Visualizing Abolition: A Digital History of the Suppression of the African Slave Trade
This exhibit shares the materials explored for the development of a website on the history of the suppression of the African Slave Trade. It will provide viewers with access to materials such as: maps, letters, images, posters, legislation, books, and other relevant objects that made up part of this project on the largest forced migration in history.

Exhibitors: Honors College and the Office of Undergraduate Research

Flat Branch Pub and Friends of the University Libraries present

WILLIAM LEAST HEAT-MOON 

Celebrating the release of his debut novel

CELESTIAL MECHANICS

Tuesday, May 2, 2017, 4:30 pm
Flat Branch Pub
115 S. Fifth Street, Columbia, MO 65201

Renowned Blue Highways author William Least Heat-Moon celebrates the release of his debut novel CELESTIAL MECHANICS: A Tale for a Mid-Winter Night (Three Rooms Press, April 2017) with book signing party at Flat Branch Pub in historic downtown Columbia, MO on Tuesday, May 2 at 4:30 pm.

The fun event will give fans of Heat-Moon’s work a chance to purchase the new book and have it personally signed by the author. Fifty-five percent of the $28 purchase price will be donated to support University of Missouri Libraries’ Special Collections efforts to purchase a rare book. Each person purchasing a book will also receive a page from the original manuscript of CELESTIAL MECHANICS from the author. In addition, those who contribute $50 or more to MU’s Friends of the University Libraries will receive an authentic full chapter of the manuscript from the author.

Heat-Moon’s new book, CELESTIAL MECHANICS, has already received extensive critical praise. American Library Association journal Booklist hailed as “An entrancing journey toward deeper insight into the cosmos, an exploration readers will share and savor with every masterfully crafted sentence.” Foreword Reviews praised it as “imaginative work about a man’s quest for true connection.” Library Journal notes it is “definitely for fans of philosophical novels and Least Heat-Moon’s nonfiction.” 

William Least Heat-Moon, pen name of William Trogdon, is of English, Irish, and Osage ancestry. In addition to CELESTIAL MECHANICS, he is the best-selling author of Blue Highways, PrairyErth, River-Horse, Roads to Quoz, Here, There, Elsewhere, and Writing Blue Highways.

Copies of CELESTIAL MECHANICS will be available for purchase and signing at the event. For additional information, please contact Matt Gaunt, Director of Development, MU Libraries, gauntm@missouri.edu.

This week, the University Libraries joins libraries in schools, campuses and communities nationwide in celebrating the many ways libraries are transforming their communities every day through the services and invaluable expertise they offer.

April 9-15 is National Library Week, a time to highlight the changing role of libraries, librarians and library workers. Libraries aren’t only a place of quiet study, but also creative and engaging community centers where people can collaborate using new technologies.

Libraries of all types are evolving to meet the needs of the communities they serve. Elected officials, small business owners, students and the public at large depend upon libraries and the resources they offer to address the needs of their communities. By providing such resources as e-books and technology classes, materials for English-language learners, programs for job seekers or a safe haven in times of crisis, libraries and librarians transform their communities.

The University Libraries play a crucial role at MU by providing access to core scholarly journals, books and discovery tools that support research. Many students benefit from the knowledge and skills of our librarians who schedule class instructional opportunities and one-on-one consultations with individual and small groups of students conducting research. In addition, our campus libraries are popular locations for study. 

Libraries also offer something unique to their communities, the expertise of individual librarians. Librarians assist patrons in using increasingly complex technology and sorting through the potentially overwhelming mass of information bombarding today’s digital society. This is especially crucial when access to reliable and trustworthy data is more important than ever.

First sponsored in 1958, National Library Week is a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and libraries across the country each April. 

For more information, visit the University of Missouri Libraries website at library.missouri.edu.  .

During February, the University of Missouri celebrates black history and culture. This year's theme is Focus on Black Education. For more information about events, scroll the Black History Month 2017 Calendar: missouri.edu/blackhistory/

Also, don't forget to check out our MU Libraries Twitter feed for daily #OnThisDay tweets about black history that occurred across decades during the month of February: twitter.com/MULibraries

Fast Facts:

• All undergraduates are invited to submit a class research project from 2016.
• Prizes: One $500 scholarship for first prize and one $250 scholarship for second prize will be awarded to an individual or group project. The winners will have their projects archived in MOspace, MU’s digital repository, and will have the opportunity to participate in a research presentation session at Ellis Library.

Acceptable research project formats include:

Traditional research papers · Musical compositions  · Works of art 
Videos · Websites  ·  Other creative works  

Submissions must have been researched using the resources of the MU Libraries.

The project will be judged primarily on sophistication of the research process and the materials used as documented by a Research Process Statement and a Faculty Support Statement. More information is available at https://libraryguides.missouri.edu/researchcontest/.

The deadline for submission of all materials is March 13, 2017.

Contest winners will be notified by April 3.

Join us from 10 to 11:30 am on Feb. 7 for the Grand Reopening of Bookmark Cafe in Ellis Library. Over the winter break, the Bookmark Cafe was renovated thanks to funding provided by the Student Fee Capital Improvement Committee. Come check out the new seating and outlets available for your study needs. In addition, the Cafe now features Harold's Doughnuts! During this event there will be free coffee and samples of Harold's Doughnuts.