Your source for what's new at Mizzou Libraries
The Ellis Library Reference Desk is now a voter registration place.
To vote in the November presidential elections, Missouri voters must be registered by Wednesday, Oct 12th!
We encourage all students, staff and community members to register! Check out our guide all about how to register! https://libraryguides.missouri.edu/register-to-vote
Visit Ellis Library immediately after the Homecoming Parade on Saturday, Oct. 22 for refreshments, tours and family activities. The first 100 kids will receive a free mini pumpkin. This event is free and open to the public.
Fourteen graduate students from academic institutions across the U.S. have been selected to receive funding assistance to attend a conference next month where they will take active steps toward preserving digital news.
Each student has received a travel scholarship to help cover expenses to attend the Dodging the Memory Hole: Saving Online News forum Oct. 13 and 14 at UCLA. Students will work side by side with journalists, technologists, librarians and other stakeholders to craft a national agenda for preserving born-digital journalism — content created on a computer or digital sensor.
The forum is an initiative of the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute’s Journalism Digital News Archive with funding from RJI and an Institute of Museum and Library Services Award. Additional support is being provided by UCLA Library, University of Missouri Libraries and the Educopia Institute.
It’s important to make future journalists, archivists and technologists part of the solution now, says Edward McCain, digital curator of journalism at RJI and University of Missouri Libraries.
“It is critical we begin building awareness of the need to preserve born-digital news content today so that future generations will not suffer the looming ‘memory hole’ of lost journalistic reportage,” says McCain. “I’m delighted to have such talented individuals joining us as we work together to save online news.”
Attendees will hear from speakers from organizations including The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the Library of Congress. Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent Peter Arnett will be a special guest speaker.
The scholarships are being funded by a Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program grant from IMLS. The funding assistance was available to graduate students in the U.S. studying library/information science, journalism, computer science and other related fields.
As part of being selected to receive a scholarship, each student has been asked to propose and complete a project that supports one of the conference goals. They will also pitch their project ideas to the assembly during the forum.
Chris Allman of Charlotte, North Carolina, studies library and information science at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He wants to learn more about how the local news startup Charlotte Agenda is preserving its born-digital news content, and develop additional guidelines for how Charlotte Agenda staff can improve those efforts.
John Berlin of Suffolk, Virginia, is a computer science student at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, where he works for the Web Science and Digital Libraries Research Group. His project goal is to improve the Web Archiving Integration Layer (WAIL) software system by adding a feature to enable users to specify criteria to track news or other content from media platforms such as Twitter. Once identified, this content could then be archived automatically.
Terry Britt of Sweetwater, Tennessee, is a doctoral candidate studying journalism at the University of Missouri in Columbia. He will write a research paper on the significance of efforts to assure the lifespan and accessibility of local online news content.
Itza Carbajal of New Orleans, Louisiana, is an information studies scholar at the University of Texas in Austin. She plans to conduct a research project that lists tools such as ArchiveReady.com that measure the ability for a website to be archived properly. She then plans to assess the web archiving readiness of a variety of online news providers.
Jiwon Choi of Osan, South Korea, is studying convergence journalism at the University of Missouri in Columbia. She plans to meet with international students from the University of Missouri to explore how to protect online media content and develop possible solutions.
Alison Guillory of Belmont, Massachusetts, is a library and information science scholar at Wayne State University in Detroit. She wants to determine which technologies have successfully protected content from the memory hole and which haven’t by studying how news saved in a digital format have fared over a 20-year period. She plans to document what she learns in a timeline.
Matt Hellman of Austin, Texas, is a journalism student at the University of Missouri in Columbia. His project involves a case study of how the Columbia Missourian photography staff is using open source software to provide access to and create a cloud-based long-term archive for digital content.
Shawn Jones of Virginia Beach, Virginia, is a computer science student at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. His project will explore the potential relationship between social media sharing of news articles and how quickly those articles are identified by web crawlers as candidates for archiving.
Mat Kelly of LaBelle, Florida, is a doctoral candidate studying computer science at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. His project addresses the need to provide individuals with ways to collect, archive and access news content they perceive as important. Kelly’s work is intended to supplement the large-scale collection work being done by institutions such as the Internet Archive and Library of Congress.
Eva Revear of Puyallup, Washington, studies journalism at New York University in New York. Her goal is to find a way to preserve data-driven news applications such as ProPublica’s Dollars for Docs. She is currently conducting a survey to collect data about news apps so she can devise ways to organize news app archiving systems. Her findings will be published as an academic paper.
Hanna Soltys of St. Louis studies library and information science at Simmons College in Boston. Her project examines questions surrounding how to create more complete preservation methods that accommodate the complexity of digital news platforms. She will also investigate why current archival practices are struggling to preserve online news content.
Carolina Vargas of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, studies journalism at the University of Missouri in Columbia. She wants to reach journalism students with messages that increase awareness of the problem of born-digital content loss and provide options for solving this problem.
Tamar Wilner of Dallas studies journalism through the University of Missouri’s online journalism master’s program. She seeks to address problems associated with inaccurate and outdated news content by exploring technology that supports online correction methods.
