home Ellis Library, Events and Exhibits Create Blackout Poems in Ellis Library 4/9-13

Create Blackout Poems in Ellis Library 4/9-13

Celebrate National Poetry Month by creating your own blackout poem in the Ellis Library Colonnade April 9-13.

Blackout poetry is created by marking out words from a text, like a newspaper, until a poem is created from the words that remain. For inspiration, check out others’ creations at Newspaper Blackout.

Newspapers and markers will be provided. Select poems will be posted on Mizzou Libraries’ Instagram account. Sign your poem with your handle if you want to be tagged!

home Cycle of Success, Events and Exhibits Congratulations to the 2018 Undergraduate Research Project Contest Winners!

Congratulations to the 2018 Undergraduate Research Project Contest Winners!

Congratulations to the winners of the 2018 University Libraries Undergraduate Research Project Contest!

Beckie Jaeckels won first prize and a $500 scholarship for her paper “Written in Stone: A Critical Look at the Nation’s Dealings with Racial Discussion in 2017.” Her paper is structured around her work with Dr. Berkley Hudson as a Discovery Fellow. Dr. Berkley describes the paper as an exploration of “the twists and turns that have led to today’s debate about the role and the legitimacy of monuments dedicated to the Confederacy and its Lost Cause and those connections with enslavement and with contemporary racial strife and brutality.” Beckie cites a wide variety of 38 primary and secondary sources, from traditional print sources to tweets.

Beckie Jaeckels
Autumn McLain

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Autumn McLain won second prize and a $250 scholarship for her research paper “Jonathan Swift, Misanthropy, and ‘The Voyage to The Land of The Houyhnhnms’.” Autumn began her research with primary documents, Swift’s correspondence around the time when he was drafting Gulliver’s Travels, before delving into secondary sources. Her course professor Dr. Stephen Karian says that this strategy “allowed her to foreground her own words and ideas and to prevent them from being subsumed by those of other scholars–something that many undergraduates struggle with when writing research papers.”

The winners’ papers are archived in MOspace, MU’s digital repository, and linked above.

Thanks to the Friends of the University of Missouri Libraries for sponsoring these awards.

home Events and Exhibits, Special Collections and Archives Missouri Self-Taught: Lanford Wilson and the American Drama Conference

Missouri Self-Taught: Lanford Wilson and the American Drama Conference

The University of Missouri Theatre Department presents an interdisciplinary conference titled “Missouri Self-Taught: Lanford Wilson and the American Drama,” to focus on Missouri’s own Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, Lanford Wilson. The conference will be held April 26-29 at Ellis Library and the Rhynsburger Theatre and features an MU production of The Rimers of Eldritch directed by Dr. David Crespy.

The conference and all the events scheduled are free and open to the public, with a goal to encourage students and scholars to avail themselves of the Lanford Wilson Collection located in the University of Missouri Libraries Special Collections and Rare Books.  Both the production of The Rimers of Eldritch and a new book edited by David Crespy, Lanford Wilson: Early Stories, Sketches, and Poems, have been supported in part through research in the Lanford Wilson Collection. The conference also features onstage interviews and master classes with guest artists Marshall W. Mason, Lanford Wilson’s Tony® Award-winning director; Tanya Berezin, the former artistic director of New York’s Circle Repertory Company, where Wilson’s plays were first produced; Danny Irvine, founding director of its Circle Rep Lab; and Mary Sue Price, an Emmy award-winning Circle Repertory playwright and protégé of Lanford Wilson.

A full conference schedule and additional information can be found on the Missouri Self-Taught conference website.

Kelli Hansen

Kelli Hansen is head of the Special Collections and Rare Books department.

home Ellis Library, Events and Exhibits Antiquities from the Ancient Mediterranean on Display at Ellis Library

Antiquities from the Ancient Mediterranean on Display at Ellis Library

The Antiquities from the Ancient Mediterranean exhibit continues with new pieces on display in the Ellis Library Colonnade.

The Museum of Art and Archaeology shares with us a selection of glass, stone, and pottery vessels that served various functions, dating from the Bronze Age to the 8th century CE. These objects represent the ancient cultures of Anatolia, Egypt, and Greece, in addition to those encompassed by the Roman and Islamic world.

 

home Ellis Library, Events and Exhibits On Display at Ellis Library: Opening Lines to Keep You Reading

On Display at Ellis Library: Opening Lines to Keep You Reading

Everyone knows you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, and everyone knows we all do it anyway. But it’s a lot easier not to do in academic libraries because many of our books don’t have illustrated book jackets.

One alternative is to judge a book by its opening line. Does that line make us feel curious, perplexed, sad, anxious? If it engages us, we keep reading.

Maybe one of these will encourage you to take the book home and find out what happens next.

We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones.

Beatrice Quimby‘s biggest problem was her little sister Ramona.

124 was spiteful.

Why is the measure of love loss?

