home Cycle of Success, Engineering Library Taking Advantage of Resources

Taking Advantage of Resources

Civil Engineering student Elgin Burton decided to attend Mizzou after meeting with recruiters at his high school in East St. Louis, Illinois, deciding to visit, and “falling in love with the campus.” Once he arrived, Burton got involved in a number of organizations. He is currently the president of the national award-winning Timber Bridge Team. He is also T.O.R.C.H (Technical Outreach Community Help) chair for Mizzou’s chapter the National Society of Black Engineers. Once he graduates in May 2018, Burton plans on a career in transportation engineering.

Burton says, “The Engineering Library is a huge resource to me in more ways than one. The obvious one is that there are books here that I can use for all of my classes. The one I just turned in today, I used for my class all semester.”

Burton also likes that that the Engineering Library is a gathering place for his classmates. “This is a place where I do a lot of my studying, so I meet a lot of people here who are also studying the same things. A lot of collaboration happens here. Whenever I am working on a project, we usually meet in the Engineering Library. If I am struggling with a problem, I can usually find people who can help me solve it here. Or I’ll see somebody in my class, introduce myself, and ask how they are solving the problem. I meet many people in different ways at the Engineering Library. There is not another space in the building like that. ”

One of Burton’s favorite Mizzou memories is getting to know the libraries. “it was almost an oddly intimate relationship I had with Ellis and other libraries like the Math Library and [the Engineering Library], because I was completely new to the experience—I was new to Columbia, Missouri, I was new to college, I was new to a research library of that size—and over the course of my college career, Ellis Library especially became my home away from my apartment, where I feel most comfortable on campus.”

If there was one piece of advice that Burton could give to future students, Burton says, it would be to use your resources.  He acknowledges that “it can be difficult to tell new students to take advantage of your resources because they might not know about them, but the best thing to do is just to open up to opportunities and be willing to try new things. Getting involved in organizations relevant to your degree gives you contextual information and it gives you a sense of purpose. ‘I am here doing this. I am here making this change.’”

“You leave a lasting impact on the university. It also leaves a lasting impact on you.”

home Cycle of Success, Ellis Library Cycle of Success: Daniel B. Domingues da Silva Wins Center for Research Libraries’ 2017 Award for Teaching

Cycle of Success: Daniel B. Domingues da Silva Wins Center for Research Libraries’ 2017 Award for Teaching

Daniel B. Domingues da Silva, former Assistant Professor of History at Mizzou, won the Center for Research Libraries2017 Award for Teaching, part of their annual Primary Source Awards. Rachel Brekhus, Humanities Librarian, nominated him for his creative use of primary sources in his Writing Intensive course Fighting the Atlantic Slave Trade.

Now an assistant professor of African history at Rice University, Daniel held the same position at Mizzou from 2012 to 2017, teaching courses on the history of early and modern Africa. His research focuses on the African slave trade, especially from West Central Africa, and he has participated in several digital humanities projects such as Voyages: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database and Visualizing Abolition: A Digital History of the Suppression of the African Slave Trade. Visualizing Abolition was developed here at Mizzou.

Rachel Brekhus

Daniel credits Rachel and other Mizzou librarians with playing key roles in his research and teaching. “They not only helped me secure important primary and secondary sources for my research,” he says, “but they also created study guides for my students, workshops on how to conduct research, and trained students in operating related equipment and computer softwares. They also reviewed applications and nominated students and myself to internal and external research and teaching awards.”

Humanities librarian Anne Barker provided students with valuable insights into copyright issues and the use of images. Digital services librarian Felicity Dykas trained students on scanning techniques and image specifications. In the spring of 2017, Ellis Library hosted an exhibit about the making of the Visualizing Abolition project, providing students an opportunity to showcase their work.

Anne Barker

Prior to the CRL Award for Teaching, Daniel had won teaching awards within the University of Missouri campus community and considers those awards “an important way of rewarding faculty for their teaching achievements” and letting faculty know they are on the right track. However, he says “the CRL award was something different. As a global consortium of research libraries, it meant that I was not only a good teacher among my peers at Mizzou, but that my teaching skills were also appreciated among a much larger community of scholars.”