Elizabeth Zirk, of Palatine, Illinois, studies journalism at the University of Missouri in Columbia. She will help author and edit a white paper about the forum outcomes. This will include gathering details about the proposed national agenda for preserving born-digital news, projects proposed by working groups and reports summarizing panels and presentations from the event.
In August 1971, the Apollo 15 astronauts drove their land rover on the moon and Carol Turner worked her first day as a Library employee. This summer, Turner celebrated 45 years working for the University Libraries.
She started working in Ellis Library as a clerk before there was computer automation, and she worked her way up to her current job as Library Information Specialist, Sr. She has worked on many projects over the years–projects as varied as barcoding books and proof-reading stacks (not her favorite) to helping spend an extra one-time allocation of $3 million for books.
Turner is an avid reader who collects clocks and music boxes.
The Libraries thank Carol for her many years of service and is looking forward to many more!
The food and drink policy is intended to help the Libraries maintain a pleasant environment conducive to study and research, while preserving our collections, equipment and furnishings.
Food and Drink Allowed in Ellis Library
Restricted Food and Drink Spaces in Ellis Library
Alcohol and Tobacco
In accordance with University regulation, no alcohol or tobacco products are permitted in the Libraries.
Exceptions to the Policy
Mon-Thu: 7:30am-Midnight
Fri: 7:30am-7pm
Sat: 9am-7pm
Sun: Noon- Midnight
The University Libraries will reduce hours for Ellis Library (and some of the specialized libraries) at the beginning of the fall semester. Ellis Library will no longer be open 24 hours, but will close most days at midnight.
In order to maintain the highest service level possible, the Libraries have increased the hours for online chat access to librarians. Students and researchers may ask questions online almost any time of day or night.
In addition, Ellis Library will be open 24 hours the week before and the week of Finals.
In addition to reducing hours, the Libraries have eliminated eight positions and will be cutting approximately $1 million in collections. These measures result from a lack of student fee revenue as well as the 5% cut to MU general operating funds. The Libraries administration continues to seek funds through a variety of sources.
All hours for Ellis Library and the specialized libraries can be found at library.missouri.edu/hours.
If you have questions, please contact Shannon Cary at carysn@missouri.edu or 573-882-4703.
The University Libraries are proceeding with the previously announced 1.2 million dollar reduction to our collections expenditures for FY17. More information about the need for this spending reduction and how we are identifying potential savings can be found at – University Libraries – FY17 Collections Budget update. The update now includes an initial list of titles recommended for cancellation.
Faculty and students may contact the subject librarian for their program with questions. General questions may be sent to Shannon Cary at carysn@missouri.edu. The University Libraries are committed to providing quality service and timely access to materials, though more materials will need to be acquired using our consortial and interlibrary loan services.
After you graduate, the MU Libraries will still be here to serve you. To find out more about the resources available to alumni, visit Library Resources for Alumni.
All of us at the MU Libraries, wish you the very best in your future endeavors!
Columbia, MO—Leslie Jayne Howard received the MU Libraries Undergraduate Research Award on April, 16, at the annual Friends of the MU Libraries Luncheon. Leslie, who is senior theatre major, received the award for her paper “The Sand-Castle—An Extended Family of Inspiration.” Research for the paper was completed by using the resources of the Lanford Wilson Collection, which is part of the Special Collections at the University of Missouri Libraries.
David Crespy, professor of theatre at MU, stated in his letter of support, “Leslie’s research proposal was one of the most detailed, focused, and organized proposals in the course, and she has pursued her research relentlessly in the new Lanford Wilson Theatre Collection at our Ellis Library Special Collections and Rare Books – going so far as to arrange for access to hitherto restricted papers, based upon her exhaustive investigations into Mr. Wilson’s manuscripts, correspondence, programs, and other papers.”
The MU Libraries Undergraduate Research Paper Contest seeks to recognize and reward outstanding research conducted by undergraduate students at the University of Missouri. A preponderance of resources used to research the paper must be from the MU Libraries and the applicants must submit a brief description of their research process and sources. Any undergraduate in any discipline is invited to enter the contest, which is judged by a cross-disciplinary panel of librarians, members of The Friends of the MU Libraries and MU faculty members. The first prize winner receives a $500 prize.
More details on the contest can be found on the webpage: libraryguides.missouri.edu/researchcontest.
In the fall of 2015, as part of our year-long celebration of the one-hundredth anniversary of Ellis Library, the MU Libraries announced an art competition open to all undergraduate and graduate students currently enrolled at the University. Students were invited to submit an original work of art based on the theme of The Library at Night. Artworks consisting of drawing, painting, photography, graphic design and fiber were submitted, and hose displayed here in the Bookmark Cafe were judged to be the very best.
A panel of five jurors from the MU campus community served as judges for the competition, and they based their selections on the following criteria:
The Grand Prize Winner of the competition is J-School Senior, Mallory Weise, for her acrylic on canvas painting, "Night Owl." Her painting will be purchased by the MU Libraries and will become a permanent part of our collections.
Notable Entries