home Cycle of Success, Engineering Library Library Resources Key to Success in Chemical Engineering Class

Library Resources Key to Success in Chemical Engineering Class

By Mara Inge Posted in Cycle of Success Engineering Library

Posted on August 28, 2019September 25, 2019

Where do you go if the information you need isn’t online? To the library, of course!

Dr. Karl Hammond, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering, supports the Engineering Library by using its resources in his own work and by designing assignments that integrate library resources into student learning outcomes.

In the library he is known for an assignment that requires students (typically Juniors in Chemical Engineering) who are enrolled in Thermodynamics II to find experimental vapor-liquid equilibrium data for a pair of compounds assigned to each individual student. This assignment typically requires students to consult either online or in-print books containing compilations of vapor-liquid equilibrium data from the literature, often from the early- to mid-twentieth century. Professor Hammond asks the staff at the Engineering Library & Technology Commons to place several of these books on reserve during the assignment –the library staff typically assign them their own cart behind the circulation desk.

One of Professor Hammond’s goals for this assignment is to engage students with the library’s printed collection, which often showcases data that are difficult or impossible to access online, thus making students aware that not all useful information has been or will be digitized. According to Dr. Hammond, “If you don’t show students a resource exists, they won’t know to look for it.” The wealth of tabular data available also allows Professor Hammond to assign each student in the course a unique pair of compounds to look up and then plot results from models against measured data to get a sense of how accurate the models are and how to use them. Knowing the full breadth of resources available to find thermodynamic data is an essential skill for success in Design I and II, which students take in their final year in the Chemical Engineering major.

Cycle of Success is the idea that libraries, faculty, and students are linked; for one to truly succeed, we must all succeed. The path to success is formed by the connections between University of Missouri Libraries and faculty members, between faculty members and students, and between students and the libraries that serve them. More than just success, this is also a connection of mutual respect, support, and commitment to forward-thinking research.

If you would like to submit your own success story about how the libraries have helped your research and/or work, please use the Cycle of Success form.

home Cycle of Success, J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library Twenty Years of Successful Partnership

Twenty Years of Successful Partnership

By Taira Meadowcroft Posted in Cycle of Success J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library

Posted on April 17, 2019January 21, 2021

“The health sciences library is a jewel in the Mizzou library system,” says Dr. Vicki Conn, Professor Emerita at the Sinclair School of Nursing.

As a faculty member at the nursing school, Dr. Conn focused on why patients wouldn’t take their prescribed medications and finding ways to increase exercise in chronically ill adults. Her research spanned over many years and credits Diane Johnson with helping her throughout the journey.

“I was the principal investigator of three National Institutes of Health [NIH] R01 grants for enormous projects and [Diane’s] expertise was critical for securing funding,” relays Dr. Conn. Diane remained on the grants after the funding was secured, being named a co-investigator to assist with the “hard work,” as Dr. Conn calls it.

“[Diane] worked with my research staff to facilitate our easy access to the results of searches. For one of our projects, we evaluated over 37,000 potential studies for inclusion. The vast majority of those 37,000 were located by Diane. Diane was a central member of our research team.” With Diane as a member of the research team and closely working with the other researchers, allowed her to completely understand the project. Diane could easily adapt and change with search as needed and know the exact information the team found most beneficial.

Dr. Conn’s and her team also made great use of the library’s interlibrary loan (ILL) department, requesting articles if they needed to be reviewed in their entirety. If the articles weren’t available on campus, ILL borrowed them from other libraries, making sure Dr. Conn and her research team had access to the articles necessary for their grants.

These services were something Dr. Conn highly valued over the twenty years of working with Diane and the library. “I suggest people become acquainted with a librarian. It is very important for the librarian to understand your program of research. A librarian who completely understands your program of research can by a wonderful research collaborator.”

If you would like to submit your own success story about how the libraries have helped your research and/or work, please use the Cycle of Success form.

home Cycle of Success, J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library Providing Access to Resources Directly to Students

Providing Access to Resources Directly to Students

By Taira Meadowcroft Posted in Cycle of Success J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library

Posted on March 20, 2019April 18, 2019

This guest post is written by Dr. Marilyn James-Kracke, Associate Professor of Medical Pharmacology and Physiology.

