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

By Super Admin Posted in Cycle of Success Ellis Library

Posted on November 10, 2017November 24, 2017

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.”

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.

home Cycle of Success, J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library Mizzou Opens Up Horizons

Mizzou Opens Up Horizons

By Taira Meadowcroft Posted in Cycle of Success J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library

Posted on November 2, 2017November 29, 2017

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 Cycle of Success: In-Person Library Instruction Leads to Online Instruction

Cycle of Success: In-Person Library Instruction Leads to Online Instruction

By Super Admin Posted in Cycle of Success

Posted on October 31, 2017April 8, 2018

PhD student and essayist Corinna Cook’s personal research interests include the lyric essay, literary journalism, indigenous literature and cinema, and posthumanism. As a teaching assistant, she reached out to Paula Roper for library instruction for her English 1000 courses exploring mass incarceration. Both her on-ground and online students benefited from Paula’s help navigating library resources related to the course’s theme and their specific research assignment.

Corinna’s students read Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness and then identified an aspect they’d like to research and consider from other perspectives. They were required to consult a source cited in the original text in their research essays. As Corinna says, “Her book incorporates an enormous amount of research, so virtually any passage/topic they’ve chosen to supplement will include references and citations.” Paula concurs, “Alexander uses citations from a wide range of materials including books, books chapter, magazines, journals, newspapers, reports, and court cases.” In terms of their own research, students were also required to use one popular and one scholarly source.

For the in-person library session, Paula introduced students to the library and demonstrated the stages of research required for the assignment. Corinna says, “Paula incorporated passages from Alexander’s book, linked them to references from Alexander’s endnotes, and demonstrated research steps that exactly mimicked the assignment’s requirements. Paula was also on board as our class librarian: she met with students one-on-one, answered emails, and supported individual research processes as needed.”

Paula then adapted this lesson, splitting the information into smaller lessons Corinna could integrate into her online course. One lesson illustrated how to use Discover@MU to find articles from popular publications, while the other focused on how to find the sources cited in The New Jim Crow. Corinna describes the lessons as “clear and detailed,” including links to resources from the library and beyond. “Again,” she says, the lessons were “specific to students’ assignment of doing supplemental research responding to The New Jim Crow.” Paula encourages students to reach out for assistance after the library instruction session if they need further assistance, but if they don’t, “it might indicate that the lessons served to answer questions they may have had regarding the library research needed for their work.”

Paula calls Corinna “a clearly dedicated and enthusiastic English 1000 instructor.” She says, “As an important part of the university’s educational effort, the Libraries encourage participation in these collaborative opportunities. Workload considerations coupled with the responsibility for designing lessons demonstrating some of the intricate complexities of research made this effort challenging but worthwhile.” She looks forward to more successful collaborations, “convinced that this enhanced the educational experience of our students.”

Corinna found Paula through a circuitous route: “I think I went scrolling around through the subject librarian pages. Why did I do this? I don’t remember. Following a rabbit hole for something unrelated to teaching. Best rabbit hole ever: I found out we have a social sciences librarian affiliated with the Black Studies program who had created pages and pages of these elaborate library guides–on slam poetry, on the contemporary African diaspora, on hip hop, on historical trauma. . . . In other words, I accidentally found out there was an expert invested in teaching research skills on themes related to my own class.”

Her advice to other instructors is to contact the subject librarian in the field of your class’s theme. “Dig around, click around, do your homework,” Corinna says. “Take the initiative to introduce yourself, bring a clear plan to the table, then ask genuinely open questions and listen to the feedback.”

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 Cycle of Success: Staying Ahead of the Curve at Fridays @ the Library

Cycle of Success: Staying Ahead of the Curve at Fridays @ the Library

By Super Admin Posted in Cycle of Success

Posted on October 27, 2017April 8, 2018

Assistant teaching professor of physical therapy Brad Willis found out about the Fridays @ the Library workshop series after enrolling in the educational leadership and policy analysis program through the College of Education. He became full-time faculty in 2015 after several years of practice as a physical therapist. He teaches advanced courses on geriatric rehabilitation as well as foundational science courses in the doctoral program. He says, “As I grow into my new academic role, I hope to investigate curricular assessment strategies for allied health programs.”