Cycle of Success is the idea that libraries, faculty, and students are linked; for one to truly succeed, we must all succeed. The path to success is formed by the connections between University of Missouri Libraries and faculty members, between faculty members and students, and between students and the libraries that serve them. More than just success, this is also a connection of mutual respect, support, and commitment to forward-thinking research.

If you would like to submit your own success story about how the libraries have helped your research and/or work, please use the Cycle of Success form.

 

home Cycle of Success, Special Collections and Archives Cycle of Success: Grant Elementary School

Cycle of Success: Grant Elementary School

Although the Cycle of Success typically focuses on the relationships among the Libraries, faculty, and students, the Libraries also contribute to the success of all the communities Mizzou serves. The Libraries are an integral part of Mizzou’s mission “to provide all Missourians the benefits of a world-class research university, no matter their age. The fifth graders from Grant Elementary School recently visited the Special Collections Department to get an in-depth look what the department has to offer.

Matt Kuensting and John Nies, fifth grade teachers at Grant Elementary, recognize the importance of community connections, and five years ago, revised their practice to focus on community connections. Since their revision, they have taken their students into the community to observe and cultivate their interests, and one of those stops is to Special Collections. Kelli Hansen, Tim Perry and the Special Collections staff, took the students through three stations based in the evolution of technology, map making, and historical botany books.

“Ellis Library is one of our first places we visit, and many kids favorite place. These experiences are very impactful for us because our students are currently studying observing organisms like plants, they are making maps of their own imaginative worlds, and technology is one of the biggest integrations in our community project.”

We asked John Nies what advice he would give for those interested in using the library: “[The] advice I would give to those interested in using the library is… GO!  Spend some time walking around the displays in the main hall, visit the Special Collections, and wander a bit. The staff has always been helpful. The building itself is fascinating and it holds an eternity of interesting materials.”

Cycle of Success is the idea that libraries, faculty, and students are linked; for one to truly succeed, we must all succeed. The path to success is formed by the connections between University of Missouri Libraries and faculty members, between faculty members and students, and between students and the libraries that serve them. More than just success, this is also a connection of mutual respect, support, and commitment to forward-thinking research.

If you would like to submit your own success story about how the libraries have helped your research and/or work, please use the Cycle of Success form.

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home Cycle of Success, Staff news Jeannette Pierce Selected as Association of Research Libraries Fellow

Jeannette Pierce Selected as Association of Research Libraries Fellow

Jeannette Pierce, associate university librarian for research, access, and instructional services, has been named a 2018-2019 Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Leadership Fellow. The ARL Leadership Fellows program facilitates the development of future senior-level leaders in large research libraries and archives. The Association has selected 30 individuals to participate in the 2018–2019 cohort of this executive leadership program.

Pierce stated, “I am honored to be selected as a 2018-2019 ARL Leadership Fellow. This is an outstanding opportunity to join a cohort of peers who are passionate about developing the knowledge and leadership skills needed to ensure that research libraries continue to be vital to the success of our students, faculty, and institutions now and in the future. Many thanks to Vice Provost & University Librarian Ann Campion Riley and my colleagues at the University of Missouri Libraries for supporting my participation in the program.”

In response to a continued need to develop future leaders of ARL member institutions, the ARL Leadership Fellows program is designed to build on self-assessment and reflection and to explore a personal/professional area of interest in the context of a group setting. During the course of the program, each fellow will construct a learning plan; engage in a customized, immersive experience to shadow a library director; participate in three weeklong institutes hosted by sponsoring ARL institutions; participate in online synchronous sessions; and attend semiannual Association Meetings.

Ann Riley, vice provost and university librarian, said, “All of us at the Libraries are delighted to hear of Jeannette’s selection for this honor. She’s very deserving and reflective of the excellence of our librarians.”

The 2018–2019 Leadership Fellows applicant pool was highly competitive. The new fellows represent a broad array of backgrounds, experiences, and institutions.

home Cycle of Success, J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library Cycle of Success: Nursing Student Obtains Invaluable Assistance with Literature Review

Cycle of Success: Nursing Student Obtains Invaluable Assistance with Literature Review

My name is Erin, and I am a second year distance student in the BSN-to-PhD program at the MU Sinclair School of Nursing. My interest in researching type 1 diabetes (T1D) began three years ago, when my son (who was 9 years old at the time) was diagnosed with T1D. I have particular interests in data science and precision medicine, and my long-term goals involve the identification of pathophysiologic subtypes (i.e., phenotypes) of type 1 diabetes.

