Libraries News Blog

Conan and friends invade Miller Nichols Library

New exhibit details the depiction of “the barbarian” in popular culture in the late 20th century.

Barbarians in Comics and Culture: Modeling Manhood from the 1970s to Present

May 13 - June 14, 2013

Dean's Gallery

Miller Nichols Library, 2nd flr

The exhibit is a capstone project researched, curated, and designed by History major Christina Tomlinson.

Christina is former Student Assistant and intern for  LaBudde Special Collections and Marr Sound Archives, and we are so proud to be able to exhibit her work.

Give me a Little Credit: How your credit score affects your life goals

April 25, 2013

12:00 - 1:30 pm

iX Theatre, Miller Nichols Library

Bring your lunch to this free informational session and learn from experts:

• how you earn your credit score,
• how to improve your credit score,
• steps you can take to maintain a good credit score, a
• and much more!

Presenter Bios:

Margaret Norman has been with Experian for 9 years. She works with financial institutions in the Midwest on credit education and implementation. Margaret is also a member of the Kansas City FDIC Alliance for Economic Inclusion and supports many credit education initiatives in that group as well. David Dayton also is with Experian and has worked in the financial services industry for over 20 years.
                            
David Dayton has been with Experian for 15 years. He has worked for various organizations in the financial services sector for over 25+ years. David has been directly involved in developing and facilitating credit education initiatives to a wide spectrum of the community, and is passionate about ensuring that consumers are armed with the right knowledge and skills to deal with all aspects of managing their personal finances.

Money Smart Week® is a public awareness campaign designed to help consumers better manage their personal finances. This is achieved through the collaboration and coordinated effort of hundreds of organizations across the country including businesses, financial institutions, schools, libraries, not-for-profits, government agencies and the media. These groups come together once a year to stress the importance of financial literacy, inform consumers about where they can get help and provide free educational seminars and activities throughout the week. Programming is offered to all demographics and income levels and covers all facets of personal finance from establishing a budget to first time home buying to estate planning. The effort was created by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago in 2002.

Check out other Money Smart events taking place around Kansas City.

National Partners: American Library Association and Financial Planning Association

$35,000 gift from Friends of the Library supports collection development

Since 1966, UMKC Friends of the Library have presented the University Libraries and the UMKC community with an Annual Gift. The 2013 awards were announced at the Friends annual celebration on April 4 at Grand Street Cafe.

For their 48th Annual Gift, the Friends donate $35,000 for the purchase of books, DVDs, recordings, data sets, periodical back files, and music scores. The cumulative amount of the Friends’ Annual Gifts exceeds $1.3 million.

This year the Friends received 22 proposals with requests totaling nearly $36,000. The Selections Committee carefully consider  each proposal and may recommend no, full, or partial funding of proposals. A complete list of recipients is available online.

The Annual Gift is made possible through endowment distributions, membership dues, and book sale proceeds.

Congratulations Fu Zhuo!

April 9, 2013 - Fu Zhou was honored with the "Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Diversity" at the UMKC Celebrating Excellence Faculty & Staff Awards Ceremony.

Zhuo was recognized for his ongoing work in support of UMKC's international students. He is Research and Instruction Librarian at Miller Nichols Library.

See a complete list 2013 Faculty and Staff awardees.

Neha Shah, UMKC School of Pharmacy student, awarded $500 towards Fall 2014 tuition and fee.

April 4, 2013    UMKC Friends of the Library announced Shah as the fifth recipient of their annual scholarship at their 48th annual celebration, "FOL 2.0" at Grand Street Cafe.

The Friends scholarship is available to degree seeking students of any level from any school or discipline, with preference given to those with a cumulative gpa of 3.0 or higher.

To apply, students were asked to submit and original piece written in response to the statement "How UMKC's libraries are a VALUE and why they are VALUABLE to me."

Neha's essay was selected from 23 entries.

BrowZine is the easy way to stay current with the journals you read most.

BrowZine lets you:

• Read scholarly journals in a format that is optimized for tablets.
• Create a personal bookshelf of favorite journals.
• Be alerted when new issues of a journal are available.
• Bookmark articles for reading later.
• Easily save to Zotero, Dropbox, or Mendeley.

Watch this video demo to see BrowZine in action.

To get started, download BrowZine from the Apple Store. The first time you use it select "University of Missouri - Kansas City" in the list of institutions, then enter your UMKC username and password. After that you will remain logged in on your device.

Not all of the library's journals are currently available, but the developer is working with publishers to add content. Check the list of participating publishers often if you are looking for a particular journal.

BrowZine is only available for iPad at this time, but an Android version is in the works and should be available soon.

Join us to celebrate UMKC Friends of the Library's contributions to the growth and success of UMKC Libraries! Also at the event we will preview a "reboot" of the organization's membership structure and vision as they evolve to remain relevant and vital in the new age of libraries. And, as always, we will announce and celebrate the recipients of the faculty Friends of the Library Annual Gifts for collection development and the student scholarship.

