Research Enriches Undergraduate Writers’ Creative Nonfiction

Julija Šukys, Assistant Professor of English and creative nonfiction writer, says, “Libraries are one of my great loves. I’m a huge champion of libraries.” Much of her work is deeply researched, including her most recent books. Epistolophilia: Writing the Life of Ona Šimaitė is an unconventional biography of the Lithuanian librarian whose heroic actions saved an untold number of lives during the Holocaust, while Siberian Exile: Blood, War, and a Granddaughter’s Reckoning, published in October, investigates her own family’s complicated history.

Julija introduces her advanced undergraduate students to the pleasures of combining research and creative work by incorporating a library research day into all of her nonfiction workshops. She finds that sometimes students at this level are “starting to tell the same stories over and over again,” and research is “a way of showing them how you break out of that, how you break out of writing the same narratives. It’s a way of showing them that there’s a bigger world and to look up, to look out, and to learn something as you write. Writing is a way of actually understanding the world better.”

Students begin by drafting personal essays and then are instructed to ask themselves, “What’s the piece that I could crack open with the help of research?” At this point, Julija sends Anne Barker, her subject librarian, their list of research questions. Because the topics arise out of students’ personal stories and interests, this list can be quite quirky.

By the time students show up at the library, Anne has gathered resources appropriate to the various topics. These workshops meet for weekly for two and a half hours, so one class session can accommodate both instruction and practice. During the first half of the session, Anne introduces them to library databases and also demonstrates search strategies that facilitate research “in the broadest terms.” Julija says, “We search really wide-ranging stuff, both scholarship as well as how to find things on Google Books, how to find movies, how to find video clips that are going to be interesting and useful. Students learn that there’s this enormous world that’s available to them.”

Then during the second half of the session, students begin their quest to find two sources for their essays. They have time to run searches, ask questions, and find books in the stacks. Julija reports that students often have their first experience requesting books through MOBIUS or interlibrary loan, or as she calls it, experiencing “the pleasure of having books sent to you from other places in the world.” Some of her students end up using maps or newspapers or doing genealogical research. “What I really want them to learn,” Julija says, “is how to work in a library and how to think about resources and for them to discover the pleasure of working both with archival materials and with books.”

This assignment brings what Anne calls her “detective instincts” to the forefront. She says, “I enjoy working individually with the students to think of different angles to pursue and different types of materials that could augment their research and then seeing them return with the things they’ve discovered. It’s like opening a treasure chest whose contents they can continue to explore for a long time.”

In addition to helping students find new possibilities in their writing, Anne’s instruction helps Julija accomplish her mission of teaching her students how to use libraries. “Libraries are good places to work, and libraries are places for solace,” she tells them. “Libraries can be this place where you go when you’ve run out of ideas.”

Julija advises other instructors interested in incorporating library instruction into their classes to “plan it in advance and contact the subject librarian early.” She has also found that giving students concrete tasks helps them be able to put what they’ve learned to immediate use, and another recommendation is to “give students class time to do the hands-on work.” Conducting their own research with a librarian available gives students an appropriate balance of independence and support. “It’s very individualized, and on the other hand they’re learning transferable skills.”

Julija’s advice to students is simple: “Talk to a reference librarian because they have skills you can’t even imagine.”

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.

When lifelong musician Murry Hammond came to Columbia with his band of twenty-five years, Old 97’s, for the Roots N Blues N BBQ Festival, he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to spend a few days conducting research in Ellis Library. In addition to being a musician, Murry describes himself as a “lay historian with a lifelong passion for preservation and writing history, specializing in transportation and industrial history of primarily Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma.” He has digitized and published thousands of images to his website Texas Transportation Archive over the past two decades and is the author of East Texas Logging Railroads.

How did Murry find out that Ellis Library had a wealth of resources in his areas of specialty? The answer is WorldCat, the online catalog that searches the collections of libraries worldwide. Old 97’s had been a Blue Note regular for years, but Murry never had enough time in Columbia for any real research. When they performed at Roots N Blues, however, he flew in several days early and had a “dream visit.”

Eric Cusick, Karen Eubanks, and Burt Fields were the key staff members who helped make Murry’s time at Ellis Library a successful one. Karen describes her colleagues at the Circulation and Help Desk as the “face of the library” as students and visitors often ask their very first questions there–and the questions vary widely. Students may need anything from directions to the research help desk to a band-aid, and visitors may be curious about events on campus or downtown. Because each circulation team member has different strengths and experiences, they are able to help people find the information (or bandages) they need.

Murry initially corresponded with Eric about the materials he needed before his arrival, and Karen set him up in a location conducive to using his scanner and safely handling fragile materials. She says, “When Murry arrived early one morning at the circulation desk ready to begin his work, I was able to locate a quite study space in our offices that was suitable for his research as he had brought his own scanner and needed a large desk area to accommodate the many large volumes he had requested through Eric from the depository,” the off-campus storage facility. Burt worked with library staff at the depository to help Murry retrieve additional materials as needed during his visit. Murry spent three days, one clocking in at 16.5 hours, conducting research in Ellis Library and was back in December to work with more library materials.

“Mizzou Libraries helped significantly cut down my time at the New York Public Library and the Library of Congress,” Murry says. “I’ve been in literally dozens of the major archives and special collections in most of the lower 48 states, and Mizzou Libraries is in easily in my top ten, at least for what I research. Thank you!”

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.

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.