Faculty

• Library faculty members hold graduate degrees from library schools throughout North America. This broad base of education and experience adds depth and a variety of perspectives to the Libraries' program of service. All library faculty members serve as Liaisons to academic departments fulfilling the role of subject bibliographer as well as a single point of information for academic units.

Professional Staff

• Our 49 professional staff members provide the Libraries with their knowledge and application of information technologies.

Support Staff

• Our 46 support staff members are drawn from a university community that offers well-qualified individuals at each level of employment.

Student Assistants

• Our part-time student assistants help us to provide a range of essential library services.

Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Collection

In 2008, Civil War scholar and MSU Giles Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History John F. Marszalek became the executive director and managing editor of the Ulysses S. Grant Association. Shortly thereafter, the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Collection, which is managed by the Association, was transferred to Mississippi State University Libraries, making MSU one of the few universities to house presidential papers. The Collection includes letters, photographs, books, artifacts, and other documents from Ulysses S. Grant's military career and presidency.

The Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Collection is housed in the Congressional and Political Research Center, which also houses papers from several contemporary state and national politicians. Explore this collection and learn more about the Ulysses S. Grant Association at http://library.msstate.edu/usgrant.

The Congressional and Political Research Center

Located on the first floor of Mitchell Memorial Library, the Congressional and Political Research Center, established in November 1999, is based on the premier collections of Senator John C. Stennis and Congressman G. V. "Sonny" Montgomery. The careers of these two individuals span a total of seventy-two years of service as Congressional leaders. Their papers are invaluable to MSU's political research and teaching.

The Center provides research materials and information on individual U. S. Senators and Representatives, the U. S. Congress, and politics at all levels of government and has begun to take on a significant role on a state, regional and national level. The Libraries' partnerships with the John C. Stennis Center for Public Service Leadership and the John C. Stennis Institute of Government have further enhanced this Center's ability to promote research and interest in government.

Special Collections

The resources of the Special Collections Department include materials of research value on the local, state, regional and national levels.

Among the valuable documents in the University Archives are papers of the University's presidents and other officers, college, division, and departmental records, faculty papers, and records of committees and university related organizations.

The Mississippiana and Rare Books Division contains significant works about Mississippi and by Mississippi authors as well as a large rare book collection.

The Manuscripts Division contains more than 640 collections of individual, family and organizational papers and represents a diverse collection of primary materials to be used by students, faculty and other researchers for the production of papers, theses, dissertations, journal articles and other scholarly products. MSU's manuscripts collection is the largest collection of historical manuscripts in any Mississippi university. These collections primarily document Mississippi and the South from the early 19th century to the present. Because the descendants of early settlers of Mississippi deposited many of the collections, the collection also contains much primary material on Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and other states of origin of these early settlers. More than one third of the collections contain Civil War materials such as diaries, letters, muster rolls and other original materials.

The Special Collections Department is also the repository for a number of significant journalism collections, which provide an excellent source of primary material on the history of Mississippi, the South, and the nation. The collection runs the gamut from small collections of early journalists with little documentation of publishing activities to larger comprehensive collections of Pulitzer Prize winners.

John Grisham Papers

One of the Libraries' premier collections is that of MSU alumnus John Grisham, who donated his papers to the university in 1989. Grisham's collection, now consisting of over 42 cubic feet, has brought national attention to the Library. Materials from the Grisham Papers are on display in Mitchell Memorial Library's John Grisham Room (3rd floor), which opened in May 1998. In addition to Grisham's papers, the Libraries receive his published works, including foreign-language translations.

Myrna Colley-Lee Collection

In 2006, nationally-known costume designer Myrna Colley-Lee donated her research and working costume collection to Mississippi State University Libraries. The research collection consists of scripts, photographs, breakdowns of what each character wears in each scene, period research notes, rehearsal notes from the director, playbills, newspaper articles, and thank-you notes from cast members and production crews, as well as other novelties. Primarily known as a regional theatre costume designer, Colley-Lee has designed for Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Co., New York's Public Theater, the Black Rep in St. Louis, and Cleveland Playhouse. She has designed costumes for "Mothers," a play commissioned by Bill Cosby, and contributed to Eugene O'Neill's video production of "Long Day's Journey Into Night," not to mention dressing the likes of actor Kevin Kline and singer Linda Ronstadt.

