Yasuyo Knoll, who works in Circulation / Photocopy at the Health Sciences Library, was born in Kawaguchi, Saitama prefecture, Japan and has worked at MU for 10 years. Yasuyo’s education includes Urawa Jitsugyo High School (Saitama, Japan), Associate degrees in Education, Japanese Literature, and Library Sciences at Seitoku College (Chiba, Japan), and a BA degree in Anthropology at UMC. 

Yasuyo has three dogs: Blue (a black Lab), Sam (a black Lab mix) and Momo (a Shiba inu).  Yasuyo also owns two American short hair cats, Satsuki and May.  Leisure time is spent gardening and hobbies include baking.  Yasuyo is also interested in farm animals and wants a small petting zoo at home in the future.

Yasuyo thinks the coolest place she has ever visited is the Great Wall in China (not its namesake, the restaurant in Columbia).

Who should play Yasuyo in a movie?  “Audrey Hepburn.  She got black hair like mine. (^_^) “

 

Michael Hopkins, from the Journalism Library, was born in Farmington, Mo.  He has been a staff member for 3 years, but worked for four years prior to that as a work-study student.  Michael holds a BA in Computer Science from MU.

Michal owns a cat named Franklin and spends much of his leisure time watching movies, listening to music or reading.  His hobbies include playing guitar, music of any kind and screen printing.

Michael thinks the coolest place he’s ever visited is Washington, DC.

Michael Edward Holland, Special Collections, Archives & Rare Books (SCARaB), hails from Oklahoma City, OK.  Michael has worked for MU Libraries for 13 years, before which he worked 8 years as University Archivist at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon.  Before that he was the Assistant Director of the Local Records Division of the Texas State Archives & Library in Austin, Texas.  Michael’s education includes:  Classen High School, Oklahoma City; B.S. in Chemistry and Physiology, Oklahoma State University; MA in European History, Oklahoma State University, doctoral work in the History of Science at Johns Hopkins University; NEH fellowship in book conservation and preservation at Yale.

When asked about pets, Michael replied “Cats are the limbs of Satan and I have eschewed them since 1995.”

Michael spends his leisure time reading history and also crime thriller fiction and listening to Delta and Mid-West Blues.

The coolest place he’s ever visited? “Moscow, it has the brooding and somber spirit that allows one to feel the presence of Rurik Grand Dukes and Tsars such as Ivan the Terrible and the early Romanovs.  A very different feel from St. Petersburg which is much more like a Western European City.”

We asked what actor (living or dead) should play Michael in a movie of his life.  He replied, “I think a movie of my life would be an amazingly uninteresting and tedious film, but probably Charles Laughton.”

What else should we know about Michael?  “In November my wife, Debbie, and I will have been married 29 years; we met while I was the high school chemistry teacher and she was the high school librarian.”

Our Staff Spotlight recipients for July 2009 are Colleen Smith and Daniel Akins.

Kathryn “Colleen” Smith was born in Mountain Grove, Missouri, but she never lived there. Colleen received  a B.F.A. in Art from Culver-Stockton College.

Colleen began working at Ellis Library in the Gifts section of Acquisitions in February 1989. She took a position in the Cataloging Dept. in 1991. She quit to stay home with the kids in 1999. She worked from home for MOBIUS for 5 years. While working for MOBIUS, Colleen worked on deduping and other cataloging projects for many of the MOBIUS clusters throughout the state. She started back at Ellis full-time again in November 2006.

 

Colleen has had 15-year-old Silkie since kittenhood.  Her family recently adopted a 3-year-old Border Collie mix named Shadow.  Shadow’s job is to help fill the void that will be left in their house when daughter Sarina leaves for college at UMKC in the fall.  A tall order for a small dog, but he’s so sweet he might just pull it off.

Colleen loves to read with her children.  Thanks to daughter Brittany, she believes that she has read every book that there is in the Midway Heights Elementary Library about dinosaurs (some of them more than once!).

 

Colleen is the nursery attendant for the 8:00 a.m. service at Broadway Christian Church (Yes, that’s right. She gets up early on Sunday mornings to go to church and play with babies!).  She is also a member of BCC’s Chancel bell choir which typically performs at the 9:30 and 11:00 services once a month during the school year.

 

Colleen likes gardening.  She considers her flower gardens to be Heirloom gardens because so many of the flower bulbs and plants have been given to her by her mother and grandmother.  Anyone who also likes gardening and would be interested in exchanging plants is invited to contact her.

 

Colleen has not done a lot of traveling, but the “Praying Hands” sculpture in Webb City, MO (birthplace of Colleen’s husband, Randy) is pretty awesome. Conceived and constructed by Jack Dawson when he was a college student, the 32-foot hands are a reminder of the simple but profound act of prayer.

 

Colleen doesn’t think she would want a movie to be made of her life, but thinks that Lily Tomlin could do a tour with a comedy act based on it. She’s sure that her family could supply Lily with plenty of material!

