Check out the latest post on the Mizzou Advantage blog: Notes From Mizzou Advantage Forum

For those who are interested, Karla Geerlings will present a digital slide show of her recent trip to China on Friday, November 20 from 11:30 to 1:00. Bring a brown bag lunch and join us in room 4F51A! Feel free to drop in and/or out as time allows—the entire show and intermittent discussion does take about an hour and a half.

One Read book “The Air We Breath” to be discussed on community talk show Intersection on Monday November 2nd.

Join us on Monday November 2nd from 12-1pm on KBIA.org to discuss One Read book of the year, “The Air We Breath” by Andrea Barrett.
Intersection is a new talk show produced by KBIA and the Reynolds Journalism Institute. You can listen to the show on KBIA 2 digital radio, or watch the show live by visiting KBIA.org, clicking on the link for Intersection, then the link to watch it live. Or just visit http://rjionline.acrobat.com/intersection between 12-1pm on Monday November 2nd.

On Intersection, we want YOU to become part of the conversation. Share your thoughts about the book by calling in at 573-882-8925, e-mailing us at IntersectionOnKbia@gmail.com, or participating in the live online chat throughout the broadcast.

Questions? E-mail IntersectionOnKBIA@gmail.com

Intersection: Where People and Ideas Meet on KBIA.

THE UNIVERSITY BOOKSTORE is proud to introduce our new Espresso Book Machine® (EBM) at an open house on November 4th, 2009 from 4 to 6 P.M. (lower level,
University Bookstore). Utilizing open source and on-demand publishing, this new technology can create library quality books and expand self-publishing for faculty
and students at an affordable price. As one of the few university bookstores in the country with an Espresso Book Machine® we are thrilled to share this new technology with you. Enjoy light refreshments and view information and
examples regarding this exciting new technology.

October 27, 2009 – Library Issues Forum “Celebrating Intellectual Freedom: Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Creating”
Time: 8:30 – 10:00 a.m.
Place: S107 Memorial Union (Jesse Wrench Auditorium)

The session wraps up the observance of Banned Books Week/Month and features several speakers with topics related to the theme of “Celebrating Intellectual Freedom: Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Creating.” Release time is available with supervisor approval.

Mark Horvit will talk about issues faced by investigative reporters in terms of accessing and publishing information. Mary Barile, Ph.D. candidate for Theatre, will replace Dr. Heather Carver. Mary will provide an overview of the history of theatrical censorship. Unfortunately, Randy Diamond had to withdraw from the Forum.

The Library Issues Forum was developed to fill a need for library employees to come together and talk about varied and broad library issues. If you have ideas for future forums, please contact Leo Agnew at AgnewL@missouri.edu.

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

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

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.

Witness as the The Mystical Arts of Tibet, featuring the Tibetan Monks of the Drepung Loseling Monastery, bring a culturally rich experience to the MU Campus on October 26-29. Schedule: Mon. Oct. 26, Noon, Opening Ceremony, Lowry Mall/Ellis Library; Mon. Oct. 26 – Wed. Oct. 28, Afternoons, Mandala Sand Painting, Ellis Library; Wed. Oct. 28, 6:00 PM, Lecture – “Tibet Today,” Jesse Wrench Auditorium (Memorial Union); Thurs. Oct. 29, Noon, Closing Ceremony, Ellis Library; Thurs. Oct. 29, 7:00 PM, Sacred Music and Sacred Dance, Jesse Auditorium.

Leo Agnew has been selected to participate as “MU Difficult Dialogues Faculty Fellow for Fall 2009.” The MU Difficult Dialogues program is designed to stimulate rigorous intellectual inquiry, and to empower individuals to express opposing views respectfully and in the spirit of open-mindedness. Program activities focus on teaching and reinforcing knowledge, skills, and awareness of diversity issues in higher education related to race, gender, sexual orientation, and religious literacy that encourage difficult dialogues on important, challenging topics and are essential to democratic citizenship in an increasingly diverse society. The program requires attendance at four day-long workshops held on successive Saturdays.

The University of Missouri has received two Ford Foundation Difficult Dialogues Initiative grants (totaling $200,000) for a project that promotes awareness of campus climate and diversity issues in higher education, academic freedom and constructive dialogue on campus. The implementation of this project, the MU Difficult Dialogues Program, has been in progress for more than 3 years. Faculty development workshops are designed to provide information and skills relevant to conflict resolution, deliberative dialogue, religious pluralism, and awareness of diversity issues, while also providing interactive training opportunities to build efficacy in dealing with difficult dialogues.