home Journalism Library Fulbright Scholar Appreciates the Journalism Library Resources

Fulbright Scholar Appreciates the Journalism Library Resources

By Christina Mascarenas

Going to America was more a dream than reality to Indah Setiwati; a 30 hour plane ride dream. Indah was the deputy editor for the Jakarta Post in Jakarta, Indonesia when she decided to make a change and apply to attend graduate school.

In the beginning, Indah only applied to local scholarships even though studying aboard is a goal for many Indonesians. Indah had her family to think about. Not wanting Indah to limit her academic potential, a friend encouraged Indah to apply for the Fulbright Foreign Student Program, a program that enables graduate students, young professionals and artists from abroad to study and conduct research in the United States. If Indah was accepted she would finally have her ticket to the United States.

After weighing the pros and cons, Indah decided to go for it and applied to four scholarships including the Fulbright program. One day, she was taking the train to work when she received an email telling her she was accepted into the Fulbright program. It was “surreal,” she said. “The Fulbright Scholarship is the most prestigious scholarship on earth.”

Indah did research to find the best journalism school in the U.S. that would fit her interest. She chose Missouri because it’s the best journalism school and was affordable with her Fulbright Scholarship.

According to Indah, the Journalism Library at Mizzou has knowledgeable librarians. “Sue is really helpful and resourceful,” she stated referring to Sue Schuermann, Senior Library Specialist. Sue took the time to show Indah how to do precise searches and search for specific journals. “She is very helpful. She is a great resource, all you have to do it ask,” she said.

When Indah needed a book that the library didn’t have Sue was able to purchase the book for the library. When it arrived two days later Indah borrowed it for the semester. Indah was especially grateful for the “really cool” interlibrary loan program is “really cool,” Indah said. When she wanted to read a particular book, she was asked if she’d like to read the PDF or the book, she chose both. She thought it was great to get the book in three days.

“Books in Indonesia are precious. They are like a treasure,” she said. “Especially children’s books, it’s really hard to get English children’s books in Indonesia, they are expensive.” In addition to the Journalism Library, she has used Ellis Library, and the Daniel Boone Regional Library. She said American libraries are great, “They are like wow.” In Indonesia, according to Indah, “If you want to get an affordable children’s English book. You have to go to a second-hand store. The upper-class Jakartans donate or sell their books to the second-hand stores. You can only find books at certain places.”

“I’m happier here to see the library resources,” she said. “Another cool thing about the library is you have access to the New York Times and other publications and you don’t have to spend your money to subscribe to them since the library already subscribes to them.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

home Cycle of Success, Ellis Library Mizzou: Where I Belong

Mizzou: Where I Belong

As a high school student in “the tiny town” of Callao, Missouri, Autumn McLain was torn between two quite distinct potential majors–physics and English–but she knew Mizzou was her “best option in order to get a wide array of higher quality classes and degrees.” She hopes to work in publishing after graduating in May with degrees in English and linguistics as well as a minor in philosophy.

Autumn credits her training as an English major for her formal writing skills. She won second place in the 2018 University Libraries Undergraduate Research Project Contest for a paper on Jonathon Swift, which she describes as “a lot of fun to write.” She’s now enrolled in the second of a pair of courses that will earn her Departmental Honors for her degree, writing “an even more research-intensive thesis on The House of the Seven Gables.”

She says that for most of the papers she’s written here at Mizzou, “the library resources available to me as a student have been pivotal. Good research papers are often dependent upon outside sources and research, information which is made available by the library.” Even more than the information itself, though, she recommends current and prospective Tigers take advantage of librarians’ assistance to find quality sources.

Getting a quality education is every Tiger’s main focus, but as Autumn says, “There’s a lot more going on than classes, and those extra things can be just as impactful!” Over her four years at Mizzou, she’s taken advantage of many extracurricular opportunities, from joining clubs and campus organizations to attending lectures and other special events.

Being a part of the close-knit English and linguistics departments also helped Autumn connect to fellow students and her professors, whose enthusiasm for their fields of study was contagious. Connecting to her community has been her favorite part of her Mizzou experience. “I couldn’t have foreseen how much Mizzou would come to feel like a place where I really belong,” she says, “but somehow, I’m even more excited to go out and see what I can do with what I’ve learned here!”

