On Wednesday, Nov. 23, at 7:30 a.m. there will be a test of the fire alarm. The fire alarm will sound for 10 to 15 minutes.

Ellis Library rooms 114 and 202 will be closed to users on Nov. 21-23. Blinds are being installed in 202, and registers are being painted in 114.

Campus Facilities has been somewhat overwhelmed with installing the receptacles in other buildings. They plan to start in Ellis Library on Tuesday, September 6^th in the afternoon.

Starting on Monday, August 29, and over the course of the next week or so, MU Operations will remove all wastebaskets from cubicles and private offices in Ellis Library and replace them with desk-side blue recycling bins with smaller black saddle bins that attach to the edge of the recycling bins.

When the new bins are in place, employees are to start putting recyclables into the blue bins and all other trash into the saddle bins.  

They will also will place a trio of larger bins — one for plastics, aluminum and glass; one for paper; and one for trash — in central locations in each building. Employees will be responsible for sorting their own recyclables and emptying their trash into the appropriate bins.

For staff working in branch libraries, if you have not already received new bins, check with your building coordinator to see when your buidling is scheduled.

If you have any questions, please contact Pat Jones.

Please be aware of the following activities that will be over the next few days.

1. Painting in 202 began Thursday, Aug. 18. At most times at least half of the room will be open.
2. We are moving a few additional tables and carrels into 202 and 201.
3. An additional range of shelving will be added to 3 East.

A new painting from the MU Museum of Art and Archaeology was installed in the Grand Reading Room on August 11. Information about the painting is below.

David Ligare (American, b. 1945)
Dido in Resolve, 1989
Oil on canvas (89.6)
MU Museum of Art and Archaeology
Gift of the MU Student Fee Capital Improvements Committee

David Ligare is a California based artist who was commissioned to create a contemporary classical painting for the Museum of Art and Archaeology to serve as a link between the ancient and modern objects in the Museum’s collection.  Ligare’s painting represents an episode from the Aeneid by the Roman author Vergil. 

According to the story, Dido, Queen of the North African coastal city of Carthage, met the Trojan prince Aeneas when he stopped in Carthage after the end of the Trojan War.  Aeneas fell in love with the queen, and the two spent the following winter together.  Later, Mercury, the messenger of the gods, visited Aeneas and urged him to travel to Italy to found a new Troy (which later became the Roman Empire).  Choosing not to disobey the gods, Aeneas departed and abandoned Dido.  Distraught over her lost love, the queen built an enormous pyre to burn all of Aeneas’ leftover possessions.

Ligare pictures Dido in her palace as Aeneas’ ships depart Carthage.  As smoke from the pyre rises in the background, the queen resolves to end her life. Dido eventually threw her own body onto the pyre, cursing Aeneas as she committed suicide.

Ligare makes visual references to archaeological objects in the painting, representing, for example, a classical lamp similar to those found in the Museum’s collection.  The artist also shows Dido seated in profile, a position that recalls the traditional poses of deceased figures in ancient Greek funerary monuments.  Ligare’s frame, moreover, resembles the structures that surround these ancient monuments. These funerary references allow the artist to foreshadow Dido’s death with the formal elements of the painting.

We will no longer be maintaining the coin-operated lockers that were located in Ellis Library by the elevators on the 1^st floor. Many of them were broken, and we have other lockers available for semester rental. Please send users to the Admin office if they want to rent lockers.