I am currently participating in a research practicum with Dr. Sonal Patil (MU Department of Family and Community Medicine) and as a part of this practicum, I am completing a systematic search of the literature pertaining to diabetes caregivers. Setting up and executing systematic searches can seem like such a daunting task (especially the first time around!) and Dr. Patil and my PhD advisor, Dr. Bonnie Wakefield, suggested that I talk with the health sciences librarians to ask for their assistance with developing appropriate search strategies. So I took their advice and went to the Health Sciences Library when I was on campus in early October.

Rebecca Graves

When health sciences librarian Rebecca Graves heard that I was at the library and that I had questions about how to begin my search, she stopped the work that she was doing that afternoon so that she could attend to my questions. Although I didn’t ask her to do that, my needs were important to her and she made time to give me the assistance I needed. She proceeded to work with me for quite some time, advising me on how to carry out a literature search, and walking me through a search in one database so that I could begin the process myself when I got back home.

During the last couple of weeks, I have had many additional questions about how to set up searches in other databases and Diane Johnson is the health sciences librarian who has helped me craft these other search strategies. Individuals who know me well know that I ask a lot of questions and Diane has been incredibly patient in answering my questions and concerns. For example, when I was having trouble acquiring search results in one database, Diane recognized that the issue was caused by a problem with the search syntax in that database (rather than by something I was doing wrong). She contacted the support specialists for that database,explained the issue, and she went on to craft a workaround for me that I could use to complete my search in the meantime! Her advice about fashioning appropriate searches in each database has been invaluable. She has even met with me online on two separate occasions so that I could share my computer screen with her, show her my search strategies, and request her assistance.

Diane Johnson

Effectively using research databases is challenging because the search syntax is different in each database. We are fortunate here at MU to have access to truly exceptional health sciences librarians who bring with them many years of experience and who possess the expertise that students need to be successful. Before you begin your research, do yourself a favor: reach out to the librarians and consult with them about your research needs. I’d also like to encourage graduate students to access the many additional resources available at the library including online and on campus classes and workshops , the after-hours “Ask the Librarians!” chat feature, and library email updates. Distance students can use MU Connect to schedule a time to consult with a librarian. These resources exist to help students be successful — so be sure to take advantage of them!

Cycle of Success is the idea that libraries, faculty, and students are linked; for one to truly succeed, we must all succeed. The path to success is formed by the connections between University of Missouri Libraries and faculty members, between faculty members and students, and between students and the libraries that serve them. More than just success, this is also a connection of mutual respect, support, and commitment to forward-thinking research. 

If you would like to submit your own success story about how the libraries have helped your research and/or workplease use the Cycle of Success form.

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Taira Meadowcroft

Taira Meadowcroft is the Public Health and Community Engagement Librarian at the Health Sciences Library at the University of Missouri.

home Cycle of Success Everything is a Learning Opportunity

Everything is a Learning Opportunity

For senior journalism student Victor Topouria, shying away from opportunities isn’t an option. When he saw the call for the University Libraries Undergraduate Research Contest, he immediately submitted his research for consideration. His instincts were correct because his paper, The fabric road to power: geography of the textiles trade along the new Silk Road and China’s path to geopolitical dominance through the textiles supply chain, won first place and a $500 scholarship.

His paper was originally written for Dr. Hobb’s geopolitics class, but it ended up more interdisciplinary than he anticipated. This interdisciplinary approach required Topouria to investigate multiple resources for his research; resources with which he was not at all familiar. ” The library is one of the most underappreciated places on campus. Sure, everyone loves it as a study space, but I think if all of us took advantage of its resources just once, we would find it difficult to be satisfied with Google.The librarians I met were perhaps the most helpful people I’ve worked with during my time at Mizzou. I could not have completed my research without them.”

