanced library space will provide opportunities for students and faculty from multiple disciplines to apply classroom learning to real-life issues and actual requirements on the job.