Library Notes

The Max Hunter Collection is an archive of almost 1600 Ozark Mountain folk songs, recorded between 1956 and 1976. A traveling salesman from Springfield, Missouri, Hunter took his reel-to-reel tape recorder into the hills and hollows of the Ozarks, preserving the heritage of the region by recording the songs and stories of many generations. As important as the songs themselves are the voices of the Missouri and Arkansas folks who shared their talents and recollections with Hunter. Between 1998 and 2001,…

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Date: Tuesday, April 3, 2018, at 7:00 pm in Meyer Library Room 101 Title: “Mandel Meets the Bard: King Lear and the Shakespearean Apocalypse” Description: Emily St. John Mandel’s science fiction novel, Station Eleven, a finalist for the 2014 National Book Award, “begins” where King Lear “ends.” While a knowledge of Shakespeare can enrich our reading of Mandel’s novel, we might reverse their roles and ask, “How can Mandel help us read Lear?” By a continuous process of reinvention, Shakespeare…

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As previously reported in Library Notes, our own Joyce Stefka will be retiring at the end of January 2018. The search to find and hire a new Executive Assistant II should commence officially this Friday, when the position is posted on the website that lists current employment opportunities at MSU. Please feel free to share the position announcement with anyone you think may be interested in it, or know someone who is. The position description basically is the official position…

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The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (DNB) is the national record of men and women who have shaped British history and culture, worldwide, from the Romans to the 21st century. The Dictionary offers concise, up-to-date biographies of more than 60,000 men and women who died in or before the year 2012 who have had some significant connection to British history, including individuals from Great Britain as well as individuals such as Mahatma Gandhi, from current or former British territories, or people such…

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During the weekend of January 6-7, 2018, C-SPAN 2, known as Book TV, aired a number of stories about the history and significance of Springfield, Missouri, including an 8:42 interview with MSU Dean Library Services Thomas A. Peters, about his recent biography of John T. Woodruff, one of the leading developers and civic leaders in the history of Springfield. Other segments included interviews with: Author Samantha Mosier, Creating Organic Standards in the United States: The Diffusion of State Organic Food…

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During this preparatory week prior to the start of the Spring Semester of 2018 at MSU, crews were busy in the lobby of Duane G. Meyer Library assembling new furniture. Here’s a “before” photo taken early Monday morning, when the space was bare, with a shiny newly waxed floor, followed by another photo taken late Wednesday afternoon, after most of the new furniture had been assembled and installed. The window wall on the south side of the lobby also has…

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Battlefield Atlas of Price’s Missouri Expedition of 1864 is intended to serve as an educational reference for the Westport and Mine Creek staff rides. The Atlas is divided into seven parts. Part I, Missouri’s Divided Loyalties, and Part II, Missouri’s Five Seasons, provide an overview of Missouri’s history from the initial settlement of the Louisiana Purchase Territories through the opening years of the American Civil War. The remaining parts cover the Confederate plan, the Confederate movement into Missouri and the Union reaction,…

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On Saturday evening, January 6, 2018, a dinner was held in the Crystal Room of the old Kentwood Arms Hotel, now MSU’s Kentwood Hall, to celebrate the 150th birthday of John T. Woodruff. Woodruff who lived from 1868 until 1949, and was active in Springfield from 1904 until approximately 1945, was the paragon of civic engagement, building a number of large, important buildings, including the Woodruff Building, the Colonial Hotel, Hotel Sansone, the Kentwood Arms, and the Frisco Office Building….

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The Springfield African American Read-In (AARI), a collaborative effort of the Missouri State University Libraries, the Springfield-Greene County Library District, Springfield Public Schools, Drury University, and the Springfield Branch of the NAACP, is entering its ninth year. Under the leadership of Grace Jackson-Brown, a library science faculty member here, the MSU Libraries, acting as the lead institution and fiscal agent for the group, recently received a $1,450 grant from the Community Foundation of the Ozarks to create an AARI website,…

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Meet MSU Libraries’ Student Employee of the Month, Thurman Conner! Works in: Infant Through Grade 12 Resources (IG12) Major: Mass Media/Media Production Favorite Book & TV Series: Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire series Something students should know about the libraries: “You can meet a lot of interesting people at the library and get a lot done.”