Help spread the word by sharing this announcement, and posting the event flier.

UMKC Friends of the Library's 48th Annual Celebration

April 4, 2013

5:30-8:00

Grand Street Cafe' event space

4740 Grand Avenue, KCMO 64112

Click here to buy tickets now.

Ticket Prices:

• $25 advance single ticket, $30 at the door
  
• $40 advance pair tickets, $50 at the door

Hors d'oeuvours, wine, beer, and soft drinks provided.

Student Library Advisory Committee now forming. Volunteer to share your thoughts about UMKC Libraries facilities and services.

Dean of Libraries, Bonnie Postlethwaite, is pleased to announce the formation of the Student Library Advisory Committee. The goal of the Committee is to solicit opinions and feedback from students with a broad range of experiences at and using UMKC’s libraries. In particular, she is interested in hearing from students about how the UMKC Libraries can achieve Goal 1 of the university’s Strategic Plan—Place Student Success at the Center.

The committee will be comprised of current UMKC students from all levels and disciplines. The group will meet at least twice during the semester and may be asked to participate in additional focus groups and online discussions.

See the committee charge for more information.

If you are a current UMKC student and are interested in participating, please email us with a brief statement describing your experiences using the libraries' services or facilities and how you feel you can contribute to the Advisory Committee.

Call for Applicants for UMKC Friends of the Library Annual Scholarship 2013

	Submit your 500-1000 word original piece written in response to the statement "How UMKC Libraries' are a VALUE and why they are VALUABLE to me." for a chance to earn a $500 scholarship.
Applications should be submitted electronically no later than March 11, 2013 and should include the following student information: name, student ID#, e-mail address, street address, phone number, degree program being sought, UMKC department and school, current level/year, and expected graduation date.
Award is available to degree seeking students of any level from any school or discipline, with preference given to those with a cumulative gpa of 3.0 or higher. Award will be applied toward Fall 2014 tuition and fees. Applicants are advised that all materials become the property of the Friends upon submittal and may be used in promoting UMKC Libraries. Winner to be announced April 4, 2013 at the Friends of the Library Annual Celebration at Grand Street Cafe. Help spread the word by posting or forwarding the announcement flier.

The University of Missouri-Kansas City, in partnership with the Kansas City Museum, presents: Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals 1933-1945

A Traveling Exhibition from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

February 16-April 10
Dean’s Gallery, Miller Nichols Library

An opening reception and exhibit preview, Wednesday, Feb. 13, from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. in the Dean’s Gallery. The reception is sponsored by UMKC Friends of the Library, the Kansas City Museum, and Heartland Men’s Chorus. Brief remarks and performance by members of HMC will begin at approximately 6:00.

From 1933-1945, Germany’s National Socialist government attempted to eradicate those who did not fit its idealistic model of a “master Aryan race.” Jews were the primary victims and six million were murdered in the Holocaust. Millions of others were persecuted for racial and political reasons, including homosexuals.
 
Visitors will learn about the Nazis’ attempt to eradicate homosexuality and terrorize German gay men into social conformity with arrests, convictions and incarcerations of tens of thousands of men in prisons and concentration camps.
 
The exhibition will be supplemented with special “brown bag” film viewings. “Bent,” the 1997 film adaptation of the Tony-award winning Broadway play about a gay couple imprisoned in a concentration camp, will be shown Mar. 6 at noon in the Miller Nichols Library Conference Room, 3rd floor, room 303. The documentary film “Paragraph 175,” which shares the stories of individuals who were persecuted because of the law, will be shown in the same location on Mar. 13 at noon.  Brief discussions will be held after each film.

The exhibition is being co- presented by the UMKC Division of Diversity, Access and Equity, in partnership with the Kansas City Museum and in conjunction with Heartland Men’s Chorus’ spring concert, Falling in Love Again, March 23-24 at the Folly Theater. Visit kansascitymuseum.org/persecution for additional details and programming.

The presentation of the exhibition is a project of GLAMA: the Gay and Lesbian Archive of Mid-America, a partnership of the Kansas City Museum and the LaBudde Special Collections Department of UMKC Libraries.
 
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. has developed a wonderful online version of the exhibit. Click here to learn more about the exhibition and the Holocaust Museum.
 
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum exhibitions program is supported in part by the Lester Robbins and Sheila Johnson Robbins Traveling and Special Exhibitions Fund, established in 1990.

Photo credit: “Solidarity.” Richard Grune lithograph from a limited edition series “Passion des XX Jahrhunderts” (Passion of the 20th Century). Grune was prosecuted under Paragraph 175 and from 1937 until liberation in 1945 was incarcerated in concentration camps. In 1947 he produced a series of etchings detailing what he witnessed in the camps. Grune died in 1983. Credit: Courtesy Schwules Museum, Berlin