With the help of Rebecca Graves, Educational Services Librarian, and Mike Spears, System Support Analyst, my students in medical pharmacology are included in the list of students who can use UpToDate and its Lexi-comp drug database for 15 assignments that teach information technology to premedical and prehealth professional students. Each assignment explores different components of drug monographs, drug interactions reports, calculators for renal function, disease treatment strategies and pill identifiers etc.

My students greatly appreciate this opportunity for professional training. These assignments provide additional valuable active learning components to this advanced basic science course.

For the Medical Physiology course and the Medical Pharmacology course, I provide direct links within the CANVAS course components to electronic textbooks so students can freely access any part of these well recognized textbooks using the library fees they pay as students. The students feel that I have their best interest at heart by saving them textbook dollars while also providing access to quality textbooks.

Thank you librarians for providing these excellent services to my students. I’m glad my students get a great library experience so they learn to value these resources as future professionals.

If you would like to submit your own success story about how the libraries have helped your research and/or work, please use the Cycle of Success form.

home Cycle of Success, Ellis Library, Special Collections and Archives Librarians Help Prepare High School Students for College

Librarians Help Prepare High School Students for College

By Taira Meadowcroft Posted in Cycle of Success Ellis Library Special Collections and Archives

Posted on February 20, 2019March 20, 2019

The Missouri Scholars Academy brings 330 gifted high school juniors from around the state to the University of Missouri Campus. “With a carefully selected faculty and staff, a specially designed curriculum that focuses on the liberal arts, and a variety of stimulating extracurricular activities, the academy enables students to be part of a unique learning community.” One of those stops for the academy is the library.

Last year, the students visited with Rachel Brekhus, Humanities and Social Sciences Librarian, who assisted the students with finding primary historical sources and secondary scholarly sources. The collaboration was so successful that, Ben Balzer, one of the Missouri Scholars instructors, jumped at the chance for his science fiction students to attend Rachel’s research workshop during the 2018 session as well as expanding that collaboration to include Kelli Hansen, Special Collections Librarian.

“Their work with my students was, in short, amazing! I extended my collaboration to Kelli because of how much last year’s students enjoyed working with library resources,” says Ben. Both his science fiction and censorship in literature classes met with Kelli, who provided literary texts from the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries for the scholars to examine. The scholars looked at items ranging from a comic version of 2001, A Space Odyssey to a rare copy of Utopia by Thomas More. Ben found this opportunity provided his students the ability “to see the rich artistic tradition that underpins the literature we read today.” The scholars left their visit to Special Collections inspired and excited to work on their research projects.

Ben sees this collaboration being a regular component of his classes. “I want high school students to gain familiarity with university resources so they will feel prepared to make good use of academic libraries when they arrive on college campuses. Students of literature should also be introduced to the social, political, ethical, and historical significance of the texts they read. Working with research librarians helps students better recognize these broader contexts and how they enrich literary study,” says Ben.

Although the Cycle of Success typically focuses on the relationships among the Libraries, faculty, and students, the Libraries also contribute to the success of all the communities Mizzou serves. The Libraries are an integral part of Mizzou’s mission “to provide all Missourians the benefits of a world-class research university.”

If you would like to submit your own success story about how the libraries have helped your research and/or work, please use the Cycle of Success form.

home Cycle of Success, Special Collections and Archives Inspiring Inquiry and Discovery Leads to Student Success

Inspiring Inquiry and Discovery Leads to Student Success

By Taira Meadowcroft Posted in Cycle of Success Special Collections and Archives

Posted on November 12, 2018December 10, 2018

This past year, Kate Harlin, a PhD student and graduate instructor, won the Gus Reid Award from the English Department. Gus Reid, having taught composition within this program, donated funds to support an award for graduate students and other instructors who teach exploratory/persuasive writing. The award stipulates that each recipient “should not only be a good writer but an even better critic—one who views the job and self with both discipline and light-heartedness.” Kate applied with materials created from her international composition course, a course that greatly benefited from Kelli Hansen‘s Special Collections assistance.

