This 2016 documentary explores the history of racial inequality in the United States, focusing on the fact that the nation’s prisons are disproportionately filled with African-Americans. After the screening, stay for a guided discussion.
Michelle Alexander is prominently featured in the documentary, discussing how mass incarceration has and hasn’t changed since her book was first published.
After the screening, please stay for a guided discussion.
Found an article online, but aren’t sure how to get the entire article? Did the website ask you to sign in or pay a fee? Want an easy way to request an article while searching on your phone? Need to ILL an article? Request your article via Twitter using #MizzouPDF.
In your tweet, be sure to use an identifier like a DOI, PMID, article title, or any information you have about the article. Including your MU pawprint will make the process faster, but we can private message you back if you don’t want to include your pawprint. With the information you’ve given us, we will send the article through your university email.
It’s simple to do! Here is a good example of how to tweet your article request:
This service is open to current MU faculty, students, and staff.
Remember, you can still request articles while in databases like PubMed, Scopus, EbscoHost, etc., by clicking on and selecting “Request a copy”.
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.
Marie Concannon
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.
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 tosubmityour own success story about how the libraries have helped your research and/or work, please use the Cycle of Success form.
The following events and exhibitions have been scheduled to facilitate conversation regarding this year’s One Read Program selection: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander. In this incisive critique, former litigator-turned-legal-scholar Michelle Alexander provocatively argues that we have not ended racial caste in America: we have simply redesigned it. The New Jim Crow challenges the civil rights community–and all of us–to place mass incarceration at the forefront of a new movement for racial justice in America.
A Brief Moment in the Sun Art Contest
Submissions beginning September 1st- October 18th
We want to feature your work based on The New Jim Crow. Submit a poem, mixed media, a sculpture, a painting, a photo; whichever medium speaks to you. Please contact Michelle Baggett for more information.
September 6th @ 5 pm: 13th Documentary
Filmmaker Ava DuVernay explores the history of racial inequality in the United States, focusing on the fact that the nation’s prisons are disproportionately filled with African-Americans. After the screening, stick around for a guided discussion. Ellis Auditorium
One Read Discussion…Without the Reading August 22, 1:00-1:50pm
Didn’t get a chance to read the 2018 One Read book but still want a chance to hear about it and discuss the topic? This is the event for you. Wraps and chips will be provided for the first 25 participants. Bring your own beverage! Hulston Hall Room 4
July-October: The New Jim Crow – One Read Program Exhibit
An exhibit in the Ellis Library Colonnade features a timeline showing the increasing numbers of incarcerated Missourians over the past four decades. Key moments in law, the privatization of prisons, and stories of anonymous Mizzou Tigers impacted by incarceration are highlighted. Ellis Library Exhibit Case
The One Read Program, which promotes conversations regarding diversity, inclusion, and social justice through students, faculty, and staff reading a particular book together, is sponsored by Mizzou Law and Univerisity Libraries.
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander is this year’s One Read Program selection. The One Read Program is sponsored by Mizzou Law and Mizzou Libraries in order to facilitate conversations of diversity, inclusion, and social justice throughout the MU community. This year’s selection, The New Jim Crow, examines how old forms of discrimination have been legalized through the war on drugs and unequal enforcement of criminal laws.
An exhibit in the Ellis Library Colonnade features a timeline showing the increasing numbers of incarcerated Missourians over the past four decades. Key moments in criminal law, the privatization of prisons, Supreme Court decisions, and more are highlighted. The exhibit will be on display through October.
The story of how Mizzou Libraries came to be one of the few libraries with a nearly complete set of Bildende Kunst, a visual arts journal from the former German Democratic Republic, began with an email but involved many hands. In Leipzig, Germany, on research leave, Assistant Professor Seth Howes contacted his subject librarian, Anne Barker, to ask about access to the journal after he returned to Mizzou. Without microfilm or online versions and with the closest complete set of the journal located in New York, Anne determined that access would be very difficult.
In the end, Seth considered not only “here’s why this is important to me” but also “here’s how important this is to me,” contributing some of his funds for research materials, matched by library funds, towards the purchase of additional issues.
Seth’s research focuses on the literature and experimental music and film of East Germany in its final fifteen years of existence, and Mizzou Libraries already had full print runs of the other two critical journals for his research, covering literature and music. Bildende Kunst can be translated as “Visual Art” or as “Educating Art or Art that Educates,” Seth explains. Because it reproduced art otherwise unavailable to East Germans, Bildende Kunst served as an educational magazine as well as a trade journal aimed at professionals.
Anne Barker
“One of the things that I think is very cool about having this in our collection now,” Seth says, “is that as a research institution with the teaching mission that comes with being a land-grant institution, we always need to think about how we can translate our work into teaching, and that is to a great extent what that journal did.” He plans on scheduling sessions with Special Collections in his courses so he can show students how these ideas were debated: “Can we have socialist art that looks like this? Is it not distracting or alienating to paint a worker in this way? Shouldn’t we just take recourse to 19th century realist painterly techniques?” Seth finds that students who are visual thinkers connect in a more meaningful way with a richly illustrated journal than ones that require greater language fluency to decode “communists arguing with each other.”
