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

Peer Navigator Corner: Sensory & Seating Maps

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, Gateway Carousel, Resources and Services Digital Media Lab in Ellis Library

Digital Media Lab in Ellis Library

The Digital Media and Innovation Lab (DMiL) in Ellis Library provides innovative technology and resources for your creative projects.  The DMiL has an Audio Recording Booth, Digital Art Tools, and 3D Scanners in Room 156; interview recording room in Room 157, and a film studio in Room 3E21.

The DMiL is complemented by the Information Commons computers and equipment checkout at the checkout & information desk.  The DMiL is available to students for class or personal projects.

You can make a reservation and check-in or stop by for a consultation in Room 153.

Monday – Thursday: 11:00am – 8:00pm
Friday: 11:00am – 3:00pm
Saturday: Closed
Sunday: 1:00pm – 5:00pm

Questions & Consultation email: ellisdml@missouri.edu

home Gateway Carousel, Resources and Services Peer Navigator Corner: BYOBook Club

Peer Navigator Corner: BYOBook Club

Written by: Isabella Bickhaus

With so many assignments throughout the semester, I find that traditional book clubs—or any activity with a specific expectation—can be overwhelming. Even if the chosen book is one I truly enjoy, the book club date looms over my head like a Canvas deadline. That’s why I enjoy the format of Mizzou Libraries’ Bring Your Own Book Book Club (BYOBook Club), which centers around a monthly prompt instead of a specific book. This allows readers to come and share details about their own chosen book while adding the recommendations from others to their TBR (to be read) list. 

Some prompts for the Spring 2025 semester include a book with a red or pink cover, a book from any of Book Riot’s Read Harder categories, and a book that contains one of your least favorite things (character, trope, etc.). If you do not want to follow the prompt, you don’t have to. Feel free to bring any book you are willing to share with the group, or take inspiration from a past prompt. If you do want to follow the prompt and are looking for a place to start, look no further than the BYOBook Club Library Guide. This guide includes recommendations for books in general, for upcoming prompts, and for past prompts. The books listed under the Fall 2024-Spring 2025 tab are the books shared at past meetings. Beyond book recommendations, the guide also includes different ways to borrow books, details about local bookstores here in Columbia, and banned book lists.

The BYOBook Club meets in 114A Ellis, a room close to the Lowry Mall entrance of Ellis Library with comfortable booth seating. In addition to snacks, conversation starters about the book(s) you bring can help you guide your discussion about your book. Whether you are an avid reader or interested in getting started, this book club has a spot for everyone.  

Here are the Spring 2025 dates for the BYOBook Club:

  • Wednesday, February 19, from 4-5 in 114A in Ellis (register here)
    • Book with a red or pink cover
  • Wednesday, March 12, time TBA, in 114A in Ellis
    • Pick a book from any of Book Riot’s Read Harder categories
  • Wednesday, April 16, time TBA, in 114A in Ellis
    • “My least favorite ____” (character, book, plot, trope, etc.)
home J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library, Resources and Services Overview of Recent University of Missouri Publications in Medicine and Related Fields: January 2025

Overview of Recent University of Missouri Publications in Medicine and Related Fields: January 2025

Each month we provide an overview of University of Missouri School of Medicine faculty-authored articles in medicine and related fields as well as a featured article with the highest journal impact factor.

This month’s featured article, “Intra-arterial tenecteplase after successful endovascular recanalisation in patients with acute posterior circulation arterial occlusion (ATTENTION-IA): multicentre randomised controlled trial” was co-authored by Dr. Adnan Qureshi of the Department of Neurology. The article was published in BMJ (impact factor of 93.7 in 2023).

See the list of publications in medicine and related fields we retrieved for this month: https://library.muhealth.org/facpubmonthlyresult/?Month=January&Year=2025

Celebrating Black Engineers

Hello everyone! 