Kate and Kelli collaborated on an assignment designed so students could choose an object in Special Collections that they wanted to learn more about, generate questions and use as an object to springboard into an exploratory essay. From the get go, this open ended assignment was ambitious, but Kate says, “Kelli was so open and flexible with us that she was able to pull items that got every student in the class excited.”

Kelli pulled a Physics textbook from the 1920s written in Arabic, which one of Kate’s students from Saudi Arabia was able to identify as a translation written by Mizzou professor Oscar Stewart. She also found a poetry manuscript, by Li He of the Tang Dynasty, written in Chinese that many of the Chinese speaking students were thrilled to look through. One of her students even submitted her work for the Mahan Freshman Essay Award and received an honorable mention.

“The best thing about these two examples is that it helped the international students to see themselves as experts and knowledge-producers, which can be hard for any first year college student, but is even more difficult when in a class that is all about a writing in a language that you’re still learning to master,” Kate says.

Kate suggests figuring out a way to incorporate Special Collections in your syllabus and if you don’t know how, reach out to your librarians.Special Collections provided examples that truly inspired Kate’s students and is one of the many reasons why she will continue to collaborate with Kelli for future classes.

“Every semester that I have brought students to Special Collections, I have received feedback that it was a major highlight of the semester! I value inquiry and discovery in the classroom, and there is no better venue for it than Special Collections.”

If you would like to submit your own success story about how the libraries have helped your research and/or work, please use the Cycle of Success form.

home Cycle of Success, J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library Good Things Happen When You Talk To Your Librarian

Good Things Happen When You Talk To Your Librarian

By Taira Meadowcroft Posted in Cycle of Success J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library

Posted on October 29, 2018February 9, 2024

Textbooks are a big expense for students and they are often met with the decision to buy or not to buy a textbook. Knowing textbooks can be an obstacle to his students’ education, Dr. Evan Prost, Associate Teaching Professor, decided to ask the library for assistance.

For the 59 students enrolled in Physical Therapy 6810 Case Management: Geriatrics and Orthopedics, the $111 cost per textbook was a hefty price tag. That’s a cost of $6,549 for the entire class to access Guccione’s Geriatric Physical Therapy Dr. Prost asked the library if there was a way his students to get access to this textbook without paying that astronomical price.

Dr. Prost consulted with Diane Johnson, information services librarian at the Health Sciences Library, to look into the options. While investigating, Diane found the library could purchase an unlimited user, online version of the textbook for $141. This would ensure all 59 students could view the book anytime, at the same time, day or night.

The online version provided instant access to the physical therapy students, along with searching and printing capabilities. Allie Lakie, a senior physical therapy student, took the time to email to show her cohort’s appreciation for the textbook access. “I just wanted to thank you for your help in us being able to access the Geriatric PT text by Guccione. We really appreciate it!”

Collaborations like these help to advance the University of Missouri’s system-wide efforts to lower the cost of education by addressing textbook costs through the AOER initiative. Libraries and affordability have always gone hand in hand, and the University Libraries are here to help faculty identify high quality, affordable teaching materials to use in their classes. (Read more). If you are interested in consulting with a librarian on how we can work together to keep your students’ textbooks affordable, contact your subject librarian.

If you would like to submit your own success story about how the libraries have helped your research and/or work, please use the Cycle of Success form.

home Cycle of Success, J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library Doctor Discovers Librarians Are On Her Research Team

Doctor Discovers Librarians Are On Her Research Team

By Taira Meadowcroft Posted in Cycle of Success J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library

Posted on October 15, 2018October 29, 2018

Dr. Elizabeth Malm-Buatsi didn’t know where to turn when she wanted to improve her standing as a researcher. As the only pediatric urologist at MU HealthCare, and often called away for surgeries, she had no built-in research team she could lean on. After flying solo for a few months, she found herself on the verge of abandoning projects she was passionate about, frustrated by the research process and unsure how to proceed. Luckily, a colleague suggested she contact Diane Johnson at the Health Sciences Library. Dr. Malm-Buatsi says that initial meeting was absolutely lifechanging

When she first contacted Diane, Dr. Malm-Buatsi was creating an educational flyer to give to parents about newborn circumcisions. In order to provide this vital information to parents about the process, she needed to find the best evidence-based research, but she already conducted a literature search and found no information after several hours of searching. Diane, however, was able to find the information in the matter of minutes, at least that’s how Dr. Malm-Buatsi describes it. “Ever since meeting Diane, my outlook on research projects has changed,” she says, “and I’ve learned to enjoy the process. She makes sure to keep me on track, makes the process easier, and helps me think critically about what I’m working on.”

