Library Notes

Springfield businessman and philanthropist Guy Mace recently donated a remarkable collection of art and artifacts to Missouri State University. The gift was made to the Department of Art and Design. The MSU Libraries will house, curate, and display the items in the collection. The collection includes African masks, figural wooden staffs and ceremonial knives and spears from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries along with Native American, Asian, and Oceanic masks and headdresses. Dr. Billie Follensbee, professor in the Department of…

Read More Read More

America: History and Life is a complete bibliographic reference to research on the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. Published since 1964, the database comprises over 490,000 bibliographic entries for periodicals dating back from 1895, providing an incomparable research tool for students and researchers of U.S. and Canadian history. This extensive database covers over 1,800 journals and in addition to articles, each year America: History and Life includes approximately 6,000 citations of book and…

Read More Read More

Bright and early on Monday morning, July 9, 2018 Lindsey Taggart began working at the Missouri State University Libraries. She is serving as our Director of Resource Management and Discovery, a new position, and a 12-month, tenure-track assistant professor. Prior to coming to MSU, Lindsey served as the Assessment and Collection Development Librarian and Assistant Professor at Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas. She has worked previously at Crowder College in Neosho, Missouri, at the Forest Institute of Professional Psychology in Springfield, Missouri,…

Read More Read More

The 8th Annual Birthplace of Route 66 Festival will be held in downtown Springfield on Friday and Saturday, August 10-11, 2018. Official starting time is noon on Friday. This year’s events are exciting with an all-free musical lineup. Musical acts scheduled to appear include favorite Branson acts on the KY3/KSPR stage in Park Central Square and regional favorites Lyal Strickland, Mark Chapman, Blue Plate Special, Makenna & Brock, Laura Ashley, the Mixtapes, Machine Gun Symphony, Dirty Saints and Dr. Zhivegas, Justice Adams,…

Read More Read More

On Thursday evening, June 28, 2019, over 200 people gathered in the Historic Fox Theater on the Square in downtown Springfield to watch a new documentary film about the history and spirit of the Springfield music scene. Dave Hoekstra, a media person (Sun-Times and WGN) and author from Chicago, is the producer, and Abbey Waterworth, a local singer and musician (and a student employee in the MSU Libraries), is the associate producer.  The evening began with a musical performance by…

Read More Read More

With encouragement and support from President Clif Smart and Provost Frank Einhellig, the Ozarks Studies Institute (OSI), an initiative of the Missouri State University Libraries, has undertaken an ambitious schedule to publish several books and music CDs over the next four years. The goal of an OSI Publication Series is to raise the public profile of the Ozarks Studies Institute, establishing its leadership role in researching, archiving, interpreting, disseminating, and promoting knowledge of the Ozarks, its rich history, and its…

Read More Read More

The next Reptile Day at the Fairbanks School in Northwest Springfield will be held on Saturday, July 21, beginning at 10:00 a.m. This event is free and open to the public. Love reptiles? Curious about them? Want to overcome your fear of them? Reptile Day is the place to go! Our staff consists of knowledgeable people who are passionate about, and keep, these animals as a hobby. This is more than just looking at them through glass. Reptile Day is…

Read More Read More

Members of the Space Committee of the MSU Libraries have been working long and hard with representatives from MSU’s Office of Planning, Design & Construction, Scott Rice Office Works, and Steelcase to select furnishings for the new “den” being established at the top of the main interior ramp into the First Level of MSU’s Duane G. Meyer Library. The furnishings now are on order. Funding for this particular phase of the multi-year library renovation project has been made possible in…

Read More Read More

Earlier this month, the Special Collections and Archives unit of the Missouri State University Libraries  hosted middle-school students from the Springfield Public School’s Explore! program.  This summer program allows students and their parents to select from a wide variety of courses tailored to spark their imagination and challenge their intellect.  The 7th grade students who visited Meyer Library learned more about African American history in the Ozarks. Archivists from MSU’s Special Collections and from the State Historical Society of Missouri met…

Read More Read More

The electronic version of the 6-volume print set provides a comprehensive, multidisciplinary view of Latin American history and culture from prehistoric times to the present. It covers cultural issues and includes numerous biographical profiles of important figures in politics, letters, and the arts. The second edition of the Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture is a monumental work and represents the best of scholarship on Latin America.  This edition incorporates new material in substantial ways. It includes 568 new entries, expanding the total…

Read More Read More