For chemical engineering student Ashley Anstaett, a strong sense of community is what attracted her to Columbia, the Mizzou campus, and ultimately the Engineering Library and Technology Commons. “Mizzou has a beautiful campus, and Columbia itself is an ideal spot for me… for its size, the cultural events in Columbia are not lacking and one of my favorite parts of the year is the True/False Film Festival where people come from all over to share their passion for film, music, and art.”
Ashley currently works as a chemistry research assistant in the plant science group at the Missouri Research Reactor. “We are looking at improving the zinc and iron content of corn through the use of bacteria that occur naturally in the soil. ” She says her interests are in the environmental aspects of engineering, but her dream is to work in the fragrance industry. “I’ve collected all kinds of fragrances since I was a little kid and love smelling things!”
When Ashley is not working or in class, you can quite often find her at the Engineering Library and she notes that “I don’t know what I would do without the Engineering Library!” The reference materials and textbooks are essential to her for her studies. Most importantly, she says, it is the community fostered by the library space that is key. “I know I can go to the Engineering Library anytime it is open and find someone working on the same thing as me, willing to help, or work together. Even if we are all stuck, it provides a great space for commiserating, drinking some coffee, and enjoying good company.” She also loves interacting with the staff. “It’s nice to see a friendly face every day and know that they are there and willing to help.”
The Engineering Library also supports Ashley’s more leisurely interests. “One of my favorite things about the Engineering Library is that they let me have all of my comics, books, and movies sent there. Using MOBIUS and ILL, you can get pretty much any book or movie you could ever imagine. As a delivery option, you can choose to have them sent to any library on campus you want. I don’t even have to leave Lafferre Hall. I look forward to going to the library each day to see if something I ordered arrived. It’s like retail therapy, but it’s free!”
It’s no surprise then that one of Ashley’s favorite Mizzou memories happened at the Engineering Library. “I was studying intently, heard some commotion, and looked up to see a bunch of folks in T-Rex costumes roaming the library. They were dancing and also maybe … studying?”
The University Libraries are pleased to announce that Noel Kopriva has been appointed as Engineering Librarian and Head of Engineering Library & Technology Commons!
Noel has earned a Bachelor’s in English and two Master’s degrees in Library and Information Science and English from the University of Missouri. She has been working for the University of Missouri Libraries for over three and half years as the Librarian to Textile and Apparel Management and to the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources. She previously served as the Agriculture Librarian at West Virginia University for seven years.
This past year, Noel has been serving as the Interim Head of the Engineering Library & Technology Commons and we are happy to have her continue her work in a permanent position.
The University of Missouri Libraries will never send you an email asking you to click on a link to activate your library account. Your library account is activated automatically based on your status with either the Registrar (as a student) or in myHR (as an employee).
Unfortunately, phishing scams sometimes target university email accounts with false claims and links to gather users’ account information. If you receive such a message about your library account, DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK. If you have questions about your library account, you can contact a librarian at http://libraryanswers.missouri.edu
The Division of IT provides additional information on keeping your account safe from such attacks at MakeITSafe: https://www.umsystem.edu/makeitsafe/
The key to success when looking for job opportunities is to adequately prepare. There’s no “wingin’ it” when it comes to your future career. Those individuals you may be networking with on Wednesday, February 7th at the Engineering Career Fair may very well be the people who help you toward getting your dream job.
Fortunately, Mizzou Libraries and the College of Engineering have some great resources to ace your first networking event:
“It feels cliché to say, but it’s the truth. Not only is our campus absolutely gorgeous, the people that are there make you feel as though you can succeed the moment you meet them.” As an electrical engineering student, he knew the non-traditional path to medical school he chose wouldn’t be easy, but Mizzou offered him the resources in order to follow his dream and excel right from the beginning.
These days, you can find Alex, like many engineering students, in the Engineering Library, a place he credits as being instrumental to his success as a Mizzou student. The library offers invaluable collaborative space for students studying various engineering specialties and resources on cutting edge innovation in the field.
“My favorite thing about the Engineering Library is the space it provides to engineering students near our classes, peers, and professors. Although the Lafferre renovation has provided more study rooms, they are always occupied, and often not even by engineering students. The library allows students to study individually, work on a group project, or prepare for an exam with friends. As engineering spans a wide range of topics, everyone working in the same place is helpful when there are assignments requiring the intersection of multiple engineering disciplines.”
Through his regular library use, Alex became passionate about the libraries, ultimately serving as the 2016-2017 chair of the University Libraries Student Advisory Council (ULSAC). As chair, he advocated for students’ resource needs, something he says is vital to any Mizzou student experience. Students know what they need to succeed, and ULSAC wants to make sure student voices are heard.
ULSAC visiting the Kenan Science Library at UNC-Chapel Hill. The council visited the Research Triangle to help inspire the Student Vision Report
Over the past two years, ULSAC has been hard at work collecting data from students, developing a student vision for the library in order to make sure all students, regardless of their involvement or backgrounds, are supported by the University Libraries.
Mizzou is what you make of it, and not only will Alex remember the energy of the Mizzou Vs. Mississippi State football game (his favorite Mizzou memory), he will also remember how personally and academically supportive the Mizzou community was. “I cannot wait to come back to Mizzou one day and see students from other universities’ student library councils touring our libraries to bring back ideas for their schools and I am very thankful for the opportunity to have been the Chair of such an amazing council of student leaders that made this possible.”
Civil Engineering student Elgin Burton decided to attend Mizzou after meeting with recruiters at his high school in East St. Louis, Illinois, deciding to visit, and “falling in love with the campus.” Once he arrived, Burton got involved in a number of organizations. He is currently the president of the national award-winning Timber Bridge Team. He is also T.O.R.C.H (Technical Outreach Community Help) chair for Mizzou’s chapter the National Society of Black Engineers. Once he graduates in May 2018, Burton plans on a career in transportation engineering.
Burton says, “The Engineering Library is a huge resource to me in more ways than one. The obvious one is that there are books here that I can use for all of my classes. The one I just turned in today, I used for my class all semester.”
Burton also likes that that the Engineering Library is a gathering place for his classmates. “This is a place where I do a lot of my studying, so I meet a lot of people here who are also studying the same things. A lot of collaboration happens here. Whenever I am working on a project, we usually meet in the Engineering Library. If I am struggling with a problem, I can usually find people who can help me solve it here. Or I’ll see somebody in my class, introduce myself, and ask how they are solving the problem. I meet many people in different ways at the Engineering Library. There is not another space in the building like that. ”
One of Burton’s favorite Mizzou memories is getting to know the libraries. “it was almost an oddly intimate relationship I had with Ellis and other libraries like the Math Library and [the Engineering Library], because I was completely new to the experience—I was new to Columbia, Missouri, I was new to college, I was new to a research library of that size—and over the course of my college career, Ellis Library especially became my home away from my apartment, where I feel most comfortable on campus.”
If there was one piece of advice that Burton could give to future students, Burton says, it would be to use your resources. He acknowledges that “it can be difficult to tell new students to take advantage of your resources because they might not know about them, but the best thing to do is just to open up to opportunities and be willing to try new things. Getting involved in organizations relevant to your degree gives you contextual information and it gives you a sense of purpose. ‘I am here doing this. I am here making this change.’”
“You leave a lasting impact on the university. It also leaves a lasting impact on you.”
