Library Notes

Because the Omicron variant of COVID-19 currently is surging in Greene County, where the main Springfield campus of Missouri State University is located, the MSU Libraries decided to close down all small group study rooms in Duane G. Meyer Library. This preventive measure was announced prior to the start of the Spring Semester last week.  Recently, however, it came to the attention of the administrators of the Libraries of a special need for small rooms. When students take online exams…

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One of the many digitized special collections of the Missouri State University Libraries focuses on the life and art of Birdle Mannon and her birth family.  Birdle Hilda Rosalie Mannon was born on April 15, 1909.  In 1916, when Birdle was seven, the Mannon family (mother (Thea), father (Samuel William), two daughters (Birdle and Elnora), and two sons (Miles and Hadley)) moved from a sod house near North Platte, Nebraska, on the Great Plains to the Ozark Mountains and a…

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The Missouri State University Libraries is this year’s host for the 3rd annual Missouri A&OER Conference. The conference will take place virtually, March 9-11, 2022. Both the Call for Proposals and Registration are currently open.  The theme of this year’s conference will be Show Me the Path to A&OER through Affordability, Access, and Awareness. Bob Butterfield, Director of Instructional Resource Service at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, will provide the keynote address.  Tracy Stout, Head of Research & Instructional Services for the MSU Libraries, is chairing the Missouri A&OER…

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Julian Pace, an emeritus professor of Library Science at Missouri State University, passed on January 12, 2022 at the age of 83. He was born in Abilene, Texas, but received most of his formal education in Waco, Texas, including a BA in history from Baylor University. He earned his Master’s in Library and Information Science from the University of Oklahoma in 1963.  Julian became the Director of library services at Southwest Baptist College in Bolivar, Missouri, where he oversaw the…

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Jessica Bennett and Tracy Stout, two members of the Library Science faculty at Missouri State University, recently had an article published in the December 2021 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Public Services Quarterly. Their article, titled Changing the service model: utilizing tutor center models for reference desk redesign, outlined the process for researching, designing, and implementing a new space and service model. This process began in 2015 with the challenge to update and rethink the current service model and space…

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While the MSU Libraries has no direct involvement in this upcoming online conversation, part of the mission of the MSU Libraries is to support research, scholarship, publications, and literacy. The author Margaret Sulllivan has roots in Springfield and the Ozarks, and Professors Madden and Schmalzbauer are faculty members at Missouri State University. Join us Wednesday, February 2nd at 7 PM CST for a Virtual Author Event with Margaret Sullivan in conversation with Dr. Etta Madden and Dr. John Schmalzbauer, exploring…

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David Adams, Associate Professor and a member of the Library Science faculty at Missouri State University for the past 24 years, plans to retire on May 1, 2022. However, using accrued vacation, he plans to take off most of the month of April. David came to MSU in November 1997, when Karen Horny was Dean of Library Services, to serve as Head of the Library Systems Department. He was a major contributor in the successful migration from the NOTIS online…

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As we all are aware, this week’s Clif Notes articulated MSU’s general response to the current Omicron surge. The Greene County rolling seven-day average for reported and confirmed COVID cases (nearly all of them Omicron) is at the highest to date.   I encourage you to read President Smart’s message carefully, because it contains important information about the university’s mitigation strategies. This LibNotes article highlights how these protocols affect the Duane G. Meyer Library building and the people who use it….

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In November 2021 a new general history of libraries was published. The Library: A Fragile History was co-authored by Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen, both of whom are affiliated with the University of St. Andrews, a public university in Scotland. The new book has been published in the U.S. by Basic Books.  The authors note that throughout the millennia, libraries have been in a constant state of flux and reconceptualization. Hence the fragility. They assert that “no society has…

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