 

home Cycle of Success, Ellis Library Asking the Right Questions Pays Off

Asking the Right Questions Pays Off

Mizzou has made its mark on Nikolaus Frier, a senior mechanical engineering major from St. Louis, and he will leave his mark on Mizzou as well. For his field of study, Nik had a couple of in-state options but chose Mizzou, which he says “seemed beautiful and big” and where he knew he’d have many options for getting involved.

Extracurricular activities have in fact brought Nik unanticipated opportunities. He was a member of the 3D Printing Club during the time when the service was transitioning from being student led to being hosted by Mizzou Libraries. “I was losing hours at another campus job,” he said, “so I sent out my feelers and asked if the library would need any additional help running this service.” After demonstrating his knowledge of 3D printing to Ernest Shaw, Manager of Information Technology for the Libraries, Nik found himself employed by Print Anything.

Nik worries that his favorite Mizzou memory “might be a little cheesy,” but going to the midnight barbeque the first week of his freshman year was life changing. He met his girlfriend there, and they celebrated four years together in August.

His second favorite memory is yet to come. As project lead for Make Mizzou, a project of the 3D Printing Club, he’s overseen the design of a 3D campus map for the quad. “We have the 2D kiosks around campus, right?” Nik asks. “We wanted a 3D one so visually impaired students would be better able to navigate campus.” The 3D campus map is currently in the prototype finalization stage and will be installed in the fall.

“Getting involved is the right step into learning about your resources here at Mizzou,” Nik advises his fellow Tigers. “As soon as you’re part of a club, you realize you need this thing done. Well, how would I get that done? Then you start asking the right questions.” Nik is proof that asking the right questions pays off.

Nik plans to work as an engineer after graduation but also is confident that he has learned the necessary skills to open his own model-making company. Either way, he won’t miss what he foresees as his second favorite Mizzou memory: the groundbreaking of the 3D campus map in the fall.

The Library Advocate

To Alex Johar, Mizzou felt like home.

“It feels cliché to say, but it’s the truth. Not only is our campus absolutely gorgeous, the people that are there make you feel as though you can succeed the moment you meet them.” As an electrical engineering student, he knew the non-traditional path to medical school he chose wouldn’t be easy, but Mizzou offered him the resources in order to follow his dream and excel right from the beginning.

These days, you can find Alex, like many engineering students, in the Engineering Library, a place he credits as being instrumental to his success as a Mizzou student. The library offers invaluable collaborative space for students studying various engineering specialties and resources on cutting edge innovation in the field.

“My favorite thing about the Engineering Library is the space it provides to engineering students near our classes, peers, and professors. Although the Lafferre renovation has provided more study rooms, they are always occupied, and often not even by engineering students. The library allows students to study individually, work on a group project, or prepare for an exam with friends. As engineering spans a wide range of topics, everyone working in the same place is helpful when there are assignments requiring the intersection of multiple engineering disciplines.”

Through his regular library use, Alex became passionate about the libraries, ultimately serving as the 2016-2017 chair of the University Libraries Student Advisory Council (ULSAC). As chair, he advocated for students’ resource needs, something he says is vital to any Mizzou student experience. Students know what they need to succeed, and ULSAC wants to make sure student voices are heard.

ULSAC visiting the Kenan Science Library at UNC-Chapel Hill. The council visited the Research Triangle to help inspire the Student Vision Report

Over the past two years, ULSAC has been hard at work collecting data from students, developing a student vision for the library in order to make sure all students, regardless of their involvement or backgrounds, are supported by the University Libraries.

Mizzou is what you make of it, and not only will Alex remember the energy of the Mizzou Vs. Mississippi State football game (his favorite Mizzou memory), he will also remember how personally and academically supportive the Mizzou community was. “I cannot wait to come back to Mizzou one day and see students from other universities’ student library councils touring our libraries to bring back ideas for their schools and I am very thankful for the opportunity to have been the Chair of such an amazing council of student leaders that made this possible.”

