Your source for what's new at Mizzou Libraries
Summer Print Smart allowances are now active. If you are enrolled in summer semester, you can print. The summer allowance is $7 for undergraduate, graduate, and professional students. If you are not enrolled, you can still print to the Circulation Desk printer in Ellis Library for $.05 per page.
Fall semester allowances will be active on August 6 for students enrolled in fall courses.
Check your Print Smart balance online any time.
Ellis Library will be open continuously until Friday, May 11 at 7 pm. For additional information about service hours and specialized library hours, visit library.missouri.edu/hours.
Before those long hours of studying during finals week, find a study spot at Mizzou Libraries. We have spaces for everyone. If you like dead quiet, check out rooms 201 and 202 at Ellis Library. Check out this Ellis Libray floorplan to see all the quiet spots. Journalism also has four private personal study pods on the bottom floor that are first come, first served.
But if complete silence isn’t your thing, try the Information Commons (or the first main floor of Ellis Library). There is always The Bookmark Cafe on the ground floor for coffee and conversation as well.
If it’s a group study spot you are searching for, try to reserve one of the group study rooms in either Ellis, Engineering, or Journalism. They can be reserved for up to two hours for each group. But remember, it’s best to plan ahead. They fill up quickly! The Health Sciences Library also has a small number of study rooms on their third floor reserved for people enrolled in health-related programs.
Remember, if your program has its own library, be sure to check out those spaces, as they are often designated specifically for you!
Before becoming an instructor in the University of Missouri’s Intensive English Program (IEP), Liza Armstrong taught a little further from home, such as at Al Akhawayn University, located in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco. Now she helps the Center for English Language Learning fulfill its mission of “providing high quality English language instruction to non-native speakers of English to prepare them for university-level studies, professional endeavors and community engagement.” Liza’s interests are in the development of second language reading and writing skills, information technology, and reading assessment, and she recently presented about text analysis tools in the development of IEP reading exams at the TESOL Convention.
Word of Mouth
Liza first began bringing her advanced reading classes in for library instruction based on the recommendation of Barbara Leonhard, an advanced communication instructor. At that time, emerita librarian Goodie Bhullar taught the research sessions. Liza says, “Goodie, who had been an international student herself, seemed to have an instant rapport with the students and was interested in learning students’ names, where they were from, and what their research interests were.”
Goodie’s lesson made an impression. Students didn’t just learn about the quality resources Mizzou Libraries make available to them and how to run better searches. They also got hands-on practice searching library databases to find quality sources. “Nearly every semester since then,” Liza says, “I have taken my IEP classes to the library so that students understand that at MU they have access to a huge amount of high-quality information and plenty of help in finding it.”
The Tradition Continues
Today, Cindy Cotner continues to deliver the invaluable instruction that helps Liza’s reading-writing students navigate the library and become comfortable with academic research: “Cindy gave students a physical tour of the library, explaining how the circulation desk worked and where students could scan books, find resources like books and videos, study, and even grab a coffee.”
Then the work of learning how to find those suitable resources began. Students not only received the usual instruction on how to search library databases but also participated in a scavenger hunt. Cindy distributed cards with a book title and call number, and students worked in pairs to find the book on the shelves. Liza says they “enjoyed winding through the stacks of books and felt victorious when they found their books.”
Cindy also shared information about Library Workshops for International Students (LibWIS), giving students further opportunities to learn about advanced research strategies, citation management, and more.
When Liza saw her students’ essays, she was delighted to find that many had used library databases to find quality sources. Liza notes, “Many of them also indicated that they appreciated the citation tool, which helped them to write their APA reference pages more quickly and accurately.”
Be Brave
Liza’s best advice for international students is “to be brave and ask librarians and staff questions.” She also recommends attending library workshops, especially those with a focus on international students. By learning how to use the library early in their academic careers, students can save time in the long run, create higher quality assignments, and build better study habits. “Students may think that using library databases and tools is intuitive,” she says, “but there is always new information, and library systems often change and are updated.”
In fact, Liza confesses that she herself learns something new each time her classes visit the library!
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.
Every student at Mizzou has many accounts they need to keep track of, and some of those accounts can help you out at the Mizzou Libraries!
Know the status of your Print Quota. Make sure you have money left if you need to do a lot of printing! If not, it will send the charges to your student account. To check the status of your Print Quota, click the link and log in with your username and password. You can also request refunds from this site if your print didn’t come out correctly.
Another account to keep in mind is your MERLIN Account. This is the account that keeps track of all the books and materials you have checked out from the Mizzou Libraries or MOBIUS. If you have anything checked out through Interlibrary Loan, you can see that information by logging into your separate ILL Account.
Something else you always want to bring with you to the Mizzou Libraries is your Student ID. After 10 pm this is how you are granted access into Ellis Library, and this is also how you check out supplies during all hours the library services are open.
If you’re short on supplies, you can buy more from a vending machine located near Ellis Library’s north entrance onto Lowry Mall. The bluebooks in this machine are free, so pick them up ahead of your first exams. The vending machine also stocks the following items:
You can find bluebooks and other supplies at the Mizzou Store if the library vending machine runs out.
Staplers are located near each set of printers in Ellis Library, but please be gentle! If a stapler runs out or jams, take it to the Research Help and Information Desk immediately. Along with providing research help, our librarians are skilled stapler surgeons.
As a high school student in “the tiny town” of Callao, Missouri, Autumn McLain was torn between two quite distinct potential majors–physics and English–but she knew Mizzou was her “best option in order to get a wide array of higher quality classes and degrees.” She hopes to work in publishing after graduating in May with degrees in English and linguistics as well as a minor in philosophy.
Autumn credits her training as an English major for her formal writing skills. She won second place in the 2018 University Libraries Undergraduate Research Project Contest for a paper on Jonathon Swift, which she describes as “a lot of fun to write.” She’s now enrolled in the second of a pair of courses that will earn her Departmental Honors for her degree, writing “an even more research-intensive thesis on The House of the Seven Gables.”
She says that for most of the papers she’s written here at Mizzou, “the library resources available to me as a student have been pivotal. Good research papers are often dependent upon outside sources and research, information which is made available by the library.” Even more than the information itself, though, she recommends current and prospective Tigers take advantage of librarians’ assistance to find quality sources.
Getting a quality education is every Tiger’s main focus, but as Autumn says, “There’s a lot more going on than classes, and those extra things can be just as impactful!” Over her four years at Mizzou, she’s taken advantage of many extracurricular opportunities, from joining clubs and campus organizations to attending lectures and other special events.
Being a part of the close-knit English and linguistics departments also helped Autumn connect to fellow students and her professors, whose enthusiasm for their fields of study was contagious. Connecting to her community has been her favorite part of her Mizzou experience. “I couldn’t have foreseen how much Mizzou would come to feel like a place where I really belong,” she says, “but somehow, I’m even more excited to go out and see what I can do with what I’ve learned here!”
Finals week can be overwhelming, but doing some things ahead will save time later. Before finals start:
Trained therapy dogs will be in Ellis Library once again during finals week. Visit the dogs on the first floor of Ellis Library during the following times:
Sunday, May 6th: 3-5 pm AND 7-9 pm
Monday, May 7th: 7-9 pm
Tuesday, May 8th: 7-9 pm
Wednesday, May 9th:7-9 pm
Also check out the Zen coloring tables on the first floor, or if you need a quiet space to work on your final papers and projects, Room 213 (Electronic Classroom 2) is open 24/7 during finals as a quiet study space with computers.
All of the dogs are certified therapy dogs, and many participate in service activities in hospitals, nursing homes, schools, and libraries. These therapy dogs are trained to interact with children, the elderly, and others facing difficult situations such as college students experiencing finals week stress.
Are you a University of Missouri student getting ready to graduate? Are you worried about losing access to our databases?
Fear not!
Ellis Library provides guest accounts for alumni and other visitors! Come visit the Research and Information Desk with a government-issued photo ID to have your guest account created.
For up to two hours per day, you can freely use the guest computers to search databases, use the printers, and more.
More information regarding visitors and guest accounts can be found here.