Library Notes

The new ASPIRE Service on the Third Level of Duane G. Meyer Library on the Springfield campus of Missouri State University has received a $10,000 grant from BNSF (Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad). BNSF funds will be used to provide furnishings conducive to collaborative learning experiences. Jan Johnson, the Libraries employee who has provided much of the vision and energy in developing ASPIRE, is the principal investigator on this grant-funded project. The creation of the ASPIRE  interdisciplinary space within the…

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The Lena Wills Collection (M 2) in Special Collections and Archives contains the research material from a local genealogist Lena Wills.  Wills was best known in Springfield for “Ozarks Genealogy,” the column she wrote from 1969 until her death in 1986 for the Springfield News-Leader.  An avid genealogist, she taught classes in the subject at Central Bible College and at other locations. Wills was born in 1902 and raised in Gerster in St. Clair County.  As a child, her family lived in…

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Tracy Stout attended and presented at the Adult Student Welcome hosted by Adult Student Services on Saturday, August 18. This event is a one-day orientation to Missouri State University for new adult students.  Opening remarks were provided by Dr. Joye Norris, Associate Provost for Access and Outreach. The rest of the morning consisted of presentations by various campus organizations including the Bear CLAW, MSU Online, and the MSU Libraries.  Students learned about several campus services available to them including the…

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This four day intensive workshop series, conducted by the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning at MSU, focused on accessibility in teaching design, specifically universal design for learning (UDL).  There are three main principles of universal design: multiple means of representation, multiple means of action and expression, and multiple means of engagement.  All of these principles add up to a course that appeals to learners all over the spectrum of physical, and mental abilities. In an ideal scenario, courses are…

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Beginning on Monday, August 20, 2018, the first day of the fall semester on the Springfield campus of Missouri State University, the lobby of Duane G. Meyer Library — newly renovated last January with great furniture and more power outlets — will remain open continuously. To enter the building between midnight and 7:00 a.m. most days, users will need to swipe their BearPass card. Although occasionally the lobby will need to be closed for special events and for other reasons,…

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Special Collections and Archives recently received several boxes from the estate of John Q. Hammons.  The donation includes family photographs, numerous slides documenting Hammons’ life and work, awards, and scrapbooks, including one from the early 1940s when Hammons worked on the Alaska Highway.   Intern Macaylah Gant-Hodge, senior in Art and Design, is shown reboxing and describing the collection.  The MSU Libraries also thanks local realtor and historian, Richard Crabtree, for his support in getting these materials to MSU.  For…

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On Friday and Saturday, August 10 and 11, 2018, the MSU Libraries had a table at the 8th Annual Birthplace of Route 66 Festival held in downtown Springfield, Missouri. Another attendance record was set again this year, with approximately 56,000 people attending, despite a heavy downpour on Friday evening. Out table was located in the Old Glass Place on East St. Louis Street (part of the original Route 66 alignment), in an area devoted to authors, artists, and associations. We…

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The annual GEP 101/UHC 110 Pizza Party at Meyer Library is designed to get new students into the library for the first time, while providing library employees an opportunity to establish lasting connections with them.  This welcome event also gives students a sense of the services, spaces, and collections we have all in one building. The event provides a fun, no pressure environment for students to explore the building and all it contains. This year our annual welcome event will…

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The Arnold Civil War Letters (WP 2) are a new collection in the Missouri State University Libraries’ online digital collections.  This project was a collaboration between Garnett Library on the Missouri State University – West Plains campus and Meyer Library’s Special Collections and Archives on Missouri State University’s Springfield campus. John L. Arnold served in Company E of the 97th New York Regiment in the Union Army during the United States Civil War, and he was discharged as a captain in 1864.  The fifty-one letters…

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After months of discussion of and searching for a good, compelling, unique name for the new Interdisciplinary Space in the southwest corner of the Third Level of Duane G. Meyer Library, we finally settled on a name: ASPIRE: Achievement Studio: Promoting Interdisciplinary Research and Education. Jan Johnson, our Distributed User Support Specialist, and her husband came up with this name, and therefore are the winners of the naming prize, a $50 Amazon gift certificate. Congratulations and thanks, Jan! ASPIRE is designed…

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