Slide decks, recorded presentations, posters, and related materials produced by faculty, staff, and students affiliated with Mississippi State University's Libraries.
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A Philatelic Adventure from the Bargain Table: Mississippi Statehood Cover
Deborah Lee
Poster accepted and included in the 2025 American Topical Association One Page Exhibit.
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DIY Disinformation: Using Fake Crafting Videos to Combat Fake News
Elizabeth M. Downey
When Ann Reardon started her YouTube channel How to Cook That, she likely didn’t expect to spend a bulk of her time debunking so-called “cooking hack” videos. Amateur bakers and other viewers would ask her why the so-called easy recipes from channels like So Yummy didn’t work for them. As a service. she would demonstrate the so-called “shortcuts,” explain why they didn’t work, and then show how to execute a similar recipe the right way. With her willing husband serving as the unfortunate taste-tester, the videos gained popularity followed by requests for similar content, expanding to crafting and other “lifehack” tips. This sent the couple down a rabbit hole of “content farms,” websites hocking misinformation and disinformation for easy clicks and cash and drawing views away from legitimate creators. While some of these videos only led to tasteless cakes, ruined carpets, and melted plastic, others had harmful and even deadly consequences. And these content farm channels are now expanding to celebrity gossip, history, and politics, further spreading harm. This presentation aims to demonstrate using these videos to teach evaluation and misinformation-detection in a unique way while addressing the information literacy framework, and how something as innocuous as the “Do It Yourself” movement can lead one down a path of dangerous disinformation.
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Against All Odds: Facilitating Research on the First Black Legislators in Mississippi
DeeDee Baldwin
Researched and maintained by the history librarian at Mississippi State University (MSU) Libraries, “Against All Odds” (https://much-ado.net/legislators/) is a digital humanities project that provides biographical information, photographs, excerpts from primary and secondary sources, and over 900 newspaper clippings documenting the lives and careers of the first African American men to serve in Mississippi's legislature during and just after Reconstruction. Because information on most of these men is so difficult to find, the site is designed to facilitate research by historians, librarians, students, and family historians alike. It has resulted in a presentation for the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, a mirror site on the MSU library's digital exhibits page, inclusion in the Digital Black History directory, and a number of emails from descendants of some of the legislators documented. “Against All Odds” is an example of how librarians and archivists can launch digital humanities projects as a proactive way to address archival gaps that hinder research on African Americans and other historically silenced or overlooked groups.
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Against All Odds: Telling the Stories of the First Black Legislators in Mississippi
DeeDee Baldwin, Karen Burch, and Bianca Ford
Conversation with "Against All Odds" site creator DeeDee Baldwin, George Washington Albright descendant Karen Burch, and Emanuel Handy descendant Bianca Ford for the Society of Mississippi Archivists’ Virtual Table Talks program.
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No holds: How the MSU Libraries website team made telework work
Julie D. Shedd, Troy DeRego, Brock Balducci, and Josh Tucker
In March 2020, work at libraries nationwide was upended as COVID safety measures closed public buildings and sent librarians home, often with little support or guidance as to what they could or should do during lockdown. Thankfully, the Digital Initiatives and Web Services team at Mississippi State University Libraries had already laid a foundation that made the transition to remote work quick and easy. From our home offices, we accomplished more work than we ever had in the library: a full redesign and deployment of the MSU Libraries website; usability testing and discussions with library faculty, staff, and student assistants; implemented a new helpdesk system for library departments; set up a new institutional repository platform and began migrating content; and even hired a new developer. In this session, we’ll explain how we made the transition to remote work, how we stayed busy and productive, whose support made it possible, and why we’d do it again in a heartbeat.
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The Recovery of Nineteenth-Century Black Histories
DeeDee Baldwin, Mary Maillard, Jewon Woo, and Frances Jones-Sneed
Panel for the Association for Documentary Editing's 2021 virtual conference, moderated by Frances Jones-Sneed.
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Copyright for the digital classroom
Mary Ann Jones
This workshop will focus on how to ensure copyright compliance in your digital classroom. We will cover the dos and don'ts every instructor needs to know, including how to share content with students in an online environment, how to seek copyright permission, the correct way to use library reserves, and answer as many questions as possible.
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Mississippi's First Black Legislators
DeeDee Baldwin
Presentation about the "Against All Odds" website for the Mississippi Department of Archives and History's "History is Lunch" program.
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Combating "fake news" through deepening our philosophical roots
Preston Salisbury
How one defines information has substantial ramifications in how libraries combat the fake news phenomenon. This poster encourages an examination of how libraries define information, specifically raising the question of whether or not the Library Bill of Rights requires libraries to provide access to materials that are false and misleading.
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What Would Barbara Gordon Do? Teaching the Language of Comics to Education Majors
Elizabeth M. Downey
Mississippi State University Libraries has sought to expand and promote our graphic novel collection; one way we have done this is by introducing the format to students and professors in the Department of Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education (CISE). Over the last several years, professors in CISE have consistently requested regular instruction in graphic novel use for their education majors, particularly in two classes that focus on child and adolescent literacy. In these classes students are required to read a graphic novel and prepare a book talk or lesson plan that incorporates the material. While these students are tangentially aware of the genre of comics in popular media, they generally do not think of the format as a tool for learning before this class. Our library instruction sessions for these classes use examples from our Educational Resources Collection, a specialized online research guide, database and catalog instruction, and guided searching in the stacks. In addition, we introduce students to Will Eisner’s concept of “the grammar of sequential art,” illustrating how the unique combination of symbols and blank space narrate and inform in a way regular text does not. After the instruction, we expect these up-and-coming teachers to walk away with a greater knowledge and understanding of these unique resources, and carry that into their future careers as educators.
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It's in the Game: Using Sports to Teach the ACRL Frameworks to First Semester Students
Denise Wetzel, Melody Dale, and Justin Kani
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Mississippi State University Libraries’ Annual E.O. Templeton, Jr. History & Genealogy Fair
Corinne Kennedy, Jennifer McGillan, and DeeDee Baldwin
Mississippi State University (MSU) Libraries has held an annual Genealogy Fair for the last twelve years as a way to engage the community. The fair, named for E.O. Templeton, Jr. in 2013, features a variety of sessions, workshops, and research opportunities for history and genealogy enthusiasts, including hands-on research help from MSU librarians and archivists. Attendees learn about genealogical resources at the MSU Libraries, improve their genealogical research skills, pick up tips for preserving their family history, and have the opportunity to tour MSU Libraries' museums and exhibits. This poster presents information on how MSU hosts its fair, what it accomplishes in bringing community members to the library to discuss a popular hobby, and how other academic and public libraries in the state could host their own fairs.
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Teaching the Teachers: Introducing Comics with Library Instruction
Elizabeth Downey
In 2010, we presented "Graphic Novels on Campus: Academic Outreach to the K-12 Community" at the American Library Association Annual Conference. At the time, we had just started to promote graphic novels and comics in our collections and had collaborated with one professor. Since then, our collaboration has grown to involve many faculty in the Department of Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education (CISE). Professors consistently request regular instruction in graphic novel use for their education majors particularly in two classes; Children’s Literature and Adolescent Literature. In these classes students are required to read a graphic novel and prepare a book talk or lesson plan that incorporates the material. Using examples from our Educational Resources Collection, a specialized LibGuide, database and catalog instruction, and guided searching in the stacks, these up-and-coming teachers walk away with a greater knowledge of these unique resources, carrying them to their future careers and lesson plans. This session incorporates many of the resources we use in our instruction sessions, as well as feedback we have received from faculty and students in the College of Education.
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Innovating the FYE Proposal: Moving Beyond “Library Week”
Denise A. Wetzel and Justin Kani
How can libraries and librarians expand out from a First Year Experience (FYE) ‘library week’ to an entire library-focused course? By proposing and conducting an innovative library-centric FYE course, of course! FYE Programs are a hot topic in academia right now, but many academic libraries are relegated to “library week” status. This program seeks to explain the process for proposing a FYE class by academic libraries and librarians. Our library took the general FYE program and transformed it into a library-centric FYE experience for incoming freshmen. The program will delve into topics, including, but not limited to: FYE topic consideration, the FYE proposal process, FYE syllabus creation, integrating the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education into your FYE, advocating for the FYE, and getting ready for your first FYE course.
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Using Popular Culture to Teach Academic Integrity
Elizabeth M. Downey
As academic integrity continues to be an issue on college campuses, libraries are called upon to educate students about academic honesty and preventing plagiarism. While students may have a basic minimal understanding of cheating and copy-paste plagiarism, they may not understand the larger importance of intellectual ownership, ethics, and the meaning and purpose of citation. Being that the materials most likely plagiarized come from libraries, and that reference librarians in particular have seen their professions evolve into that of “research experts,” universities have brought us in as partners in the remediation process.
Honor Code offices are approaching these intervention programs with the intent of educating more than punishing. And as studies have shown students are more apt to connect with familiar examples in pop culture than they are at more “traditional” scholarly content. In revising the Academic Integrity Intervention Program at Mississippi State University, we incorporated examples of cheating as reported by The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, highlighted plagiarism scandals in popular music, and provided current models via the recent Republican National Convention. Utilizing humor and familiar popular culture artifacts, students are more engaged with the sessions, and are able to relate the concepts of honesty and intellectual ownership beyond the classroom.
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A New Institutional Repository: Building from the Ground Up
Julie D. Shedd
The MSU Libraries began the implementation of an IR in the fall of 2014. A committee was appointed to build the IR from the ground up and tasked with researching common practices, writing policies & procedures, determining scope, and developing a marketing plan. The presentation will provide an overview of the processes and decisions on which the new MSU IR is built. We will review the implementation of DSpace and provide suggestions on how to implement it at other institutions.
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Fostering Community through Grassroots DH at Mississippi State University
Hillary Richardson and Nickoal Eichmann-Kalwara
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GMD or no GMD: one library's approach to RDA conversion
Jim Kalwara
In March 2013, Resource Description and Access (RDA) was adopted as the new standard set to eventually replace the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules 2nd Edition. This standard would not only impact Mississippi State University (MSU) Libraries, but also the 54 libraries within its statewide consortium, the Mississippi Library Partnership. In order to lead this implementation, MSU Libraries established guidelines and policies for the consortium. In particular, in light of implementation of RDA, libraries across the world have begun omitting General Material Designations (GMDs) from the bibliographic records in their catalogs. However, the MSU Libraries decided to retain them. This presentation illustrates the decision process and establishment of workflows for retaining GMDs during the RDA conversion process. In addition to training staff on original- and copy-cataloging procedures using RDA, a large component of MSU Libraries’ conversion included developing a policy for making all existing records RDA-compliant. This entailed adding the 33x fields, spelling out abbreviations, and upgrading the publication statement when necessary. Additionally, MSU Libraries evaluated outdated GMD terms and developed more refined and useful terms. After interviewing librarians in the Research Services Department and receiving feedback from staff at several consortia libraries, catalogers developed a new GMD chart, which mapped directly to the new RDA 33x fields. In working with the Systems Department, from December 2014 to January 2015, all bibliographic records in the catalog were converted to reflect the proper RDA elements. While the conversion was successful, it did not come without problems, which stemmed from inaccurate 33x and 007 fields and their display in the Online Catalog. From this, a policy was developed for addressing such issues and distributed among consortia partners. Sharing this experience hopefully will provide guidance to other libraries planning to implement RDA.
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Investigating Open Access Attitudes by Discipline at Mississippi State University
Nickoal Eichmann-Kalwara and Amanda Clay Powers
In educating ourselves about Open Access (OA) issues, we found that attitudes vary dramatically by discipline at Mississippi State University. To provide relevant educational programming on OA, we developed an Open Access Assessment Tool (based on a UMN Environmental Scan) for library liaisons to investigate discipline-level investment in and attitudes towards OA. This workshop will demonstrate the use of this three-step process to review top journals, repositories, associations and department-level sentiment toward OA.
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Supporting Graduate Education: A Library-Wide Approach
Deborah Lee, James Nail, and Gail Peyton
The Mississippi State University Libraries serves a diverse graduate student population that includes over 140 graduate majors or concentrations and approximately 3600 students. The MSU Libraries has developed a comprehensive approach to meeting the research and professional development needs of graduate students. The panel will be led by Dr. Deborah Lee, Professor and Coordinator of Graduate Student Services at the MSU Libraries; other members of the panel will include representation from the Office of Thesis and Dissertation Review and the Associate Dean for Public Services. The presentation will include a discussion of the development and use of specialized graduate student workshops offered through the Survival Skills for Graduate Students workshop series. These workshops expand typical coverage of research methods to broader issues related to professional development. Topics include dissertation completion strategies, writing options for a curriculum vitae, and financial literacy. The workshops have been used as a foundation for both outreach and collaborative efforts across campus. Related workshops and support services that target graduate students in the process of formatting and completing their thesis or dissertation will also be included in the panel. Another team member will discuss how individual research consultations and departmental outreach have helped build collaborative endeavors and enhanced graduate student use of the library’s resources.
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The Elephant in the Room: An Analysis of New Academic Librarian Orientations in Scholarly Library & Information Science Journals (2011-2015)
V Dozier and Denise A. Wetzel
Academic librarian training for new faculty members is an essential yet tedious effort on the part of all stakeholders (trainer and trainee). An analysis of the large gaps in training experiences demonstrates that a variety of training programs exist for new academic librarians during their orientation. This poster will serve as a visual representation on how new academic librarian training functions as “the elephant in the room” for experienced librarians and new hires as discussed in major library journals from 2011-2015. The poster will explore questions such as: (1) What constitutes formal vs. informal training programs? (2) To what frequency is library terminology used to describe the new academic librarian training process? (3) What does the literature reveal about a new hire's perspectives towards their training process? Through the use of graphs and charts, the authors will illustrate trends and gaps in librarian orientations. The goal of this poster is provide all visitors a blueprint to best practices and make recommendations for future new academic librarian orientations. The authors hope this poster initiates a dialogue amongst library science professionals regarding new hires’ orientations; it functions as a progression towards eliminating the elephant in the room.
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The Value of Oral Histories Beyond Discovery and Preservation
Neil Guilbeau, Hillary Richardson, and Nickoal Eichmann-Kalwara
Libraries seeking to become the “Heart of their Communities” can reach out to their residents through oral history projects. These projects not only document and preserve the social memory of Mississippi’s communities, but also strengthen the connection between residents and institutions that serve them. By seeking out and engaging participants for oral histories from all ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, libraries demonstrate to constituents that every voice matters, and effectively promote available resources while garnering a broader public support. Mississippi State University Libraries is currently conducting two oral history projects: the Starkville Civil Rights Project and the Mississippi Veterans Oral History Project. Using these two projects as examples, this presentation will demonstrate how libraries can connect to their communities, describe the methods and resources needed to undertake an oral history project, and list the benefits of creating oral histories in the library.
