Library Notes

Friends and supporters of the Missouri State University Libraries on the main Springfield campus continued to be very generous in Fiscal Year 2023, which ended on June 30th. MSU’s Office of University Advancement reports that nearly $3 million was given in FY23, including both monetary gifts and gifts in kind. The gifts came from a wide and diverse group of individuals and organizations to support the various activities and areas of the MSU Libraries, which in turn support student success,…

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The Johnson Library & Museum (JLM) in Osceola, Missouri holds public lectures every spring and fall. The fall lecture this year will be held on Thursday, November 16, 2023 beginning with a smorgasbord meal at 6:00 p.m., followed by the lecture and discussion at 7:00, followed by a tour of the library for those who are interested, conducted by president Thomas M. Johnson II, a grandson of its founder. The event is free and open to the public. Ample parking…

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EBSCO, one of the leading supplier of support services and digital content to libraries of all types and sizes, recently organized and hosted a one-day Strategic Summit for Academic Library Deans, held in Scottsdale, Arizona, on Friday, September 29, 2023. Two dozen library deans from a wide variety of academic libraries attended, ranging in size from Colorado College with approximately 2,000 students to Arizona State University, with approximately 144,000 students. Eight members of EBSCO’s team also participated. Many western states…

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The fall/winter issue of OzarksWatch Magazine is hot off the press. Congratulations to managing editor Susan Croce Kelly and all the contributing authors and photographers for another great issue.   Some of the articles are: Brooks Blevins on lumber for baseball bats Steve Wiegenstein on the Language of Trees Mike O’Brien on Missouri’s Pioneer Forest Bob Linder on Logger Larry Hayes Rachel Whitaker on an Arkansas Timber Baron Two reminiscences by Alec Primm and Rich Heffern Three book reviews  …

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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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