Library Notes

On July 1, 2021 the Spring/Summer issue of OzarksWatch Magazine, published by the Ozarks Studies Institute, an ongoing initiative of the Missouri State University Libraries, arrived back from the printer. The theme of this issue is Ozarks Roads. Kaitlyn McConnell contributed the cover image and a photo essay. Robert Edwards writes about how good road transformed the nation — and the Ozarks. Allyn Lord traces the Ozark Trails Association. Gary Sosniecki describes how Lebanon won the battle to have Route…

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Through various local news outlets, you may have heard about Mr. Bob Kendrick’s presentation on several Negro Leagues baseball players, including Springfield’s Herman “Doc” Horn Jr. on Sunday, June 27. Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, gave this presentation at an event at Timmons Hall that also celebrated local African American baseball players and local authors’ books about baseball. Special Collections and Archives, part of Missouri State University Libraries, was excited to be invited to…

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This Tender Land, by William Kent Krueger, has been selected as the summer reading selection for the popular MarooNation Book Club. The online book discussion group is a collaborative effort between the MSU Alumni Association and the MSU Libraries.   In the summer of 1932, on the banks of Minnesota’s Gilead River, the Lincoln Indian Training School is a pitiless place where Native American children, forcibly separated from their parents, are sent to be educated. It is also home to Odie…

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The Missouri State University Libraries makes it very easy to request new information materials, regardless of the format, print or electronic.  On the main website of the Missouri State University Libraries, under Services, there is a link to an online form. Simply answer a few basic questions and click on the submit button. We’ll take it from there.  You even can have an email receipt of your request sent to yourself. Current employees of the MSU Libraries have a separate…

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On June 28, 2021 EBSCO Information Services upgraded MSU Libraries’ FOLIO system to the latest official release of the Open-Source Library Services Platform, known as Iris. This release brings enhancements in Finance (automated fiscal year rollover), circulation (improvements to handling of recalled items and associated fees and fines), support for holdings and item information via OAI-PMH, and more. This marks the third major upgrade to FOLIO since the MSU Libraries migrated in June of 2020. The next release of FOLIO,…

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BearWorks, the Institutional Repository at Missouri State University, managed by the MSU Libraries, is growing. Both the amount of information about MSU publications, and the use of the content, have increased significantly in recent years.  Uploads of citations of MSU faculty publications CY19: 1,043 citations of MSU faculty publications were added. CY20: 3,200 citations were added, more than a threefold increase   CY21 (Jan thru May): 3,346 citations uploaded, already a new annual record. Downloads of MSU theses. BearWorks contains citations…

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Brooks Travis, the Coordinator of Library Information Technology at the Missouri State University Libraries, has been elected to the FOLIO Product Council.  The FOLIO Product Council is an international body of 11 members charged with providing the product vision, strategy, and roadmap in collaboration with the Technical and Community Councils. Other members include representatives from Stanford, the Shanghai Library, EBSCO, Knowledge Integration, Cornell, The University of Chicago, Lehigh, Cornell, and two German library groups, GBV and HBZ. Quoting from the…

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Rachel Besara, Associate Dean of Libraries at Missouri State University, has graciously agreed to serve, in addition to her many current responsibilities, as Interim Director of Resource Management and Discovery (RM&D), until a search can be completed for a permanent hire to lead this important aspect of library activities.  Lindsey Taggart, the most recent Director of Resource Management and Discovery, recently left MSU to take a position with the Springfield Greene County Library District.  We appreciate Rachel’s willingness to step…

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Tom Peters, Dean of Library Services at Missouri State University, has been appointed to serve on the Missouri Route 66 Centennial Commission. 

The use of the dedicated YouTube channel of the Missouri State University Libraries really jumped during the COVID-19 pandemic. Usage already was high before the pandemic affected all our lives.  From March of 2019 to February of 2020, the videos on the dedicated channel received 684,309 views, with 12,412,084 minutes watched, for an average of 18.1 minutes per view. From March of 2020 to February of 2021, the videos received 1,247,687 views, an increase of 563,378 over the previous twelve…

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