Born in Columbia, Missouri, and spending most of his childhood in Tibilsi, Georgia, Topouria says his degree will give him the versatility to pursue different passions. He wants current and future Tigers to be open to different perspectives. “Be willing to have your mind changed. Mizzou is full of interesting humans with totally different perspectives and worldviews. If your ideas, opinions, and goals remain exactly the same as when you arrived, you’re doing college wrong. Everything is a learning opportunity, and Mizzou is a place that grants you the freedom to learn, in and out of the classroom. You just have to want it!”

home Cycle of Success, J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library A Better Future Through Affordable Health Information

A Better Future Through Affordable Health Information

Michelle Kraft, director of libraries at the Cleveland Clinic Health System Libraries, chose to attend Mizzou for her graduate degree in library science because she wanted the opportunity to work in several different campus libraries and put what she was being taught in the classroom into practice.

During her time at Mizzou, Kraft worked at Ellis Library as an electronic resources assistant, helping students with online resources. She also completed her practicum at the J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library. She sums up her experience, “Training I got from staff at both libraries was indispensable. Their mentoring and guidance gave me real world knowledge and skills not only to work in libraries but also to thrive in my career.”

Her passion for providing library resources to medical caregivers and researchers led Kraft to her role as the president of the Medical Library Association in 2015-2016. During that year of service, she advocated for unrestricted, affordable, and quality health information on behalf of the National Institutes of Health and the National Library of Medicine to members of Congress.

If there was one piece of advice that she could give to future Tigers, Kraft said, “find your passion and get involved. You grow and learn through your involvement with others at Mizzou and that learning, energy, and knowledge can carry forward to your life after college.”

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Taira Meadowcroft

Taira Meadowcroft is the Public Health and Community Engagement Librarian at the Health Sciences Library at the University of Missouri.

home Cycle of Success Mizzou Opens Up Horizons

Mizzou Opens Up Horizons

Meagan Hicks, from St. Charles, MO, was used to her small private school, but that changed when she went to Mizzou. “I was the only person from my class to go to Mizzou, and the only person I knew at Mizzou, was my sister. It was a big adjustment.” A good adjustment it would seem.

“Mizzou really helped shape me into a more well-rounded person. While I was still able to stay in my comfort zone, I was also able to explore different aspects of campus I would not normally go for,” Hicks said.

After graduating in 2014, Hicks enrolled in the Master of Library and Information Science program, which led to her working as a graduate assistant at the Health Sciences Library. “Working for an academic library was an amazing experience, especially a specialized one. It was awesome helping students and faculty with their research, and their dedication is something I will always remember.”  Hicks currently uses the skills she learned on the job to offer a rich variety of services to the Moberly, Missouri community. “As a public librarian now, I want to offer programs that inspire the next generation of Mizzou students to work hard in anything they want to do.”

Hicks says she made the right decision coming to Mizzou, and wants those considering Mizzou to know that they should “try out new things, things you may not have known you would like may become your new passion. Explore and have fun!”

home Cycle of Success, Ellis Library Cycle of Success: English 1000 Pilot Program Results in Increased Collaboration

Cycle of Success: English 1000 Pilot Program Results in Increased Collaboration

Last year, Cindy Cotner served as the Interim Head of Instructional Services at Ellis Library and oversaw a pilot program where new teaching assistants in the English department were each matched to an individual librarian for library instruction and research assistance for their sections of English 1000, the first-year writing course required of Mizzou students. Due to the success of the program, it has been expanded this year, with every English 1000 instructor matched to a librarian for their courses.

In April, Cindy and Anne Barker presented “Bringing the Library into the Classroom: Rethinking Library Resources” with Deanna Benjamin and Bailey Boyd, the English 1000 instructors they worked with, at the MU Composition Program’s Celebration of Writing and Teaching.

Collaboration with librarians is nothing new for Deanna Benjamin, a PhD candidate who, in addition to teaching a variety of courses here at Mizzou, has taught in St. Louis since 2008. Cindy co-taught two sessions regarding the research process with Deanna in her classroom. During the first class session, the class worked on “an exercise that connected Cindy’s introduction to the library and research with the semester research project.” They opened the second class session with a Q&A and then “visited with students individually while they all conducted research online.” Deanna says, “Our collaboration in class helped the students ask a variety of research questions that at least one of us was able to answer.”

When the students presented their research later in the semester, Cindy reinforced the library’s commitment to undergraduate research by attending the presentations.

During her master’s program here at Mizzou, Bailey Boyd first taught English 1000 and began collaborating with the library for research instruction. Now a first-year PhD student in creative nonfiction writing, her personal research interests include “uncovering new bits of information that have been hidden away, such as archival research and new sides to a well-known story.”

