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.”

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 Resources and Services University Libraries Undergraduate Research Contest Call for Submissions

University Libraries Undergraduate Research Contest Call for Submissions

By Shannon Cary Posted in Resources and Services

Posted on October 13, 2018January 31, 2019

The University Libraries Undergraduate Research Contest recognizes and rewards outstanding research conducted by undergraduate students at the University of Missouri. Undergraduates in any discipline are invited to enter the contest, which will be judged by a cross-disciplinary panel of librarians.

One $500 scholarship, and one $250 scholarship will be awarded to an individual or group project. The winners will have their projects archived in MOspace, MU’s digital repository.

The research project can be a traditional research paper, a musical composition, a work of art, a video, a web page, or other creative work. It has to have been researched using the resources of the MU Libraries. The project will be judged primarily on sophistication of the research process and the materials used (as documented in the Research Process Statement).

Examples of projects:

A set design for theater where the student researched period-appropriate furniture, lighting, and architecture to create the perfect backdrop
A documentary film for class that researches the history of race relations at MU using library and archive materials
Composition of a piece of music created in the style of a famous composer informed by research into their style, skills, etc. through library materials
A business plan for a new company or product showing market need, demographics of customers, patents, design, etc. informed by research using library materials
A political science paper comparing the rise of fascism today with that in the early 20th century
A parody of a famous piece of literature or any original piece of fiction for which the author did library research for their setting, criticisms, etc.

The deadline for submission of all materials is January 31, 2019.

Questions? Contact Rachel Brekhus at brekhusr@missouri.edu.

home Ellis Library, Resources and Services Digital Media Lab Now Available to Students

Digital Media Lab Now Available to Students

By Super Admin Posted in Ellis Library Resources and Services

Posted on October 8, 2018November 22, 2018

Ellis Library’s Digital Media Lab is now available for student use by appointment.The Digital Media Lab in Room 153 provides a recording booth with various software, a 3D scanner (Structure Sensor), art tablets and virtual reality goggles. The Digital Media Commons also has the film studio in 3E21. Students can request an appointment through the Digital Media Commons website at li brary.missouri.edu/dmc. The Digital Media Lab is open between the hours of 10 am and 3 pm, Monday through Friday. Feel free to stop by or make an appointment to see all we have to offer.

home Resources and Services Thanks for Your Input: Library User Survey Results

Thanks for Your Input: Library User Survey Results

By Shannon Cary Posted in Resources and Services

Posted on September 21, 2018October 5, 2018

The University Libraries conducted the Ithaka S+R survey in the fall of 2017 with the goal of better understanding the research and teaching goals of our faculty and graduate students and their perspectives on the role of the library in helping them to achieve these goals.

Faculty Survey
The survey was distributed by e-mail to all 3,090 faculty members on October 2, 2017. There were 680 respondents who clicked on the survey, with 611 starting the survey and 433 respondents completing the survey for an overall response rate of 14%. Responses were received from faculty in all colleges and schools. Note that law school faculty were not included in this survey process.All respondents answered questions on discovery and access, research practices, perception of students’ research skills, and the role of the library. Respondents were presented randomly with additional modules on library space planning, scholarly communication or market research.

Graduate and Professional Students Survey
The survey was distributed by e-mail to all 6,543 enrolled graduate and professional students on October 2, 2017. There were 1,307 respondents who clicked on the survey, with 1,191 starting the survey (18%) and 939 respondents completing the survey for an overall response rate of 14%. Responses were received from students in all colleges and schools. Note that law school students were not included in this survey process. All graduate student respondents answered questions on higher education objectives, coursework and academics, and role of the library. In addition, respondents were presented randomly with either a module on library space planning or research practices.

Over the next few weeks, the University Libraries will be sharing some of the key findings from the survey. If you would like to see the survey summaries and a complete list of the aggregated results for all questions, visit library.missouri.edu/about.

home Events and Exhibits 2018 One Read Keynote Speaker: Professor Demetria Frank

2018 One Read Keynote Speaker: Professor Demetria Frank

By Taira Meadowcroft Posted in Events and Exhibits

Posted on September 19, 2018October 19, 2018

Join us October 19th from 12:30-2:30pm in Hulston Hall Room 6 for our 2018 One Read Keynote Speaker.

Dr. Demetria Frank, Assistant Professor of Law at the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law, will be discussing mass incarceration and The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color Blindness By Michelle Alexander, this year’s One Read selection.

Dr. Frank’s research focuses on prisoner rights and justice involved youth intervention strategies and often travels to speak and consult on issues involving systematic bias and inequity. In 2017, she launched Project MI, a collaborative that aims to transform the criminal justice system and eliminate racial injustice by aggressive advocacy, leadership development, and connecting opportunity communities to law makers.

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.

For more information on the book, events, additional resources, and information on the One Read Program, see this guide. Copies of the book are available for checkout in Ellis Library, the Health Sciences Library, the Journalism Library, and the Law Library.

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 Resources and Services Protect Yourself and Your Research from Predatory Journal Publishers

Protect Yourself and Your Research from Predatory Journal Publishers

By Super Admin Posted in Resources and Services

Posted on September 12, 2018January 21, 2021

Predatory publishing doesn’t just take advantage of authors by misrepresenting review, editorial, and fee structures. It also hinders access to the work itself, hurting the overall enterprise of research. The epidemic of predatory journals reached serious enough heights in 2016 that the Federal Trade Commission charged OMICS, one such publisher of hundreds of predatory journals, for its deceptive practices.

“If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” says Janice Dysart, Science Librarian and creator of the Where to Publish Your Research guide. “Be wary of these email solicitations from publishers trying to get you to submit articles to their journals.” She recommends using the Think Check Submit checklist to determine whether a publisher is legitimate.

Anyone can fall victim to predatory journal publishers. Jung Ha-Brookshire, Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies, College of Human Environmental Sciences, and Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Textile and Apparel Management, relates her experience after a graduate student recommended a journal a few years ago. She says, “I didn’t think twice about it. We submitted our paper and got accepted without any revisions. Then they were asking us to send money somewhere in Pakistan.” She still didn’t realize what was happening because she hadn’t even heard of “predatory journals.”

That all changed about a year later when she learned of a list of predatory journals from her colleagues. “We found out that our journal was on that list,” she says. They tried to withdraw their work from the publication but couldn’t. Because the journal wasn’t legitimate, the article could only be found via the specific URL and not by searching, so they pulled the publication information from their CVs. Jung says, “We had to take that manuscript as a loss because we couldn’t even take that paper to other publishers since, technically, it is already published.”

After that experience, Jung now checks with her subject librarian, Noël Kopriva, every time she encounters a journal she hasn’t heard of, “no matter how good the website looks.” Jung advises, “Be careful with choosing the right journals. Do not get fooled by address, location, a beautiful website, and a wonderful set of editorial board names. Check with your librarian first when in doubt!”

For more information on how to spot predatory journal publishers, see our Where to Publish Your Research guide or contact your subject librarian.

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