Special Collections and Archives

home Databases & Electronic Resources, Resources and Services, Special Collections and Archives Learn about historic eclipses in Special Collections

Learn about historic eclipses in Special Collections

By Kelli Hansen   Posted in Databases & Electronic Resources Resources and Services Special Collections and Archives
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To celebrate the upcoming solar eclipse, Special Collections and Digital Services have teamed up to digitize selections from materials on eclipses and astronomy from the collections of Mizzou Libraries.  From sermons on eclipses as symbols of divine judgment to early works on physics and astronomy, you can find a wide range of attitudes and ideas about astronomical phenomena in this new digital resource.  We’ll be sharing highlights of these materials on our Instagram and Tumblr, but you can see what else we found at our exhibition website, exhibits.lib.missouri.edu, and we’ll be adding to it throughout the week.  Follow the links to read selected materials online in their entirety at the HathiTrust, and watch for unique Mizzou-contributed items as well.

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Kelli Hansen

Kelli Hansen is head of the Special Collections and Rare Books department.

home Resources and Services, Special Collections and Archives Hands-on History in Special Collections

Hands-on History in Special Collections

By Kelli Hansen   Posted in Resources and Services Special Collections and Archives
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If you teach at MU, Stephens College, Columbia College, or any of the surrounding schools, we'd like to invite you to explore Special Collections with your students this semester. As part of a class session in Special Collections, your students will have hands-on access to the most inspiring and intriguing materials the Libraries have to offer. And we librarians can make it easy for you by contributing presentations, helping to orient students to primary source research, creating customized course guides, and consulting with you on ideas for assignments or projects.

To help you get started, take a look at our Resources for Instructors Guide and browse our Teaching Spotlight for innovative ideas from your colleagues.  Ready to jump in?  Contact us for assignment or activity ideas, or go ahead and schedule a class session through our online form.

home Budget, Special Collections and Archives, Support the Libraries Donate to the Special Collections Wish List

Donate to the Special Collections Wish List

By Kelli Hansen   Posted in Budget Special Collections and Archives Support the Libraries
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In Special Collections, we provide the opportunity to touch history, creating amazing learning experiences for over 1,500 students whose classes visit our reading room each year.  Special Collections is a fantastic resource for teaching at MU!  But don't take our word for it – listen to what the professors have to say:
 

"Students who go on this field trip always do better in the class as a whole than those who miss the field trip. This is the fourth time I've done this and it's very clear that this experience has a significant impact on student engagement and investment."

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"In both classes, students were substantially more enthusiastic about the material, and had a much clearer understanding of where our texts come from and why they are in the sometimes problematic state in which we possess them."

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"Students were very enthusiastic. 'This was the coolest thing ever!' 'I can't believe they let us touch this stuff!' 'This made the books come to life!'"


The Special Collections librarians have created a wish list of books we would have loved to have on hand for these enthusiastic students and faculty, but weren't able to purchase due to budget cuts.  Browse the full list of titles and donate to support teaching and learning at Mizzou.

Kelli Hansen

Kelli Hansen is head of the Special Collections and Rare Books department.

home Databases & Electronic Resources, Events and Exhibits, Special Collections and Archives New Digital Exhibition: Winds of Change

New Digital Exhibition: Winds of Change

By Kelli Hansen   Posted in Databases & Electronic Resources Events and Exhibits Special Collections and Archives
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Climate is weather with history, and to truly explore what climate change means for the future, we must understand the weather patterns of the past. Winds of Change: Weather and Climate from Antiquity to Present is an exhibition in support of Confronting Climate Change, the 12th annual Life Sciences and Society Symposium here on the Mizzou campus. It was originally exhibited in the Ellis Library Colonnade in March 2016, and a digital version is now available online. This exhibition investigates the relationship between weather and time by questioning past perceptions, examining measurement and prediction practices, and surveying sources of historical data.

View the exhibition

Kelli Hansen

Kelli Hansen is head of the Special Collections and Rare Books department.

home Ellis Library, Special Collections and Archives, Staff news Grace Atkins and Kelli Hansen Present at the Electronic Resources & Libraries Conference

Grace Atkins and Kelli Hansen Present at the Electronic Resources & Libraries Conference

By Super Admin   Posted in Ellis Library Special Collections and Archives Staff news
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Grace Atkins, User Engagement Librarian, and Kelli Hansen, Print Collections Librarian, Rare Books & Special Collections, gave a presentation on the News Hub at the Electronic Resources & Libraries (ER&L) Conference on April 3rd. Both Grace and Kelli attended the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin, where the conference was held.

