home Staff news Ithaka Survey Launched

Ithaka Survey Launched

The Ithaka Survey launched as scheduled at 2:00 p.m. yesterday.  E-mails were sent to 3,090 for faculty and 6,543 for graduate/professional students.  If you know faculty or graduate/professional students who want to help the libraries prepare for the future, please encourage them to look for the e-mail and complete the survey.

home Staff news New MUSE Posts

New MUSE Posts

Web tip of the week, Oct. 2, 2017

Events for the weekend!- Yoga, Fall festivals and more

Recipe of the week: Pecan Pie Cake

home Ellis Library, Staff news Meet Joseph Askins, Head of Instructional Services

Meet Joseph Askins, Head of Instructional Services

The University of Missouri Libraries recently welcomed Joseph Askins as Head of Instructional Services. We are excited to have him on board. Get to know a little more about him in this quick interview.

Please tell us a little about your background and experience. What led you to the University of Missouri Libraries?

I grew up in Northwest Arkansas, not too far from the University of Arkansas and Walmart’s world headquarters, and moved to Columbia in 1999 to study Journalism. After graduating from the J-School in 2003, I spent a few years working for newspapers, magazines, and websites in Arkansas and Chicago. As I neared the end of my twenties, I decided to get a master’s degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois, even though I had never worked in a library at any point in my life. In 2011 I left Chicago and my job as an editor, moved back to Arkansas once again, and looked for any and every opportunity to work with libraries, archives, and museums around my hometown. In 2012 I took a job as a Reference and Instruction Librarian at NorthWest Arkansas Community College, in 2015 I moved to Columbia, SC, to become an Information Literacy Programs Librarian at the University of South Carolina, and this summer I traded in one Columbia for another and returned to Mizzou.

How did you come to be a librarian, and what do you find most interesting about library instruction?

By 2008 I was working as the managing editor of a small magazine and website that covered new residential construction in and around Chicago. The market collapsed that year, developers stopped placing ads in our publication (or, in one memorable instance, fled the country entirely), and construction in many neighborhoods ground to a halt. I realized at some point that tracking price cuts for imaginary condos in unbuilt high-rises was not my idea of a good time, and by early 2009 I was thinking a lot about what I did and didn’t enjoy about my career up to that point. What I realized was that I loved chasing facts, pulling files, sifting through records—I liked the research part of my job so much more than the storytelling part. So I started to brainstorm ways in which I could spend more time searching for information and solving mysteries about where a particular piece of data might be located, and I quickly latched onto librarianship as a career where I could do just that.

The very first LIS course I ever took, a full year before I entered school as a full-time grad student, was called Instruction & Assistance Systems. It was all about teaching in a library environment, and it was there where I first encountered terms like “information literacy” and “one-shots” and “flipped classrooms.” One of the things I realized as I went through that course was that I never really experienced that kind of instruction as a student; I tested out of my freshman composition class and didn’t recall any other instances in which I visited Ellis or the J-School library for formal instruction, and I couldn’t help but wonder how much better I would have performed as an undergraduate if I had felt more at ease with the library and its resources. So through the rest of library school and on into my career, I thought of my role as that of someone who could encourage and empower users, and help them develop the strategies and confidence necessary to use our collection to meet their needs.

What was your favorite book you were assigned to read in college, and what are you reading now?

I really enjoyed In Dubious Battle, which I read for an American Protest Lit class. It covers a lot of the same territory as The Grapes of Wrath, with its depiction of migrant workers and labor strikes, but it’s also a study of mob mentality—the way that humans, like other animals, behaved differently when grouped together than they would individually—which was a topic that interested Steinbeck greatly.

Right now I’m reading The Republic for Which It Stands, Richard White’s new book about the Reconstruction era and the Gilded Age. I’m also working my way through A New Literary History of America, an anthology of essays about works of American literature, co-edited by Greil Marcus, who’s always been good at relating rock music to seemingly unrelated works of art and folklore.

home Staff news University Libraries: United Way Kickoff!

University Libraries: United Way Kickoff!

Hello Everyone! The University Libraries is gearing up for this year’s United Way campaign. The University is doing things a bit different this year and giving each area of campus a section of time to run their campaign. Our campaign will run from October 16- 27th.

This year’s United Way theme is, “Live Mizzou. Live United.”

There is even a fun hashtag #MizzouLU, Mizzou Lives United.

How can you a member of the Mizzou family live united? There are so many ways! Whether it be a monetary donation to a United Way organization or giving of your time the ways are endless of how you can help.

One way that you can show your support is to come out for the Annual Chili cook off! This year we are mixing things up a bit by adding a Cookie Bake off to go along with the Chili. You definitely don’t want to miss the excitement of this change up.

We will also be doing a few games along the way so watch for those emails to come out soon!

Sheila Voss is back this year to help lead your United Way Ambassadors, Gwen, Sheryl and Michelle through a great campaign. To make it a huge success we need YOU.

