10. Digitization projects completed: In collaboration with the UM/LSO, the SCARaB Division completed three major digitization projects through LSTA grants administered through the MO State Library. The first project included publications of the University Agricultural Experiment Station from 1888 thru 2005. The second involved MO city and town maps from 1880 to 1922 prepared by the Sanborn Fire Insurance Co. The Sanborn maps in particular have proven quite popular with users accessing the UM Digital Library. The third project has created a massive archive of the MU Alumni Association publication which started in 1905. The publication, now known as MIZZOU magazine is published quarterly.
9. Also in the digital realm, the University Archives began harvesting the content of MU/UM institutional websites every six months through a nearly comprehensive “web crawl.” The latest harvest collected about 90 gigabytes of data, which is now stored on the LSO servers.
8. Our Adopt-a-Book program, begun last year, has expanded to include an interactive website. “Before and After” images of rare books needing conservation/restoration have resulted in over $11,000 in donations from individual benefactors. The Kemper preservation grant matches each gift, dollar-for-dollar. As of March, the total of gifts and matching funds stood at $22,280. We have received many favorable comments about both the program and the website.
7. Technical Services and User Services divisions collaborated to relocate books “shelved” on floor in Ellis stack levels. Nine-hundred and ninety-seven books were returned to stack locations or to storage in the UMLD-2 underground storage facility.
6. In summer, new logon authentication software was installed on all the i-Mac computers in the Ellis Information Commons to control access by guest users. The software limits guest users to a maximum of two hours online in order to provide priority service to MU students whose technology fees pay for the computers.
5. We all know that we have excellent staff in the MU Libraries. This past year, the national library community recognized two of our own among the very best in the country. Wayne Sanders, Head of the Monograph Cataloging Unit in Ellis, was selected as one of 120 young professionals for the American Library Association’s (ALA) 2008 Emerging Leaders Program. Karen Darling, Head of Library Acquisitions, was named the winner of the 2008 Leadership in Library Acquisitions Award, by the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services of ALA.
4. The Ellis Library Chamber Music Series was begun in Fall, 2007. Live performances by MU students and faculty have included: Con Brio String Quartet; Margaret Waddell performing Hildegard von Bingham chants from the 12th Century; Missouri Woodwind Quintet; and MU Steel Drum Band. We even had the MU Trombone Choir playing in Ellis Colonnade. MU now holds the North American record for the number of trombones playing simultaneously in a library!
3. New online library resources have been made available to Alumni. In April, the Mizzou Alumni Association and the MU Libraries announce the availability of two online resources – EBSCO Academic Search Alumni Edition and Business Source Alumni Edition. Some 2,800 journal titles, many with full-text access to articles, are now available to MAA members.
2. We have instituted Merlin online catalog enhancements to provide better user service: including single sign-on, using Pawprint ID for all user access; “personal reading history” capability; unmediated user access to ILL requests for users at all MU Libraries locations (formerly available at HSL, but not at Ellis or branches), and migration to the ILLiad system to unify ILL access.
And the Number One achievement of the past year is…:
1. MU Libraries Capital Campaign. For the past several years, the MU Libraries have been engaged in its first major fundraising effort by the Libraries, as part of the University’s “For All We Call Mizzou” campaign. At the start of the campaign, the Libraries’ goal was set at $8 million, far larger than any past fundraising goal of the Libraries. I’m sure some people did not think we could raise that much money, but as of the end of March, the Libraries have surpassed that goal. We have now received gifts and pledges totaling $8,014,742. That is truly a remarkable achievement, and all MU Libraries employees can take pride in helping to accomplish it. That is truly something to celebrate!
Jim Cogswell, Director of Libraries