Check out even more intriguing opening lines on our book display near the Research Help and Information Desk at Ellis Library.

home Events and Exhibits, Support the Libraries Mizzou Giving Day, March 14-15

Mizzou Giving Day, March 14-15

#MizzouGivingDay: Up to the Challenge

Your participation and gifts are part of something big on Mizzou Giving Day. Generous supporters have contributed challenge funds that provide a way for social media users and donors to win money for University Libraries .

Spread the word on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by using #MizzouGivingDay. You could win the opportunity to further support the Libraries!

This year’s challenges include:
• Most dollars raised by unit
• Most donations by unit
• A variety of social media challenges

How can you help?

  • Connect online at givingday.missouri.edu and promote the hashtag #MizzouGivingDay on social media
  • Follow the Libraries on Facebook and Twitter @MizzouLibraries
  • Support what you love most about MU by giving as little as $10
  • Share your infectious Tiger spirit by getting your friends and family to participate
  • Consider giving to the Special Collections Classroom Project

In 2017, the University Libraries achieved impressive results:

  • 115 gifts
  • $115,000

What can we achieve this year?

home Ellis Library, Events and Exhibits, Government Information Volunteer Income Tax Assistance at Ellis Library

Volunteer Income Tax Assistance at Ellis Library

Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA)
Tuesdays February 27 – April 17, 2018 (except March 27)
3:00-7:00 pm
Ellis Library Colonnade

Volunteers will be available to assist with do-it-yourself income tax preparation and e-filing for federal and state income tax returns. This service is available to U.S. citizens and resident aliens without treaty benefits on a first-come, first-served basis until maximum capacity is reached.

You will use software to self-prepare your return. Volunteers will be on hand to answer questions and help with tax or software issues. Volunteers have passed an IRS certification exam covering many aspects of tax law as it relates to tax preparation.

Details on what to bring with you, full-service assistance locations, and additional information can be found on the 2018 VITA flyer.

This program is sponsored by the Personal Financial Planning Department, MU School of Law, and the University of Missouri Extension. Questions? Call (573) 882-2173.

 

Where Did the Birds Go?

For many years, Ellis Library housed a collection of Dorothy Doughty porcelain birds that were donated to MU. According to the stipulations of the donor agreement, the University Libraries are now free to sell the birds. The collection has been sent to Link Auction Galleries in St. Louis to be included in the next live auction. The proceeds will benefit the University Libraries. The display cases where the birds were previously displayed is in the process of being refurbished as exhibit space to highlight University Libraries Special Collections materials.

For more information about the live auction, please visit www.linkauctiongalleries.com. The collection will be included in Sale#1079, the March Gallery Auction, at Link Auction Galleries, 5000 Washington Place, St. Louis, MO 63108, on March 17, 2018 beginning at 10:00am.

home Ellis Library, Events and Exhibits Open Education Week 2018 March 5-9

Open Education Week 2018 March 5-9

Open Education Week is a celebration of the global Open Education Movement. Its goal is to raise awareness about the movement and its impact on teaching and learning worldwide. Join us!

What Open Education Week events are happening on campus? 

See the full list here: Open Education Week Events at the University of Missouri

What is Open Education?

Open education encompasses resources, tools and practices that employ a framework of open sharing to improve educational access and effectiveness worldwide.

Open Education combines the traditions of knowledge sharing and creation with 21st century technology to create a vast pool of openly shared educational resources, while harnessing today’s collaborative spirit to develop educational approaches that are more responsive to learner’s needs.

The idea of free and open sharing in education is not new.  In fact, sharing is probably the most basic characteristic of education: education is sharing knowledge, insights and information with others, upon which new knowledge, skills, ideas and understanding can be built.

Open Education seeks to scale up educational opportunities by taking advantage of the power of the internet, allowing rapid and essentially free dissemination, and enabling people around the world to access knowledge, connect and collaborate.

Open is key; open allows not just access, but the freedom to modify and use materials, information and networks so education can be personalized to individual users or woven together in new ways for diverse audiences, large and small.

home Ellis Library, Events and Exhibits, Resources and Services Visual Artists Who Inspire Eve L. Ewing: Book Display in Ellis Library

Visual Artists Who Inspire Eve L. Ewing: Book Display in Ellis Library

Dr. Eve L. Ewing, writer, artist, and scholar, will give a reading at Mizzou on Tuesday, February 27th as part of Black History Month 2018. On her Goodreads author page, she answers a question about her main influences with a list of writers and visual artists who have influenced her “in terms of not only style, but what it means to live as a writer in the world.”

On display now near the Research Help and Information Desk at Ellis Library are books about the five visual artists Ewing names as influences. Take a look at the work of photographer Carrie Mae Weems or Kerry James Marshall, known for his large paintings. If you enjoy installations, check out Glenn Ligon‘s neon works or Dan Flavin‘s work featuring fluorescent light bulbs. Perhaps you will be moved to learn about Kara Walker and other contemporary working artists.