Library Notes

As Missouri State University prepares for the fall semester, many modifications, large and small, are being made to campus. Seated classes will continue to be the predominate way of teaching and learning at MSU, but online courses will play a larger role than heretofore. One technology that was used extensively during the last half of the Spring semester and during the summer session was Zoom. Founded in 2011 by Henry Yuan and launched in 2013, Zoom uses Internet-based communications technology…

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On Monday the three partner organizations — IMLS, OCLC, and Battelle — that had undertaken a large study of the safety of library materials during the COVID-19 pandemic began to release preliminary results.  The preliminary results indicate “that the virus SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 is not detectable on five common library materials after three days.” This seems to lend credence to the practice of the MSU Libraries and many other libraries that the quarantining of returned library materials for three…

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A proposal from Dr. Jim Baumlin from the English Department and Associate Dean of Libraries Rachel Besara has been accepted to present a session on An Open-Access Platform for Student-Faculty Collaboration at the 35th annual Showcase of Teaching and Learning on August 12, 2020.     The session will highlight how BearWorks, MSU’s Institutional Repository, can be used as a platform to facilitate production and dissemination of scholarly collaborations between students and faculty.  Materials from the Ozarks Studies Institute will be…

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Professor Tracy Stout graduated from the SPARC Open Education Leadership Program on Friday, June 12, 2020. The SPARC Open Education Leadership Program is an intensive professional development program to empower academic professionals with the knowledge, skills, and connections to lead successful open education initiatives that benefit students. The two-semester program blends online, peer-to-peer, and project-based learning to build a comprehensive understanding of the open education space coupled with practical know-how to take action on campus and beyond. Structured as a…

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The Spring/Summer 2020 issue of OzarksWatch Magazine is back from the printer and ready to read. The theme for this issue is Chronicling the Ozarks. Included are a round-table discussion of present-day chroniclers, articles about May Kennedy McCord, Gordon McCann, mapping the Ozarks, Lucile Morris Upton, the Unterrified Democrat newspaper, an essay by Dale Freeman, pieces about Maude Duncan and Bob Mitchell, photographing and drawing the Ozarks, various chronicles of Shannon County, and several letters and book reviews. As always,…

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Several members of the Library Science Faculty were honored in this year’s All-Faculty Recognition Presentation: Tracy Stout, FCTL Online Course Development Bootcamp Grace Jackson-Brown, 5 Year Recognition for Service-Learning Teaching Service Anniversaries: Raegan Wiechert, 15 Years of Service Jim Coombs, 40 Years of Service Retiring faculty members were also honored, including Jim Coombs and Cheryl Jones Grants: Rachel Besara, International Travel Award Lindsey Taggart, Assessment Grant Awardee   The full virtual presentation is available on the Office of the Provost website (scroll…

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Early Monday morning, June 15, 2020, a crew arrived to move the History Museum on the Square’s archival collections to their new location.  These materials were stored in Meyer Library while the museum planners worked on making a new and exciting local history museum.  That award-winning facility opened in 2019 and has been a boon to the community.  If you haven’t yet visited, you should! Their archives consist of the museum’s photograph collections, organizational records, family papers, and other research…

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On Tuesday, June 16, 2020 the Grammy Museum Grant Program, headquartered in Los Angeles, announced that $200,000 had been awarded to 13 organizations in North America for music research and sound preservation.  Awardees include Princeton University, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, Ryerson University in Toronto, the Research Foundation for SUNY-Albany, the University of Oregon, the University of Pittsburgh Library System, and the Missouri State University Libraries.  The MSU Libraries has been awarded $18,000 to advance the ongoing Ozark Jubilee Digitization Project,  a…

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The new MarooNation Book Club, a collaborative program of the MSU Alumni Association and the MSU Libraries, is off to a great start. The 144 alums and friends of MSU who are participating are wrapping our lively online chat about  The First Beverly Hillbilly: The Untold Story of the Creator of Rural TV Comedy, written by Ruth Henning about her life with her husband Paul, the genius behind three hit TV comedies of the Sixties: The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction,…

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On Monday, June 8, 2020 the new information systems for users of the Missouri State University Libraries came online. MSU has the distinction of being the first academic institution in the United States to fully implement FOLIO — the Future Of Libraries Is Open — the new open-source library services platform.  The implementation team at the MSU Libraries worked with a team from EBSCO, which is hosting the new system for MSU, and librarians and developers in Europe to bring…

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