home Cycle of Success, Ellis Library When You Find Your Oracle at the Library

When You Find Your Oracle at the Library

By Taira Meadowcroft Posted in Cycle of Success Ellis Library

Posted on January 28, 2019February 20, 2019

This is a guest post written by Dr. Jessie Adolph, an instructor of English at Lincoln University.

oracle | ˈôrək(ə)l | noun 1 a priest or priestess acting as a medium through whom advice or prophecy was sought from the gods in classical antiquity. • a place at which divine advice or prophecy was sought. • a person or thing regarded as an infallible authority or guide on something: casting the attorney general as the oracle for and guardian of the public interest is simply impossible. 2 archaic a response or message given by an oracle, typically one that is ambiguous or obscure.

Dr. Paula Roper, who I affectionately call “The Oracle” served a crucial role in my development as an educator and a scholar. During our collaborations on subject topics for English 1000, she transformed the library from a center of archaic readings into a vibrant prophetic learning experience. She introduced my students to peer-reviewed sources and resource methods making my lessons on historical trauma, spoken-word poetry, and hip-hop culture relative to the lives of my students. Explicitly, she instructed my students about African and Global Studies traditions influencing popular culture in America. The undergraduates learned “Nommo,” the power of the word (an Akan word meaning “To Make One Drink), can be utilized as a form of resistance and/or healing to build community. In other words, the young scholars learned they had a voice which can create the sound of power to change their reality. This in mind, she inspired me as an academic to utilize my voice for change.

Dr. Paula Roper, the Oracle, and Mizzou library helped me to earn my Ph.D. in Africana Diaspora Studies. My dissertation entitled “Dee-Jay Drop that Deadbeat;” Hip-hop’s Remix of Fatherhood Narratives” an interdisciplinary project required a substantial amount of research. Specifically, I examined hip-hop fatherhood narratives that constructed imagery of African American fathers and Black identity formation. Dr. Roper proved instrumental to the project by assisting me to compile an eclectic reading list African diasporic, history, sociology, and psychological to complete my task. She helped me to maximize my time at the library—I could not have become Dr. Adolph without her expert-tutelage.

Cycle of Success is the idea that libraries, faculty, and students are linked; for one to truly succeed, we must all succeed. The path to success is formed by the connections between University of Missouri Libraries and faculty members, between faculty members and students, and between students and the libraries that serve them. More than just success, this is also a connection of mutual respect, support, and commitment to forward-thinking research.

If you would like to submit your own success story about how the libraries have helped your research and/or work, please use the Cycle of Success form.

home Cycle of Success, Special Collections and Archives Inspiring Inquiry and Discovery Leads to Student Success

Inspiring Inquiry and Discovery Leads to Student Success

By Taira Meadowcroft Posted in Cycle of Success Special Collections and Archives

Posted on November 12, 2018December 10, 2018

This past year, Kate Harlin, a PhD student and graduate instructor, won the Gus Reid Award from the English Department. Gus Reid, having taught composition within this program, donated funds to support an award for graduate students and other instructors who teach exploratory/persuasive writing. The award stipulates that each recipient “should not only be a good writer but an even better critic—one who views the job and self with both discipline and light-heartedness.” Kate applied with materials created from her international composition course, a course that greatly benefited from Kelli Hansen‘s Special Collections assistance.

Kate and Kelli collaborated on an assignment designed so students could choose an object in Special Collections that they wanted to learn more about, generate questions and use as an object to springboard into an exploratory essay. From the get go, this open ended assignment was ambitious, but Kate says, “Kelli was so open and flexible with us that she was able to pull items that got every student in the class excited.”

Kelli pulled a Physics textbook from the 1920s written in Arabic, which one of Kate’s students from Saudi Arabia was able to identify as a translation written by Mizzou professor Oscar Stewart. She also found a poetry manuscript, by Li He of the Tang Dynasty, written in Chinese that many of the Chinese speaking students were thrilled to look through. One of her students even submitted her work for the Mahan Freshman Essay Award and received an honorable mention.

