tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67446665809513182412024-03-18T17:01:06.389-05:00Mississippi Library Commission BlogThe Mississippi Library Commission is committed – through leadership, advocacy, and service – to strengthening and enhancing libraries and library services for all Mississippians.Tracyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148631482745996286noreply@blogger.comBlogger973125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744666580951318241.post-52216030736347535142024-03-18T08:00:00.011-05:002024-03-18T08:00:00.130-05:00I Am Woman, Hear Me WriteIt's Women's History Month. Quick! Name your favorite female Mississippi author!There are a slew of wonderfully talented authoresses hailing from our great state and they have written (and continue to write!) in a number of genres: romance, mystery, biography, and more. Whatever your preferred reading style is, these women have covered it. Sometimes, though, it feels like they're overshadowed by MLC Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03929934050707366905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744666580951318241.post-83362829741172248752024-03-12T08:00:00.015-05:002024-03-12T08:00:00.130-05:00Read with MLC: Graphic NonfictionWelcome to March and the third reading prompt of our 2024 Read with MLC challenge: read a work of graphic nonfiction. Nonfiction comics have been around for longer than you might think. Thomas Nast, who created political cartoons, started drawing as a teen in 1856. The Republican elephant was one of the artistic brainchildren of his decades-long career. He brought other popular figures to MLC Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03929934050707366905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744666580951318241.post-43465757299456027102024-03-04T08:00:00.013-06:002024-03-04T09:23:39.022-06:00Clay-ke It to the LimitMLC’s Craft Club had its sixth meeting in February. We tested MLC’s polymer clay kit and let out our inner sculptors. Attendees had the option to create earrings or design their own sculptures. The earrings didn’t work quite as planned: MLC’s main meeting room was in the middle of a technology makeover and we couldn't use the projection equipment. It is much easier to have people create somethingTracyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148631482745996286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744666580951318241.post-34050343577083257622024-02-26T12:00:00.002-06:002024-02-26T12:39:03.967-06:00That All May Social MediaThat All May Read. That's the slogan of the National Library Services for the Blind and Print Disabled. I think about those words a lot. In 2018, the National Health Interview Survey found that over 32 million
American adults experienced vision loss--that's loss of vision that
can't be corrected, even with glasses or contacts. A different source,
the American Printing House, estimates that MLC Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03929934050707366905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744666580951318241.post-5374023917657542072024-02-19T09:00:00.010-06:002024-02-19T09:00:00.208-06:00Finding Your Nonfiction NicheWe all know fiction genres: romance, science fiction, fantasy… all types of books that have their own shelves in bookstores everywhere. But what about nonfiction? Most people know what nonfiction is: books about real world concepts, people, or events. You might not know it, but there are different types of nonfiction. Much like fiction genres, there aren’t any hard and fast rules for nonfiction MLC Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03929934050707366905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744666580951318241.post-68800252475139202142024-02-12T09:00:00.004-06:002024-02-12T09:06:38.261-06:00Reading Black MississippiFebruary is Black History Month, which makes it a great time to visit
the bookshelves and refocus your reading on some of the great Black
authors out there. There are a ton of Black Mississippi
authors--historical and modern--just waiting for you to discover them.