Happy Black History Month! This month, we’re showcasing items in the University of Missouri’s collection about African American engineers. You can request them by clicking on their hyperlinked titles below. If you have issues requesting the titles, please reach out to Amanda May at asmay@umsystem.edu

Celebrating Black Engineers:

Bridging deep south rivers : the life and legend of Horace King / John S. Lupold and Thomas L. French, Jr
Both when he was enslaved and when he gained his freedom, Horace King built bridges, courthouses, warehouses, factories, and houses in Georgia, Alabama, and eastern Mississippi. The authors separate legend from facts as they carefully document King’s life in the Chattahoochee Valley on the Georgia-Alabama border. The story does not end with Horace, however, because he passed his skills on to his three sons, who also became prominent builders and businessmen.

Overnight code : the life of Raye Montague, the woman who revolutionized naval engineering

The inspiring story of a groundbreaking African American female engineer who created the first computer-designed ship for the US Navy. Equal parts coming-of-age tale, civil rights history, and reflection on the power of education, Overnight Code is a tale about persistence and perseverance when the odds against you seem insurmountable.

 

 

 

 

 

Changing the face of engineering : the African American experience / edited by John Brooks Slaughter, Yu Tao, and Willie Pearson, Jr.

Changing the Face of Engineering argues that the continued underrepresentation of African Americans in engineering impairs the ability of the United States to compete successfully in the global marketplace. This volume will be of interest to STEM scholars and students, as well as policymakers, corporations, and higher education institutions.

home Resources and Services Peer Navigator Corner: AI Resources for Students

Peer Navigator Corner: AI Resources for Students

Written by: Josiah Abbott

Unless you have been living under a rock, you’re aware of the rapid advancements being made in the AI industry. With the broad usability of AI, there are many resources available to students as we strive for academic excellence at Mizzou. A variety of tools, suggestions on prompting, and details on ethical considerations can be found through the Libraries’ AI guide, but I’ve highlighted a few below.

The resources I am covering in this article are beneficial for efficiency when studying, note-taking, or looking for information. I want to add a warning to not use AI for graded assignments unless a professor has explicitly given permission. If you are unclear on whether AI is prohibited or not, first check the syllabus. Professors are supposed to include guidelines on AI usage in it, but if this is not the case, you can also email them. Because of concerns with academic integrity regarding AI, do not use it if it could put your education at risk. 

To begin, I’m sure many of you have seen or even gotten a text from Roary, Mizzou’s AI helpbot. Roary is primarily intended to be used when searching for a process, location, or department to contact. For example, if you need a recommendation on where to study, Roary will give you a list of locations. If you need contact information for the financial aid office, Roary will reply with it almost immediately. Beyond that, Roary can’t do much more. I wouldn’t ask coursework questions as the AI was not trained on that. However, when you have questions regarding life at Mizzou, instead of clicking around the website for 5 minutes, just ask Roary.

Another helpful tool is Notion AI, a note-taking and scheduling tool one of my fellow peer navigators found. What is so unique about Notion AI is that it can search through all input information (notes, schedule, etc.) and answer questions based on that information. Say you remember talking about feudalism in class but are struggling to remember which of your notes it was in. Just ask Notion AI, and it will give you the correct section and title of what you need. Even better than that, instead of rereading the notes, you could just ask the AI to summarize the topics for a quick refresher. Integrating Notion AI isn’t difficult either. It allows you to sync your Google calendar to quickly load in all of your schedule, as well as upload your notes from a variety of formats, including directly from Google Docs.

If you are looking for help starting a research project, Consensus is a useful option that utilizes the Semantic Scholar database of open access research. A powerful research tool, Consensus allows you to enter a question and will search for and pull 20 relevant papers. After pulling the articles, it gives a brief outline of arguments on both sides of the question with a conclusion to sum it up. For each source, it breaks down how many times it is cited, the type of study it is, and has preloaded citations. With a wide range of filters, you can also narrow down the articles it pulls. Even better, Consensus is constantly being updated with new tools, including a consensus meter that gives a breakdown of articles’ stances on the question. Overall, Consensus is my pick for an AI tool to use in order to jumpstart your research.

