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Monthly Archives: October 2009

A Reminder – SPSS ‘101’ Workshop

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October 29, 2009
Time: 10:00 – 11:30 a.m.
Place: Cornell Hall, room 003
Trainer: Ray Bacon, Social Science Statistics Center

Space is still available for the introductory session on the use of SPSS for data analysis. SPSS, aka PASW. SPSS is a statistical software package that is useful for analyzing numbers beyond percentages. It is a point-and-click software package; as such, no knowledge of coding or higher math is required to use SPSS.

The target audience is anyone interested in learning the ‘first steps’ in using SPSS. Participants will learn how to set up a basic research question for gathering useful data, how to enter the data into SPSS, and how to run a couple of basic statistical analyses on the data, e.g., correlation. Ray Bacon will lead the session. Ray is a MU employee whose primary job is to help faculty, staff, and students conduct statistical analysis. Ray and his colleagues at the Statistics Center do this for free.

Release time is available with supervisor approval. Please RSVP to Leo for headcount purposes (AgnewL@missouri.edu).

New Posts, Oct. 12-16

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  1. Mizzou Advantage Blog Now Available
  2. Upcoming Events at MU Libraries
  3. Ellis Library Homecoming Open House
  4. Celebrate Missouri Day
  5. Trivia Contest to Support Missouri History Day
  6. SHS Thanks the Ellis Library Staff
  7. Nixon Proclaims Oct. Health Literacy Month
  8. MU Libraries Purchase Summon
  9. FRBR: First Step to RDA
  10. Tibetan Monks Visit MU Campus, Sand Painting at Ellis Library
  11. Healthy for Life Update
  12. Banned Books Week Lecture Available Online
  13. MU Difficult Dialogue Faculty Fellow Selection
  14. GWLA Reinventing Reference Webcast Now Available
  15. MU Libraries on Facebook
  16. Oct. 19 Laptop Registration at HSL

Upcoming Events at MU Libraries

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To keep up with what’s going on at MU Libraries, check out the rotating announcements on the gateway.

Upcoming events include:

  • On Oct. 19, Changing the Face of Medicine Brown Bag, American Madonnas, Angels of Mercy, and the Greatest Mother in the World
  • On Oct. 21, Morality, Modernity and Medicine:  A Case Study of Patient/Doctor Interactions in Venezuela and The Importance of Socio-Cultural Context, a talk by Rebecca G. Martinez, PhD

Find out about all of these events and much more at http://mulibraries.missouri.edu/.

Celebrate Missouri Day

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NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 9, 2009
The State Historical Society of Missouri
Hitt Street at Lowry Mall, University of Missouri Campus
Contact: Christine Montgomery (573) 882-7083

Celebrate Missouri Day and learn about the Missouri Heritage Reader book series on Wednesday, October 21, from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. at the State Historical Society of Missouri. Established in 1915, Missouri Day sets aside the third Wednesday of each October for the study of Missouri history, people and places. The Missouri Heritage Reader series, published by the University of Missouri Press, under the editorial direction of Rebecca Schroeder, has produced 27 volumes (1994 to 2009) covering various aspects of our state’s rich cultural heritage, including the Osage and Ioway tribes, food traditions, caves and earthquakes, German settlement, African American traditions, and, forthcoming next month, the Santa Fe Trail.

Authors Robyn Burnett, Ken Luebbering, Margot McMillen, Greg Olson, and Mary Collins Barile will discuss their experiences writing about Missouri history, and many additional authors will be on hand to meet with audience members at a reception immediately following the program. Autographed copies of Missouri Heritage Readers, as well as books published by the State Historical Society, will be available for purchase. Perfect for early Christmas shopping!

• Robyn Burnett and Ken Luebbering, authors, German Settlement in Missouri: New Land, Old Ways and Immigrant Women in the Settlement of Missouri
• Margot McMillen, author, Paris, Tightwad, and Peculiar: Missouri Place Names; Into the Spotlight: Four Missouri Women; and Called to Courage: Four Women in Missouri History
• Greg Olson, author, The Ioway in Missouri
• Mary Collins Barile, author, A Companion to the Santa Fe Trail in Missouri (due out November 2009)

For further information about authors who will speak, their topics, or a listing of the books available at the event, go to http://shs.umsystem.edu/missouriday

The State Historical Society of Missouri
Founded in 1898 by the Missouri Press Association and a trustee of the state since 1899, the Society is the preeminent research facility for the study of the Show Me State’s heritage and a leader in programming designed to share that heritage with the public. Through educational outreach, such as the Missouri History Speakers’ Bureau and genealogy workshops, or the performing arts, like MoHiP Theatre, the Society not only brings Missouri history to the state’s citizens, but also gives Missourians the tools to uncover the history in their own lives.

Trivia Contest to Support History Day

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COLUMBIA, October 12, 2009 — Put your thinking caps on and join the staffs of the Western Historical Manuscript Collection and The State Historical Society of Missouri for a Trivia Contest, October 23, 2009, to support National History Day in Missouri. The event will be held at the Knights of Columbus Hall at 2525 N. Stadium Blvd., Columbia, Mo. Doors open at 6:00 p.m. and the fun begins at 7:00 p.m. The table fee is $80.00 for up to eight seats. Prizes will be given to the top teams and raffle items will be available, including tickets for the Kansas City Royals and St. Louis Cardinals games, a Missouri Theater gift bag, gift baskets, and more.