In September, he attended “Staying Ahead of the Curve,” taught by Kimberly Moeller. Brad says, “During my previous coursework and early career as a faculty member at MU, I did not fully appreciate the scope of resources available to students and employees.” The workshop provided him with an overview of library resources and services, ranging from the vast array of specialized databases to “the individualized attention and subject expertise of trained library science staff” to “ways young and experienced scholars may increase the visibility of their work and tools to greatly improve the efficiency of academic writing.”

Kimberly enjoys the opportunity to show that Mizzou Libraries have a lot more to offer than just books and articles. She says, “Sharing the different resources is a pleasure.”

Impressed by Kimberly’s teaching and audience engagement, Brad admits, “It was apparent that we were only skimming the surface during this session.” He says he will use her tips and tricks for years to come in his dual role as a faculty member and PhD student. Brad recommends getting to know your subject librarian and attending programming targeted to your interests and needs. His only regret is not attending a Fridays @ the Library workshop sooner.

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: Noah Heringman and the National Endowment for the Humanities Scholarly Editions and Translations Grants

Cycle of Success: Noah Heringman and the National Endowment for the Humanities Scholarly Editions and Translations Grants

By Taira Meadowcroft Posted in Cycle of Success Special Collections and Archives

Posted on October 16, 2017January 21, 2021

Dr. Noah Heringman, the Catherine Paine Middlebush Professor of English at MU, specializes in the relationship between literature and the history of ideas in the late 18th and 19th centuries. He and his editorial team were recently awarded a three-year National Endowment for the Humanities Scholarly Editions and Translations grant to complete their digital edition of Vestusta Monumenta. Vetusta Monumenta was the first of four major publication series launched by the Society of Antiquaries of London in the eighteenth century. Seven volumes were published between 1718 and 1906.

An engraving from”Vetusta Monumenta” of King Richard II in the sanctuary of Westminster Abbey. (Courtesy of University of Missouri-scalar.usc.edu/works/vm/plate-iv-westminster-portrait-of-richard-ii-nh?)

“Kelli Hansen of Special Collections help[ed] us a great deal during the early stages of the process. She gave Amy Jones, [our first research assistant], access to the division’s Indus 9000 book scanner and taught her how to use the software needed for processing the images. After Amy graduated in 2013, two more key players came on board the project: Felicity Dykas, who is now the head of Digital Services in Ellis, and Kristen Schuster, a PhD student in the iSchool (SISLT), who became Amy’s replacement. Felicity and her team took over the scanning project and scanned the remaining five volumes of Vetusta Monumenta at a uniformly high standard of excellence and added them to the University of Missouri Digital Library using the library’s Islandora content management system. In these early years, we got excellent support from other librarians, including Mike Holland (head of the division), Anne Barker, Ann Riley, Ala Barabtarlo, and others.”

The NEH grant is part of a category of funding that supports the “preparation of editions and translations of texts that are valuable to the humanities but are inaccessible or available only in inadequate editions.” This prestigious grant will allow Dr. Heringman, and his co-project director, Dr. Crystal B. Lake of Wright State University, to publish the remaining 144 plates in volumes 1-3, will full commentary by Fall 2020.

An engraving from “Vetusta Monumenta” of a baptismal font in St. James’s Church, Piccadilly (Courtesy of University of Missouri-scalar.usc.edu/works/vm/plate-iii-marble-baptismal-font-1?)

Vetusta Monumenta provides an intimate record of the kinds of objects collectively judged to be important by a large body of scholars and amateurs over generations. In some cases, these prints are the sole record of those artifacts and monuments, so digital preservation of these prints is vital. A previous digital version exists, but is not open access and does not provide high quality images. Dr. Heringman and his team have made this present edition accessible to all, while also providing scholarly commentary and search tools in order to browse through images.

“With substantial collaboration from the Society of Antiquaries, the Association for Networking Visual Culture at USC, and a growing team of scholarly collaborators, we had published twenty-six plates with commentary, a general introduction, and extensive editorial apparatus by mid-2017, and were able to secure a three-year, 286-thousand dollar Scholarly Editions Grant from the NEH to complete the project.” The project may be viewed at vetustamonumenta.org

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 Cycle of Success: Multidisciplinary Research Leads to Publication in Agricultural Journalism Text

Cycle of Success: Multidisciplinary Research Leads to Publication in Agricultural Journalism Text

By Super Admin Posted in Cycle of Success

Posted on September 28, 2017January 21, 2021

The Routledge Handbook of Landscape and Food, to be published in 2018, features the chapter “Using the Senses to Write Food Culture and Landscape” by MU’s own Nina Mukerjee Furstenau. As Director of Food Systems Communication and Instructor in Science and Agricultural Journalism, Nina has relied on Noel Kopriva, whom she calls “a jewel in the crown of subject librarians,” for research help many times.

