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If you are using Virtual Private Networking (VPN) software to access MU or work-related resources from off-campus, you will need to update your software between now and November 7.
Cisco AnyConnect is the new VPN system, available for free. Installing the new client is simple. Just visit https://anyconnect.missouri.edu.
Contact your IT Pro for assistance or call the IT Help Desk at (573)882-5000.
Additional information about VPN service
Due to football tailgating in Lowry Mall, the north entrance of Ellis Library will be closed all day Saturday, Oct. 13. You may still access Ellis Library through the west entrance.
All are welcome to join the Literature in Health Care discussion group. At their next meeting on Wednesday, October 24, 5:30-7:00 pm in Room GL-11, Dr. Robert Blake will lead the discussion of 3 short stories about children in hospitals, and how their families cope:
“The Pediatric Arrest” by Andrea A. Peterson
“People Like That Are The Only People Here: Canonical Babbling In Peed ONK” by Lorrie Moore
“A Small, Good Thing” by Raymond Carver
Contact Shelley Worden to RSVP and get copies of the readings.
Jan L Coffman, M Ed
Art Photography
jcoffman07@yahoo.com
“It is in the digital world that Jan Coffman’s creative gifts and foresight have come together. A comfortable chair, computer software and stylus pen allow the warm, sensitive soul of a painter, steady hand of a sketch-maker and keen eye of a photographer to converge. Starting with photographs, Coffman brings obscured details to light in some and makes the origins of others unrecognizable, imparting a hand-drawn or painted quality; the outcome is innovative and no less inspired than a print made by applying damp brush strokes to physical paper.”
Columbia Tribune, Columbia, Missouri
I love to walk in nature settings. That is where I find my paintings. I call my paintings contemporary realism as I paint my digital photographs with my digital bushes and sketching tools. As I paint, I relive the feelings I had at the time I was taking the picture.
My training has been in technology design and education. As an educator, technology trainer, and web designer, I developed my digital skills of sketching and watercolors in my web design work. In retirement, I am now able to devote more time to my passion of digital painting.
I paint layer upon layer with the ability to remove layers as I am painting with my digital brushes. I may pick-up the color from a photograph or go to my digital pallet for a new color. With an endless number of painting tools, I use my Wacom drawing tablet to make strokes with the pressure and turn of my hand. If I want to experiment with an idea, I can add a layer and delete it if it doesn’t work. When I’m finished with a painting, the layers can then be compressed into one painting.
I do my own printing and framing of my paintings. I print my art using archival pigment-based inks and acid-free watercolor papers. I use quality mats that are pH Neutral and backing boards that are acid free. They are matted and framed 16×20 or 21×27 inches with black frames.
Jan L. Coffman
Master of Education, University of Missouri, 2001
Art Exhibitions and Honors
President Obama and governors in fifteen states now recognize October as Information Literacy Awareness Month. Information Literacy Awareness Month is an initiative of the National Forum on Information Literacy. When members of the MU Libraries Instruction Committee were contacted by NFIL over the summer, we asked Missouri Governor Jay Nixon to participate in the initiative, he issued Missouri’s proclamation, which reads, in part:
WHEREAS, information literacy provides the tools and skills need to find, evaluate and use credible information from all sources in our constantly evolving, information-inundated world; and […]
WHEREAS, information literacy is a crucial component of education and should be taught from kindergarten throughout an individual’s lifespan by schools and other agencies involved in the collection, conservation and dissemination of information […]
NOW THEREFORE, I, Jeremiah W. (Jay) Nixon, GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI, do hereby proclaim October 2012 to be INFORMATION LITERACY MONTH IN MISSOURI.
In recognition of Governor Nixon’s proclamation, the MU Libraries and the MU Bookstore are sponsoring an online Information Literacy Quiz, to be open during the month of October. Two prizewinners will be selected from among all entrants with 100% correct answers on the quiz for bookstore gift certificates totaling $150.
