Criterion Five: Engagement and Service Core Component 5b: The organization has the capacity and the commitment to engage with its identified constituents and communities.

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	Academic and Community Resources By sharing our resources on a daily basis, UMKC’s impact extends not only to our metropolitan area and Missouri but also to communities around the nation and world.
The School of Biological Sciences [SBS] provides a number of academic and community resources such as the Fungal Genetics Stock Center [FGSC], a National Science Foundationsupported collection of biological materials used in research with filamentous fungi. Located at SBS, FGSC holds more than 60,000 stocks and nearly a million molecular clones. These materials are used in basic and applied research, as well as in clinical and industrial research. FGSC, which serves biologists and chemists, as well as high school teachers in the region, distributes materials to researchers in 50 countries and most states within the U.S. Eightyfive percent of the FGSC’s clients are in academic or non-profit laboratories. The FGSC Web site averages more than 1.5 million hits per year. The Cookingham Institute of Urban Affairs within the Henry W. Bloch School of Business and Public Administration coordinates the Social Compact DrillDown Analysis project. The project offers free data to the public to help inform development, grants, city services, business decisions, etc. The project uses a type of analysis that draws upon many data points to determine the population and various demographic and economic characteristics missed by other sources, such as the U.S. Census. The analysis has significant impact on federal funding opportunities, as well as on economic development assessment. Deficient market information affects schools, hospitals, organizations, county and city governments that receive any type of population-based funding. With the DrillDown analysis, we provide a more accurate picture of the population, enabling public agencies to challenge Census statistics. Another important and widely accessible database originates from the Center for Economic Information’s [CEI] CityScope program, which is committed to “data democracy” and provides the widest possible unfettered public access to data resources, which is critical to informed decision making by public policy-makers. This information is available to the public through an internet map and database housed on our Volker campus and maintained by CEI, a research unit in the Department of Economics of the College of Arts and Sciences. CityScope currently has more than 1,500 registered users. CEI’s Urban Research Lab [URL], established in 2005, is home to12 state-of-the-art computer workstations equipped with fully featured industry-standard GIS software, and with complete access to the CEI database. The UMKC libraries are open to community users with on-site guest access to all of the libraries’ resources and to the University Libraries’ Web site, which provides uninterrupted information and services. Our library’s Web site receives an average of 100,320 hits per month. Many of the online pages are the products of local partnerships and reflect the library’s commitment to regional and cultural history, community development and diversity. Examples of these pages include: “Musicians Local 627 and the Mutual Musicians Foundation: the Cradle of Kansas City Jazz” (Mutual Musicians Foundation and the William T. Kemper Foundation), “Voices of World War II: Experiences from the Front and the Home Front – KMBC Radio” (State Library of Missouri and Harry S. Truman Library and Museum), “Club Kaycee” the Golden Age of Kansas City Jazz” (The Kansas City Star), “Voices of World War I” (National World War I Museum), and “Presidential Speeches” (Harry S. Truman Library and Museum).
One of University Libraries’ premier resources is the Marr Sound Archives, which provides access to more than 300,000 sound recordings that characterize the American experience as reflected in recorded sound. The collection is available to our students and faculty as well as to community members and researchers around the world. During a typical month, the Archives registers 90 in-house uses of recordings, 64 in-person visits, one to two class tours, 321 telephone research inquires and 296 e-mail research inquires. Researchers call and e-mail from around the world. The Marr Sound Archives is frequently cited in the local media but also in the national media. During the process of the Archives’ staff putting together the successful grant proposal to the prestigious Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (awarded $503,000 for a three-year project),the head of the Music Library at Yale University confirmed with the Mellon staff that the Marr Sound Archive was indeed one of the premier research collections of sound recordings in the country. Recordings are highlighted on the library’s website, and a growing number is accessible through the library’s online catalog. With the help of the Mellon grant, our online cataloging project will make the contents of some of these rare, original sound recordings available for the first time to researchers worldwide.