Staff news
Terri Hall Awarded Service Champion Award by Staff Advisory Council
Congratulations to Terri Hall who was recently awarded the Staff Advisory Council’s Service Champion Award. The Service Champion Award is given to individual employees who go above and beyond their daily duties with a work ethic that makes them stand out. Terri was chosen for the award because of her above and beyond work providing a safe and welcoming space for our students and health sciences library employees. Her dedication to the wellness of our students and employees is inspiring.
Congratulations, Terri! This is well deserved!
Library Sweatshirt Request
We plan to order library sweatshirts featuring Truman the Tiger for the library staff. If you are interested, please contact me with your sweatshirt size. Here’s the link to see details about the sweatshirts.
Changes to Directory
For those who have relocated offices, please remember to update your directory information.
Save the Date: All Staff Meeting – August 12th
We’re planning our pre-fall MU Libraries All Staff Meeting for the morning of Tuesday, August 12th, from 10:00 to around 11:30 a.m. All libraries will be closed from 10:00 to noon so everyone can attend, just like our Celebration of Service in May. For this meeting, we’ll have a light breakfast—think coffee and bagels—and a hybrid option will be available for those who need it. I encourage you to join us in person if you can!
Gwen Gray Receives Business Librarianship Award
Gwen Gray, business, economics and entrepreneurship librarian at the University of Missouri, is the 2025 winner for the BRASS Excellence in Business Librarianship Award. BRASS is the Business Reference and Services Section of the Reference and User Services Association, a division of the American Library Association.
Jaya Ghosh, program director of the MU Coulter Biomedical Accelerator, stated in her nomination letter, “Through her contributions to MU’s translational research funding, training and mentorship programs and other entrepreneurial offerings such as the regional I-Corps Program (advisor), MU EQ
Student Accelerator (mentor), Mizzou Venture Mentoring Service (mentor) and Entrepreneurship Workshop Series (mentor), Gwen’s work significantly enhances the innovation and entrepreneurship capacity of MU, and by extension of Missouri and the U.S. at large.”
Gwen’s contributions include supporting entrepreneurial initiatives at local and national levels, fostering community partnerships, supporting student success, and providing professional mentorship to LIS students. Gwen has dedicated years of her career to develop and strengthen networks that have created long-lasting impacts on her community and the broader profession.
Gwen stated, “I am humbled to receive the BRASS Excellence in Business Librarianship Award and am deeply grateful to LSEG Data & Analytic and RUSA for this recognition. Many thanks to the committee for selecting me to receive this honor. I’ve had wonderful support throughout my career at the Mizzou Libraries and would like to especially note Rhonda Whithaus and Jeannette Pierce who (unbeknownst to me) spearheaded the nomination effort. They along with so many of my colleagues have been supportive and encouraging, giving me the freedom to explore and go in new directions. I would also like to recognize Doug Moesel, associate professor of management, who started my work in entrepreneurship by inviting me to join a campus committee on the topic in 2004. Greg Bier, executive director of Entrepreneurship Programs, has been a tireless champion of librarians, making sure the entrepreneurship ecosystem knows our value. Thank you to all the faculty, staff, students and community members not named (and there are many) who have made me better than I would be on my own. Thank you again for this honor.”
Congratulations to Gwen!
Thank You to All the Escape Room Helpers!
We had another successful escape room event during Welcome Week this year! We had 150 students register with a few dozen on the waiting list. The students had a great time and that is thanks to all of those who helped this year!
You can see the photos of the groups and their different times they escaped here.
Thanks to our room helpers and escape room planning team!
John Henry Adams
Jara Anderson
Megan Ballenge
Johanny Veiga Barbosa
Anne Barker
Shannon Cary
Vera Elwood
Gwen Gray
Gabe Harman
Mara Inge
Taira Meadowcroft
Jeannette Pierce
Jennifer Walker
Rhonda Whithaus
Some others we need to thank: Ellis Library Circulation and the Journalism Library for letting us use all the ipads; Ellis Library shelving for shelving all the books we used during the event; Gayle Mooney and Jacqueline Eiben for helping order all the items we needed; Sheila Voss for helping with some escape room set up; and everyone who volunteered for the escape room run through back in July; And to anyone else we may have missed. 🙂
It takes a lot of people to help with this event and we appreciate all the time, big or small, you’ve contributed to make this fun event happen for the new Mizzou students.