Charles H. Templeton Collection and Music Museum

In 2000, the Charles H. Templeton Collection, which includes over 200 nineteenth- and twentieth-century music instruments, 22,000 pieces of sheet music, and 13,000 records, was transferred to the Libraries. According to world-renowned author and musicologist David A. Jasen, the Templeton Collection contains the most complete collection of Victor Talking Machines from their debut in 1897 to 1930. This Collection, valued at over $495,000 in 1989, serves as one of the Libraries' premier collections. Items from the Collection are on display at the Templeton Music Museum, located on the 4th floor of Mitchell Memorial Library.

In 2001, a digitization project was established to digitize and provide access to the entire sheet music collection. To date, over 6,000 pieces of music have been digitized, archived and cataloged. For more information or to explore the collection, visit the Templeton Digital Sheet Music Collection website.

CHARM (Consortium for the History of Agricultural and Rural Mississippi)

In partnership with the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the College of Veterinary Medicine, the Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Experiment Station (MAFES) and the Mississippi State University Extension Service, the Libraries have implemented CHARM (Consortium for the History of Agricultural and Rural Mississippi). CHARM's mission is to promote understanding and appreciation of the role played by agriculture, forestry and rural life in Mississippi's history by collecting, preserving, and providing access to important historical materials in support of teaching, learning and research. Mississippi State University's heritage as a land-grant institution uniquely qualifies us for this task. Many items from the CHARM collection are now being digitized and made available online through the use of OCLC's ContentDM. CHARM has also been designated as an AgNIC partner site.

Morris W. H. "Bill" Collins Speakers Series

Sponsored by MSU Libraries, the John C. Stennis Institute of Government, the Congressional and Political Research Center, and the Stennis Montgomery Association, the Collins Speaker Series brings leading political, economic and governmental figures to Mississippi State's campus. The John Grisham Room provides a venue for intimate discussion of our speakers' lives, careers, and recent events.

John F. and Jeanne A. Marszalek Library Fund and Lecture Series

A generous gift from John and Jeanne Marszalek helps the Libraries acquire materials related to the Civil War and Reconstruction, Jacksonian America, and race relations.

Begun in 2003, the Marszalek Lecture Series encourages the use of primary source materials on the above subjects and welcomes presentations of papers by university students and lectures by established, nationally known historians.

Charles Templeton Ragtime Jazz Festival

The Charles Templeton Ragtime Jazz Festival is an annual event that brings the sounds of ragtime past and present to Starkville. The Festival debuted in March 2007, the first of its kind in Mississippi. The multi-day event features seminars, tours of the Templeton Music Museum, and concerts by some of the world's most renowned ragtime and jazz musicians. Visit the Festival website for more information about past and upcoming Festivals.

In 2006, thanks to funding provided by the Charles H. Templeton family, Mitchell Memorial Library renovated an area to house the Templeton Collection. The beautifully appointed Charles H. Templeton, Sr. Music Museum now houses the majority of the Collection's musical instruments. Researchers and the general public can tour the museum and see and hear these exquisite instruments for themselves, including record and wax cylinder players, player pianos, and music boxes.

In 2007, the MSU Libraries started the Charles Templeton Ragtime Jazz Festival. The Festival is sponsored by the University Library as a means of enhancing the research in the area of ragtime music, increasing the awareness of the Templeton collection housed in the MSU Library and introducing people to the sounds of ragtime and jazz being performed by world-renowned ragtime musicians. The festival is comprised of a blend of major concerts, mini-concerts, seminars and tours of the Music Museum.

Electronic Library Link

To better serve the faculty and researchers working in the Mississippi State University Extension Service (MSU-ES) and the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station (MAFES) the MSU Library created a program called ELL (Electronic Library Link). The program brings together services (including research assistance, news, and online training) for faculty and researchers in these areas and provides them with a central point of contact.

Instructional Media Center

The Instructional Media Center (IMC) offers professional consultation, a state-of-the-art multimedia lab, and an environment essential for learning about new technologies for teaching and research. The IMC multimedia lab, staffed by professionals and graduate students, features computers equipped with a suite of multimedia and web development software including Adobe Creative Suite CS4, QuarkXpress, Microsoft Office, and more. IMC staff provide one-on-one assistance in creating and converting materials to digital formats. The lab contains a variety of negative and flatbed scanners including large format scanners, music composition stations, and video and audio capturing/editing capabilities. High-end color printing, large format printing and laminating services are available for a small fee.