“The best thing about these two examples is that it helped the international students to see themselves as experts and knowledge-producers, which can be hard for any first year college student, but is even more difficult when in a class that is all about a writing in a language that you’re still learning to master,” Kate says.

Kate suggests figuring out a way to incorporate Special Collections in your syllabus and if you don’t know how, reach out to your librarians.Special Collections provided examples that truly inspired Kate’s students and is one of the many reasons why she will continue to collaborate with Kelli for future classes.

“Every semester that I have brought students to Special Collections, I have received feedback that it was a major highlight of the semester! I value inquiry and discovery in the classroom, and there is no better venue for it than Special Collections.”

If you would like to submit your own success story about how the libraries have helped your research and/or work, please use the Cycle of Success form.

home Cycle of Success, J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library Good Things Happen When You Talk To Your Librarian

Good Things Happen When You Talk To Your Librarian

By Taira Meadowcroft Posted in Cycle of Success J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library

Posted on October 29, 2018February 9, 2024

Textbooks are a big expense for students and they are often met with the decision to buy or not to buy a textbook. Knowing textbooks can be an obstacle to his students’ education, Dr. Evan Prost, Associate Teaching Professor, decided to ask the library for assistance.

For the 59 students enrolled in Physical Therapy 6810 Case Management: Geriatrics and Orthopedics, the $111 cost per textbook was a hefty price tag. That’s a cost of $6,549 for the entire class to access Guccione’s Geriatric Physical Therapy Dr. Prost asked the library if there was a way his students to get access to this textbook without paying that astronomical price.

Dr. Prost consulted with Diane Johnson, information services librarian at the Health Sciences Library, to look into the options. While investigating, Diane found the library could purchase an unlimited user, online version of the textbook for $141. This would ensure all 59 students could view the book anytime, at the same time, day or night.

The online version provided instant access to the physical therapy students, along with searching and printing capabilities. Allie Lakie, a senior physical therapy student, took the time to email to show her cohort’s appreciation for the textbook access. “I just wanted to thank you for your help in us being able to access the Geriatric PT text by Guccione. We really appreciate it!”

Collaborations like these help to advance the University of Missouri’s system-wide efforts to lower the cost of education by addressing textbook costs through the AOER initiative. Libraries and affordability have always gone hand in hand, and the University Libraries are here to help faculty identify high quality, affordable teaching materials to use in their classes. (Read more). If you are interested in consulting with a librarian on how we can work together to keep your students’ textbooks affordable, contact your subject librarian.

If you would like to submit your own success story about how the libraries have helped your research and/or work, please use the Cycle of Success form.

home Cycle of Success, Ellis Library, J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library An Open Education Pioneer Continues Helping Students

An Open Education Pioneer Continues Helping Students

By Taira Meadowcroft Posted in Cycle of Success Ellis Library J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library

Posted on October 24, 2018November 7, 2018

To Dr. William Krause, education needs to be open and without borders. “We should share information. Not hold it for a select few to access.”

Since the beginning of his Mizzou career in 1971, Dr. Krause has been a proponent of helping students learn and giving them the resources they need. “I’ve always felt very strongly that any student, under my tutelage, should have all their materials provided for them.” He even went as far as writing a couple of textbooks, streamlining them to fit the educational needs of the medical students and taking the extra step to find a publisher to make the textbooks as cheap as possible.

For several years, Dr. Krause taught 96 medical students anatomy and histology. “It was very difficult for me to rotate to all the groups in the labs and answer their questions about the slides. [They] would get frustrated waiting to get my help,” says Dr. Krause. Wanting to make sure his students received the help they needed, he applied for and was awarded a grant to work with a multi-headed microscope for help sessions. With this new equipment, he could easily show this large group the slides. “After three or four years of doing this, even those sessions became too crowded. Everyone wanted the extra help.” Dr. Krause knew he had to find a better way to help his students. When a new chair of the department came on board, Dr. Krause took the opportunity to pitch the chair his new idea.

