School librarians from throughout the state of Mississippi gathered on February 5th for the 16th annual MegaResource School Librarian Workshop, hosted and presented by MSU Libraries. This year’s workshop was filled to capacity with others on a waiting list. Attendees took part in various workshops and presentations led by the faculty and staff of Mississippi State University Libraries, as well as guest presenters from local schools and associations across the state.

The MegaResource School Librarian Workshop series began in 1999 as a series of

workshops, developed and presented by the Mississippi State University Libraries, for school librarians throughout the state of Mississippi. Designed to cover topics related to technology, instruction, and online databases, these workshops continue to serve as a major outreach effort to the K12 community. 

Seventysix librarians attended the daylong workshop, where they chose sessions that covered their particular areas of interest. Many of the librarians who attended commented on how helpful the instructional sessions were and how they wished they had time to attend more of them. One attendee commented, “Each session held valuable information - thank you! As a new school librarian of four months, this [workshop] was very helpful to me.”

“Evaluation comments from last year’s workshop were used during planning for the 2016 workshop,” said Gail Peyton, Associate Dean for Public Services and Coordinator of Outreach Services. “We set a goal to include presentations from school librarians and to have sessions for elementary and secondary school librarians. Another goal was to have participation in some form or another from all areas of the Library. I feel that we accomplished all of these goals.”

Sessions for the workshop were selected based on the suggestions from the previous year, as well as through a call for participation through the Mississippi Library Association. Topics included MAGNOLIA databases for the elementary classroom, copyright for the K12 library, introduction to the MSU Libraries Special Collections, creating eye-catching flyers in Microsoft Publisher, and iPads in the school library, to name a few.

MSU Libraries is pleased to serve the community of educators in Mississippi through the MegaResource School Librarian Workshop. For more information on the MegaResource School Librarian Workshop, as well as to view handouts and presentations, please visit http://guides.library.msstate.edu/megaresource.

About the MSU Libraries:

Mississippi State University Libraries is a premier research library providing its communities of users an ongoing, creative, technologically advanced library program that provides new and emerging technologies; enhances and inspires teaching, research, and service of the highest caliber in an environment of free and open inquiry and with a commitment to excellence. For more information about MSU Libraries, please visit http://library.msstate.edu/.

Photo by: Randall McMillen

Submitted by

Angela Patton

Library Associate

Mississippi State University Libraries