We've recently added more "backfile" access to two ScienceDirect journals. You now have online access to Vaccine and to Veterinary Parasitology back to 1995 (previously, access was available back to 1998).
Enjoy!
Resources and Services
Bookmark Cafe Closed May 19-June 2
The Bookark Café will be closed for renovation from May 19th to June 2.
What’s Blooming this Week: Iris
It's been unseasonably chilly here in Columbia this week, but that means the irises blooming all over town have been an even more welcome sight. There's a beautiful planting of Iris pallida 'Argentea Variegata' near the west entrance to the library, and I captured it on my walk into the building this morning. There are many different species of iris growing across the northern hemisphere. According to the Missouri Botanical Garden, Iris pallida is native to Croatia and the southern Alps, and it has a sweet fragrance. The variegated subspecies growing on campus here has striped leaves of pale green and cream.
In 1542, the physician and botanist Leonhart Fuchs included a different iris species in his herbal, De Historia Stirpium Commentarii Insignes, which is part of a long tradition of books that describe plants and their medicinal uses. Although Fuchs wasn't interested in the plants' ornamental value, he hired three professional artists to illustrate the herbal to the highest degree of naturalism. Fuchs wanted physicians to be able to use the book to identify medicinal plants, and the resulting publication is filled with detailed, hand-colored illustrations that depict species both familiar and exotic. Iris germanica, illustrated below, is probably native to southern Europe, and it is the ancestor of most garden irises today.
Congratulations to the Class of 2014!
After you graduate, the MU Libraries will still be here to serve you. To find out more about the resources available to alumni, visit Library Resources for Alumni.
All of us at the MU Libraries, wish you the very best in your future endeavors!
Monday Manuscript: Bertrand Russell tells you how to be a philosopher
The semester's last manuscript of the week is from philosopher Bertrand Russell, whose birthday is on the 18th. These three original manuscripts contain the text of "How to become a philosopher," "How to become a logician," and "How to become a mathematician." They were later published in one volume by Haldeman-Julius Publications as nos. 7, 8, and 9 of The How-to series in 1942. E. Haldeman-Julius donated them to the Philosophy Section of the Missouri Academy of Science in March 1943. Find it in the MERLIN catalog.
What’s Blooming this Week: Columbine
Right across Lowry Mall from the tulips I posted a couple of weeks ago, and under the magnolias that kicked off this series, there's a beautiful bed of columbine in full bloom.
Columbines are part of the genus Aquilegia and grow wild throughout the nothern hemisphere. The ones in the Mizzou Botanic Garden are derived from the species Aquilegia vulgaris, also known as European Columbine. This week's illustration is from Johann Theodor de Bry's Florilegium renovatum et auctum (1641), an updated version of his Florilegium novum with engravings by his son-in-law, Matthäus Merian. Some of the flowers on this page have double blossoms, and you can still find this type of hybrid columbine under cultivation. The recognizable spurred bloom of the columbine appears right in the middle of the page.
Merian's daughter, Maria Sybilla Merian, would go on to become an accompished artist and naturalist herself. Check out Julie Christenson's blog post about her for more information and some beautiful images.
Places to Study During Finals
Locate study spaces in the MU Libraries (Ellis and the branch libraries)
Locate study spaces on campus and in Columbia:
Make Sure Your Citations Count: Get an ORCID Number
Make sure your theses, dissertation and research publications are correctly attributed to you. How? Sign up for an ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) number. ORCIDs are a relatively new international effort to provide author and contributor disambiguation across many databases and tools. Universities, libraries, publishers and researchers are partners in this effort.
You can learn more about ORCIDs on the ORCID website (http://support.orcid.org/knowledgebase/topics/19379-frequently-asked-questions) or from your subject librarian (http://library.missouri.edu/contactus/#_contacts_).
Sign up for an ORCID today: http://orcid.org
Book Sale
Did you know there's a book sale every day in Digiprint in Ellis Library, 1st floor north?
The MU Libraries receive donations of books from people in the community. Some donations, we keep, but others may be duplicated in our collections or just do not fit the kind of books we collect. These books are added to our ongoing book sale. New books are added to the sale every 2 weeks. Books remaining on the sale shelves from previous weeks get bumped down to a lower price. Here you can find anything from fiction to local history.
The sale of these books benefits the MU Libraries Staff Association (MULSA). MULSA sponsors an annual picnic and other events for MU Libraries employees, maintains our staff room supplies, recognizes important life events of our employees, sends our staff cards when they are hospitalized, donates to local charities on behalf of its members, and more.
MU Libraries Seek Student Ambassadors
Want to get involved? Make new friends? Gain valuable leadership skills? And most importantly, do you want to make a difference?! The MU Libraries are looking for enthusiastic, energetic and dedicated undergraduate students who would like to serve as Ruth E. Ridenhour MU Libraries Student Ambassadors. Ambassadors will teach fellow students about the libraries, represent the libraries at alumni events and advise the libraries on marketing services to students. Don't miss out on this great opportunity. Sign up today at http://library.missouri.edu/about/studentambassadors/.
For more information, contact Shannon Cary at carysn@missouri.edu or 573-882-4703.