When Nina found herself in need of “research materials on using sensory writing in food and landscape storytelling and how that type of writing effects communication across cultural borders,” she searched on her own but found that her searches were not producing results relating to her particular angle on the topics. That’s when she asked Noel to step in.

Nina admits that she, of course, needed the information “pronto” and was out of the state at the time. She says Noel “not only had good ideas on how to approach the topic, she pointed out specific references and was able to walk me through how to get far-flung sources winging their way to Columbia. She made the entire experience manageable, accessible, and pleasant. Tip of the hat to Noel!”

Noel says, “It was a delight working with someone like Nina, who combines so many disciplines in her writing—makes it really fun to help her do research. She is an amazing patron and person, and I am grateful to have been able to help!”

“Make use of all the offerings at the library—databases, journals, statistics, and more,” Nina advises, but especially “the people there—the librarians—devoted to the exploration of knowledge and how to access it.” She says of Noel, “My personal opinion is that she performs magic.”

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, J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library Cycle of Success: Judith Goodman and the School of Health Professions

Cycle of Success: Judith Goodman and the School of Health Professions

By Taira Meadowcroft Posted in Cycle of Success J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library

Posted on September 21, 2017January 21, 2021

Judith Goodman, the Interim Associate Dean of Research for the School of Health Professions, and Gina Scavone, Executive Assistant to the Associate Deans, contacted the Health Sciences Library for help with gathering journal, article, and author metrics for all School of Health Professions faculty. They wanted a better idea of what and where their faculty were publishing, and the impact of their research. Gina Scavone had previously asked for help in Summer 2016 when she was asked to find this same information, but wasn’t sure where to start. Taira Meadowcroft sat down with Gina to show her how she gathered this information, and throughout the summer, Taira, along with Rachel Alexander and Gemille Purnell, gathered the required metrics. Fast forward to Spring 2017, when the School of Health Professions asked for updated metrics, on a short deadline, for their newly added faculty. The Department of Public Health merged with the School of Health Professions, and this merger added a few new faculty members.
“We needed to have the most up-to-date data concerning our faculty’s research profiles with a ridiculously quick turn-around for a presentation. We asked Taira Meadowcroft to find both the WOS and Scopus annual and cumulative number of publications and citations, the h-index, and journal impact factors for each tenured/tenure-track faculty member in the School of Health Professions. She did this efficiently and cheerfully! This partnership of MU Libraries and SHP enabled us to quickly pull together a presentation of SHP’s research growth for UM’s new president. We were so grateful for Taira [and the library’s] help in letting us tell our story.”

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, Staff news Grace Atkins Receives Missouri Library Association Outstanding New Librarian Award

Grace Atkins Receives Missouri Library Association Outstanding New Librarian Award

By Shannon Cary Posted in Cycle of Success Staff news

Posted on September 20, 2017October 3, 2017

The Missouri Library Association’s Outstanding New Librarian Award recognizes an early-career librarian who has made a significant contribution to the improvement and advancement of library and information services in the state of Missouri. Grace Atkins, the Outreach & Open Education Librarian for the University of Missouri Libraries, has been chosen for this year.

Atkins received her Master of Science in Information Studies from the University of Texas at Austin School of Information in May 2015. At the iSchool, she specialized in Academic Libraries and Digital Libraries. She entered into the position of User Engagement Librarian at the University of Missouri in August 2015, and worked to improve the user experience in Ellis Library. Over the two-year period she has been at Mizzou, her role has evolved into outreach for all nine libraries on campus.

This past year, Atkins has focused on communication and marketing to reach library users. She worked with the marketing and social media teams to collaborate on creating a library newshub, which provides a way for library staff and users to share information about updates on services, collections, staff, workshops, and other events. As the liaison for student outreach, she established a University Libraries Student Advisory Council, which has greatly improved communication between library administration and student leaders. In Spring 2017, she partnered with MU’s Student Affairs office to pass a student fee through which a portion of the funding goes toward student-focused library services, such as keeping the main library open 24 hours a day, 5 days a week.