Anne Barker

Last year, Bailey met with Anne early in the fall semester to discuss how the library could help her students with their projects. Bailey requires her to students to “select a Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph, analyze that photograph, and then use research to fit that photograph within its original historical and cultural moment.” In conjunction with that assignment, Anne “put together an amazing course guide where the students could explore different research on eras, all collected in one place!” For this semester’s library visit for the same assignment, Anne went a step further. Bailey says she “had pulled out old Time magazine archives and Harper’s Bazaar archives so that students could see–in real, tangible form–what people in different decades would be seeing. Students were able to surround themselves and immerse themselves in that world for a short while.”

Bailey saw the effect of library instruction very clearly in her students’ final essays for this project. She says, “The research I saw in their papers was quite extraordinary–some students relayed background stories of famous photos that had changed their minds about the photographs. In my opinion, this research led to richer and more in-depth analysis of their photographs–every essay was interesting and thought-provoking.”

When Bailey wanted to assign her students the Ellis Library scavenger hunt, which can be completed by students on their cell phones, she worked with Anne to customize call numbers to the food research and cookbook area “so that they were led to the stacks that had the information they would need further in the semester.”

Inspired by this collaboration, Bailey has incorporated some changes into her curriculum. She says, “I’ve already increased our class library visits from one visit to three and now require my students to consult with a librarian at least once on their own time throughout the semester. These past semesters of library collaboration have really shown me how important early incorporation of the library truly is.”

Anne says that “the collaboration has allowed us to be more proactive and engaged with the TAs, so that the library portions dovetail more with their objectives for the class. We’ve also been able to experiment more with providing handouts, online lessons, guides, and brief videos that can be used outside of the classroom time, so that the time we have together with students can be a bit more interactive.” Because the level of collaboration between librarians and English 1000 instructors is still evolving, she finds being able to work with the same teaching assistants for multiple semesters helpful.

Deanna and Bailey shared some advice on how to take advantage of library services. Deanna advises teaching assistants and faculty to meet “with a librarian before the semester begins to talk about the topic and goals of the course and ways in which the librarian might use some of the instructional time to get to know students (and for students to get to know their librarian).” Bailey recommends a library tour for everyone new to Mizzou. She advises her fellow graduate students to form a relationship with their subject librarian “because we’re more likely to ask questions if we’ve established that relationship.” In her case, that was also Anne, whom she also visited for research help on her master’s thesis. She says, “I can’t really express how much Anne has helped me these past two years. I don’t think I could have accomplished many of the things I wanted to accomplish in my classroom or as a student if I hadn’t had that relationship.”

Cycle of Success is the idea that libraries, faculty, and students are linked; for one to truly succeed, we must all succeed. The path to success is formed by the connections between University of Missouri Libraries and faculty members, between faculty members and students, and between students and the libraries that serve them. More than just success, this is also a connection of mutual respect, support, and commitment to forward-thinking research.

If you would like to submit your own success story about how the libraries have helped your research and/or work, please use the Cycle of Success form.

Mizzou Opens Up Horizons

Meagan Hicks, from St. Charles, MO, was used to her small private school, but that changed when she went to Mizzou. “I was the only person from my class to go to Mizzou, and the only person I knew at Mizzou, was my sister. It was a big adjustment.” A good adjustment it would seem.

“Mizzou really helped shape me into a more well-rounded person. While I was still able to stay in my comfort zone, I was also able to explore different aspects of campus I would not normally go for,” Hicks said.

After graduating in 2014, Hicks enrolled in the Master of Library and Information Science program, which led to her working as a graduate assistant at the Health Sciences Library. “Working for an academic library was an amazing experience, especially a specialized one. It was awesome helping students and faculty with their research, and their dedication is something I will always remember.”  Hicks currently uses the skills she learned on the job to offer a rich variety of services to the Moberly, Missouri community. “As a public librarian now, I want to offer programs that inspire the next generation of Mizzou students to work hard in anything they want to do.”

Hicks says she made the right decision coming to Mizzou, and wants those considering Mizzou to know that they should “try out new things, things you may not have known you would like may become your new passion. Explore and have fun!”

 

TAGS:

Taira Meadowcroft

Taira Meadowcroft is the Public Health and Community Engagement Librarian at the Health Sciences Library at the University of Missouri.