Diane’s assistance wasn’t limited to the patient education project. Dr. Malm-Buatsi was also in the midst of applying for an internal grant related to the urinary microbiome. Diane conducted literature searches and created an EndNote Library, not only adding relevant articles, but also pointing out the most relevant sections of information. “Diane was able to cut the time I would’ve spent on researching in half.” Dr. Malm-Buatsi says the grant proposal was recently accepted, and she expects Diane will still be an integral contributor of the project. Diane has also found several additional grant opportunities for Dr. Malm-Buatsi to pursue.

Two projects wasn’t enough for Dr. Malm-Buatsi, though. She also wanted to assess residents’ satisfaction with and the perceived usefulness of an online surgical training system, including a pre-surgery assessment that allows the residents to set goals and view videos before surgery. They determined the best way to capture these qualitative results was developing a survey. Caryn Scoville, Information Services Librarian, consulted with Dr. Malm-Buatsi, designed the survey in Qualtrics, and distributed it to the residents. Dr. Malm-Buatsi and her colleagues submitted an abstract about their system, and although it hasn’t been accepted yet, she is positive it will, in large part because of Caryn’s behind-the-scenes work.

Looking to strengthen your own research profile? Dr. Malm-Buatsi suggests consulting with your librarians from day one of your project and learning how they can contribute to your research process. “They are so open and I feel I can bounce my ideas off of them,” she says. Dr. Malm-Buasi has also discovered an unanticipated benefit: “Now that I am in their minds, I often receive emails with suggestions or pieces of information related to my projects.Their help has had a huge impact on my career.”

If you would like to submit your own success story about how the libraries have helped your research and/or work, please use the Cycle of Success form.

home Gateway Carousel Journalism, Journalism Library Cycle of Success

Cycle of Success

By Schuermann, Sue Posted in Gateway Carousel Journalism Journalism Library

Posted on September 24, 2018September 24, 2018

home Cycle of Success, Ellis Library Institutional Support Models Could Revolutionize Open Access Publishing

Institutional Support Models Could Revolutionize Open Access Publishing

By Super Admin Posted in Cycle of Success Ellis Library

Posted on September 17, 2018January 21, 2021

In addition to “producing grammatical descriptions and dictionaries for four varieties of the Luyia language cluster in western Kenya,” Michael Marlo is an Associate Professor of English and Linguistics and a member of the editorial board of the Language Science Press‘s Contemporary African Linguistics series. Language Science Press is an open access publisher of peer-reviewed linguistics books, including textbooks, and neither readers nor authors pay fees under the Knowledge Unlatched model, which instead relies on financial pledges from institutions and libraries to fund open access projects.

Michael’s editorship originally grew out of a desire to find a financially reasonable publishing outlet for the proceedings of the Annual Conference on African Linguistics. When researching potential publishers for book projects related to his National Science Foundation project, Structure and Tone in Luyia, he had also made note of their African Language Grammars and Dictionaries series.

“One of the major obstacles to the development of the field of linguistics is access to research results,” Michael says. For example, access to the digital version of the most prestigious publisher’s grammar series costs $10,000 plus annual fees for updates. A single book costs $200. Despite the prestige, Michael doesn’t intend to pursue publication through a press with such a prohibitive pricing model because that would limit his audience to those few whose libraries can afford access. He says, “While I recognize that there are still problems of access with publications that are primarily available as PDF downloads online, due to the fact that not everyone has internet access, having my work available for anyone to download is a major improvement in access over most other publishing options, which are either too expensive for readers or require a large subvention from the author, or both.”

Last summer, Michael learned that Language Science Press was pursuing the institutional support funding model and asked Anne Barker, his subject librarian, if Mizzou Libraries could contribute. He was “thrilled” to learn that some funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities were able to be put toward the initiative. Michael says, “I believe [this model] has the chance to revolutionize publishing in my field, and possibly by extension many other fields in academia.”

