Libraries
The Mississippi State University Library System is composed of the Main Library (Mitchell Memorial Library) and its library branches which include Architecture, the College of Veterinary Medicine, the Jackson Center Library and the Meridian Campus.
The University Libraries include a collection of over 2,000,000 volumes and over 100,000 journal/serial titles, including print and electronic formats. The Libraries regularly receive many of the publications of leading universities and scholarly societies. The Library is a selective Government Document Depository and United Nations Depository. The Libraries provide a full complement of full text journals as well as scholarly journals in electronic format and accessible remotely from offices and dorms on campus as well as at home and from a distance off campus. Through the Libraries web page, patrons have access to a wide variety of databases and full text journals.
The resources of the Special Collections Department include materials of research value on the local, state, regional and national levels. Among the valuable documentation in the Archives of the University are papers of the university’s presidents and other officers, college, division and departmental records, faculty papers, records of committees and university related organizations. The Manuscripts Division includes many significant collections, especially in the areas of journalism, civil rights, agricultural, and political history. Among the most important are the Turner Catledge Papers, Hodding and Betty Werlein Carter Papers, Mississippi Republican Party Papers, and the Delta and Pine Land Papers. The Mississippiana Collection contains significant works about Mississippi and by Mississippi authors and a large rare book collection. The Congressional and Political Research Center houses the papers of Senator John C. Stennis, Congressmen G.V. “Sonny” Montgomery, David Bowen, Charles Griffin, Mike Espy, Chip Pickering and the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Collection.
The Templeton Music Collection, a unique collection of ragtime, blues, show tunes and war song sheet music is highly recognized and used by musicians, scholars and researchers throughout the region and nation. Digitized portions of this collection are available on the web. A ragtime/ jazz festival is held each March.
The Library provides over one hundred computers for students in the Computer Commons Lab and Reference Department. Students who want to use the sound capabilities of the Internet may plug their own headphones into headphone jacks on the PC’s and Macs. The lab also offers two laser printers and a color laser printer. The Library’s Computer Commons Lab is open until 1:45 a.m., Sunday through Thursday and until 7:45 p.m. on Friday and until 5:45 p.m. on Saturday.
The Instructional Media Center (IMC) provides an environment for educational technology activities and a learning center to utilize techniques related to digital multimedia. The staff provides assistance in identifying, digitizing, and organizing content materials including resources from the Libraries’ collections for use in web page design or presentation. IMC houses computers with CD-ROM players, computers with flatbed scanners that can be used for scanning documents, pictures, photos, etc., typewriters, TV/VCR stations for students to listen to music as required for various courses. Two of these stations also have record players. Music composition stations consist of electronic keyboards attached to Mac computers. The IMC also provides small listening areas with TVs and VCRs for groups to view videos for classes. The Libraries provide a full range of individual reference services including one-on-one consultations and online Chat. Three rooms with individual computer stations are available for class and group instruction and workshops. There is also a large auditorium and a presentation room for class and student use.
The Libraries, a charter member of the Southern Library Network (LYRASIS), hold memberships in the American Library Association, Association of College and Research Libraries, the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD), EDUCAUSE, EPSCOR/ESIG libraries, CNI and CLR, and was a founding member of SPARC. The Libraries are one of five supporting regional libraries within the National Agricultural Library Aquaculture Library Network, established to link the research and extension activities of the Regional Research Centers with the Network. The Main Library plays a major role in Mississippi’s statewide consortium MAGNOLIA (Mississippi Alliance for Gaining New Opportunities through Library Information).