The new unified search tool, Summon, that MU Libraries recently purchased with technology fee funds, is scheduled to be available for staff late in November or early December. Work continues on loading information, including bib records, the MOspace OAI search information, database linking information and other technical aspects. Many staff are involved, and the work is being coordinated by the Summon Team of Felicity Dykas, Rhonda Whithaus, Diane Johnson, Karen Darling, Matt Stevens, Cindy Bassett and Ann Riley with help from Judy Maseles and Wayne Sanders. UMKC and Missouri S & T are also implementing, and UMKC has a preliminary instance available at http://umkc.summon.serialssolutions.com/ for those who would like to take a look and see a preview. As soon as the MU instance is available, possibly in a few weeks, the Summon Team will send out the MU link and schedule a forum for all to learn more. The preliminary plans call for the Summon search box, for which the Web Usability group has conducted research on an appropriate name, to be on the Libraries’ gateway page.

Ellis Library employee shares his history
The Maneater, Oct. 30, 2009

Doctor seeks justice in health care
Columbia Daily Tribune, Nov. 6, 2009

Dr. Gloria Wilder’s talk was also covered on KOMU and KBIA.

The mission of the MLA Support Staff/Paraprofessional SIG is to provide a forum for support staff and to serve as a resource for personal and professional development. The Support Staff/Paraprofessional Special Interest Group (PARASIG) consists of members of the Missouri Library Association to provide support to the 66% of library workers who do not have a Masters Degree in Library Science.

I encourage you to visit http://molib.org/parasig/ to see what we are about and the resources available there. We are looking for people to serve as officers for this group. This is a wonderful opportunity for someone to learn valuable leadership skills or if you already have the skills, you can utilize them to further the development of this group! We are looking for a Reporter and Vice-Chair and having two people work together as co-chairs is also an option. Much of the work of this group is done without having face-to-face meetings, but you do have to be a member of MLA to serve as an officer. In addition, you may need to attend an MLA Board meeting and the annual conference, so check with your supervisor to see if this is possible. You can go to http://molib.org/parasig/ to find out more about us, including the specific responsibilities for the two offices. If you would like to volunteer for this opportunity or if you have a suggestion for someone (a fellow staff member or someone you know) who would like to be involved, or if you have questions about the group, please contact Connie Bush, Chair (cbush@dbrl.org) as soon as possible.

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

Upcoming events include:

• On Oct. 24, Ellis Library Homecoming Open House
• On Oct. 26, Changing the Face of Medicine Brown Bag, “’Doctors were Like Gods: Perspectives on medicine from African American and Jewish Mothers, 1930s and 1940s.”

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

October 20, 2009
Contact: Lynn Wolf Gentzler (573) 882-7083
The State Historical Society of Missouri

Members of The State Historical Society of Missouri will hold their annual meeting October 31, 2009, at the Tiger Hotel in downtown Columbia. This day-long event will feature professional development workshops, a silent auction of valuable art, sports, and history items, research and publication awards, lunch in the hotel’s Grand Ballroom, and a one-woman play about the life of Jane Clemens, mother of Missouri’s most noted author, Mark Twain.

Morning workshops will teach participants about preserving paper and three-dimensional objects in museums and historical societies throughout the state with three sessions: “Paper Preservation 101” with Claudia Powell, document conservation specialist at the University of Missouri-Columbia Western Historical Manuscript Collection; “Collections Preservation” led by Linda Eikmeier Endersby, assistant director of the Missouri State Museum and Jefferson Landing State Historic Site; and “In Storage and On Display” featuring Greig Thompson, the Society’s chief museum preparator.

Executive Director Gary R. Kremer and Society President Doug Crews will give the annual report at 11:30 a.m., highlighting accomplishments from the past year, defining future opportunities, and making awards to accomplished scholars in Missouri history. The $500 Mary C. Neth Prize for the best article on women or gender issues in the past two volumes of the Missouri Historical Review will be given to Dr. Kimberly A. Schreck, Washington University, for “The Patriarch, His ‘Wives,’ His ‘Slaves,’ and His ‘Children’: Contested Wills in the Case of Keen v. Keen.” The Lewis E. Atherton Thesis and Dissertation Awards will be made to recognize outstanding scholarship in Missouri history and to honor Atherton, a former trustee and president of the Society and longtime professor in the University of Missouri Department of History. The $500 Atherton Thesis Prize will go to Peter K. Johnson of Blue Springs for “The Origins and Nature of Indian Slavery in Colonial St. Louis,” and the $1,000 Atherton Dissertation Prize will be awarded to Dr. Adam Arenson, Assistant Professor of History, University of Texas-El Paso, for “City of Manifest Destiny: St. Louis and the Cultural Civil War, 1848-1877.” Carolyn Gilman of the Missouri History Museum in St. Louis will receive the Society’s $750 annual Missouri Historical Review best article award for “L’Anneé du Coup: The Battle of St. Louis, 1780.” And finally, Professor Jay H. Buckley of Brigham Young University will be awarded both the 2009 State Historical Society of Missouri Book Award ($1,000) and the Eagleton-Waters Book Award ($1,500) for his book William Clark: Indian Diplomat. The late Senator Thomas F. Eagleton and Society trustee Henry J. Waters III established the Eagleton-Waters biennial award for recognition of the best work in Missouri political history.

The annual Distinguished Service Award will be given to W. Raymond Wood, Professor Emeritus in the University of Missouri Department of Anthropology. Wood is a longtime supporter and researcher at the Society and the Western Historical Manuscript Collection. Professor Wood is a speaker for the Society’s Missouri History Speakers’ Bureau, has served as a consultant for Society exhibitions and presentations, offered public programs for Society audiences, and has published in the Missouri Historical Review.

A luncheon will be held at 12:30 p.m., followed by MoHiP Theatre’s (Missouri History in Performance) production of Miz Jane, a one-woman play about the life of Jane Lampton Clemens, mother of writer and humorist Mark Twain. Talented mid-Missouri artists Jane Accurso and Dierik Leonhard will support the play with period music.
New to this year’s annual meeting will be a silent auction to include a watercolor landscape painting by Frank Stack, a Mizzou Tiger basketball autographed by head coach Mike Anderson, an original Thomas Hart Benton print, a reproduction of an 1836 map of Missouri, an assortment of wine, and Panera’s “Bread for a Year.”
The general public is welcome and encouraged to attend The State Historical Society of Missouri’s Annual Meeting. The fee for the meeting, luncheon, and entertainment is $30 for members and $35 for nonmembers. The fee to participate in the workshops – in whole or part – is $15 for members and $20 for nonmembers. Reservations will be taken through October 28, 2009, online at http://shs.umsystem.edu/annualmeeting or by calling (573) 882-7083. Free parking is available in the Cherry Street Garage across from the Tiger Hotel, and the hotel is handicap accessible.

Hello to Frances Rouse, LIA, HSL-Circulation. Frances has a Bachelors in French from Central College, Pella IA. She brings to the job several years of library support experience. Her most recent appointment was at the Honnold/Mudd Library, Claremont University Consortium, CA.

Please visit the new Mizzou Advantage blog to learn more about Mizzou Advantage and the role of the Libraries. Please feel free to leave comments or ask questions. This is a blog for MU Libraries staff, so you will need to login with your pawprint to access the blog.

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/.

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.