Their perspectives on Mississippi life and culture are must-reads, but
you might not know where to start if you're not familiar MLC Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03929934050707366905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744666580951318241.post-3326837077257971842024-02-05T08:00:00.009-06:002024-02-05T08:00:00.394-06:00Read with MLC: Reread a Book You LoveWelcome to February and the second reading prompt of our 2024 Read with MLC challenge: reread a book you love. There's something incredibly special about a book you enjoy so much that you want to reread it. Setting aside a wedge of time to experience something again is a unique act, but especially when it's something as time consuming as reading a book. I don't do a lot of rereading--there are soMLC Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03929934050707366905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744666580951318241.post-78063884735613858782024-01-29T09:00:00.004-06:002024-02-05T09:07:02.514-06:00Squeaking Into the Public DomainAmerican copyright is a strange beast. The law can be a bit complex, but to sum it up, a creator (or the creator’s estate) can hold exclusive copyright to a work for 70 years after the author’s death or 95 years after publication. After that time, the works are released to the public domain. When a work is in the public domain, it can be rebroadcast, reworked, streamed, performed, and so on and MLC Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03929934050707366905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744666580951318241.post-59007236517867797762024-01-22T11:00:00.137-06:002024-01-22T11:01:12.333-06:00All About That BrailleBraille: it's the bumpy bits that Blind people use to read, right? Invented by Frenchman Louis Braille (1809-1852) in 1824, this writing system is known worldwide as an aid for those without vision. It can be found nearly everywhere, from elevators to the tops of fast food drink lids, but that might be all you know about braille. There are some pretty cool facts about the little bumps that MLC Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03929934050707366905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744666580951318241.post-91612278109697717082024-01-15T08:00:00.001-06:002024-01-15T08:00:00.436-06:00Dr. King in MississippiDr. Martin Luther King was a lasting inspiration for our country. Born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia, his leadership helped millions of Americans achieve civil rights and changed the country for the better. His name has become synonymous with the idea of perseverance against adversity. He is celebrated across the United States and the world with bridges, schools, churches, and MLC Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03929934050707366905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744666580951318241.post-40776320170982295482024-01-08T12:00:00.002-06:002024-01-22T11:02:41.103-06:00Looking For a Few Good ReadersTalking Book Services (TBS) is one of the best kept secrets in Mississippi, and, truth be told, in the entire nation. Thing is, TBS is something everyone should know about. It provides thousands upon thousands of books and magazines directly to people who want to read them, so that every American, regardless of disability or reading ability can access the reading material they want. But when did MLC Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03929934050707366905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744666580951318241.post-74773924053556466312024-01-01T08:00:00.005-06:002024-01-05T12:34:17.578-06:00Read with MLC: Happy New Year!Happy New Year!There's something about clearing out the holiday decorations and putting up a new calendar that makes anything and everything seem possible. Start exercising? You got this. Eat healthier? You can do it. Learn a new language? Research your roots? Read more? Turns out there's probably a book for that, and we've got you covered at the library.Alongside those New Year resolutions, we MLC Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03929934050707366905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744666580951318241.post-44364439526821453392023-12-25T08:00:00.001-06:002023-12-25T08:00:00.221-06:00Books We Loved in 2023Elisabeth ScottReference Librarian"You must love working at the library. You get to sit there and read whatever you want all day." While that is my dream gig, life at the Mississippi Library Commission is much more involved with getting books and library services out to people in the state than whiling away the hours flipping pages. When we're not hard at work at MLC, some of us like to read and MLC Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03929934050707366905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744666580951318241.post-77592379791093300642023-12-18T08:00:00.001-06:002023-12-18T08:00:00.470-06:00Read with MLC: 2024 Reading ChallengeElisabeth ScottReference LibrarianI don't know if you've noticed, but the angels are heralding, the treetops are glistening, and 2024 is nigh upon us. If you're anything like me, you're already cheating on your 2023 reads (Sorry! I promise I'll finish you next week!) by poring over all of the "best of 2023" book lists and checking out the 2024 reading challenges. I think I like planning what I'm MLC Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03929934050707366905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744666580951318241.post-68320706523413532312023-12-11T08:00:00.004-06:002024-01-05T12:35:23.610-06:00Walking In A Creative WonderlandAlex BrowerInformation Services DirectorThe holidays are here! It is a time for eating, spending time with family, and more eating. MLC's patrons have access to the CreativeBug database from home any time they want, and it is one of my favorite places to go to find fun art, craft, and food ideas. I was inspired by a program at the Carthage-Leake County Library where the Mississippi State MLC Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03929934050707366905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744666580951318241.post-65178251559648638242023-12-04T08:00:00.002-06:002023-12-04T08:00:00.136-06:00Read with MLC: A Book With Less Than 100 PagesElisabeth ScottReference