Jim Cogswell recently met with several library staff about how best to comply with the new smoking directive on campus while accommodating the needs of both smokers and non-smokers in Ellis Library. The new policy states that smoking must take place at least 20 feet from public buildings.

The staff group agreed to have Campus Facilities move the urns at both the north and west entrances to Ellis Library to spots twenty feet or more from the main doors. Urns at the north entrance will be placed only at the eastern edges of the approach to the stairway so that non-smokers will be able to avoid smoke by keeping to the western edge of the stairway.

A request will be made to Campus Facilities that they consider installing canopied tables with chairs at the west entrance (similar to those now in place on the walkway east of Memorial Union tower). Perhaps two or as many as four might be installed along the curved wall that forms the western edge of the area outside the west entrance. These would provide some shelter for smokers during inclement weather and would also provide additional outdoor seating in the plaza area.  Finally, the urn that is now located at the loading dock should be removed. Currently there are no staff members who use that area for smoking, and it is not a public entrance. If it is determined later that an urn is needed, one will be requested.

Pat Jones will be working with Campus Facilities on these changes.

There was an error in the Academic Search Premier link in the v. 23 edition of LibX that sent people to the Ebscohost Education database instead of Academic Search Premier.  It’s corrected here in v. 24:

http://libx.org/editions/4B/28/4B289926/libx-4B289926.xpi

Cocktail Reception and Exhibit Viewing
6-8 p.m.
The Club at Hawthorne
6221 E. Highway WW
RSVP Amy Sanders at 884-5958 or sandersal@missouri.edu

Slavic Book Sale
Saturday, February21, 10am-4pm
Sunday, February 22, noon-4pm
921 South Route N
timberlakep@missouri.edu

Ellis Library has a new express printing station, which is located at the column by the West Reference Desk. This workstation is for printing only and does not require a login. Users will be able to access Word, Powerpoint, Excel and MU Web sites, including MU webmail, ERes and Blackboard. Thumb drives/flash drives can be used.

Library staff will monitor the station to make sure that is only used for printing.

If you never received an MU Libraries t-shirt or you need a replacement, I have a few available on a  first come, first serve basis. Please e-mail me at carysn@missouri.edu if you are interested.

Shannon Cary

The documents from Jim’s presentation at the January 15 All Staff meeting are now available on the Staff Web site.

The following changes will be made before or during the Spring Semester to handle increased student need in Ellis Library due to the closing of Brady Commons:

• Two additional group study rooms (Room 2E21 and Room 3E21) are available for reservation.
• “The Cave” now holds the necessary furniture to temporarily enable its use as a study space. When construction begins for the teleconferencing room, this area will no longer be used as study space.
• Thirty new computers are available in the Information Commons.
• Two additional scan stations will be installed and available near the Information Commons by the beginning of this semester. One will be a Mac, and the other a PC. They will have internet access limited to the MU Web site (including Webmail) and printing through the print mart system. The scan stations will have access to the MU network and will allow students to use their MU email accounts, print and use their bengal space while using the scan station. Students will be able to scan articles and send to any university issued e-mail account including their own.
• Plans are in the works to have a dedicated computer for printing. The Journalism Library has already implemented an “express” printing station, and it has been successful.
• Administration is working with Campus Facilities to create more space and to provide additional tables and chairs in the immediate area of the Bookmark Café. It is expected that this will approximately double the Café’s current capacity. This expansion should occur in February.

One of MU’s distance students, Shawn Collins, has completed her dissertation and has most kindly mentioned persons in Access Services who have assisted her with her work in the acknowledgments in her dissertation.

To quote from an e-mail note that she sent:

“When I was back in Missouri to defend, I stopped by the library to thank you, Tammy Green and your staff for their great work. I think that you were out at the time, but I wanted you to know that I appreciate what you do–I literally could not have finished my Ph.D. without you and your staff!! I have attached the acknowledgments for my dissertation. I would send virtual chocolates and flowers if I could.”

And, to quote from her dissertation acknowledgments page:

“I feel that library staffs are often overlooked when recognition is given for supporting research projects. I give my sincere thanks to Tammy Green, June DeWeese, Rebekah Wilson, and their staff, as well as other unknown librarians hither and yon who have pulled obscure references from their shelves, dusted them off, and sent them to the wilds of southwestern Colorado. Without librarians, the world would be a sorry place indeed.”

Thanks to the generosity of John Wesselmann (LIS I, Ellis Reference), a new piece of art is hanging in the Current Periodicals Reading Room. The painting, by local artist Leslie Geary, is titled “The Pond.” You can find more information about Leslie Geary at the Columbia Art League.