Library Notes

The Human Library is a worldwide organization, founded in Copenhagen, Denmark, with a seventeen year history. Its slogan — “Don’t Judge a Book By Its Cover” — says it all. The MSU Libraries expanded upon that idea with its motto for its pilot human library project — “Read a book that talks back!” The MSU Libraries 2017 pilot human library is named LIVING STORIES: Sustainability. The pilot project focuses on the 2017 MSU Public Affairs theme and it gives students…

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Environment Complete offers deep coverage in applicable areas of agriculture, ecosystem ecology, energy, renewable energy sources, natural resources, marine & freshwater science, geography, pollution & waste management, environmental technology, environmental law, public policy, social impacts, urban planning, and more. Environment Complete contains more than 2.5 million records from more than 2,200 domestic and international titles going back to 1888. The database contains full text for more than 920 journals, including many of the most used journals in the discipline, such…

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This Friday, Sept. 8, at 7:00 p.m. in the Plaster Student Union Theater, the MSU Department of English and Moon City Press are hosting a poetry slam by nationally ranked Spoken Word poets Ill Dialects, and MSU’s own Spoken Word student group, Untamed Tongues. A poetry slam is a fun, competitive event where poets read their poetry aloud. This event is free and open to everyone. Where else can you say, “I slam, therefore I am”?

The southwest corner of the Second Level of Duane G. Meyer Library — known affectionately as “the Wedge” — is getting a complete makeover. The Wedge will offer a great new place to study, as well as a great view of the main campus quad. The installation of new carpeting is well-nigh complete, as is repainting of the walls. Ten new tables, with 40 new chairs, have been put in place. The Provost, Frank Einhellig, provided the funding for this…

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Late last month the libraries of the University of Missouri at Columbia and Missouri State University in Springfield began very preliminary conversations that may eventually lead to a collaborative long-term print retention program involving these two universities. Ann Campion Riley, the newly-appointed Vice Provost for Libraries and University Librarian at Mizzou, and Tom Peters, Dean of Library Services at MSU, had a phone conversation covering basic possible parameters of such an agreement. Ann Campion Riley and her staff will work…

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In Fiscal Year 2017 private giving to the MSU Libraries increased over 700% to nearly $1 million, compared to FY16. Nearly 1,000 individuals made donations in FY17 to the MSU Libraries. Gifts to the MSU Libraries include both in-kind gifts and financial contributions. A major contributor to this phenomenal year-over-year growth was the substantial in-kind gift from Pete and Sara Morgan of their world-class collection of military insignia. That gift will continue coming to the MSU Libraries in FY18, and…

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Jim Coombs, the Maps and GIS Librarian at the Missouri State University Libraries, and GIS Student Assistant Emilie Burke, designed several specific, detailed maps that will appear in September in a new book written by J. Blake Perkins, Hillbilly Hellraisers: Federal Power and Populist Defiance in the Ozarks (University of Illinois Press). One of the maps, Arkansas Physiographic Regions, used boundaries of the Ozark Plateau, Arkansas River Valley, and Ouachita Mountains established by the Arkansas Geological Survey. Another map, Railroads in the Arkansas…

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GreenFILE offers information covering all aspects of human impact to the environment. It is a collection of scholarly, governmental, and general-interest titles that includes content on global warming, green building, pollution, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, recycling, and related topics. The database provides indexing and abstracts for approximately 295,000 records, as well as Open Access full text for more than 4,600 items. GreenFILE covers the connections between the environment and a variety of disciplines such as agriculture, education, law, health, and technology.  This database…

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On Thursday evening, September 21st, in the Historic Fox Theater on the Square, Katrina Parks, a documentary film maker from Los Angeles, will be showing excerpts from her forthcoming documentary about Route 66 from female perspectives — the women who lived, traveled, and worked along the Mother Road. As part of this project, Ms. Parks has been collecting oral history interviews on this topic. This event, which will begin at 6:00 p.m., is free and open to the public. The…

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As the MSU Libraries continues to make digitized episodes of the Ozark Jubilee television program available online, several related items have also been generously donated to Special Collections and Archives, either for digitization or for the libraries to preserve the original items, including music recordings, episodes of the show, programs, photos, and much more.  Many thanks to Keith Keltner, Donnie Thompson, and Danny Houser for these fantastic collections. We’d also like to thank our interviewees for our “Ozarks Voices” and Route 66 oral…

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