Library Notes

Staff in Meyer Library’s Access Services department volunteered at Ozarks Food Harvest Food Bank last week as a part of their inclusive excellence goals. The group stretched their creative muscles as they crafted cards for the Weekend Backpack program. The Backpack program provides nutritious meals for children to take home every Friday for the entire school year. More than 1,700 children in 60+ schools in Springfield and across the Ozarks benefit from the program that began in 2003. Each backpack…

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As the Missouri State University provost, Dr. John Jasinski, has stated in a memo to the library, Rachel Besara will serve as interim dean of Missouri State Libraries following the retirement of Tom Peters in December 2024. Besara has been serving as Associate Dean since 2017.  “Meyer Library is central to Missouri State’s learning ecosystem,” Jasinski wrote. “We anticipate that its role will only grow as it continues to evolve in response to educational, scholarly and community needs. As we…

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Staff from Special Collections and Archives represented Meyer Library at the PSU in October at Missouri State’s second annual Pride Fair. Special Collections and Archives has happily participated both years the fair has been held and plans to continue their presence at future events.   MSU’s Pride Fair is an event that celebrates LGBTQ+ pride as well as connecting students with local community members and resources. The Pride Fair is held at the end of October, which is LGBTQ+ History…

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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…

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University Libraries is hosting the traveling exhibit, “The Rise of Missouri Women in the Federal Reserve” from Monday, November 11 to Friday, November 15 on the first level of Duane G. Meyer Library. The exhibit examines the experiences of women working at the Federal Reserve banks in Missouri and highlights past and present voices of trailblazers in the field. You can learn more about the exhibit by clicking the hyperlink above.  

Students from Buffalo Prairie Middle School visited Meyer Library on Monday, October 23, 2024. The class was comprised of ten 7th and 8th grade students who are enrolled in the new Library Science class led by Media Specialist Julie Thomas. The students learned about the different functions and roles within an academic library through interactive presentations and a building tour. They finished their time at Meyer in the Innovation Lab where they made buttons, learned how to use a heat…

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Earlier this month, Professor Tracy Stout attended the annual Open Education Conference, a key event focused on open educational resources (OER) and open pedagogy. The conference, held under the theme “It’s About Time,” inspired attendees to challenge traditional boundaries and envision a future where education is open, inclusive, and transformative for all. With partial support from a travel grant provided by the Midwestern Higher Education Compact (MHEC), Professor Stout participated in sessions centered around expanding accessibility and affordability in education….

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Rachel Besara, Associate Dean of Libraries at Missouri State University, recently returned from WolfCON 2024, the World Open Library Federation Conference, which was held in London at the Senate House on the campus of the University of London.  This event provided opportunities to dive into the latest in resource sharing platforms, OpenRS, and data reporting, Metadb. There were also important sessions about open science initiatives, showcasing how the STEM disciplines and libraries are working together to enhancing access to research…

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Professor Joshua Lambert of the Duane G. Meyer Library recently attended the 2024 Midwest Data Librarian Symposium (MDLS) in Lawrence, KS. The 2024 MDLS Conference presentations included innovative research related to data repository use and better ways to engage minorities so that they will contribute to institutional repositories. The participants practiced using Application Programming Interfaces, which could better inform their institution about researcher publishing practices. Other sessions helped librarians think of complex concepts using metaphors so that they can better…

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Author-duo Tom Koob and Curtis Copeland, who together penned the Ozarks Studies Institute’s latest publication, On The River: A History of the Ozarks Float Trip, will be presenting their book and doing a signing on Monday, October 21 at 4 p.m. The event will take place in the Ozarks Room on the 3rd floor of the Duane G. Meyer Library on MSU’s Springfield campus. On The River examines the guides, camps, outfitters and gear that spawned and grew the distinctive…

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