 

Just in case you didn’t know, Ruthe Morse (who also works in Cat. Man.) is Colleen’s sister. Their brother, Sam, is the manager of the Peace Nook.  Their older sister, Dorothy, who now lives in Kansas, is a Mizzou alumnus and worked at the Journalism Library when she was a student here.

 

Colleen and husband Randy will celebrate their 24^th wedding anniversary in October.  In addition to 2 daughters, Sarina 18 and Brittany 10, Colleen also has a step-son, Collin, who lives in Tulsa with his wife, Maura, and 2 sons: Sean and Aidan. They will turn 3 and 2 in October.

 

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Daniel Akins, originally from Mexico, MO, worked off-and-on at various jobs at MU while hewas enrolled in school.  Since earning his Bachelor’s in General Studies he has been working for MU Libraries (about 7 years) and works at UMLD, on of the University’s remote storage facilities for library materials.

Daniel has two cats and enjoys hiking, praciticing Tai Chi and playing video and other kinds of games.  He also likes learning new things, listening to music and playing around with his computer.

Asked where is the coolest place he’s ever visited, Daniel replied: “I spent about a week in Penang, Malaysia.  It was a lot of fun with wonderful people and great food.”

Daniel thinks Charlie Chaplin would best portray him in a movie of his life.

Our Staff Spotlight recipients for June are Rebecca Graves and Mathew Stephen.

Rebecca S. Graves was born in Buffalo, New York and has worked for  MU Libraries for 12 1/2 years.  Currently serving as an Information Services Librarian at the Health Sciences Library, she holds a Bachelors degree in English, a Masters in Library Sciences and is widley travelled and a compulsive reader.

Rebecca and her family have 3 cats named Aisha, Chubby and Nike, plus a dog named Miko.  Rebecca spends her leisure time reading, enjoying the company of family and friends, dancing, bike riding and hiking with the dog.  Her hobbies include reading about history, science and human behavior/anthropology, belly dancing, plants & birds.

Rebecca has difficulty choosing one place in her travels to highlight.  When pressed, she responded “I’m going with Istanbul, Turkey.  It’s such a wonderful blend of East and West, past and present.”

In a movie of her life Rebecca feels she should be portrayed by Jodie Foster.

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Mathew Stephen, originally from Alamogordo, New Mexico, works in LTS and has been wtih MU Libraries for 3 1/2 years. He holds a BS in Industrial Engineering.

Mathew assures us that  there is no such thing as leisure time when you have kids.  “The little time I do have I try catching up on the TV shows I don’t have time to watch during the week.”  His biggest hobby is collecting Legos.

Mathew believes the coolest place he has ever visited is Thailand, and that he should be played by Nicolas Cage.  He says he’s “been told I look a little like Nicolas Cage.  Ok, you can stop laughing now.”

Born in Hinsdale Illinois, Amy Louise Lana has woked for Mizzoue for 4 1/2 years, and at MU Libraries for 3. Amy works in the Acquisitions Department.

Amy holds a BA in Classical Archaeology from the University of Evanston, an MA in Classical Studies with an emphasis on Greek language and literature from Loyola University-Chicago, and is ABD on a PhD in Greej /archaeology at Mizzou.

Amy’s hobbies include reading, sports and gardening. In her leisure time she enjoys reading and watching NFL football.

Three cats allow themselves to be called Amy’s pets: K’Eleyr (18), Pandora (5), and Robin (2-ish–he was a stray).

Amy thinks the coolest place she has ever been is Greece; she spent a summer there on an archaeological dig site at Stymphalos, and a year on a Flubright scholarship which included digging at the site of Ancient Corinth.

Amy would like to have Audrey Hepburn portray her in a movie of her life.

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Stephen Paul Clayton was born in Kansas City Missouri. Steve works at Journalism in the Newspaper Library, and has worked for MU Libraries for 8 years–this time around. He previously worked for MU Libraries for 10 years, from 1986 to 1996.

Steve graduate from Parkwood Centrial High School in St. Louis in 1972, matriculated from Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, TN in 1976, and finished Graduate School at MU in 1986.

Steve has three cats: Mulder, Curby and Hyacinth.

Steve’s hobbies include stamp collecting, opera nd classical music, architecture and the history of the United States presidents. In his leisure time he enjoys reading, cooking, political activities, music and painting.

The coolest place Steve has ever been is Quebec City, Canada, and he thinks either Bob Newhart or Harvey Korman would best portray him in a movie.

Congratulations to our April Staff Spotlight winners, Kate Anderson & Ryan Bish!
Read more April 2009 Staff Spotlight: Kate Anderson & Ryan Bish ›

Born in St. Louis, MO, Karen Witt began her career with MU Libraries as a student assistant at the State Historical Society
Read more Staff Spotlight for March 2009: Karen Witt & Hunter Kevil ›

This month’s Staff Spotlight recipients are Adam Banning and Cathy Menzel :

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Our first featured staff member for February is Read more February 2009 Staff Spotlight: Adam Banning & Cathy Menzel ›

Our inaugural recepients for the monthly Staff Spotlight Award are Nina Johnson and Ruth Feldkamp. Read more January 2009 Staff Spotlight: Nina Johnson & Ruth Feldkamp ›