So are you ready to MizzouLU?

  1. Mark your calendar for October 17, Chili Cook-Off and Cookie Bake off Day!
  2. Contact Gwen Gray to sign up to bring chili. Poultry, Meat, and Vegetarian are the categories for you to consider. Which will it be?
  3. If you are a staff member of a specialized library or UMLD, Please consider the cook off! We want to see your smiling faces at this event.
  4. Our team is supported by Sheila Voss! Sheila can assist with your questions related to your donation or how you can help.

For now, please mark your calendar to attend the chili cook-off at 11:30 on Tuesday, October 17.  Plan to come hungry! And Live United!

Our best to you!

Gwen Gray, Sheryl Cullina and Michelle Baggett
2017 United Way Unit Ambassadors
#MizzouLU

home Staff news In the News

In the News

Gawker Is for Sale and Its Articles Could Be Deleted – WSJ
Oct. 2, 2017

“4-Year Institutions With the Most Interlibrary Loans, 2014-15”
The Chronicle of Higher Education, Oct.1, 2017

home Staff news Marketing Highlight and Request

Marketing Highlight and Request

  • Check out this week’s Library Ambassadors Newsletter.  Grace Atkins is the coordinator of the Ambassadors and the University Libraries Student Advisory Council (ULSAC). If you have news you want to share with these student groups, please let her know.
  • We need #MizzouMade student success stories. Do you have super successful student workers? Do you have student workers who went on to do great things after they graduated? Let us know. We would like to highlight these stories as Cycle of Success stories, but also as part of the campus-wide #MizzouMade stories. You can see example of these stories at https://news.missouri.edu/category/mizzou-made/. Please contact your Newshub reporter or a member of the Marketing Team (Grace, Kelli, Shannon, and Taira) if you have a student you would like to highlight. We will help contact the student and get the story written.

 

home Staff news Library Management Team Information and Action Items, 9/26/17

Library Management Team Information and Action Items, 9/26/17

LMT 09.26.17 Information and Action Items

home Staff news Barb Jones Co-Author of Two Publications

Barb Jones Co-Author of Two Publications

Barb Jones is a co-author in the following publications:

Zipperer, L., Jones, B., Esparza, J and J. Wahr.  “Evidence, Information and Knowledge: The Basic Elements of Safe Surgical Care” Surgical Patient Safety: A Case-Based Approach. P. Shahel, editor.  2017.

Mark L. Graber*, Diana Rusz, Melissa L. Jones, Diana Farm-Franks, Barbara Jones, Jeannine Cyr Gluck, Dana B. Thomas, Kelly Gleason, Kathy Welte, Jennifer Abfalter, Kathleen Westerhaus, Ginny Adams, Michael Laposata, Quentin Eichbaum, Tina Nabatchi and Margaret Compton.  “The New Diagnostic Team”  Diagnosis 2017  (accepted for publication September 8, 2017)

home Staff news New MUSE Posts

New MUSE Posts

Web tip of the week, Sept.25, 2017

Fall adventures at Shyrocks!

Fun stuff for the weekend: South farm Showcase Saturday Sept.30, 2017

Recipe of the week: Banana Bread Scones with Brown Sugar Glaze

home Staff news Notes from the Director, 9/27/17

Notes from the Director, 9/27/17

Hello everyone,

Some changes are coming—next month all the library staff and faculty will need to get new ID cards.  There is NO CHARGE to anyone; the Libraries are covering cost because we are changing to a new card swipe system at all the building entry doors.  The whole campus will be changing eventually, and we are going to be one of the first buildings.  This will help with security, and will be especially important for people who come early or stay late.  We will talk more about it at coming meetings, but you all need to know it’s happening.  We will set up special times for library people and make getting a new card as easy as possible. Each person will have a new photo taken for the new card. (I hate that part but we do change in appearance over time.)

Also, we have long talked about name tags/badges for everyone.  The Libraries will be supplying OPTIONAL name badges for all full-time and part-time personnel except student workers.  Some of you will be contacted if there is question on your preferred name.  No one is required to wear a name badge, but many have asked for them.  Most staff in other areas wear them, including administrators, who really appreciate us wearing them.  Again, though, there is no requirement, just a preference.  They will be metal and held on by magnets. (You can see many people wearing the same style in Jesse Hall and we should have an example at the next Staff Advisory Group meeting).

Work continues to install additional lights and cameras outside Ellis Library as part of our commitment to safety for all our staff and users, especially during our extended hours.

Work also continues to complete the planning and paperwork needed to begin construction on the expansion of UMLD.  This will benefit the whole library system and we should have a firm date soon.

And of course Lowry Mall is still torn up; we hear that the east end will be done by Homecoming (Oct 21) but that then they will tear up the west end.

Enjoy our newly-cool fall days, and don’t hesitate to call or email with questions.

Ann