Finally, a recent breakthrough, DeepSeek AI, blew up the generative AI market recently (January, 2025). It is an open-source AI competitor in a market dominated by closed-source tools. Combining its relatively cheap production costs and similar computing efficiency, it may be the best GenAI on the market. Currently it matches OpenAI’s ChatGPT Pro plan ($200 a month) for a whopping $0. However, this is not a tool I would recommend using straight from the source on their site or phone app. Created and marketed from a Chinese company, this tool comes with concerns about data harvesting and security flaws in the program. However, the open-source nature allows businesses to run it locally where they can tweak parameters for better responses and implement security for individual iterations. Although not a tool an average person should use, I would encourage you to keep an eye on news surrounding it.

home J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library, Resources and Services New Ebooks at Mizzou Libraries: Medicine and Health Sciences

New Ebooks at Mizzou Libraries: Medicine and Health Sciences

Below are a few of the medicine and health sciences ebooks we’ve recently added to our online collection. You can see the rest of our new ebooks here.

These ebooks were purchased with student success grant funds awarded by the Office of the Provost.

 

Emerging Pandemics : Connections with Environment and Climate Change

Pandemics are often associated with viruses and bacteria occurring in wildlife in natural environments. Thus, diseases of epidemic and pandemic scale are mostly zoonotic, some of which include AIDS, Zika virus, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and COVID-19. The book seeks to explore the documented history of pandemics and various epidemics that have the potential of turning into pandemics with the warming climate, pollution, and environmental destruction.

 

 

The International Encyclopedia of Health Communication

The International Encyclopedia of Health Communication presents a thorough overview of a dynamic field, bringing together entries by an international panel of contributors that address a comprehensive range of recent and emerging topics. With a global and interdisciplinary focus, this timely resource addresses cutting-edge digital technology, complementary and integrative healthcare, diversity and inclusion, health equity, COVID-19, and much more.

 

Artificial Intelligence for Neurological Disorders

The book discusses many machine learning techniques to detect neurological diseases at the cellular level, as well as other applications such as image segmentation, classification and image indexing, neural networks and image processing methods. Chapters include AI techniques for the early detection of neurological disease and deep learning applications using brain imaging methods like EEG, MEG, fMRI, fNIRS and PET for seizure prediction or neuromuscular rehabilitation.

 

 

 

The Hospice Heritage

Through The Hospice Heritage: Celebrating Our Future, physicians, nurses, social workers, and clergy will find unique examples to give patients the attention, care, and understanding they need at that time in their life. Since 80 percent of people who die do so without the support of a hospice program, this important book offers approaches designed to expand access to hospice and provide a solid foundation of treatment for patients with cancer and non-cancer diagnoses.

 

 

 

Ataxic Disorders

This volume’s primary goal is to provide a comprehensive understanding of recent developments and advancements in the study of ataxic disorders. Beginning with an examination of the cerebellar region, and then progressing to a fresh perspective on the clinical aspects of the various forms of ataxia, this handbook gives clinicians a state-of-the-art reference for the management of the many etiologies and neurological manifestations of ataxic disorders.

Finding and Evaluating Health Datasets

Finding available data can be difficult, but our data services librarian can help with the process. To get started, you can find some available health datasets linked on our guide.

Once you find your data, how do you make sure the data you find is credible? Here are some steps for you to keep in mind to ensure what you find is useful for your project.

  1. Look for supporting documentation outlining what the data is, how it was collected, and how to interpret the data.
    • Tip: Look for readme files, data dictionaries/codebooks, and a collection methodology
  2. Make sure you can open all files associated with the data.
  3. Ensure that all files are clearly labeled and store the information and/or data that is indicated in the file name.
  4. Within the data files, check for the following:
    • Variables are clearly labeled with standard naming conventions.
      • Example: First names are labeled as FirstName and last names are labeled as LastName
    • Units of measurement for different variables are explicitly stated.
      • Example: You can tell if measurements are given in centimeters (cm) or inches (in)
    • Each variable contains a discrete unit of information.
      • Example: blood pressure and zip code are stored in separate columns
    • Variables follow data standards and have consistent formatting.
      • Example: All dates are in yyyy-mm-dd format

Still need help finding and evaluating data? Connect with our data services librarian who can help you find the data you need.

TAGS:

Taira Meadowcroft

Taira Meadowcroft is the Public Health and Community Engagement Librarian at the Health Sciences Library at the University of Missouri.

home J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library, Resources and Services Spring 2025 Health Sciences Textbooks Available Online or at the Health Sciences Library

Spring 2025 Health Sciences Textbooks Available Online or at the Health Sciences Library

Spring 2025 and optional textbooks for classes are now available!

Pick your school/college, then your program, and finally the course. It’s as easy as that. Access textbook copies at the Health Sciences Library here.

Note: Paper copies will be available at the Health Sciences LIbrary Desk for 24 hour checkout. Any duplicate copies of textbooks are available and subject to regular check out times.

Some ebooks are limited to one viewer at a time, so please close your browser window when you are finished so that the book will be available to others.

Unfortunately, we don’t have all the books required for every class. If we don’t have your textbook, there are several avenues you can use to find a copy, which are all clearly labeled on each class page.

You can also recommend the Health Sciences Library purchase an online copy here. Please provide what course the textbook is for and the name of your instructor.

TAGS:

Taira Meadowcroft

Taira Meadowcroft is the Public Health and Community Engagement Librarian at the Health Sciences Library at the University of Missouri.

Reading Revelry: February 2025

Howdy everyone!
We hope everyone has had a wonderful start to the semester! For this month’s Reading Revelry, we are three books perfect for Valentine’s month 🙂 You can request them by clicking on their hyperlinked titles below. If you have issues requesting the titles, please reach out to Amanda May at asmay@umsystem.edu

Our picks for February:

 

A Lady For A Duke by Alexis Hall 

When Viola Caroll was presumed dead at Waterloo she took the opportunity to live, at last, as herself. But freedom does not come without a price, and Viola paid for hers with the loss of her wealth, her title, and her closest companion, Justin de Vere, the Duke of Gracewood. Only when their families reconnect, years after the war, does Viola learn how deep that loss truly was. Shattered without her, Gracewood has retreated so far into grief that Viola barely recognizes her old friend in the lonely, brooding man he has become. As Viola strives to bring Gracewood back to himself, fresh desires give new names to old feelings. Feelings that would have

 been impossible once and may be impossible still, but which Viola cannot deny. Even if they cost her everything, all over again. 

 

 

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston 

Twenty-three-year old August doesn’t believe in much. She doesn’t believe in psychics, or easily forged friendships, or finding the kind of love they make movies about. And she certainly doesn’t believe her ragtag band of new roommates, her night shifts at a 24-hour pancake diner, or her daily subway commute full of electrical outages are going to change that. But then, there’s Jane. Beautiful, impossible Jane. All hard edges with a soft smile and swoopy hair and saving August’s day when she needed it most. The person August looks forward to seeing on the train every day. The one who makes her forget about the cities she lived in that never seemed to fit, and her fear of what happens when she finally graduates, and even her cold-case obsessed mother who won’t quite let her go. And when August realizes her subway crush is impossible in more ways than one-namely, displaced in time from the 1970s-she thinks maybe it’s time to start believing. Casey McQuiston’s One Last Stop is a sexy, big-hearted romance where the impossible becomes possible as August does everything in her power to save the girl lost in time.

 

This Modern Love by Will Darbyshire 

Seeking closure after a tough break-up, Will Darbyshire was driven to strike up an intimate conversation with his online audience. Posting a series of questions via his YouTube, Twitter and Instagram channels, Will asked his followers to share their innermost thoughts about their relationship experiences, in the form of hand-written letters, poems, photographs, and emails. 

After 6 months and over 15,000 heartfelt submissions later, from over 100 countries, This Modern Love collects these letters together to form a compendium of 21st century love, structured into the beginning, middle and end of a relationship. 

Tender, funny and cathartic, This Modern Love is a compelling portrait of individual desires, resentments and fears that reminds us that, whether we’re in or out of love, we’re not alone.