Welcome to Piper Brown-Kingsley

The MU Libraries are pleased to announce the hire of Piper Brown-Kingsley as the Information and Data Services Librarian at the Health Sciences Library. She began over the summer. Piper is a May 2024 graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Information School. In addition, she’s been working as a remote Data Curation Intern at the National Neighborhood Data Archive (NaNDA) at the University of Michigan. We’re so excited to have her join the Information Services Team at the newly renovated Health Sciences Library.

home Cycle of Success Congratulations to Paula Roper, Winner of MLA Outstanding Professional Librarian

Congratulations to Paula Roper, Winner of MLA Outstanding Professional Librarian

Dr. Paula Roper was named Outstanding Professional Librarian at the 2024 Missouri Library Association Conference in Kansas City, Missouri. First awarded in 2017, the Outstanding Professional Librarian Award recognizes a librarian with an MLS or MLIS degree who has made a significant contribution to the improvement and advancement of library and information services. Nominees must have at least five years post- MLS/MLIS work in the library profession.

Dr. Paula Roper has worked for University of Missouri Libraries for nearly 40 years, beginning her career at Ellis Library as part of the inaugural MU postgraduate “Intern-Scholar Program” in 1986. During her time at Ellis, Dr. Roper has worked closely with the MU School of Education and the Black Studies Department to aid both students and faculty, from the early days of online catalogs to the current challenges of navigating AI software. She has also advocated for the Library’s involvement across campus, including large, public events like Black History Month programming and National History Day. Her experience, knowledge, and drive is valued by both her library colleagues and the faculty at her liaison departments. As one of her colleagues puts it, Dr. Roper “encourag[es] and valu[es] her less experienced colleagues, spurring us to get out of our academic comfort zone, and embrace the power we have, as architects of ‘extracurricular curriculum’.”