Related links:
Full text of Obama’s proclamation (2009)
PDF: Full text of Nixon’s proclamation (2012)
The library is experimenting with a “purchase on demand” system for books and e-books. Due to impending shortfalls in our collection budget, we are investigating new ways to ensure that the books we purchase are needed and used by our campus community.
In the MERLIN library catalog, you may run across some titles that say: “Request the library order this book.” You’ll be asked to login with your Username so we can notify you once the book has been purchased and is available. We expect that most books will arrive within 2-3 weeks.
We’ve also pre-loaded some electronic books into the MERLIN catalog. Click on the e-book and it will open instantly just like any other ebook. An official purchase will be made behind the scenes.
Questions? Ask Kate
Today marks the beginning of Banned Books Week, a yearly celebration of the freedom to read. Special Collections is home to many banned books, and our extensive Comic Art Collection of more than 15,000 comic books contains some of the most-suppressed literature in the library.
Horror, crime, and suspense comics became quite popular in the late 1940s and early 1950s. EC Comics, edited by Al Feldstein and Harvey Kurtzman, was one of the main publishers of this type of literature. The company published several highly popular titles, including Tales from the Crypt, Frontline Combat, Panic, and Shock SuspenStories.
Sparked by the publication of Seduction of the Innocent by psychiatrist Frederic Wertham, movements to censor these types of comics began popping up around the country after World War II. Wertham claimed that children would be conditioned to emulate what they saw on the pages of the comics, and that an entire generation was at risk of moral and mental corruption because of their reading material. Congress held an official inquiry on comics and juvenile delinquency in 1954, and many cities throughout the country passed or considered municipal bans on comic books in general.
Fearing government regulation, the comics industry turned to self-censorship, forming the Comics Code Authority (CCA) in late 1954. The Code set a number of content and artistic standards, including the stipulation that good must always triumph over evil, a general ban on the words “horror” and “terror” in comic book titles, and strict guidelines for the handling of crime, race, sexuality, and political issues.
Although the CCA had no legal power, most distributors refused to carry comics without the CCA seal of approval. Some publishers adapted to the new regulations, while others went out of business. EC Comics cancelled all of its titles except for Mad magazine (which was not subject to the Code), and was later absorbed by DC Comics.
The Comics Code remained in effect as it was written in 1954 until it was challenged by Marvel over a Spider-Man cover in 1971. The Code’s authority began to break down in the late 1980s, but it remained in force with major publishers until Marvel officially abandoned the Code in 2001, and DC dropped it in 2011.
By the late 1960s, artists began exploring themes banned by the Code in self-published or small-press “underground” comics. Many were inspired directly by EC Comics, Mad, and the work of Harvey Kurtzman.
Frank Stack, an emeritus professor of art at MU, is credited with creating the first underground comic book when he published The Adventures of Jesus in 1964 under the pseudonym Foolbert Sturgeon. Artists such as Gilbert Shelton and R. Crumb also established the genre with publications such as The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and Fritz the Cat.
Crumb stated that the appeal of underground comics was their lack of censorship – and this is certainly expressed in their content. Many underground comics offer commentary on drug use, sex, racism, the anti-war movement, and women’s rights. These were all topics that could not easily be treated by mainstream comics publishers.
Comics and graphic novels of all genres, particularly those for children and teens, remain reading materials often targeted by bans. The American Library Association releases a yearly list of the top 10 most challenged books, and graphic novels often figure among them. Fun Home by Alison Bechdel, Genderqueer by Maia Kobabe, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, and, most recently, Maus by Art Spiegelman are all graphic novels that have been banned or challenged in public and school libraries. They and many others are represented in the Comic Art Collection in Special Collections, where they are available to all.
For more information about current attempts to ban books, see Mapping Censorship from the Banned Books Week website and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.
This post was originally written for Banned Books Week 2012 and was updated in January 2022.