The MU Libraries Creative Mag and Virtual Water Cooler

Things to think about when doing your laundry.

• Get a front loading washing machine as soon as you can. They use at least 40% less water and up to 65% less electricity compared to a top loader. Front loaders are kinder on your clothes as well, because they don’t agitate. This means you won’t get those annoying tiny little balls on your clothes.
• Buy powdered detergents. Don’t pay for someone to ship the added water, in liquid detergent, around the country. You’ve already got water plumbed into the washing machine! And make sure your detergent is phosphate free.
• Always fill up the washing machine with a full load, to maximize the effectiveness of the water and energy you’re using. If required (and your machine has it) select the ‘Half Load’ setting.
• Read care labels before buying apparel. Avoid where possible, any clothing that is ‘Dry Clean Only’. Although there are a few more benign dry-cleaning processes these days, most still use a strong mix of toxic chemicals.
• Wear clothes more than once before washing them. Obviously this depends on what type of thing you were doing while wearing the clothes. Skirts, jackets and sweaters may work for this. Select natural fabrics less likely to cause you to perspire like cotton, linen and hemp. Air clothes in the sun and moving air, before wearing again - UV light is a good sterilizing agent.
 Ladies can use a drying rack inside for their delicate little “things” they want to wash by hand.
Note from the editor: I plan to put up a clothesline at my house. Nothing smells better than bed sheets dried in the sun! If there’s a bit of a breeze many other kinds of clothes will also come out dried straight and wrinkle free. The only thing that this may not work really well with is probably your towels.

Our Staff Spotlight recipients for July 2009 are Colleen Smith and Daniel Akins.

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Daniel Akins, originally from Mexico, MO, worked off-and-on at various jobs at MU while hewas enrolled in school.  Since earning his Bachelor’s in General Studies he has been working for MU Libraries (about 7 years) and works at UMLD, on of the University’s remote storage facilities for library materials.

Daniel has two cats and enjoys hiking, praciticing Tai Chi and playing video and other kinds of games.  He also likes learning new things, listening to music and playing around with his computer.

Asked where is the coolest place he’s ever visited, Daniel replied: “I spent about a week in Penang, Malaysia.  It was a lot of fun with wonderful people and great food.”

Daniel thinks Charlie Chaplin would best portray him in a movie of his life.

Our Staff Spotlight recipients for June are Rebecca Graves and Mathew Stephen.

Rebecca S. Graves was born in Buffalo, New York and has worked for  MU Libraries for 12 1/2 years.  Currently serving as an Information Services Librarian at the Health Sciences Library, she holds a Bachelors degree in English, a Masters in Library Sciences and is widley travelled and a compulsive reader.

Rebecca and her family have 3 cats named Aisha, Chubby and Nike, plus a dog named Miko.  Rebecca spends her leisure time reading, enjoying the company of family and friends, dancing, bike riding and hiking with the dog.  Her hobbies include reading about history, science and human behavior/anthropology, belly dancing, plants & birds.

Rebecca has difficulty choosing one place in her travels to highlight.  When pressed, she responded “I’m going with Istanbul, Turkey.  It’s such a wonderful blend of East and West, past and present.”

In a movie of her life Rebecca feels she should be portrayed by Jodie Foster.

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Mathew Stephen, originally from Alamogordo, New Mexico, works in LTS and has been wtih MU Libraries for 3 1/2 years. He holds a BS in Industrial Engineering.

Mathew assures us that  there is no such thing as leisure time when you have kids.  “The little time I do have I try catching up on the TV shows I don’t have time to watch during the week.”  His biggest hobby is collecting Legos.

Mathew believes the coolest place he has ever visited is Thailand, and that he should be played by Nicolas Cage.  He says he’s “been told I look a little like Nicolas Cage.  Ok, you can stop laughing now.”

Dear colleagues,

This January I will be traveling to Tegucigalpa, Honduras, with a group called Unite for Sight.  I will work with a partner eye clinic to screen for eye disease, implement education programs, and coordinate sight-restoring surgery for children and adults. I must raise a minimum of $1500 to help the local eye clinic in Honduras pay for surgeries and eye care to those in need. Hopefully I will raise much more to help as many people as possible.

Here is a quick fact: $50 can restore a patient’s sight. $250 can restore sight for five people.

To donate, please visit my Fundraising Page at: https://maestropay.com/uniteforsight/volunteers/ref/897cb902e2b747f3872a8e4b23fcd9b1. 

You can also visit and join my fundraising group on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/laura.akers#/group.php?gid=113406809856&ref=mf. 

100% of your donation will provide eye care to patients living in extreme poverty.

Here are some facts on why eye care is an issue:

• 60-80% of children who become blind die within 1-2 years
• Unite For Sight not only restores vision, but also empowers patients and their families.
• Blindness in the developing world has a significant effect on families, employment, income, and on the education of children within the family.
• Social stigma related to blind patients is commonplace in many communities in the developing world.
• Those who are blind are oftentimes considered to be a burden to the family because they are not able to contribute to a family’s income.
• Instead of attending school, children within a family are frequently assigned to the role of the caregiver of blind adults.
• Blindness and visual impairment impacts employment opportunities and income levels for individuals and families.
• Reduced employment opportunities and lower income levels negatively impact the local, regional, and country-wide economics.

If you can’t donate monetarily, send me your used prescription eyeglasses or non prescription UV-protected sunglasses! I have to bring 500 pairs of glasses with me to Honduras.  I will be setting out a collection bin in the downstairs break room at HSL if you have any used glasses you can donate. 

Unite for Sight has opened my eyes to the debilitating blindness that affects many parts of the world, I hope it has done the same to you. I would be very grateful for your support and contributions.

Laura Akers

Graduate Library Assistant

J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library

University of Missouri-Columbia

Columbia, MO 65212

lmdw35@mizzou.edu

Sure, email subject lines are *supposed* to convey something meaningful and preferably, something pretty specific, about the content of the email.  It helps people decide when to read email (this second or later? Ever?) and helps them find the email if they look for it later.  But why show people this minimal consideration when you can dash off an email to hundreds of your colleagues and just call it “FYI” or better yet, leave the subject line blank?  Faster than Jesse Hall can say “hiring freeze,” you can mark yourself as a self-important twit  who thinks your time and effort is worth more than your readers’ time and effort.  Hooray!

So, what annoyingly vague email subject lines have cluttered YOUR inbox lately?  Post them in the comments.  Don’t give the sender.

Michael Spears (HSL) is a father (again) as of 9:15 am, May 27th.

Maura Grace Spears (pictured with her two siblings) weighed in at 7 lbs. 2 oz. and was 20 inches long.

MauraGraceSpears

Due to complications with the birth, Maura had to be delivered by C-section, but as of thiw writing mother and baby have been home for nearly two weeks and both are doing fine.

Congratulations, Mike!

Born in Hinsdale Illinois, Amy Louise Lana has woked for Mizzoue for 4 1/2 years, and at MU Libraries for 3. Amy works in the Acquisitions Department.

Amy holds a BA in Classical Archaeology from the University of Evanston, an MA in Classical Studies with an emphasis on Greek language and literature from Loyola University-Chicago, and is ABD on a PhD in Greej /archaeology at Mizzou.

Amy’s hobbies include reading, sports and gardening. In her leisure time she enjoys reading and watching NFL football.

Three cats allow themselves to be called Amy’s pets: K’Eleyr (18), Pandora (5), and Robin (2-ish–he was a stray).

Amy thinks the coolest place she has ever been is Greece; she spent a summer there on an archaeological dig site at Stymphalos, and a year on a Flubright scholarship which included digging at the site of Ancient Corinth.

Amy would like to have Audrey Hepburn portray her in a movie of her life.

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Stephen Paul Clayton was born in Kansas City Missouri. Steve works at Journalism in the Newspaper Library, and has worked for MU Libraries for 8 years–this time around. He previously worked for MU Libraries for 10 years, from 1986 to 1996.

Steve graduate from Parkwood Centrial High School in St. Louis in 1972, matriculated from Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, TN in 1976, and finished Graduate School at MU in 1986.

Steve has three cats: Mulder, Curby and Hyacinth.

Steve’s hobbies include stamp collecting, opera nd classical music, architecture and the history of the United States presidents. In his leisure time he enjoys reading, cooking, political activities, music and painting.

The coolest place Steve has ever been is Quebec City, Canada, and he thinks either Bob Newhart or Harvey Korman would best portray him in a movie.

An interview with Jack Batterson will air on KOMU-TV at 5 pm this Monday, May 18th. This is a story about how older users use Facebook.

After the story airs Monday you can find it at the station’s website at KOMU.com.

Gardening seems as close to nature as you can get, except for the 300 million pound of plastic pots and trays used each year in providing you and me with flowers and veggie bedding plants. Then they clutter up our landfills. [Read more →]

Gardeners, I can supply someone with starts for zebra grass and penstemon (beardtounge.) I am looking for Irises, if anyone is dividing theirs. Prefer purples and maroon, but will take any and am interested in other plants you may have to share. BTW, penstemon likes sun, can take a little shade, likes a good watering, but not a marshy spot, has lilac flowers in late summer that attract hummingbirds. Terri, HSL