Anne says, “I was excited by this opportunity to enhance our research and teaching collections, but also because this adds to regional resources, making this important publication much more accessible to scholars in Missouri and surrounding states. I’m grateful for Seth’s initiative and willingness to invest his personal research funds to make this acquisition possible.”
Seth suggests that students and faculty think of “the library’s existing strengths as a jumping off point for our imagination of how to make strategic additions or strategic developments in new directions.” Despite budget challenges, he has found that “there is a will to grow the library’s resources for research and teaching, and everybody here is obviously working like mad to make resources available to students and faculty.”
Special Thanks
Many Mizzou Libraries staff members in addition to Anne played vital roles in getting the journal issues onto our shelves:
Corrie Hutchinson, Head of Acquisitions, identified and worked with the German vendor, determining costs and handling payments
Libby Myre, Senior Library Information Specialist, identified and worked with the German vendor, determining costs and handling payments, and input the journal’s information into the catalog
Michaelle Dorsey, Senior Library Information Specialist, with assistance from her preservation assistants, created containers to store the journal in its original format
Bette Stuart, Senior Library Information Specialist, input the journal’s information into the catalog
Kelli Hansen, Interim Head of Special Collections, provided space for the collection
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 tosubmityour own success story about how the libraries have helped your research and/or work, please use the Cycle of Success form.
Before becoming an instructor in the University of Missouri’s Intensive English Program (IEP), Liza Armstrong taught a little further from home, such as at Al Akhawayn University, located in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco. Now she helps the Center for English Language Learning fulfill its mission of “providing high quality English language instruction to non-native speakers of English to prepare them for university-level studies, professional endeavors and community engagement.” Liza’s interests are in the development of second language reading and writing skills, information technology, and reading assessment, and she recently presented about text analysis tools in the development of IEP reading exams at the TESOL Convention.
Word of Mouth
Liza first began bringing her advanced reading classes in for library instruction based on the recommendation of Barbara Leonhard, an advanced communication instructor. At that time, emerita librarian Goodie Bhullar taught the research sessions. Liza says, “Goodie, who had been an international student herself, seemed to have an instant rapport with the students and was interested in learning students’ names, where they were from, and what their research interests were.”
Goodie’s lesson made an impression. Students didn’t just learn about the quality resources Mizzou Libraries make available to them and how to run better searches. They also got hands-on practice searching library databases to find quality sources. “Nearly every semester since then,” Liza says, “I have taken my IEP classes to the library so that students understand that at MU they have access to a huge amount of high-quality information and plenty of help in finding it.”
The Tradition Continues
Today, Cindy Cotner continues to deliver the invaluable instruction that helps Liza’s reading-writing students navigate the library and become comfortable with academic research: “Cindy gave students a physical tour of the library, explaining how the circulation desk worked and where students could scan books, find resources like books and videos, study, and even grab a coffee.”
Then the work of learning how to find those suitable resources began. Students not only received the usual instruction on how to search library databases but also participated in a scavenger hunt. Cindy distributed cards with a book title and call number, and students worked in pairs to find the book on the shelves. Liza says they “enjoyed winding through the stacks of books and felt victorious when they found their books.”
Cindy also shared information about Library Workshops for International Students (LibWIS), giving students further opportunities to learn about advanced research strategies, citation management, and more.
When Liza saw her students’ essays, she was delighted to find that many had used library databases to find quality sources. Liza notes, “Many of them also indicated that they appreciated the citation tool, which helped them to write their APA reference pages more quickly and accurately.”
Be Brave
Liza’s best advice for international students is “to be brave and ask librarians and staff questions.” She also recommends attending library workshops, especially those with a focus on international students. By learning how to use the library early in their academic careers, students can save time in the long run, create higher quality assignments, and build better study habits. “Students may think that using library databases and tools is intuitive,” she says, “but there is always new information, and library systems often change and are updated.”
In fact, Liza confesses that she herself learns something new each time her classes visit the library!
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 tosubmityour own success story about how the libraries have helped your research and/or work, please use the Cycle of Success form.
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!”
Finals are a week away, and Mizzou Libraries wants to help you be prepared. Check this post every day this week for tips on getting ready for your exams using library resources and services.
Trained therapy dogs will be in Ellis Library once again during finals week. Visit the dogs on the first floor of Ellis Library during the following times:
Sunday, May 6th: 3-5 pm AND 7-9 pm
Monday, May 7th: 7-9 pm
Tuesday, May 8th: 7-9 pm
Wednesday, May 9th:7-9 pm
Also check out the Zen coloring tables on the first floor, or if you need a quiet space to work on your final papers and projects, Room 213 (Electronic Classroom 2) is open 24/7 during finals as a quiet study space with computers.
All of the dogs are certified therapy dogs, and many participate in service activities in hospitals, nursing homes, schools, and libraries. These therapy dogs are trained to interact with children, the elderly, and others facing difficult situations such as college students experiencing finals week stress.