 

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home Cycle of Success Everything is a Learning Opportunity

Everything is a Learning Opportunity

For senior journalism student Victor Topouria, shying away from opportunities isn’t an option. When he saw the call for the University Libraries Undergraduate Research Contest, he immediately submitted his research for consideration. His instincts were correct because his paper, The fabric road to power: geography of the textiles trade along the new Silk Road and China’s path to geopolitical dominance through the textiles supply chain, won first place and a $500 scholarship.

His paper was originally written for Dr. Hobb’s geopolitics class, but it ended up more interdisciplinary than he anticipated. This interdisciplinary approach required Topouria to investigate multiple resources for his research; resources with which he was not at all familiar. ” The library is one of the most underappreciated places on campus. Sure, everyone loves it as a study space, but I think if all of us took advantage of its resources just once, we would find it difficult to be satisfied with Google.The librarians I met were perhaps the most helpful people I’ve worked with during my time at Mizzou. I could not have completed my research without them.”

Born in Columbia, Missouri, and spending most of his childhood in Tibilsi, Georgia, Topouria says his degree will give him the versatility to pursue different passions. He wants current and future Tigers to be open to different perspectives. “Be willing to have your mind changed. Mizzou is full of interesting humans with totally different perspectives and worldviews. If your ideas, opinions, and goals remain exactly the same as when you arrived, you’re doing college wrong. Everything is a learning opportunity, and Mizzou is a place that grants you the freedom to learn, in and out of the classroom. You just have to want it!”

home Cycle of Success, J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library A Better Future Through Affordable Health Information

A Better Future Through Affordable Health Information

Michelle Kraft, director of libraries at the Cleveland Clinic Health System Libraries, chose to attend Mizzou for her graduate degree in library science because she wanted the opportunity to work in several different campus libraries and put what she was being taught in the classroom into practice.

During her time at Mizzou, Kraft worked at Ellis Library as an electronic resources assistant, helping students with online resources. She also completed her practicum at the J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library. She sums up her experience, “Training I got from staff at both libraries was indispensable. Their mentoring and guidance gave me real world knowledge and skills not only to work in libraries but also to thrive in my career.”

Her passion for providing library resources to medical caregivers and researchers led Kraft to her role as the president of the Medical Library Association in 2015-2016. During that year of service, she advocated for unrestricted, affordable, and quality health information on behalf of the National Institutes of Health and the National Library of Medicine to members of Congress.

If there was one piece of advice that she could give to future Tigers, Kraft said, “find your passion and get involved. You grow and learn through your involvement with others at Mizzou and that learning, energy, and knowledge can carry forward to your life after college.”

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Taira Meadowcroft

Taira Meadowcroft is the Public Health and Community Engagement Librarian at the Health Sciences Library at the University of Missouri.

Mizzou Opens Up Horizons

Meagan Hicks, from St. Charles, MO, was used to her small private school, but that changed when she went to Mizzou. “I was the only person from my class to go to Mizzou, and the only person I knew at Mizzou, was my sister. It was a big adjustment.” A good adjustment it would seem.

“Mizzou really helped shape me into a more well-rounded person. While I was still able to stay in my comfort zone, I was also able to explore different aspects of campus I would not normally go for,” Hicks said.

After graduating in 2014, Hicks enrolled in the Master of Library and Information Science program, which led to her working as a graduate assistant at the Health Sciences Library. “Working for an academic library was an amazing experience, especially a specialized one. It was awesome helping students and faculty with their research, and their dedication is something I will always remember.”  Hicks currently uses the skills she learned on the job to offer a rich variety of services to the Moberly, Missouri community. “As a public librarian now, I want to offer programs that inspire the next generation of Mizzou students to work hard in anything they want to do.”

Hicks says she made the right decision coming to Mizzou, and wants those considering Mizzou to know that they should “try out new things, things you may not have known you would like may become your new passion. Explore and have fun!”

 

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Taira Meadowcroft

Taira Meadowcroft is the Public Health and Community Engagement Librarian at the Health Sciences Library at the University of Missouri.