Anne confirms, “Librarians have long been concerned that the commercialization of scholarly communication restricts access for individuals and strains library budgets. Changing the traditional publication funding model to provide for more open access is complex and challenging, but the Knowledge Unlatched model is promising. Mizzou Libraries is glad to be able to join this endeavor.”

Michael encourages students to use MOBIUS and Interlibrary Loan to access books outside of our collection. He also encourages students to find their subject areas in the stacks and look around. “There’s a lot of great stuff in there that you won’t easily find just by searching online databases!”

If you would like to submit your own success story about how the libraries have helped your research and/or work, please use the Cycle of Success form.

home Cycle of Success, Ellis Library, Government Information Knowledge of Sailors’ Wages Enhances Tours of Only Above-Water Whaleback Ship Museum

Knowledge of Sailors’ Wages Enhances Tours of Only Above-Water Whaleback Ship Museum

By Super Admin Posted in Cycle of Success Ellis Library Government Information

Posted on August 20, 2018September 11, 2018

This guest post is written by Martin Karpa, Volunteer with the Superior Public Museums in Superior, Wisconsin.

My first job after graduating high school was on a ship sailing the Great Lakes. I worked the freighters for four seasons, hauling iron ore, coal, grain, sand and limestone from Duluth, MN, to Buffalo, NY, and numerous ports in between.

It was just within the last two years that projects around the home were winding down, freeing up more time for interests. With a sailing history and fondness of said, I took an interest in the Superior Public Museums, Superior, WI, of which one of the museums is the last-in-the-world above-water whaleback steamship S.S. Meteor. Volunteer efforts with the museums started out with their annual Volunteer Work Weekend held every last weekend in April when people come from across the Upper Midwest to preserve and prepare the Meteor for guests who tour the ship and learn about its history, sailing in the 1890s, the conception of its unique design and the influence this design has had on the present day shipping industry.

The first work weekend on the Meteor only piqued my interests and I wound up volunteering to come every couple of weeks or so to help out with routine seasonal maintenance on the ship. One thing leads to another, and this role in maintenance has now expanded to also being a volunteer tour guide not only for the Meteor but also at another of the museums, Fairlawn Mansion.

My opinion: dedicated tour guides are not given enough credit. These individuals put themselves out there before the general public and are expected to be the resident authority of what they are teaching, able to field any question thrown at them. Guides will learn the tour script, of course, but many will go above and beyond, gleaning all the facts they can about their particular expertise in order to answer even the most unpredictable question as best they can.

One such question was, “What were the sailors’ wages at the time?” (referring to sailors in the 1890s). I didn’t know, said so, and spent some time with the individual after the tour trying to find an answer on the internet without satisfying success. This lead to a more extensive internet search later at home, also without much concrete success. Now, I am not an idiot, but doing such specific research is not in my educational background. All of the clicking around on the net somehow lead me to Marie Concannon‘s contact information as the University of Missouri Libraries’ Head of Government Information. With mounting frustrations over negative search results and no better idea as to where to go with this question, I fired off an email to Marie last August, knowing it was a crapshoot . . . a roll of the dice . . . and I hit the jackpot!

Marie responded promptly, and a very pleasant correspondence followed, impressing me with her passion and dedication to her work. It was obvious even across the internet that she is enthusiastic about researching an issue and my hat is off to her. Information provided by Marie has now been adopted and fit into my personal script when giving tours of the S.S. Meteor, giving those interested in this aspect of our nation’s industrial history a better understanding of daily life at the end of the Victorian Era, beginning of the Gilded Age and into the Progressive Era. Being able to offer more detailed information to guests of the museum also gives them a fuller experience, which in turn helps spread an even more positive review of their visit.

Although the Cycle of Success typically focuses on the relationships among the Libraries, faculty, and students, the Libraries also contribute to the success of all the communities Mizzou serves. The Libraries are an integral part of Mizzou’s mission “to produce and disseminate knowledge that will improve the quality of life in the state, the nation and the world.”

If you would like to submit your own success story about how the libraries have helped your research and/or work, please use the Cycle of Success form.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: