FutureSTATE 2015

Achievements of the past year:

• Evaluation of journal collections and expansion to more electronic access to scholarly journals. Access was expanded with the addition of the Rowland Medical College collection through the Mississippi Elsevier consortia. The Sage package was purchased through our ASERL consortia which enhanced our access to scholarly information in the social sciences. The ACM Digital Library was also added through our ASERL consortia. Title by title evaluation is ongoing to determine whether a title can be moved from print to electronic access only to both save money and provide broader access.
• Evaluation and expansion of electronic access of databases and reference materials. The Oxford English Dictionary and Afro-American Studies Center databases were added, which are of particular interest to the humanities. Credo Reference was added and provides electronic access to encyclopedias, dictionaries, handbooks, and guidebooks in all disciplines. New databases were also added through our Magnolia consortia discussions and evaluation.
• Increased expenditures were allocated toward the purchase of books. The disciplines in the humanities and social sciences which are more book dependant benefited greatly.
• The University Library website was upgraded and new technologies are being used to reach our primary users through podcasts, rss feeds, flickr, youtube and our University Libraries Facebook site.
• Created a digitization unit and carried out a grant supporting our various digitization projects and providing worldwide access to our unique scholarly collections.
• The University Libraries continue to obtain special collections and materials to enhance both the scholarly and unique collections we are building. Congressman Blackburn and the Myrna Colley-Lee gifts are two examples.
• As the University has gone to all electronic Theses and Dissertations, the Libraries ETD program has expanded in both the areas of processing and instruction to graduate students.
• Cataloging of unique research collections located in units outside the Library have been undertaken. These projects add records to our Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) and expand the access to these research materials.
• Expansion of instructional services has been accomplished through workshops and instructional sessions offered by Library Instruction (LI) and Instructional Media Center (IMC) as well as our consultation and ask-a-librarian services through Reference. The following initiatives were achieved this year: honor code instruction, Google searching series, Graduate Skills series, Practical Professor series, Word 2007 workshops, as well as the general workshops and class instruction offered through Instructional Media Center and Library Instruction. This year a one hour credit course was taught by LI and IMC attached to a course in biochemistry.
• We have updated and plan to expand the MSU Faculty Authors Website to highlight the research production of MSU faculty.
• Recruitment and hiring of Library faculty with higher levels of expertise and subject discipline backgrounds to serve better the diverse departments and colleges across campus.
• We have an active Library faculty research and service agenda which has led to national recognition through publications and awards.
• The Library continues to foster scholarly engagement with diverse communities at the local, state, regional, and national level through our various symposia and workshops we hold and sponsor, all of which represent a strong Outreach: NASIG, Mississippi Library 2.0 Summit, MegaResources, Children's Reading Conference, Ragtime Festival (Templeton Music Museum), Non-Profits workshop, Genealogy Fair, Graduate Fair, Collins Speaker Series, Marszalek Series, Fulbright Preacademic Program/MSU grant.
• Physical rearrangement of primary services for students and faculty to the second floor and the reallocation of space to be used more effectively for the areas of Special Collections, Congressional and Political Research Center, Center for Teaching and Learning, Instructional Media Center, and the Government Documents/Current Journals unit.

Goals for the next year:

• Expansion of services to Distance Learning community and to MSU Extension units throughout the state.
• Continued evaluation of journal and database offerings to meet the research needs of MSU.
• Expansion of our digitization program.
• Continue to secure unique special collections to enhance our collections and national reputation.
• Work more directly with colleges and departments to offer customized workshops and instruction.

Constraints to full implementation of this initiative:

• Enhanced and continued funding for collections.
• Stable funding for book collections.
• Funding to enhance and update equipment and technology infrastructure.
• Recruitment and hiring of library faculty with high levels of expertise and subject backgrounds.

Proposed modification of the initiative:

Overall assessment of the status of the initiative or other comments: