This week, the Ozarks Studies Institute, an ongoing initiative of the Duane G. Meyer Library, published the latest edition of OzarksWatch Magazine. Themed “My Ozarks,” this issue is a meditation on place and what this region means to many of the people who call the Ozarks home.

This will also be the last issue of OzarksWatch edited by Susan Croce Kelly. She is resigning from her position in December 2024. Susan has served in this role for 8 years and helped to cultivate a rotation of writers who passionately chronicled history and culture in this region of the country.

“Thank you for being our readers, for sending us story ideas, and for contributing your talents over the years to make it a publication that I am truly proud to have been associated with,” she wrote in her final Letter from the Editor. 

The Duane G. Meyer Library thanks Susan heartily for her work on the magazine. As the Ozarks Studies Institute looks to the future, Rachel Kersey will officially step into the role as managing-editor of the magazine. The Ozarks Studies Institute will be working towards getting the publication peer-reviewed and cultivating a mix of scholars and journalists to contribute. While local history will continue to be a focal point of the magazine, the scope will broaden to include current events and a diversity voices. Over time, the publication will migrate online and will become Open Access. This will allow more people to access the magazine’s contents because it will be freely accessible to anyone with an internet connection.

“Of course, we will provide print subscriptions,” said Rachel Besara, Associate Dean of Meyer Library. “But the real purpose is to share the riches of the Ozarks with everyone. That is part of the university’s public affairs mission.”