Library Notes

Just yesterday, the day before the COVID-19 pandemic stay-at-home order went into effect, Special Collections and Archives received a great addition to the Fern Nance Shumate Collection.   Shumate is known as one of the first female journalists in Missouri in the 1920s, writing for the Springfield Press until it merged with the Springfield News Leader. While writing for the paper, she interviewed Amelia Earhart, Will Rogers, and Jack Dempsey. She began to write freelance pieces for the Kansas City Star and the St. Louis Post Dispatch, but also wrote under pseudonyms Nancy Nance, Nancy Clemens,…

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The Missouri State University Libraries is expanding its online services in response to the global pandemic that has necessitated moving almost all university courses online for the remainder of the spring semester and during the summer session. For example, the chat and text reference service has expanded its hours of service. MSU’s “Ask a Librarian” online reference service, powered by the LibChat app, part of the LibAnswers suite from Springshare, uses text and chat in real time to provide quick…

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On Tuesday, March 24, 2020, the City of Springfield and Greene County issued a “Stay at Home” Order, “requiring Springfieldians to stay at home except for “essential activities” as our community continues working to slow the spread of COVID-19.” This order took effect at 12:01 a.m. today, Thursday, March 26, 2020 and is scheduled to last 30 days.  As a result, after consulting with President Smart, Provost Einhellig, all of the other deans, and the Portfolio Managers here in the…

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Beginning immediately, and ramping up over the next few work-days, most MSU employees — faculty, staff, graduate assistants, student-workers, and others — will begin telecommuting to work from home, most or all of the workday.   In Duane G. Meyer Library, we plan to have a sufficient number of employees in the library to provide basic services for the reduced hours when the main part of the library will be open. Nearly everyone else will spend most of their time working…

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The leadership teams in the MSU Libraries and at MSU as a whole continue to monitor closely the developments here and around the nation and world related to the global pandemic commonly known as COVID-19. This LibNotes article provides updates related to service changes being implemented by the MSU Libraries.  In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the MSU Libraries has a new online guide to the various library services and collections available online. Many thanks to Tracy Stout and everyone…

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Jim Coombs, Associate Professor of Library Science and the Maps and GIS Librarian at the Missouri State University Libraries, plans to retire at the end of this academic year. He is the only maps librarian in the state of Missouri. Jim has served generations of users of the MSU Libraries for 40 years! A retirement reception is being planned for July. The exact date, time, and location will be announced soon. Congratulations, Jim!

Holly Kouns, Tracy Stout, and Shannon Mawhiney will attend MSU LEAD (Leadership, Education, And Development), a university program that prepares leaders and supports MSU’s vision of: Being an employer of choice by providing supervisors opportunities to explore their leadership capabilities. Being a responsible and transparent steward of the University’s resources. Working for a continuous improvement in programs, policies, and procedures. Being collaborative, to promote meaningful partnerships that further the university’s goals. This series of training sessions will focus on the…

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Approximately 75 people attended the “Ghosts of Gatsby” special evening last Friday in the Crystal Room of Kentwood Hall. When the Kentwood Arms opened in 1926, it was the most elegant hotel in Springfield, and glimmers of that former glamour were evident last Friday.  This “Speakeasy Soiree” was organized and produced by Ann Marie Daehn and Jim Baumlin, two MSU faculty members, with support from the MSU Libraries, particularly Craig Amason. The evening included a performance of the operetta “Ghosts…

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This year Paige Harp, coordinator of the Infant Through Grade 12 (IG12) efforts of the Missouri State University Libraries, is serving as chair of the jurors who will decide the fourth annual SEE-IT awards, sponsored by EBSCO. The shortlist of finalists will be announced this spring, and the award will be made during the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago in late June.  According to EBSCO, “The SEE-IT (Stories Engagingly Expressed — Illustratively Told) Awards were created to recognize and showcase…

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Susanna Reichling recently represented Missouri State University at the 89th Annual Music Library Association  (MLA) National Conference held in Norfolk, VA. While there, she presented a “lightning session” on “Using Augmented Reality (AR) as a Discovery Tool in the Library,” highlighting three ways that augmented reality layers can be added to bulletin boards, displays, shelf tags, and even individual books on the shelves to help engage users with the collection. According to the conference website, “These short presentations will convey…

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