The Journalism Library will close from noon to 5 pm on the afternoon of March 26. There is a scheduled power outage during that time. The library will resume intersession hours on March 27.
Shannon Cary
In the News
“Leaving town or staying on campus, here’s what to know about spring break”
Show Me Mizzou, March 19, 2025
Books to Read on the Beach (or Couch!) This Spring Break

How about some FUN reading for your Spring Break entertainment? If you want time away from your textbooks, look over the leisure reading materials on the in the Ellis Library Lounge (room 115). These materials — compliments of the Daniel Boone Regional Library — include novels, magazines, graphic novels and more. These materials are available for you to take, read and then return at your leisure! No need to check them out and no due dates!
Materials will be changed on the first Tuesday of most months, so come back again to see what is new. These items are not part of our collection, so you will not locate them in the library catalog. Take a book and relish the reading!
The MU Libraries wish you a great Spring Break!
Highlighted Posts of the Week
New Muse Post
Librarians Serve on Award-Winning AI Task Force
Rebecca Graves and Kimberly Moeller served on the MU Task Force on Artificial Intelligence in the Learning Environment. MU Faculty Council on University Policy awarded this task force the group category of its Shared Governance Award.
Comments from the nomination include: The Task Force’s efforts to make sure faculty and staff have a seat at the table (and a head seat at that) in the development of AI-related policies and training modules exemplify this award’s dedication to inclusive and participatory governance. I am inclined to nominate this group for the Shared Governance Group Award not just because they formed in the spirit of shared governance, met, did careful research, and wrote a detailed report, but because their work was received by administration and has resulted in actual policy implementation.
In the spirit of shared governance, this award will be presented at the Spring 2025 General Faculty Meeting, Wednesday, April 2nd, at 3:30 pm at the Missouri State Historical Society.
Spring Break Hours

The Mizzou Libraries will have reduced hours during Spring Break.
Ellis Library: Spring Break
March 22 (Sat) 10am to 7pm
March 23 (Sun) 10am to 7pm
March 24–28 (Mon–Fr) 7:30am to 7pm
March 29 (Sat) 10am to 7pm
March 30 (Sun) Resume regular hours – 10am to Midnight
Cycle of Success: Special Collection Instruction in Middle School Field Trips

Revision of article written by Clare Starkey, Haley Lykins, and Kelli Hansen
The University of Missouri’s division of Special Collections holds over 100,000 items, dating from the eighth century to the modern era, and focuses on books, periodicals, manuscripts, maps, posters, printed ephemera and artifacts. Though the typical patrons are collegiate researchers, classes for elementary and middle school students are common and are an important part of the University of Missouri’s mission to benefit all Missourians. In the spring of 2024, Special Collections at the University of Missouri hosted a series of field trips for every sixth grader in the Columbia Public School (CPS) district—more than 1,300 students—under the theme of “Ancient Writing Technologies Lab: Cuneiform, Papyrus, Palm Leaves, Oh My!” This workshop gave students a chance to experience ancient writing technologies from across Africa and Asia while interacting with primary sources. Conceived in consultation with the school district’s social studies coordinator, the Special Collections staff provided hands-on activities on the history of the book to complement the school curriculum on ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, India and China.
Public Services Archivist Haley Lykins stated, “It was exciting to see our primary sources utilized by a new age group. The experience taught us to look beyond the walls of our academic institution for opportunities of outreach and instruction.”
The students rotated between three workstations representing the ancient world. Items from the University’s collection were included to provide a real-life example of the focus of each station and included cuneiform tablets, papyrus fragments and a facsimile palm leaf book. The students visited the University of Missouri campus over the course of 14 field trips throughout April and May. In addition to Special Collections, students visited the University of Missouri’s Museum of Art and Archaeology, Museum of Anthropology, and Francis Quadrangle. Although Special Collections hosted only 10-25 students at a time, around 100 students overall visited each field trip day.
In each 25-minute session, groups of 3-8 students would spend 7 minutes at a station before rotating to the next one. Each station began with a short informational presentation about the collection item before moving onto the activity. The workshops included making replica cuneiform tablets using playdough, drawing hieroglyphics on papyrus using calligraphy markers, and creating replica palm leaf books by writing stories on long strips of paper and tying them together with yarn. The learning objectives for the workshops were to discuss different writing surfaces from different times and different parts of the world, to describe the advantages and disadvantages of the different surfaces; and to interpret, analyze and evaluate primary sources.
After the field trips, Joy Bass, the social studies coordinator for CPS, said, “Just wanted to let you all know that teachers AND students have rated your ‘station’ very high in their reflection surveys and SO many have said it’s been their favorite.”
Mizzou Giving Day, March 12-13, Noon-Noon
Mizzou Giving Day is the University of Missouri’s day long campaign to raise support from our alumni and friends.
Earn prizes while supporting Mizzou.
You can help us make a difference for our Tiger family — all while earning some exclusive Mizzou gear!
The You+2 Challenge:
Spreading the word about #MizzouGivingDay is easy. Here’s how it works:
Sign up as an ambassador and generate a personalized donation link.
- Make a gift to the Mizzou Giving Day fund of your choice.
- Share your personalized link through emails, texts or social media.
- If at least two other people make a gift through your link, we’ll send you a special Mizzou-themed gift as thanks for your support!
Want to go above and beyond in answering the call? We’ll also have a special prize package for our top three ambassadors!
Highlighted Posts of the Week
Workshops
- All About Articles and Databases, March 10
- uMap-Open Street Map, March 11
- Intro to Social Explorer, March 12
- Promotion and Tenure Packets, March 17
Other Posts
- Research Lifecycle: Library Support for Research
- BYOBook Club, March 12
- Peer Navigator Corner: North American Women’s Letters and Diaries