Immediately following their presentation, Grace presented #TheStruggleIsReal: How to Maintain Positive Social Media Engagement with Your Community Even When They're Saying Things You Don't Want to Hear with Allyssa Guzman, Digital Scholarship Librarian at the University of Texas at Austin. The two discussed using social media as a way to engage with library users, not simply to advertise.

The turn-out for Grace and Kelli's presentation, Library News Hub: Centralizing Marketing for Decentralized Outreach, demonstrated that lots of libraries are struggling with managing marketing and communications. The audience had questions about how to implement similar systems at their libraries.

Grace and Kelli started working on the News Hub in the summer of 2016. They didn't want to simply create another blog but to create a true content management system. With the help of testing conducted by the library's usability committee, they created a centralized system to compile announcements, post to social media, and create engaging emails and newsletters. Now they are focusing on the New Hub's ability to foster better communication with and among library staff. The News Hub's primary function is to be an anchor for distribution of marketing content across all of MU Libraries' digital communication channels.

Looking forward, Grace and Kelli see lots of possibilities for further use of the News Hub. In June, the marketing team will discuss what's working and what needs improvement at their annual retreat. They look forward to providing more personalized training for staff to become comfortable using the News Hub and surveying subscribers to the newsletters.

 

 

home Cycle of Success, Government Information, Special Collections and Archives Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse with Special Collections and Government Documents

Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse with Special Collections and Government Documents

By Kelli Hansen   Posted in Cycle of Success Government Information Special Collections and Archives
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Emilee Howland-Davis’ English 1000 classes spent this semester reading the post-apocalyptic novel World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, which is presented as a series of first-hand accounts of the social and political implications of the zombie outbreak.  To provide a real-world perspective to this work of science fiction, they also studied materials related to disaster and survival in Government Documents and Special Collections. Materials the students considered included:

The students presented historical and rhetorical analyses of the materials in Ellis Library. Kudos to them for their hard work, and hats off to their innovative instructor for making such great use of library resources!

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Kelli Hansen

Kelli Hansen is head of the Special Collections and Rare Books department.

home Events and Exhibits, Special Collections and Archives University Libraries at the Unbound Book Festival

University Libraries at the Unbound Book Festival

By Shannon Cary   Posted in Events and Exhibits Special Collections and Archives
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Step into the world of Charlotte Brontë’s childhood in this presentation on an original manuscript containing two short stories she wrote at the age of seventeen. Attendees will hear about the history of the manuscript, how it ended up in Missouri, and its relationship to Brontë’s other works. There will also be a rare opportunity to view the manuscript, which is smaller than an index card and written in an almost microscopic script. 

The Brontë manuscript is among the most valuable and culturally significant materials in the collections of the Special Collections and Rare Books department at the University of Missouri Libraries. The department houses rare and unique manuscripts, books, photos, maps, comics, artifacts, and art that span over four thousand years.

Kelli Hansen is a librarian in the Special Collections and Rare Books Department at the University of Missouri Libraries, where she teaches and does reference work, outreach, and web development.  

home Databases & Electronic Resources, Resources and Services, Special Collections and Archives Highlights from the MU Digital Library and MOspace

Highlights from the MU Digital Library and MOspace

By Felicity Dykas   Posted in Databases & Electronic Resources Resources and Services Special Collections and Archives
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MU Digital Library

A 15th-century book of hours from Venice, Italy has been digitized and is now available in the MU Digital Library. Books of hours would have been familiar to most members of the middle and upper classes by the late Middle Ages. These devotional books have as their central text the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin, a shortened version of the daily cycle of Christian devotions called the Divine Office. This book of hours also includes more specialized prayers and litanies relating to the Virgin Mary. The original, which was possibly made as early as 1450, is in the Ellis Library Special Collections Department. It is about 3.7 inches in height and is 330 pages long.

MOspace Institutional Repository

In addition to papers and presentations from MU faculty, students, and staff, MOspace now includes many MU publications issued by departments. Recently, the Cambio Center Collection was greatly expanded. The MU Cambio Center, as noted on their website, “leads research and outreach on Latinos and changing communities.” In MOspace, you will find conference papers, eBriefs, and other Cambio Center publications. The University Libraries will continue to work with the Cambio Center to add new publications to MOspace.

Links to sites mentioned:

home Cycle of Success, Special Collections and Archives Meet the Special Collections Intern: Kayla

Meet the Special Collections Intern: Kayla

By Kelli Hansen   Posted in Cycle of Success Special Collections and Archives
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This semester we have two new interns working on metadata, provenance, and digital projects with us in Special Collections. Last week we introduced Olivia; this week, say hello to Kayla.

Hello!

My Name is Kayla Thompson and I am one of the new interns in the Special Collections department at Ellis Library. I am senior studying English Creative writing with a varied collection of minors. Here are some fun facts about myself:

  1. My dream is to work in either a library or museum working with old books, manuscripts, and artifacts. For this reason, I am applying to graduate school for the fall for Library and Information Sciences.
  2. I love reading. Books are my favorite things in the whole world. At the moment I own somewhere around 500 of them, so old or new you can find just about any genre on my shelf, though, I prefer fiction. Currently I am in the middle of about five books including Homer’s Iliad, Cassandra Clare’s Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy, and Skye Alexander’s The Modern Witchcraft Spell Book: Your Complete Guide to Crafting and Casting Spells.
  3. I am writing a novella about a young witch with no powers. Not quite sure where it’s going yet (if it’s going). I have wanted to write a book since I was 12, but have yet to produce something that I feel is worth putting out into the world. It’s mostly just a hobby at the moment.
  4. This summer I am going on a trip to study abroad in Greece. It has been a dream of mine since I was little. It will also be the last six credits I need to finish my Classical Studies minor.
  5. I own one fat and fluffy cat named Tora.
  6. And I probably drink way more coffee than could possibly ever be good for me.

So, that’s who I am. I can’t wait to get to know more about everyone I work with. I am already having fun and can’t wait to see where this semester in Special Collections takes me.

Be sure to tune into our Tumblr to see posts by Olivia and Kayla this semester.

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Kelli Hansen

Kelli Hansen is head of the Special Collections and Rare Books department.

home Cycle of Success, Special Collections and Archives Meet the Special Collections Intern: Olivia

Meet the Special Collections Intern: Olivia

By Kelli Hansen   Posted in Cycle of Success Special Collections and Archives
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This semester we have two new interns working on metadata, provenance, and digital projects with us in Special Collections. First up for introductions is Olivia:

Hey! Hi! Hello, my fellow bibliophiles! I’m very excited to introduce myself to you as the new social media intern for Ellis Library’s Special Collections and Rare Books Department. My name is Olivia Mikus and I am a senior here at MU, double majoring in French and English Literature. I hope to become a French educator in the high school, and eventually college, setting. 

Here are some more interesting (at least I hope) tidbits about myself:

  • I am obsessed with all things French, so look forward to (or feel free to skim over) a few interesting French finds, should I stumble upon any, during my semester cataloging for Special Collections.
  • I have two pets, both named after a character or an actor from my most favorite television programs: My cat, Jess, named after a character from Gilmore Girls and my pittie, Topher, named after Topher Grace (Eric Foreman) from That 70s Show.
  • *queue Harry Potter theme* All things Harry Potter, all the time. Need I say more? Oh yeah, #ravenclaw4life
  • My favorite book is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. I read this for the first time in my 12th grade English Comp. course and have read it 3 more times since. That is where my love of classic English literature began and I feel fortunate that I’ve been able to channel that love into a major and, of course, this internship. (Here in special collections, we have an original hand-written manuscript of Charlotte’s and her sisters’ early childhood works. #geekingout)
  • If I could narrow my music interests down to a few groups they would include: The 1975 (Haven't heard of them? You should fix that…go on, I’ll wait), The Beatles, Blink-182 (Fun fact: Blink-182 and I were born the same year, 1992!) and Alanis Morissette, with whom I connect on a spiritual level. #90skid
  • I’m a definite foodie. I love to cook (though I’m no Julia Child) but even more so, I love to eat. Favorite foods? The edible kind, I don’t discriminate. I’m currently teaching myself to cook and I hope to someday start my own foodie blog about myself and my (sometimes disastrous, though always entertaining) cooking escapades. It’ll happen…one day.
  • Wanderlust: I have an unquenchable thirst to see every inch of this beautiful sphere we call Earth before I have to part with it.
  • Lastly, my most favorite movie is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Love, loss, brain damage, a sprinkle of science-fiction, Jim Carrey, and Kate Winslet with mood-changing hair…Seriously, what more could you ask for?

Thanks for tuning in to A Bit About Me with Olivia Mikus. I’m super looking forward to sharing with you all the interesting texts I find while working in Special Collections. I hope you will find them as interesting as I do!

Watch for Kayla's intro post next week, and tune into our Tumblr to see posts by Olivia and Kayla this semester.

Kelli Hansen

Kelli Hansen is head of the Special Collections and Rare Books department.