Library Notes

Special Collections and Archives, a part of the Missouri State University Libraries, has installed a new exhibit in the lobby of Craig Hall at the entrance to Coger Theatre. The exhibit features images from fifty years of scrapbooks compiled by the Department of Theatre and Dance from the 1940s through the 1990s. Library Associate Jeffrey Lawson carefully digitized pages from the scrapbooks (some of which are very fragile). The scanned images were used in the display, since the original pages…

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Sabrina Lynn Motley, Director of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, has provided the following on-site attendance figures and social media impressions for the Ozarks Program held on the National Mall in DC over a ten day period in late June and early July as part of the annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival, which began back in 1967: On-site Attendance: 626,851  Total Impressions Across Social Media Platforms: 2,230,264  Top Facebook Posts were Ozarks-related (particularly Brooks Blevins and Ozark Mountain Daredevils posts, although others…

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Tom Peters, Dean of Library Services at Missouri State University, will give four talks in October: Date: Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023Group: Missouri Council of the Blind 67th annual conventionTopic: The Birth of Route 66 in Springfield MO in 1926 Date: Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023 (Homecoming)Group: MSU Golden Bears (alumni who graduated at least 50 years ago)Topic: Campus Life in 1973, 1968, 1963, 1958, etc. Date: Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2023Group: Rachel Donelson Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR)Topic:…

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Missouri State University Libraries’ Special Collections and Archives is excited to share reproductions of clay tablets, papyri, several examples of original writing materials, and books related to mathematics with MSU’s Mathematics Group, and Dr. Kishor Shah’s Calculus I and History of Mathematics classes! The items will be on display Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. through September 28th. Visitors to Special Collections are also welcome to view the materials. All visitors are encouraged to inspect the facsimiles…

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The current (September 2023) issue of Missouri State, the magazine for MSU Alumni and Friends, includes a 12-page article about the Ozarks Program at the 2023 Smithsonian Folklife Festival held on the National Mall in DC for ten days in late June and early July. MSU was the lead partner with the Smithsonian Institution on the program, and the MSU Libraries led MSU’s efforts. The Ozarks Program even made the cover of the magazine! Kaitlyn McConnell from OzarksAlive.com is the…

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At 7:00 this evening (Thursday, September 21, 2023) in the Auditorium at the Library Center on South Campbell Avenue, David Jerome, author of the new book Bill Virdon: A Life in Baseball, will speak. Baseball player Bill Virdon wore many hats in his illustrious career — Rookie of the Year, center fielder, team manager and more. Trace the life and career of one of the most underrated players in baseball history with David Jerome, author of “Bill Virdon: A Life…

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An exhibit about Missouri State University’s ROTC program and its history is now on display on the third floor of Duane G. Meyer Library on the main Springfield campus of MSU. The exhibit includes materials (such as uniforms, patches, and other ephemera) generously donated by the MSU Department of Military Science, as well as materials from the University Archives Collections. ROTC has had a campus presence since 1952. At that time, participation was compulsory for all male freshman and sophomore…

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Musical gatherings have long been part of Ozarks culture — a reality that continues into the present. To help spread awareness about these opportunities, Ozarks Alive teamed up with Missouri State University’s Ozarks Studies Institute to create an interactive, online map that showcases recurring events throughout the Missouri Ozarks. To see the map, click here.  The color coding provides information about the day of the week of the musical gathering: Monday is blue Tuesday is purple Wednesday is green Thursday is…

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At present the Missouri State University Libraries has several vacant positions. Work is underway to fill these positions. Recently the Provost gave us permission to undertake several searches. Here is a progress report: The search for a Library Information Technology (LIT) Coordinator is open and ongoing. Holly Kouns is serving as the chair of that search committee. Derek Moser and Grace Jackson Brown also are serving as members of this search committee.   A position description for a new Digitization Lab…

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In early June, the University Archives email account received an invitation to share the history of the LGBTQIA+ community with the staff of the US Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield. Steve Dillman, the Special Populations Program Coordinator at the Medical Center, felt the staff could benefit from learning more about the contents of the archives after reading about the Ozarks Lesbian and Gay Archives (OLGA) in the Springfield News-Leader and reviewing the collections on the Libraries’ website. Mr….

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