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An interfaith meditation and prayer space is designated for use at the southeast corner of the first floor that offers a secluded space in Ellis library.
We’ve placed signage in the area that requests respect for those engaged in meditation or prayer. In less busy times, you might be able to reserve an open study room for a more private space.
The Division of Inclusion, Diversity & Equity maintains a list of spaces on campus that can be used for meditation and prayer.
The University of Missouri Libraries are pleased to share the appointment of Kara Whatley as vice provost for libraries and university librarian, effective Sept. 16, 2024. Whatley comes to us from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), where she served as the chief executive of the Caltech Library system.
Whatley’s previous roles include positions of increasing leadership at Texas Tech University Libraries and New York University Libraries. Throughout her career, she has shown a consistent strategic focus on catalyzing information discovery, preservation and sharing to support the university mission.
She is a member of the Association of College Research Libraries (ACRL) and is currently serving as the ACRL Division Councilor and the ACRL representative to the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) Science and Technologies section. She also currently serves as a member of the Elsevier North American Library Advisory Board, the EBSCO North American Deans and Directors Library Advisory Board and the Springer Nature Library Advisory Board.
The Libraries are also thankful to Jeannette Pierce, who served as interim vice provost for libraries and university librarian after Deb Ward’s retirement in May. Please join us in welcoming Kara Whatley to Mizzou and congratulating Jeannette Pierce.
Research Librarian Rachel Brekhus has been lauded for her instrumental role in the success of a new course, “Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity,” taught by Dr. Clarence Lo, Associate Professor of Sociology and Adjunct Instructor of Peace Studies, during the Summer 2024 semester. The course, which was cross-listed for credit in the Sociology and Communications departments and the Peace Studies Program, aimed to explore the rapidly evolving field of artificial intelligence and its implications for humanity.
As AI literature burgeoned in Spring 2024, Dr. Lo identified a dozen essential books for his online summer course. Since many students would be away from Columbia during the summer session, access to digital versions of these books became necessary. Brekhus, collaborating with acquisitions librarian Jennifer Walker, procured multiple digital licenses for the required readings, ensuring that all students, regardless of location, could easily access the latest works on AI.
This effort had a significant impact on the students’ performance. With seamless access to the most current AI literature, students were able to produce insightful papers that demonstrated a deep understanding of the ethical, regulatory, and practical challenges associated with AI in various work settings.
While librarians support the work of faculty instructors and researchers, faculty can also contribute to the resources of the libraries. Brekhus said, “Library-engaged faculty like Dr. Lo help me build relevant collections in my subjects, even from a distance, not only to support any single class, but to strengthen our collections in the areas of high scholarly interest and activity.”
Dr. Lo also noted Brekhus’s consistent support over the years, particularly in managing an ever-growing reading list for his longstanding course, “Technological Futures, Security, and Civil Liberties.” With an enrollment that has expanded to 150 students, the course has benefitted greatly from Brekhus’s curation of resources in this high enrollment setting. In several of Lo’s courses, Brekhus has taught engaging, in-person sessions, which have become a highlight for students.
Dr. Lo stated, “Rachel Brekhus’s contributions have not only enriched the learning experience for students but have also fostered stronger connections between faculty, library staff and students across multiple departments.” He expressed his deep appreciation for Brekhus’s dedication, highlighting her as a key factor in his courses’ ongoing success.
The Digital Media and Innovation Lab (DMiL) in Ellis Library provides innovative technology and resources for your creative projects. The DMiL has an Audio Recording Booth, Digital Art Tools, and 3D Scanners in Room 156; interview recording room in Room 157, and a film studio in Room 3E21.
The DMiL is complemented by the Information Commons computers and equipment checkout at the checkout & information desk. The DMiL is available to students for class or personal projects.
You can make a reservation and check-in or stop by for a consultation in Room 153.
Monday – Thursday: 11:00am – 8:00pm
Friday: 11:00am – 3:00pm
Saturday: Closed
Sunday: 1:00pm – 5:00pm
Questions & Consultation email: ellisdml@missouri.edu
Need research help? Working on a paper or project? You can ask a librarian for help using our chat service– almost 24 hours a day.
During the day you can chat with Mizzou librarians and library staff. At night, we offer access to a chat reference service called ChatStaff. They will be able to answer most research questions, except for some that are Mizzou-specific.
To access the chat service and see what hours chat reference is available, visit libraryanswers.missouri.edu.
Looking for a place to store your items and charge your phone? Personal storage lockers with USB chargers are available in Ellis Library, next to the elevators on the main floor.
These lockers are free to use, but a Mizzou TigerCard (MU ID) is required for access. These lockers were purchased with funds from the Enhance Mizzou student fee.
Spacesaver Lockers
Instructions
Contact the Ellis Safety Team at the West or North entrance if you have any problems using the lockers.
Mizzou began a tradition of celebrating Disability Culture Month, formerly Celebrate Ability Week, every September! Learn about Mizzou events happening the month of September to celebrate Disability Culture Month.
Below are a few we have available for check out. You can view the whole list of recommendations here.
Have a purchase recommendation? Use our book recommendation form
Being Heumann recounts Judy Heumann’s lifelong battle to achieve respect, acceptance, and inclusion in society. Paralyzed from polio at eighteen months, Judy’s struggle for equality began early in life. From fighting to attend grade school after being described as a “fire hazard” to later winning a lawsuit against the New York City school system for denying her a teacher’s license because of her paralysis, Judy’s actions set a precedent that fundamentally improved rights for disabled people.
Blackness and disability : critical examinations and cultural interventions by Christopher Bell
“Disability Studies diverge from the medical model of disability (which argues that disabled subjects can and should be “fixed”) to view disability as socially constructed, much in the same way other identities are. The work of reading black and disabled bodies is not only recovery work, but work that requires a willingness to deconstruct the systems that would keep those bodies in separate spheres. This pivotal volume uncovers the misrepresentations of black disabled bodies and demonstrates how those bodies transform systems and culture. Drawing on key themes in Disability Studies and African American Studies, these collected essays complement one another in interesting and dynamic ways, to forge connections across genres and chronotopes, an invitation to keep blackness and disability in conversation.
Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
In this collection of essays, Lambda Literary Award–winning writer and longtime activist and performance artist Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha explores the politics and realities of disability justice, a movement that centers the lives and leadership of sick and disabled queer, trans, Black, and brown people, with knowledge and gifts for all. Care Work is a mapping of access as radical love, a celebration of the work that sick and disabled queer/people of color are doing to find each other and to build power and community, and a tool kit for everyone who wants to build radically resilient, sustainable communities of liberation where no one is left behind. Powerful and passionate, Care Work is a crucial and necessary call to arms.
Defying Disability : The Lives and Legacies of Nine Disabled Leaders by Mary Wilkinson
This book tells the stories of nine disabled leaders who, by force of personality and concrete achievement, have made us think differently about disability. Whatever direction they have come from, they share a common will to change society so that disabled people get a fair deal.
Demystifying Disability : What to Know, What to Say, and How to Be an Ally by Emily Landau
People with disabilities are the world’s largest minority, an estimated 15 percent of the global population. But many of us—disabled and nondisabled alike—don’t know how to act, what to say, or how to be an ally to the disability community. Demystifying Disability is a friendly handbook on the important disability issues you need to know about
Disfigured : on fairy tales, disability, and making space by Amanda Leduc
Fairy tales shape how we see the world, so what happens when you identify more with the Beast than Beauty? If every disabled character is mocked and mistreated, how does the Beast ever imagine a happily-ever-after? Amanda Leduc looks at fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm to Disney, showing us how they influence our expectations and behaviour and linking the quest for disability rights to new kinds of stories that celebrate difference.
Disability aesthetics by Tobin Siebers
Disability Aesthetics is the first attempt to theorize the representation of disability in modern art and visual culture. It claims that the modern in art is perceived as disability, and that disability is evolving into an aesthetic value in itself. It argues that the essential arguments at the heart of the American culture wars in the late twentieth century involved the rejection of disability both by targeting certain artworks as “sick” and by characterizing these artworks as representative of a sick culture
Women, Disability, and Culture by Anna Siri
Women and girls with disabilities find themselves constantly having to deal with multiple, intersectional discrimination due to both their gender and their disability, as well as social conditioning. Indeed, the intersection made up of factors such as race, ethnic origin, social background, cultural substrate, age, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, gender, disability, status as refugee or migrant and others besides, has a multiplying effect that increases discrimination yet further. The book seeks to pay the right attention to the condition of women with disabilities, offering points for reflection, also on the different, often invisible, cultural and social undertones that continue today to feed into prejudicial stereotypes.
Finding the perfect study spot can be difficult in Ellis Library. Some days you need quiet and other days you want to be alone. In order to make finding these spaces easier, we’ve created some sensory maps and color accessible maps.
The color coded sensory maps show where in Ellis Library you can find quiet space, uncrowded spaces, and spaces with natural light on every floor of Ellis Library.
The color accessible maps highlight all the seating options in Ellis Library: regular seating, high/stand up seating, soft seating. It also shows you were the restrooms are located on each floor.
You can access the maps here or you can find them under maps and floorplans on the main library website.
Whether you want research help in person or remotely, the Mizzou Libraries will stay connected with you! To find out everything the Mizzou Libraries can do to help you, subscribe to one of our newsletters. The Mizzou Libraries want you to have a successful fall semester!
We have spaces for everyone. If you prefer silence, check out rooms 201 and 202 in Ellis Library. Check out this Ellis Library floorplan to see all the quiet spots. Journalism also has four private personal study pods on the bottom floor that are first come, first served.
If you don’t prefer complete silence, try the Information Commons (the first floor of Ellis Library). Or the Bookmark Café on the ground floor for coffee and conversation. You can always take a look at the Ellis Library sensory map to find the best study space for you.
If it’s a group study spot you are searching for, try to reserve one of the group study rooms in either Ellis, Engineering, or Journalism. They can be reserved for up to two hours for each group. Some also have Solstice monitors to help groups studying together share information with one another. Whatever you need, make sure and plan ahead, as rooms fill up quickly! Currently, the Health Sciences Library is under renovation.
Remember, if your program has its own library, be sure to check out those spaces, as they are often designated specifically for you!
