The Library Advocate

To Alex Johar, Mizzou felt like home.

“It feels cliché to say, but it’s the truth. Not only is our campus absolutely gorgeous, the people that are there make you feel as though you can succeed the moment you meet them.” As an electrical engineering student, he knew the non-traditional path to medical school he chose wouldn’t be easy, but Mizzou offered him the resources in order to follow his dream and excel right from the beginning.

These days, you can find Alex, like many engineering students, in the Engineering Library, a place he credits as being instrumental to his success as a Mizzou student. The library offers invaluable collaborative space for students studying various engineering specialties and resources on cutting edge innovation in the field.

“My favorite thing about the Engineering Library is the space it provides to engineering students near our classes, peers, and professors. Although the Lafferre renovation has provided more study rooms, they are always occupied, and often not even by engineering students. The library allows students to study individually, work on a group project, or prepare for an exam with friends. As engineering spans a wide range of topics, everyone working in the same place is helpful when there are assignments requiring the intersection of multiple engineering disciplines.”

Through his regular library use, Alex became passionate about the libraries, ultimately serving as the 2016-2017 chair of the University Libraries Student Advisory Council (ULSAC). As chair, he advocated for students’ resource needs, something he says is vital to any Mizzou student experience. Students know what they need to succeed, and ULSAC wants to make sure student voices are heard.

ULSAC visiting the Kenan Science Library at UNC-Chapel Hill. The council visited the Research Triangle to help inspire the Student Vision Report

Over the past two years, ULSAC has been hard at work collecting data from students, developing a student vision for the library in order to make sure all students, regardless of their involvement or backgrounds, are supported by the University Libraries.

Mizzou is what you make of it, and not only will Alex remember the energy of the Mizzou Vs. Mississippi State football game (his favorite Mizzou memory), he will also remember how personally and academically supportive the Mizzou community was. “I cannot wait to come back to Mizzou one day and see students from other universities’ student library councils touring our libraries to bring back ideas for their schools and I am very thankful for the opportunity to have been the Chair of such an amazing council of student leaders that made this possible.”

 

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home Engineering Library, Hours Engineering Library : Spring Semester Hours

Engineering Library : Spring Semester Hours

Engineering Library & Technology Commons Spring Semester Hours (Jan. 15 – May 13):

Regular Semester Hours

Monday-Thursday: 8:00am to 12:00am
Friday: 8:00am to 6:00pm
Saturday: 1:00pm to 5:00pm
Sunday: 1:00pm to 12:00pm

Special Hours

Jan.15th: CLOSED

Spring Break Hours (Mar. 23 – Apr. 1)

Monday-Friday: 8:00am to 5:00
Saturday-Sunday: CLOSED

 

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 Engineering Library Engineering Library Affected by Water Leak in Lafferre Hall

Engineering Library Affected by Water Leak in Lafferre Hall

Update: Computer access has been restored.

On Wednesday December 27th, Lafferre Hall experienced a water leak which flooded into the Engineering Library & Technology Commons. Most of the damage to the library was cosmetic and occurred near our entrance. We had number of fans running to dry out the walls and carpet. The Engineering Library is open presently, however, computer access and printing is unavailable for the time being. Carpet cleaning and ceiling tile replacement is scheduled for later this week.

We will send out an update when computer access is restored.

home Engineering Library Cycle of Success : Dr. Carlos Sun and Transportation Engineering

Cycle of Success : Dr. Carlos Sun and Transportation Engineering

Dr. Carlos Sun is a professor in the Civil Engineering Department and the Associate Director of the multi-disciplinary Transportation Infrastructure Center. He has specialized in transportation engineering for over twenty-five years. His research interests include safety, work zones, simulators, Intelligent Transportation Systems, geometric design, traffic analysis, legal issues, and STEM..

One of the courses Carlos teaches is a graduate course on transportation engineering. This course serves as an introduction to research in the field of transportation engineering so Carlos asked Noël Kopriva, the interim Engineering Librarian, to introduce the students to the research tools and databases they will be using for the rest of their graduate work.

Noël Kopriva

“Noël presented a special workshop on performing literature searches for our transportation engineering seminar. In this workshop, she presented various tools and techniques to empower graduate students to conduct exhaustive literature reviews of critical transportation topics. She covered various search databases and the associated query mechanisms. The students really appreciated the dynamic workshop which was filled with hand-on exercises based on the field of transportation engineering. Her insights probably saved our students countless hours by avoiding common pitfalls associated with poor searching methodology.”

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 Engineering Library, Hours Engineering Library Closed Saturday, December 2nd

Engineering Library Closed Saturday, December 2nd

The Engineering Library & Technology Commons will be closed this upcoming Saturday, December 2nd, for a scheduled electrical outage in Lafferre Hall. This power outage will affect the entire building and it will occur from approximately 7:00am to 7:00pm. The library will resume normal hours on Sunday, December 3rd.

If you should need assistance during that time, please contact Ellis Library Reference.

 

home Engineering Library, Hours Math Library : Closed During Thanksgiving Recess

Math Library : Closed During Thanksgiving Recess

Due to upcoming Thanksgiving break, the Math Library will have the following hours:

Friday, November 17th: 12:00pm to 5:00pm

November 20th through November 26th : CLOSED

The Math Library will resume normal hours on Monday, November 27th. If you should need assistance during that time, please contact Ellis Library Reference or one of the other Branch Libraries.

University Libraries Hours

Enjoy the break!

home Engineering Library, Resources and Services Engineering Library Book Display : Science Fiction

Engineering Library Book Display : Science Fiction

Today’s science fiction is tomorrow’s science fact – Isaac Asimov

We brought over some books from Ellis Library for our new science fiction book display. Curious about what the world would be like if AI’s achieved consciousness or if the people of Mars decided to fight for independence? Stop by our reference section to browse through science fiction classics and films!

All of these titles are available for checkout so grab one or two for the road!

home Engineering Library, Hours Engineering Library Labor Day Weekend Hours

Engineering Library Labor Day Weekend Hours

Our hours will be different for the Labor Day weekend:

Friday, September 1st: 8am – 5pm
Saturday, September 2nd: CLOSED
Sunday, September 3rd: CLOSED
Monday, September 4th: CLOSED

Normal hours resume on Tuesday, September 5th.

Enjoy the long weekend!

home Engineering Library, Support the Libraries Space Updates at Engineering

Space Updates at Engineering

In addition to our study rooms, we also made a few small changes to the library as a whole while you all have been away this summer.

What’s different:

  1. In order to de-clutter and really open up our space, we removed some unused or unnecessary furniture including a dictionary stand, stools, a metal table, a bookcase, and study carrels. Don’t worry, there are still a ton of carrels left for you solitary studiers!
  2. We rearranged the furniture in our newly acquired space and added a display case given to us by the College of Engineering to show off more Engineering memorabilia from the Heritage Collection.
  3. We received new chairs and a few new tables for our study rooms from the College of Engineering. The new Student Services Enhancement Fee helped us pay to paint the walls behind the monitors so there is less eye strain when using them.
  4. We redid our call number labels at the ends of the stacks for a more polished, user friendly look. The labels now have acrylic holders for durability and they contain subject headings for easier browsing.
  5. The College of Engineering gave us framed Dean portraits to replace our paper ones on the Heritage Collection display board (Dean Loboa’s portrait is still pending).

We would like to give a big thank you to everyone who helped us change things around!

See some photos of our updated space: