home Ellis Library Peer Navigator Corner: Ellis (The Person, Not the Place)

Peer Navigator Corner: Ellis (The Person, Not the Place)

By Kimberly Moeller Posted in Ellis Library

Posted on April 15, 2025March 24, 2025

Written by: Isabella Bickhaus

Common questions surrounding the library often include: Where’s Ellis? What’s Ellis? When’s Ellis open? But here’s a question that might not be asked as frequently: Who’s Ellis?

The main library on MU’s campus was named after Elmer Ellis in 1971 by the Board of Curators. From 1955 to 1966, Ellis served as the 13th president of MU. Because of his dedication to the library before and during his term, the library thrived. His dedication plaque can be found outside the Lowry Mall entrance at the bottom of the lampposts.

Before Ellis assumed the role of President, he served on the campus Library Committee with two other faculty members. In this committee, they were tasked to allocate funds for books and journals between different academic departments and also to hire a new librarian. Perhaps most significantly, this committee also oversaw the plans for the west-wing addition in the library in 1936, which significantly increased storage and study space. At the same time the west wing was added, building the west stacks doubled the number of books the library could hold. Today, the west side of the library houses a variety of things, including Special Collections on the fourth floor, the cast gallery and study space on the second floor, study space on the first floor, and Ellis Auditorium on the ground floor.

During his term as President, the library was becoming crowded again even after the west wing addition. In 1958, the library was expanded further with an east wing addition, creating more space and adding symmetry to the library’s north facade. Today, the east wing houses the east stacks on floors two through four, administrative offices and government documents on the first floor, and museums on the ground floor. The library grew physically and technologically during his term, surpassing 1 million volumes, transitioning from Dewey to Library of Congress classification, and installing an IBM circulation system. In addition to the physical and technological expansion of the library, Ellis sought and gained approval to create an accredited graduate program for Library and Information Science, and he appointed a committee to find a head of this new school. This program is still in existence today and educates librarians for the state of Missouri and beyond.

Sources: Ellis Old and New Libguide, The History of the University of Missouri-Columbia Library by June LaFollette DeWeese, My Road to Emeritus by Elmer Ellis

home Ellis Library, Resources and Services Peer Navigator Corner: Sensory & Seating Maps

Peer Navigator Corner: Sensory & Seating Maps

By Kimberly Moeller Posted in Ellis Library Resources and Services

Posted on February 18, 2025February 28, 2025

Written by: Sophie Lanzone

Some of you may already be aware of the different seating or spaces within the library, but if you aren’t familiar there are different maps on the library’s website that display what is on each floor, including where quiet spaces, study rooms, seating, and bathrooms are. For example, if you are someone who prefers to work in quiet or uncrowded spaces, the sensory map is the perfect resource to help you find the right places to study.

To find these maps, go to the library’s home page and click “Maps and Floorplans” on the very top. This will list the different libraries, with links to show you different maps for each library. Under the Ellis Library link you’ll find an option for “Ellis Library Sensory Maps.” This gives you the option of looking at quiet spaces, uncrowded spaces, and natural light. The first tab for quiet spaces shows a layout of each floor with highlighted areas that are designated quiet spaces or that tend to be quiet. The tabs across the top of the guide let you click on uncrowded spaces or natural light, and highlight different areas in the library based on these qualities.

Another map that I think is useful to people who prefer specific study accommodations is the seating map, which can be found the same way as the sensory map. Each floor it is color coordinated and highlights several types of seating and where they are located, including soft seating, high/stand-up seating, and regular seating.

If you have any other questions regarding these maps, including how to find them, stop by the Peer Navigator desk and ask for help!

home Ellis Library, Resources and Services Peer Navigator Corner: A Guide to Ebooks

Peer Navigator Corner: A Guide to Ebooks

By Kimberly Moeller Posted in Ellis Library Resources and Services

Posted on October 22, 2024November 8, 2024

Written by: Josiah Abbott

Whether you are a student or a member of the general public, books are what draw most people to a library. However, in an ever-evolving world of technology, ebooks are beginning to surpass traditional paper in terms of academic and personal use. I’m sure almost every student is familiar with both the blessings and curses of electronic course textbooks. Whether through McGraw Hill Connect or MU Online, many classes include textbooks using this more compact method.

Before covering online textbooks more in-depth, let’s address more casual ebook experiences. If you are looking for an easy way to read (or listen) on the go, personally, I enjoy Hoopla. It has an extremely user-friendly interface and is incredibly easy to sign up for (all you need are a public library card and an email address). Libby is also easy to sign up for (requires a library card and email) and quite easy to use. One other option that isn’t freely available through a library but you may have come across is the Kindle app. It does a great job mimicking the coloring of physical books but has either a subscription fee or requires you to purchase books individually. All of these are great options each with their benefits and drawbacks, and I would encourage you to check them out for yourself to see which one you like best.

For students, however, online books rather than apps are a necessity and a potentially frustrating one at that. First and foremost, McGraw Hill Connect is likely the most used ebook service at Mizzou. Now, for most students, McGraw Hill should link to Canvas automatically through AutoAccess and there should be no issues. However, if you decide not to use AutoAccess, things become trickier. First, you need to go through Canvas to the McGraw Hill Connect page that will prompt you to purchase the ebook. You can go through them, but if you’ve purchased a copy elsewhere, you also can input a code found in the textbook on that page and it should automatically link up. If you have done these steps to link accounts and it still is not working, you may need to contact IT support and your TA or Professor. Often the issues can be fixed with a bit of troubleshooting, but I’ve occasionally experienced the Professor having trouble syncing and the whole class having the same problem.

On the other hand, many students will be assigned reading assignments for which they can use an ebook through the University Libraries. If the Professor links the book in Canvas usually it is easy to locate, but since access is based on login, sometimes there are issues. If you can’t access through Canvas for any reason, you can use the Discover@MU search bar on the University of Missouri Libraries home page to search for the book you need. Searching for the title in quotes will redirect you to a list of resources, including the book’s details regarding availability and how to access it. It is the same process for both digital and physical resources, so to only retrieve ebooks, there is an option on the left to limit it to “online only”. To access ebooks, there is a blue link on the book’s banner that says “MU online…”, which will take you to the book in your browser. Depending on the publisher, you’ll either be able to read the book straight away, or you may have to create an account with your UMSystem email address.

Part of the linking message will also state how many copies are available for use. Just like print books, ebooks are sold as individual copies, and the link to access will state how many there are (see image, “one user at a time”). If you are getting an error opening it, it may currently be in use, and if you are the one using it, don’t forget to close the tab when you finish so someone else can.

If you are having trouble with a book you previously could access, try clearing your cache (go to browser history and there should be a button to clear cache somewhere). If problems persist, there are several ways to get help. Online, you can contact Mizzou’s IT division by going to the live chat button at the top of their homepage, or you can start a chat with a librarian by going to the “Ask us!” pop out on the right side of the library’s homepage. If you would like help in person, you can ask one of the peer navigators at their desk on the first floor near the information commons.

home Ellis Library, Resources and Services Peer Navigator Corner: Who are the Peer Navigators?

Peer Navigator Corner: Who are the Peer Navigators?

By Kimberly Moeller Posted in Ellis Library Resources and Services

Posted on October 8, 2024October 10, 2024

Written by: Sophie Lanzone

At Ellis Library, there is a group of Mizzou students who are available to help with navigating the building itself, or any other technological or reference question you may have. The peer navigator system is designed so that students have an accessible environment to ask questions, and feel comfortable asking another student. We can be found at the reference desk on the first floor, near the stairs to the café.

To go into more detail on what the program offers, your peer navigators strive to have open communication with everyone as well as a friendly, welcoming attitude. Our prime responsibilities for services are to provide excellent customer service to any users of the library, to do as much as we can to help assist with your questions, to be sensitive to each user’s knowledge and skill level, and to direct you to the resources and library staff that will be most beneficial. We can help with a variety of different types of questions ranging from how to print and get set up with each printer, how to reserve a study room and where to find that study room, how to look up books and articles information on the digital media lab and writing tutors, where you can rent chargers, markers cameras, etc., where bathrooms are throughout the library, where different quiet spaces or classrooms are and more! We have weekly training courses that keep us up to date with new information and refresh the ways we can help answer your questions. We can also connect you with the best person or resource to answer your question. For example, we can tell you all about Special Collections with their collection of rare materials, the University Archives with private papers and manuscripts related to the history of the University, subject specific librarians to help with your research, and even the public library with great resources like free tutoring, audiobooks, and resume or interview help.

If you have any questions at all, don’t be afraid to come ask a peer navigator. You can find us in Ellis Library Sunday-Thursday starting at 10:00 am through 10:00 pm. There are no right or wrong questions, so please feel comfortable enough to come talk to us. Our goal is to get everyone more familiar with what the Libraries have to offer and how to utilize them throughout your time here at Mizzou!

home Ellis Library, J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library, Resources and Services Protect Yourself and Your Research from Predatory Journal Publishers

Protect Yourself and Your Research from Predatory Journal Publishers

By Taira Meadowcroft Posted in Ellis Library J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library Resources and Services

Posted on October 20, 2021October 21, 2025

Predatory publishing doesn’t just take advantage of authors by misrepresenting review, editorial, and fee structures. It also hinders access to the work itself, hurting the overall enterprise of research. The epidemic of predatory journals reached serious enough heights in 2016 that the Federal Trade Commission charged OMICS, one such publisher of hundreds of predatory journals, for its deceptive practices.

“If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” says Janice Dysart, Science Librarian and creator of the Where to Publish Your Research guide. “Be wary of these email solicitations from publishers trying to get you to submit articles to their journals.” She recommends using the Think Check Submit checklist to determine whether a publisher is legitimate.

Anyone can fall victim to predatory journal publishers. Jung Ha-Brookshire, Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies, College of Human Environmental Sciences, and Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Textile and Apparel Management, relates her experience after a graduate student recommended a journal a few years ago. She says, “I didn’t think twice about it. We submitted our paper and got accepted without any revisions. Then they were asking us to send money somewhere in Pakistan.” She still didn’t realize what was happening because she hadn’t even heard of “predatory journals.”

That all changed about a year later when she learned of a list of predatory journals from her colleagues. “We found out that our journal was on that list,” she says. They tried to withdraw their work from the publication but couldn’t. Because the journal wasn’t legitimate, the article could only be found via the specific URL and not by searching, so they pulled the publication information from their CVs. Jung says, “We had to take that manuscript as a loss because we couldn’t even take that paper to other publishers since, technically, it is already published.”

After that experience, Jung now checks with her subject librarian, Noël Kopriva, every time she encounters a journal she hasn’t heard of, “no matter how good the website looks.” Jung advises, “Be careful with choosing the right journals. Do not get fooled by address, location, a beautiful website, and a wonderful set of editorial board names. Check with your librarian first when in doubt!”

For more information on how to spot predatory journal publishers, see our Where to Publish Your Research guide or contact your subject librarian

Originally published in 2018 by Jen Gravley, Research and Instruction Librarian

home Cycle of Success, Ellis Library Rare Materials Essential to Understanding History

Rare Materials Essential to Understanding History

By Shannon Cary Posted in Cycle of Success Ellis Library

Posted on September 25, 2019November 20, 2025

Colton Ochsner, a history doctoral student at MU, does research on the origins of fantasy and science fiction films in modern German history. Colton chose the German cinema as his concentration because German films have become very influential. “They made a lot of movies that have spread across the world and influenced film, especially to America. Anything from Blade Runner to Star Wars has been inspired in some way by a lot of these older movies, especially visually. I have been drawn to these older movies in particular because I have known about the occult and I have seen it working in these movies and yet no scholar has pointed it out,” he said.

Knowing how specialized his research could be, Colton sought the help of Ellis librarians. “My research wouldn’t be possible without the librarians help because the books and movies from this era require Interlibrary Loan (ILL) to access them,” Colton said.

“The research Colton is doing on film and esoteric groups in Germany in the 1920s requires materials that are pretty sparse and many have not survived World War II and post-war disruptions,” said Anne Barker, humanities librarian. Anne is also fluent in German and how German libraries are structured, which makes it easier to fulfill Colton’s research requests. Anne helped Colton with deciphering references as he was trying to locate books and articles often with incomplete information. Anne said, “We’re so used to finding things online, it’s easy to forget that many things have not yet been digitized or indexed well.”

Since 2013, the ILL department processed more than 1,200 ILL requests for Colton. Oi-Chi (Ivy) Hui, head of ILL borrowing, works with Colton to fulfill the obscure requests. “It’s teamwork,” Ivy said. She has requested materials for Colton from Germany, France, Switzerland, Canada and throughout the United States. “Since these requests were not processed through the system, tracking correspondence manually and signing papers for copyright compliance is a challenge. Some of these materials took months before they got here,” Ivy said.

“The basic related teachings of the occult during this time-period that includes writings and images are important because in Germany people associated images, ideas and emotions with films,” Colton said. The research materials gave Colton the confirmation he needed. During his research, Colton found a poster from a 1919 film. While looking at the poster, he discovered the name of a book he had never heard. It turns out only two libraries in the world had the book. “It was a piece of pulp fiction literature from 1919. It was only published because it was going to be used to make an action and adventure movie,” he stated. Ivy was able to find the obscure book with the minimal information available and successfully filled the request.

With Anne and Ivy’s help, Colton continues to work on his research with a projected graduation date of 2023.

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.

Article written by Christina Mascarenas

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, 2018November 20, 2025

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.

home Cycle of Success, Ellis Library Collaboration Builds Collections

Collaboration Builds Collections

By Super Admin Posted in Cycle of Success Ellis Library

Posted on May 16, 2018November 20, 2025

The story of how Mizzou Libraries came to be one of the few libraries with a nearly complete set of Bildende Kunst, a visual arts journal from the former German Democratic Republic, began with an email but involved many hands. In Leipzig, Germany, on research leave, Assistant Professor Seth Howes contacted his subject librarian, Anne Barker, to ask about access to the journal after he returned to Mizzou. Without microfilm or online versions and with the closest complete set of the journal located in New York, Anne determined that access would be very difficult.

In the end, Seth considered not only “here’s why this is important to me” but also “here’s how important this is to me,” contributing some of his funds for research materials, matched by library funds, towards the purchase of additional issues.

Seth’s research focuses on the literature and experimental music and film of East Germany in its final fifteen years of existence, and Mizzou Libraries already had full print runs of the other two critical journals for his research, covering literature and music. Bildende Kunst can be translated as “Visual Art” or as “Educating Art or Art that Educates,” Seth explains. Because it reproduced art otherwise unavailable to East Germans, Bildende Kunst served as an educational magazine as well as a trade journal aimed at professionals.

“One of the things that I think is very cool about having this in our collection now,” Seth says, “is that as a research institution with the teaching mission that comes with being a land-grant institution, we always need to think about how we can translate our work into teaching, and that is to a great extent what that journal did.” He plans on scheduling sessions with Special Collections in his courses so he can show students how these ideas were debated: “Can we have socialist art that looks like this? Is it not distracting or alienating to paint a worker in this way? Shouldn’t we just take recourse to 19th century realist painterly techniques?” Seth finds that students who are visual thinkers connect in a more meaningful way with a richly illustrated journal than ones that require greater language fluency to decode “communists arguing with each other.”

Anne says, “I was excited by this opportunity to enhance our research and teaching collections, but also because this adds to regional resources, making this important publication much more accessible to scholars in Missouri and surrounding states. I’m grateful for Seth’s initiative and willingness to invest his personal research funds to make this acquisition possible.”

Seth suggests that students and faculty think of “the library’s existing strengths as a jumping off point for our imagination of how to make strategic additions or strategic developments in new directions.” Despite budget challenges, he has found that “there is a will to grow the library’s resources for research and teaching, and everybody here is obviously working like mad to make resources available to students and faculty.”

Special Thanks

Many Mizzou Libraries staff members in addition to Anne played vital roles in getting the journal issues onto our shelves:

Corrie Hutchinson, Head of Acquisitions, identified and worked with the German vendor, determining costs and handling payments
Libby Myre, Senior Library Information Specialist, identified and worked with the German vendor, determining costs and handling payments, and input the journal’s information into the catalog
Michaelle Dorsey, Senior Library Information Specialist, with assistance from her preservation assistants, created containers to store the journal in its original format
Bette Stuart, Senior Library Information Specialist, input the journal’s information into the catalog
Kelli Hansen, Interim Head of Special Collections, provided space for the collection

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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home Cycle of Success, Ellis Library Libraries Are Where You Go When You Run out of Ideas

Libraries Are Where You Go When You Run out of Ideas

By Super Admin Posted in Cycle of Success Ellis Library

Posted on April 4, 2018November 20, 2025

Research Enriches Undergraduate Writers’ Creative Nonfiction

Julija Šukys, Assistant Professor of English and creative nonfiction writer, says, “Libraries are one of my great loves. I’m a huge champion of libraries.” Much of her work is deeply researched, including her most recent books. Epistolophilia: Writing the Life of Ona Šimaitė is an unconventional biography of the Lithuanian librarian whose heroic actions saved an untold number of lives during the Holocaust, while Siberian Exile: Blood, War, and a Granddaughter’s Reckoning, published in October, investigates her own family’s complicated history.

Julija introduces her advanced undergraduate students to the pleasures of combining research and creative work by incorporating a library research day into all of her nonfiction workshops. She finds that sometimes students at this level are “starting to tell the same stories over and over again,” and research is “a way of showing them how you break out of that, how you break out of writing the same narratives. It’s a way of showing them that there’s a bigger world and to look up, to look out, and to learn something as you write. Writing is a way of actually understanding the world better.”

Students begin by drafting personal essays and then are instructed to ask themselves, “What’s the piece that I could crack open with the help of research?” At this point, Julija sends Anne Barker, her subject librarian, their list of research questions. Because the topics arise out of students’ personal stories and interests, this list can be quite quirky.

By the time students show up at the library, Anne has gathered resources appropriate to the various topics. These workshops meet for weekly for two and a half hours, so one class session can accommodate both instruction and practice. During the first half of the session, Anne introduces them to library databases and also demonstrates search strategies that facilitate research “in the broadest terms.” Julija says, “We search really wide-ranging stuff, both scholarship as well as how to find things on Google Books, how to find movies, how to find video clips that are going to be interesting and useful. Students learn that there’s this enormous world that’s available to them.”

Then during the second half of the session, students begin their quest to find two sources for their essays. They have time to run searches, ask questions, and find books in the stacks. Julija reports that students often have their first experience requesting books through MOBIUS or interlibrary loan, or as she calls it, experiencing “the pleasure of having books sent to you from other places in the world.” Some of her students end up using maps or newspapers or doing genealogical research. “What I really want them to learn,” Julija says, “is how to work in a library and how to think about resources and for them to discover the pleasure of working both with archival materials and with books.”

This assignment brings what Anne calls her “detective instincts” to the forefront. She says, “I enjoy working individually with the students to think of different angles to pursue and different types of materials that could augment their research and then seeing them return with the things they’ve discovered. It’s like opening a treasure chest whose contents they can continue to explore for a long time.”

In addition to helping students find new possibilities in their writing, Anne’s instruction helps Julija accomplish her mission of teaching her students how to use libraries. “Libraries are good places to work, and libraries are places for solace,” she tells them. “Libraries can be this place where you go when you’ve run out of ideas.”

Julija advises other instructors interested in incorporating library instruction into their classes to “plan it in advance and contact the subject librarian early.” She has also found that giving students concrete tasks helps them be able to put what they’ve learned to immediate use, and another recommendation is to “give students class time to do the hands-on work.” Conducting their own research with a librarian available gives students an appropriate balance of independence and support. “It’s very individualized, and on the other hand they’re learning transferable skills.”

Julija’s advice to students is simple: “Talk to a reference librarian because they have skills you can’t even imagine.”

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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