LibrarianWhen we chose 100 pages as our reading cap for December's part in our Read with MLC Challenge, we did so with the knowledge of just how busy this time of year can be. The hustle and bustle of the holiday season melded with the gloom of suddenly shortened days can be a very real reading inhibitor. Once we hit the front door, binging a series on TV sounds mighty MLC Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03929934050707366905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744666580951318241.post-44338864846392147382023-11-27T08:00:00.001-06:002023-11-27T08:00:00.147-06:00Shall We Play A Game?If you're like Matthew Broderick and responded, "Love to," then November is your month. International Games Month, an annual celebration of gaming and libraries run by library associations across the world, including the United States, is celebrated every November. You may think that games have nothing to do with libraries or books but think again!There are some obvious connections, like games MLC Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03929934050707366905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744666580951318241.post-20612654469804012912023-11-20T08:00:00.009-06:002023-11-20T08:22:35.769-06:00Life Is What You Bake It...Elisabeth ScottReference Librarian ...and so is cooking while blind or visually impaired. People have this idea that you shouldn't touch anything in the kitchen because you're low vision or blind. They think you'll have a lot or accidents or get hurt or something. But accidents don't have much of anything to do with sight, and there are a lot of preventative measures you can take to be a MLC Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03929934050707366905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744666580951318241.post-45871068449210993962023-11-14T10:00:00.002-06:002023-11-21T12:25:41.781-06:00Thank You For Your ServiceElisabeth ScottReference LibrarianOur nation celebrated Veterans Day last week, and over the weekend, I read an interesting article about the falling rate of living veterans. When I was a child in 1980, 18% of American adults were veterans. Now? It's 6%. The end of the military draft in 1973 had a huge impact on this number, and the article got me thinking on how prominent veterans and the idea Elisabethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01546848091046086570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744666580951318241.post-67635356663814555322023-11-06T08:00:00.002-06:002024-03-04T08:46:51.269-06:00Splish, Splash! It’s Soap-Making Class! Alex BrowerInformation Services DirectorThe MLC Craft Club met for the fourth time on September 8th, 2023. We gathered in our staff lounge kitchen to make soap. This is a very quick and easy craft, suitable for groups of all ages.I bought all of my ingredients at my nearby craft store. They are common ingredients that should be available at yours. Here is your soap-making list:Soap MLC Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03929934050707366905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744666580951318241.post-61400635503905950152023-10-27T08:00:00.002-05:002023-11-01T08:57:42.694-05:00Read with MLC: Library eBooksElisabeth ScottReference Librarian While print still reigns supreme (75% of Americans read a print book in the past year), eBooks continue to soar in popularity (30% of us read an eBook in the last twelve months.) Libraries have been loaning out eBooks since the late 1990s, and even though they've had their challenges with publishers, eBooks and libraries are a match made in heaven. That's MLC Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03929934050707366905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744666580951318241.post-2405859420328752682023-10-19T10:00:00.001-05:002023-10-19T10:03:58.258-05:00You've Got a Friend...Elisabeth ScottReference Librarian Winter, spring, summer, or fall, all you have to do is call, and the Friends of Libraries will be there to help! Carole King lyrics aside, we wanted to give Friends of Libraries groups across the state an effusive and grateful thank you this National Friends of Libraries Week. These groups are essential to the vitality and growth of libraries across Mississippi.MLC Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03929934050707366905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744666580951318241.post-22830699507097636992023-10-14T08:00:00.008-05:002023-10-14T08:00:00.148-05:00MLC's Book Club Guide to the American Southern VampireKatie GillCataloging LibrarianThis post originally broadcast on MLC Moments on Mississippi Public Broadcasting.What do you think of when you think of vampires? Most people think about Count Dracula, the tall, imposing, Eastern European, prototypical vampire—the sort who lives in a castle and dines on the blood of young women, who’s repulsed by a cross or garlic, and who can only be killed by MLC Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03929934050707366905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744666580951318241.post-12405691267677877232023-10-06T08:00:00.002-05:002023-10-23T08:14:51.266-05:00Happy Birthday, Fannie Lou Hamer! Katie GillCataloging Librarian This post originally broadcast on MLC Moments on Mississippi Public Broadcasting.This October, take time out from your pumpkins, spooky movies, and pumpkin spice lattes to celebrate the birthday of a Mississippi civil rights leader. Fannie Lou Hamer was born on October 6, 1917 in Montgomery County, Mississippi. She grew up in poverty. At age MLC Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03929934050707366905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6744666580951318241.post-81719106519420959642023-09-24T08:00:00.002-05:002023-10-23T08:14:24.541-05:00Happy Birthday, Jim Henson!Katie GillCataloging Librarian This post originally broadcast on MLC Moments on Mississippi Public Broadcasting.It’s time to play the music, it’s time to light the lights, it’s time
to get things started on MLC Moments tonight! One of Mississippi’s most
famous entertainers has had a long relationship with the written word.
From Sesame Street to Scrooge, we’re going to take a brief look at howMLC Staffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03929934050707366905noreply@blogger.com0