Screenshot of Dr. Krause’s Blood and Bone Marrow Video

“I wanted to place a camera in the eye piece of the microscope and record me narrating and using the electronic pointer in real time.” The new chair was sold on the idea and gave him the go ahead to buy and use any equipment he needed to create these videos. Dr. Krause developed a set of 24 video tutorials and provided DVD copies for each medical student. That’s a total of 2,304 DVDs per year, mostly out of his own pocket. Eventually, it became too expensive to continue making copies, not to mention the DVDs would damage over time. Dr. Krause turned to the library and asked how could he still provide access to these videos while finding cheaper means of doing so.

Diane Johnson at the Health Sciences Library suggested adding them to Google as it was new and could handle 96 students watching 24 videos. Once placed on Google, Dr. Krause started receiving notes of gratitude not only from his students, but from students all over the world thanking him for sharing his knowledge. After a few years, Google wanted Dr. Krause to shorten the videos. Dr. Krause felt that shortening them would make the videos less helpful. Once again, he turned to the library.

Wanting to keep the integrity of the videos, while still keeping freely available, Dr. Krause consulted with Diane Johnson about how best to proceed. She suggested the new repository the library was managing: MOSpace. Following her advice, Dr. Krause added the videos, along with accompanying educational pdfs, to MOSpace. “I was happy to add to MOSpace. It gives the opportunity for people to tap into information from anywhere and makes it more universal,” explains Dr. Krause.

Top Countries by Downloads from April 2018-October 2018

Dr. Krause, while retired now, still continues to help students here at Mizzou and all over the world. With a total of 4,053 views for the videos and close to 19,000 views for the educational pdfs, users are still finding Dr. Krause’s collection. During the month of September 2018, his videos were downloaded over 800 times.

Dr. Krause cannot be more excited about the open education movement at Mizzou. He may have missed the initiative by three years, but he is happy to know that things are changing on campus. “I am delighted I’ve been able to help so many people from so many areas. This is such a tremendous avenue to make material available in the easiest format possible for our students at [little to] no cost.”

Dr. Krause’s videos, blogs and textbooks are found in MOSpace, where they are free to view and download.

If you would like to submit your own success story about how the libraries have helped your research and/or work, please use the Cycle of Success form.

home Cycle of Success Edward McCain Receives NDSA Innovation Award

Edward McCain Receives NDSA Innovation Award

By Shannon Cary Posted in Cycle of Success

Posted on October 17, 2018October 31, 2018

We are delighted to announce the recipients of the National Digital Stewardship Alliance’s (NDSA) annual Innovation Awards!

Individual Award: Edward McCain, University of Missouri Libraries and Reynolds Journalism Institute
Organization Award: Texas Digital Library
Project Award: UC Guidelines for Born-Digital Archival Description
Educator Awards: Heather Moulaison Sandy
Future Steward Award: Raven Bishop

These awards highlight and commend creative individuals, projects, organizations, educators, and future stewards demonstrating originality and excellence in their contributions to the field of digital preservation.

As the Digital Curator of Journalism and founder of the Journalism Digital News Archive, Edward McCain has been and is a leading voice and passionate advocate for saving born digital news. He has advanced awareness and understanding of the crisis we face through the loss of the “first rough draft of history” in digital formats. In collaboration and with support from colleagues and community members, he has led the “Dodging the Memory Hole” outreach agenda. Thus far, five “Memory Hole” forums have brought together journalists, editors, technologists, librarians, archivists, and others who seek solutions to preserving born-digital news content for future generations. By bringing together thought leaders in the news industry and information science, the forums have broadened the network of stakeholders working on this issue and helped these communities gain critical insight on the challenges and opportunities inherent in preserving content generated by a diverse array of news media, both commercial and non-profit.