Students and teachers are currently preparing for this years’ National History Day theme, Innovation in History: Impact and Change. Money raised will help fund teacher workshops, the state competition to be held in Columbia, Mo., April, 10, 2010, and to offset student travel expenses to the national competition in June at College Park, Maryland.

National History Day (NHD) in Missouri is an educational outreach program of The State Historical Society of Missouri and the Western Historical Manuscript Collection-Columbia, University of Missouri. It is a yearlong program dedicated to improving the teaching and learning of history in elementary and secondary schools. Each fall, more than 700,000 students nationwide begin the NHD program, competing in a series of history contests in their local districts and states. The annual student competition is the nation’s oldest and most highly regarded humanities contest for students in grades 6-12. NHD is open to all types of students—public, private, parochial, and home-school; urban, suburban and rural.

For more information about the Trivia Contest, please call 573-882-7231 or email lukomskij@umsystem.edu. You may also go to http://whmc.umsystem.edu/trivia/nhdmo.html

SHS Thanks the Ellis Library Staff

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Dear Jim:

I want to praise and thank the Ellis Library security staff for their assistance with the fire sprinkler head incident last Wednesday evening and in the days since. On Wednesday evening, Pat Jones and the remainder of the on-duty staff greatly facilitated our response team in making available flatbed carts and pushcarts for our use and, most importantly, in disarming and opening doors that made our trips from the northwest side of the building to the loading dock and dumpsters as convenient as possible. Every security staff member has been unfailingly gracious and helpful.

I also want to thank you for authorizing the staff to assist us and for offering the use of the library’s freezer space. In addition, I greatly appreciate Michaelle Dorsey’s offer of assistance on behalf of library staff.

If there is a bright side to any such incident, we were fortunate in that the malfunction occurred in an area where the materials were primarily reserve copies of Missouri state agency publications mostly from the 1970s to the early 2000s. I shudder when I think of a similar incident happening in an area of the Society or the library where more valuable collections are shelved.

Again, please accept my heartfelt thanks, and those of the rest of the Society staff, for your and your staff’s concern and assistance.

Best wishes,
Lynn

Lynn Wolf Gentzler
Associate Director
The State Historical Society of Missouri

Nixon Proclaims Oct. 2009 to Be Health Literacy Month

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Missouri Governor Jay Nixon proclaimed October 2009 to be Health Literacy Month and recognized Health Literacy Missouri for its commitment to “involving people, communities and organizations in ways that improve health literacy.” Health Literacy Missouri launched its video which can be found on You Tube at http://www.youtube.comwatch?v=yVzULPi3ydU.

Health Literacy Missouri, headed by Dr Arthur Culbert, interim director, is a resource center for the state of Missouri that defines health literacy as “getting and using easy-to-understand information about your health”. In 2006, the Missouri Foundation for Health launched the Health Literacy Enhancement program, now known as Health Literacy Missouri, to improve health literacy in Missouri. The Foundation convened interested individuals from around the state to work in addressing health literacy on a statewide level.

A key component of Health Literacy Missouri is the Health Literacy Resource Library which brings together reviewed health literacy materials in a centralized location, searchable through a web-based interface, and which creates a foundational base for health literacy activities nationwide. Materials in the library have been selected for their relevance and include links to literature, readability and assessment tools, websites, curriculum, games, and patient materials in plain language and multiple languages. Materials are cataloged with health literacy domains, intended use, target audience and resource format. Users will be able to access the resources with a simple search box, advanced search boxes, or a guided search option to make accessing materials easy. Many of the resources in the library will be further evaluated for ease of use, soundness of approach, design and layout for intended purpose, and evidence base.

The website will launch later this year.

The Library Expert Group leading this effort combines the specialized knowledge and skills of health science librarians from the J. Otto Lottes Health Science Library at the University of Missouri and the Missouri Area Health Education Center (MAHEC) Digital Library.

MU Libraries Purchase Summon

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The MU Libraries have recently purchased the unified search tool Summon from Serials Solutions, a division of ProQuest. The campus Information Technology Committee approved the purchase from student technology fees, so no library acquisitions money was used. The need for a new search tool became apparent after the somewhat unsuccessful experiment with federated searching a few years ago, and the recommendation for Summon came from the task force on new discovery tools last year. Many library staff participated in the demonstrations of new discovery tools last fall and Summon this past June. Summon does its searching through a unified index the vendor builds, rather than going into each tool and using the tool’s indexes. This provides fast results in one display with relevancy ranking based on what the user types into the single, Google-like search box.

Summon set up has already begun, and a test installation should be available to staff by the middle of November. Some goals for the Summon product are:

  • To help users find information in library databases & catalogs when they’re not sure where to look.
  • To search for very specific information across a wide range of library resources and databases.
  • Geared toward those who want to identify a few items on a topic.
  • To facilitate access to underutilized resources of which users aren’t aware.
  • To adopt/explore/test option that gives users one place to begin their research.
  • Users will find at least 3 appropriate results on the first two pages of SUMMON results.
  • To provide better results than the free search results found by Google, Google Scholar, and Worldcat Local.

For more information contact Ann Riley at 2-1685.