The IMC also provides regularly scheduled workshops on a wide variety of software applications including the Microsoft Office Suite, Adobe Suite, Flickr, Google Docs, and podcasting software. Teaching faculty can partner with IMC professional staff to conduct workshops specifically geared toward their course objectives.

The IMC checks out equipment to students, faculty and staff. Equipment available for checkout includes laptops, digital cameras, video cameras, projectors, and cassette recorders. Electronic classrooms are also available to faculty and students to reserve for classroom instruction and group study.

Library 2.0 Technologies

The MSU Libraries are heavily involved in the evaluation of and use of Library and Web 2.0 technologies. The Libraries have implemented several initiatives that utilize the 2.0 technologies that students use as a means of communicating and sharing information. Our intent is to establish a presence on the social networks our students use, to offer new ways for students to use library resources, and to create a sense of community between students and the Libraries.

• Facebook - The Libraries have a Facebook page maintained by several of our librarians.
• Flickr - The Libraries post photos from library events and images from Digital Collections to its Flickr page.
• Twitter - We use our Twitter account @msu_libraries to distribute information about events, services, collections, and workshops.
• YouTube - We post videos from many of our events--including the Collins Speaker Series and the Charles Templeton Ragtime Jazz Festival--to YouTube.
• Podcasts - Our weekly podcasts are uploaded to iTunes, added to our website and sent to the MSU radio station, WMSV. These bring our listeners up to date on Library events, services, collections and workshops.

Library Research Guides

In 2008, MSU Libraries adopted Springshare's LibGuides online web 2.0 content management and library knowledge sharing system as a means of updating and redesigning traditional research guides. With the implementation of LibGuides, subject liaisons are able to develop their own research portals specifically focused and tailored to the needs of their academic departments. The introduction of LibGuides, which utilizes a variety of Web 2.0 technologies, has greatly enhanced the use of library resources, both online and print, and promotes the subject librarians and the Ask A Librarian service.

Digitization of Specialized and Unique Collections

The MSU Libraries have been actively creating digital collections by focusing on three distinct collections – Charles Templeton Sheet Music Collection, Congressional and Political Research Center, and the CHARM (Consortium for the History of Agriculture and Rural Mississippi) Collection. While other collections are being highlighted and promoted through digital collections, these three collections represent our major digitization efforts. With the cooperation of the Ulysses S. Grant Association, the Libraries are also digitizing materials from the Ulysses S. Grant Association and Presidential Collection.

Through a $495,000 U.S. Small Business Administration grant the Library was able to purchase OCLC's ContentDM software and hire temporary staff to assist in digitizing materials. The SBA Grant ended in 2008 but digitization efforts continue. As a part of a group digitization project led by the Association of Southeast Research Libraries (ASERL) named the "Intellectual Underpinnings of the American Civil War" Digital Collection, the MSU Libraries will focus on digitizing materials from its collections that relate to the civil war era.

The Library also initiates special digitization projects on behalf of academic units. To date, the Library has partnered with the College of Forest Resources to create an online museum highlighting tools found in the College's museums. Other partnerships include the digitization of costumes from the Myrna Colley-Lee Costume Collection housed in the Department of Communication and the digitization and preservation of tapes from the Famous MSU Maroon Band.

Library Technology Development

In addition to contracting with technology vendors, the Libraries' web developers create tools and resources to automate library functions and services including adopting and adapting many open source technologies. Some of the tools created include:

• Library Help Desk: Developed to help the Systems Department to manage and track incoming problems. The application now serves Systems, Web Services, Access Services, Stacks Maintenance, the Digital Preservation and Access Unit, and the Instructional Media Center.
• BOO (Book Orders Online): Developed to provide University faculty with a means of submitting book orders to the library. The system tracks orders from the point of submission through the order process and keeps faculty abreast of their orders' progress. It also tracks departmental book purchase budgets and informs faculty how much they have left to spend.
• MSU Authors: The MSU Libraries proudly support the University's faculty authors by promoting their works through the MSU Faculty Authors website. We strive to recognize the scholarship and research of MSU faculty members by listing any books and journal articles they published while employed at MSU.
• MSU Libraries Facebook Application: In 2007 the MSU Libraries developed this custom Facebook application to provide limited library services to students when they are using Facebook. This provided a constant reminder and a quick means of accessing library resources.
• Mobile App: In 2009, the MSU Library released its first site developed specifically with the cell phone user in mind. The site (http://library.msstate.edu/m) provides the mobile user with some of the most commonly used library resources in a format that is optimized for mobile devices. The online catalog, directory, hours, and many of the Library 2.0 initiatives (YouTube, RSS feeds, FlickR, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) are available from the mobile site. Additional plans for 2009 include finalizing a iPhone application specifically designed for iPhone users.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In order to streamline and facilitate access to theses and dissertations, the Libraries joined the National Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations and began requiring departments to submit theses and dissertations electronically. To facilitate searching and browsing of these documents, we use the electronic theses and dissertation software (ETD) provided by Virginia Tech.