Edward McCain would like to mention that the following people have been essential to the success of the “Dodging the Memory Hole” outreach program:

Dorothy Carner, Ann Riley, Jim Cogswell, Mike Holland and Jeannette Pierce, University of Missouri Libraries
Randy PIcht, Reynolds Journalism Institute
Katherine Skinner, Educopia Institute
Peter Broadwell, Todd Grapone and Sharon Farb, UCLA Library
Martin Klein, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Brewster Kahle, Mark Graham and Jefferson Bailey, Internet Archive
Brian Geiger, University of California, Riverside
Anna Krahmer, University of North Texas
Senator Roy Blunt and his staff
Clifford Lynch, Coalition for Networked Information
Martin Halbert, University of North Carolina, Greensboro
Jim Kroll, Denver Public Library
Leigh Montgomery, Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Eric Weig, University of Kentucky
Frederick Zarndt, Global Connections
The Institute for Museum and Library Services
The Mizzou Advantage
And last but not least, my wife, Rosemary Feraldi

home Cycle of Success, J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library Doctor Discovers Librarians Are On Her Research Team

Doctor Discovers Librarians Are On Her Research Team

By Taira Meadowcroft Posted in Cycle of Success J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library

Posted on October 15, 2018October 29, 2018

Dr. Elizabeth Malm-Buatsi didn’t know where to turn when she wanted to improve her standing as a researcher. As the only pediatric urologist at MU HealthCare, and often called away for surgeries, she had no built-in research team she could lean on. After flying solo for a few months, she found herself on the verge of abandoning projects she was passionate about, frustrated by the research process and unsure how to proceed. Luckily, a colleague suggested she contact Diane Johnson at the Health Sciences Library. Dr. Malm-Buatsi says that initial meeting was absolutely lifechanging

When she first contacted Diane, Dr. Malm-Buatsi was creating an educational flyer to give to parents about newborn circumcisions. In order to provide this vital information to parents about the process, she needed to find the best evidence-based research, but she already conducted a literature search and found no information after several hours of searching. Diane, however, was able to find the information in the matter of minutes, at least that’s how Dr. Malm-Buatsi describes it. “Ever since meeting Diane, my outlook on research projects has changed,” she says, “and I’ve learned to enjoy the process. She makes sure to keep me on track, makes the process easier, and helps me think critically about what I’m working on.”

Diane’s assistance wasn’t limited to the patient education project. Dr. Malm-Buatsi was also in the midst of applying for an internal grant related to the urinary microbiome. Diane conducted literature searches and created an EndNote Library, not only adding relevant articles, but also pointing out the most relevant sections of information. “Diane was able to cut the time I would’ve spent on researching in half.” Dr. Malm-Buatsi says the grant proposal was recently accepted, and she expects Diane will still be an integral contributor of the project. Diane has also found several additional grant opportunities for Dr. Malm-Buatsi to pursue.

Two projects wasn’t enough for Dr. Malm-Buatsi, though. She also wanted to assess residents’ satisfaction with and the perceived usefulness of an online surgical training system, including a pre-surgery assessment that allows the residents to set goals and view videos before surgery. They determined the best way to capture these qualitative results was developing a survey. Caryn Scoville, Information Services Librarian, consulted with Dr. Malm-Buatsi, designed the survey in Qualtrics, and distributed it to the residents. Dr. Malm-Buatsi and her colleagues submitted an abstract about their system, and although it hasn’t been accepted yet, she is positive it will, in large part because of Caryn’s behind-the-scenes work.

Looking to strengthen your own research profile? Dr. Malm-Buatsi suggests consulting with your librarians from day one of your project and learning how they can contribute to your research process. “They are so open and I feel I can bounce my ideas off of them,” she says. Dr. Malm-Buasi has also discovered an unanticipated benefit: “Now that I am in their minds, I often receive emails with suggestions or pieces of information related to my projects.Their help has had a huge impact on my career.”

If you would like to submit your own success story about how the libraries have helped your research and/or work, please use the Cycle of Success form.

home Cycle of Success, Ellis Library Two Student Employees Help Preserve Ellis Library’s Collection

Two Student Employees Help Preserve Ellis Library’s Collection

By Ashley Granger Posted in Cycle of Success Ellis Library

Posted on October 2, 2018October 17, 2018

Behind the scenes at the University Libraries, there are quite a few things that go into making a book shelf-ready. Occasionally, the physical processing department, in the ground floor of Ellis Library, has to repair books before they can go on (or back on) the shelves for users to check out.