In her role as an Open Education librarian, Atkins is a campus coordinator for a UM system’s Affordable & Open Educational Resources (AOER) initiative, which is working to create a more equitable learning environment for students by significantly reducing the cost of textbooks and other course materials. As a new MOBIUS system leader for the Open Textbook Network, she will be providing training to librarians throughout the statewide consortia on how to use the Open Textbook Library. She has also recently been named a national fellow for the new SPARC Open Education Leadership program.

home Cycle of Success Cycle of Success: Dr. Noah Manring and Engineering 2500

Cycle of Success: Dr. Noah Manring and Engineering 2500

By Taira Meadowcroft Posted in Cycle of Success

Posted on September 18, 2017September 29, 2017

Dr. Noah D. Manring is the Glen A. Barton Professor of fluid power in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at the University of Missouri. He previously served as chairman of the college’s Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and twice has served as associate dean of research. One of the courses he teaches is Engineering 2500: A History of Modern Engineering. It is through teaching this class that Dr. Manring came to know Tim Perry, one of our Special Collections Librarians. Tim arranged a lecture and demonstration on the printing press to teach the students about the history of the book, and the progression of book making since Gutenberg’s printing press in the 1450s.

“Tim arranged an entire demonstration and working lecture for our students. He answered questions, translated texts, and explained the significance of each item that was shown. There were three tables full of items to show and discuss. It was a very rich experience for my class – something I could not have provided for our students on my own.The library has a tremendous collection of printed material since Gutenberg’s day, including an original page from a Gutenberg Bible!”

We asked Dr. Manring what advice he had for those interested in using the library: “Make inquiries as to what resources are available, and use them! I was referred to the Special Collections section of the library by Prof. Mark Smith in History, and I have since used this resource for my class three times. Before Mark pointed me in this direction, I had no idea what was available and the wealth of information that could be drawn from our archives.”

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 Cycle of Success: Librarian Finds Century-Old Line Drawing in Digital Library

Cycle of Success: Librarian Finds Century-Old Line Drawing in Digital Library

By Super Admin Posted in Cycle of Success

Posted on September 18, 2017April 8, 2018

Linda Hillemann, Clinical Instructor/Online Education and Field Support Specialist in the School of Social Work, works off campus and supports online students in southern Missouri. She was updating a lecture on the history of social work on Canvas when she realized she didn’t have a credit for a diagram by Mary Richmond, one of the founders of social work. Linda describes her research process: “I have digital copies of some of her documents and was pretty sure which one it came from, but I was wrong! Not only was it not from her book Social Diagnosis, it wasn’t in any of the other documents I have. So I started Googling. There are only so many websites devoted to social work history so I was pretty confident I could find it back, but it was much harder than I expected.”

After searching all the sites she knew with all the search terms she could think of to no avail, she contacted her subject librarian, Kimberly Moeller, for help. Kimberly was able to reverse engineer a search, and Linda says, “A mere two hours later I had the reference and a link to the document.”

Kimberly found the original pencil drawing in conference proceedings over a century old. She explains, “The diagram was first presented and published at the National Conference of Charities and Corrections in 1901, which didn’t originally come up in the search I ran. However, Richmond’s colleagues were apparently so impressed with her work that the diagram was mentioned in numerous iterations of this same conference, referring back to the proceedings from 1901.” Kimberly provided Linda with a link to the scanned version of the proceedings available through the digital library Hathi Trust, which meant she had immediate access.

Linda had never seen the conference proceedings before and found it be a fascinating historical document. More importantly, it provided the reference she needed to include vital information in her course. She explains that the diagram “demonstrates a clear line of a basic social work concept from our beginnings to current practice. That was something I wanted to demonstrate in this lecture: our connection today to our remarkable history, and thanks to Kim I was able to do that.”

Linda and her online students rely on Kimberly and other librarians to help them locate and obtain materials since they are not able to visit the library in person. When it comes to using the library or needing research assistance, Linda advises, “If you need something, ask, even if it seems like a pretty wild-eyed request. I think these librarians can pull rabbits out of a hat.”

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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