MAGNOLIA

MAGNOLIA, Mississippi Alliance for Gaining New Opportunities through Library Information Access, was established in June 1997 for the benefit of all of Mississippi's publicly supported libraries, K-12 schools, community colleges and universities. MAGNOLIA provides access to Internet databases that include full-text and abstracted journals, newspapers, encyclopedias, almanacs, and other reference books on many subjects of general and specialized interest. Dean Frances Coleman has been Chair of the MAGNOLIA Steering Committee since its inception. The Technical Advisor and Chair of the Database Selection Committee for MAGNOLIA is Stephen Cunetto, MSU Libraries' Administrator of Systems.

Golden Triangle Regional Library Consortium (GTRLC)

The Golden Triangle Regional Library Consortium (GTRLC) is a multi-type library consortium established in 1993 by the Mississippi State University Libraries to share automation costs and technical expertise through implementation of a common integrated library system. Each member library uses the SirsiDynix system for its circulation, cataloging, acquisitions and serials system. The online catalog, which displays the holdings of all members, and the reciprocal borrowing agreement among the members encourage resource sharing. The consortium has significantly increased the number of resources available to MSU students. Stephen Cunetto, MSU Libraries' Administrator of Systems, manages the consortium.

The consortium's members include:

• Mississippi State University (host site)
• Mississippi University for Women (MUW)
• Starkville High School
• Tombigbee Regional Library System (10 public libraries)
• Starkville-Oktibbeha County Public Library Systems (3 public libraries)
• East Mississippi Community College (2 libraries)
• Columbus-Lowndes County Library System (4 libraries)
• Mid-Mississippi Regional Library System (13 libraries)

NASIG Continuing Education Workshop

Co-sponsored by Mississippi State University Libraries, the North American Serials Interest Group, and EBSCO Information Services, this one-day workshop provides librarians and staff throughout the southeast with a unique opportunity to enhance their knowledge of how to effectively manage and provide access to e-resources.

MegaResource School Librarian Workshop Series

The MegaResource School Librarian Workshop Series, hosted and sponsored by the MSU Libraries, is designed for K-12 librarians in need of continuing education. These workshops generally center on technology and its application in the library environment. The series is held yearly at Mitchell Memorial Library. Librarians attending the workshops can apply for Continuing Education Units (CEU). The MegaResource School Librarian Blog assists school librarians with professional development throughout the year.

Library 2.0 Summit

Sponsored by the MSU Libraries, the Mississippi Library 2.0 Summit is a one-day intensive workshop that provides practical take-home ideas and applications of Library 2.0 technologies for librarians and staff around the state and region. Past keynote speakers include nationally known Library 2.0 guru Michael Stephens, and the Librarian in Black, Sarah Houghton-Jan.

Genealogy Fair

Sponsored by the MSU Libraries and the Clay and Oktibbeha County Historical and Geological Societies, the annual GenFair brings to campus researchers and presenters from around the state to library to learn how to conduct effective genealogical research. Participants learn about the resources available to them through MSU Libraries as well as how to use various online technologies to conduct genealogical research. In addition, participants have time to conduct research and work one-on-one with Reference and Special Collections librarians.

National Memberships:

• American Library Association (ALA)
• Association of Centers for the Study of Congress
• Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL)
• Agricultural Network Information Center (AgNIC)
• Coalition of Networked Information (CNI)
• Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR)
• EDUCAUSE
• EPSCoR Scientific Information Group (ESIG) Libraries
• Networked Digital Library of Theses & Dissertations (NDLTD)
• New Media Consortium
• Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) (founding member)

Regional Memberships:

• Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL)
• Southeastern Library Network (SOLINET)

State Memberships:

• Mississippi Library Association (MLA)
• Mississippi Alliance for Gaining New Opportunities through Library Information Access (MAGNOLIA)
• Mississippi Universities Directors Council