Thankfully, physical processing is staffed with employees who want to teach, and great students who are eager to learn. The physical processing staff is now able to hand more and more work over to dedicated students, giving the students great experience, and freeing up the employees for other projects, such as conservation and preservation.

Two such students are Lydia Dysart and Megan Potter, both student employees in the physical processing department. As you can see from the “before” photo, books often come to physical processing looking . . . less than great. But as you see from the “after” photo, a lot can be done to fix a book. From start to finish, these students were able to complete the project.

When a book is in poor shape, you can’t simply glue it back together. The books that are repaired rarely look like they have been repaired (see the “after” photo) thanks to detailed work. When walking around the physical processing work space, you will see streamers hanging from the wall in all different shades. This is paper used to repair the books, and they want the repair to match the book as closely as possible. It’s intricate work that takes training and detail-oriented people. Thankfully, both Lydia and Megan were up to the task.

As you can see in the before and after pictures, the students have to fix breaks in the book block using rice paper. Then they replace the spine, and, lastly, consolidate and repair the covers. Lydia and Megan did all the spine and cover repairs in the finished repair pictures.

We all appreciate the students who work at University Libraries, and are happy to be able shine a spotlight on some great work! Thank you, Lydia and Megan, for helping to preserve our library’s collection!

home Cycle of Success, Ellis Library Institutional Support Models Could Revolutionize Open Access Publishing

Institutional Support Models Could Revolutionize Open Access Publishing

By Super Admin Posted in Cycle of Success Ellis Library

Posted on September 17, 2018January 21, 2021

In addition to “producing grammatical descriptions and dictionaries for four varieties of the Luyia language cluster in western Kenya,” Michael Marlo is an Associate Professor of English and Linguistics and a member of the editorial board of the Language Science Press‘s Contemporary African Linguistics series. Language Science Press is an open access publisher of peer-reviewed linguistics books, including textbooks, and neither readers nor authors pay fees under the Knowledge Unlatched model, which instead relies on financial pledges from institutions and libraries to fund open access projects.

Michael’s editorship originally grew out of a desire to find a financially reasonable publishing outlet for the proceedings of the Annual Conference on African Linguistics. When researching potential publishers for book projects related to his National Science Foundation project, Structure and Tone in Luyia, he had also made note of their African Language Grammars and Dictionaries series.

“One of the major obstacles to the development of the field of linguistics is access to research results,” Michael says. For example, access to the digital version of the most prestigious publisher’s grammar series costs $10,000 plus annual fees for updates. A single book costs $200. Despite the prestige, Michael doesn’t intend to pursue publication through a press with such a prohibitive pricing model because that would limit his audience to those few whose libraries can afford access. He says, “While I recognize that there are still problems of access with publications that are primarily available as PDF downloads online, due to the fact that not everyone has internet access, having my work available for anyone to download is a major improvement in access over most other publishing options, which are either too expensive for readers or require a large subvention from the author, or both.”

Last summer, Michael learned that Language Science Press was pursuing the institutional support funding model and asked Anne Barker, his subject librarian, if Mizzou Libraries could contribute. He was “thrilled” to learn that some funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities were able to be put toward the initiative. Michael says, “I believe [this model] has the chance to revolutionize publishing in my field, and possibly by extension many other fields in academia.”

Anne confirms, “Librarians have long been concerned that the commercialization of scholarly communication restricts access for individuals and strains library budgets. Changing the traditional publication funding model to provide for more open access is complex and challenging, but the Knowledge Unlatched model is promising. Mizzou Libraries is glad to be able to join this endeavor.”

Michael encourages students to use MOBIUS and Interlibrary Loan to access books outside of our collection. He also encourages students to find their subject areas in the stacks and look around. “There’s a lot of great stuff in there that you won’t easily find just by searching online databases!”

If you would like to submit your own success story about how the libraries have helped your research and/or work, please use the Cycle of Success form.

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