Mississippi State is among a dozen Southern universities collectively creating the region's largest virtual electronic library.

MSU and 11 other members of the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries are cooperating on a project that will enable more than 164,000 students and 14,000 faculty members—as well as the general public—to conduct computer searches of all 23.6 million volumes jointly held by the schools.

Stretching from North Carolina to the Magnolia State, the expanded collection utilizes the university Internet servers of Alabama at Birmingham, Kentucky, Tennessee-Knoxville, Vanderbilt, and Virginia Commonwealth. In addition to MSU, other schools in the new computer link include Auburn, Clemson, Mississippi, Tulane, South Carolina, and Wake Forest.