Library Notes

The Missouri State University Libraries and the Springfield-Greene County Library District are collaborating again to organize and host a free public talk by Sarah Jane Nelson, author of a forthcoming biography of Max Hunter. Ballad Hunting with Max Hunter: Stories of an Ozark Folksong Collector, from the University of Illinois Press, is described in the blurb: “A traveling salesman with little formal education, Max Hunter gravitated to song catching and ballad hunting while on business trips in the Ozarks. Hunter recorded…

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Planning continues for the big Ozarks Program at the 2023 Smithsonian Folklife Festival, to be held from June 28 to July 9 on the National Mall in DC. Here are a few updates: Today, Thursday, October 13, 2022, Tom Peters will be meeting in Branson with various representatives of the tourism and outdoor recreation industry, exploring those themes of the program. Next Monday through Wednesday a team from the Smithsonian Institution (SI) will be in the Ozarks to continue working…

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Tom Peters, Dean of Library Services at the Missouri State University Libraries on the main Springfield campus, is a member of Signature Class 44 of Leadership Springfield.  According to the their website, “Leadership Springfield is the premier program for leadership development in the Ozarks, designed to inspire, develop and connect leaders to serve the Springfield community. In over 30 years of operating, we have graduated more than 2,000 community leaders who are motivated and inspired to make an impact.” On…

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The MSU Libraries will host an opening reception for “Words and Pictures – The Power of Literacy through Portraits and Stories” an exhibition by Randy Bacon presented by Arvest Bank and Ozarks Literacy Council.   The grand opening event, free and open-to-the-public, will be held at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 11 in room 107 of Duane G. Meyer Library. Light refreshments will be served.   According to the artist’s website, “Randy is an award winning American photographer with an…

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The Missouri State University Libraries is offering a professional development opportunity for up to 16 current library personnel to virtually attend the 2022 Access Services Conference. The annual conference is an opportunity for attendees to present and learn about issues related to circulation, reserves, interlibrary loan, student worker management, security, stacks maintenance and more. The conference will be held November 15 -17, 2022 in Atlanta, but the MSU contingent will attend virtually. The conference is being organized by Access Services…

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Joshua Lambert, a member of the Library Science Faculty at Missouri State University, recently attended the WOLFcon conference, organized by the Open Library Foundation. Some staff members from the MSU Libraries also attended some of the virtual sessions.  The FOLIO Project is part of the Open Library Foundation (OLF). The OLF currently serves as home to five projects: FOLIO, GOKb, ReShare, VuFind, and ARC. There were sessions at the conference that discussed each of these projects as well as governance issues and future funding for…

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On September 21, 2022, the Library of Congress (LOC) announced that it has awarded an initial contract of $7.77 million to EBSCO Information Services to modify and implement FOLIO, a new open-source library services platform.  Two and a half years ago, in the spring of 2020, the Missouri State University Libraries was the first library in the world to fully implement FOLIO (the Future Of Libraries Is Open), also using EBSCO to host the software.  Earlier in September 2022 the…

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On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of this week, the publishing arm of the Ozarks Studies Institute, an ongoing initiative of the Missouri State University Libraries, is one of the vendors at the annual conference of the Missouri Library Association. This year the conference is being held in Springfield.  Managing Editor Elaina Kersey represented the OSI at this conference, showcasing OzarksWatch Magazine, published twice each year, and the six currently published books of the OSI, with more titles on the way. 

On Tuesday, September 20, 2022, Tom Peters, Dean of Libraries at Missouri State University, gave a talk at Branson Centennial Museum as part of their monthly Tuesday Talks Series. Approximately 40 people attended. Peters spoke on the topic of “Over 100 Years of Hillbilly Variety Shows.” He traced the emergence of this type of show in the early 20th century, with the Weaver Brothers & Elviry as early masters of the form. He then used the Ozark Jubilee in the…

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Dr. Grace Jackson-Brown, a member of the Library Science Faculty at Missouri State University, will serve as co-director of a large planning grant awarded recently by IMLS, the Institute for Museum and Library Services. The IMLS, in concert with its strategic goal to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion through its support of libraries and museums, awarded the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, in partnership with the Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA) and the Public Library…

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