Many good things came out of the Ozarks Program recently held on the National Mall in DC as part of the annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival. One of them was a new map of the Ozarks. The planning committee for the Ozarks Program wanted to create a new map of the region specifically for this Festival program, and we commissioned Curtis Copeland to work with the committee on the design and details. Copeland is a GIS Manager for the City of…
Craig Amason, a special projects librarian at Missouri State University, recently was interviewed on the “Making Democracy Work” weekly program on KSMU, the local public radio station, about his research into the increasing diversity of the population in Noel, Missouri, in McDonald County, located in the extreme southwest corner of the state. Most of the population change has occurred in the past 30 years. Jobs have driven this diversification, especially the poultry processing plants in McDonald County, but the impact…
Greta Cross, the Trending Topics Reporter for the Springfield News-Leader, recently researched and wrote an article about the white oak logs that were transported from the forests of the Missouri Ozarks to the National Mall in DC, to be used for demonstrations of white oak basket making during the Ozarks Program of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. In her reporting work, Greta Cross focuses on localizing national trends and highlighting Springfield’s LGBTQIA+ and arts communities. Greta also enjoys long-form feature reporting…
Missouri State University Libraries announces a new position in Resource Management & Discovery (RM&D)— the Content Strategist position. This new role will serve alongside the Director of RM&D to form the nucleus of a new content management initiative that Meyer Library is slowly beginning to implement. Director of RM&D, Derek Moser, says “[t]he Content Strategist is the first personnel piece to this larger content management puzzle that we’re trying to put together here. In late May we announced our new Journals Access List—a tool…
The Ozarks Studies Institute, an ongoing initiative of the Missouri State University Libraries, is actively pursuing new means of publicizing our book series. As interest in the publications grow and authors eagerly seek to get more attention on their books, managing editor Elaina Kersey is submitting applications to nationwide (and international) distributors that are able to get the books onto Amazon.com and into bookstores like Barnes & Noble. This week and next week, Elaina will be in conversation with an…
This week, the Ozarks Studies Institute has published Ozarks Tales for Children: A Storyteller’s Handbook. After many years of hard work, adapter Cherri Jones’ anthology of tall tales, animal tales, trickster tales, folktales, and historical tales (as well as Ozarks jokes and games) is now available! Complete with nearly 80 of the best illustrations done by students in Jennifer Grace-Duran’s art classes at the Greenwood Laboratory School, and family-friendly retellings of stories by legends like Vance Randolph, Douglas Mahnkey, Mary…
Last Wednesday, a group of students from high schools across the state and the nation visited the Duane G. Meyer Library at Missouri State University as part of the #BearsTeach initiative. The program aims to address the statewide teacher shortage by providing an immersion program on campus. “It was focusing on what we have in [the library] and what they can use if they come here and choose to go into the college of Ed,” said Paige Harp, coordinator of…
OLGA, the Ozarks Lesbian and Gay Archive, located in Special Collections and Archives, part of the MSU Libraries on the main Springfield campus of Missouri State University, had a information table at the Ozarks PrideFest held last Saturday on the square in Downtown Springfield. Did you know the Ozarks Lesbian and Gay Archives, or OLGA, was founded almost 20 years ago? Professors Holly Baggett and Ralph Smith approached the Library in 2003 to establish a cooperative project with the Missouri…
Mark Arnold, who has served the Missouri State University Libraries and its users for over 30 years, has decided to retire at the end of July. His current position is Library Systems Administrator – Support Specialist. Just a few highlights of Mark’s amazingly productive career: He served as chair of the search committee that led to the hiring of David Adams as Systems Librarian. Mark is a citizen scholar and lifelong learner. Eleven years ago he earned a Master of…
Join us on Friday June 16, 2023 beginning at 10:30 a.m. for coffee and pastries and check out the NEW “Broadcasting the Ozarks” exhibit! Created by the State Historical Society of Missouri-Springfield Research Center, the “Broadcasting the Ozarks: A History of RadiOzark Enterprises” exhibit showcases the history of Springfield’s RadiOzark Enterprises, the company behind nationally-known syndicated radio programs such as “The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show,” “The Red Foley Show,” and Shorty Thompson’s “Saddle Rockin’ Rhythm”. Learn about Springfield’s legacy…