Contact: Maridith Geuder
Mississippi State is joining a select number of institutions worldwide that serve as official keepers of U.N. documents and publications.
Recent inclusion of the university's Mitchell Memorial Library is a first for Mississippi. Designated by the United Nations Publications Board, it joins nearly 400 other depository libraries spread among approximately 140 countries.
"The U.N.'s Dag Hammarskjold Library began the depository library system in 1946 to provide free access to U.N. information for users around the world," said MSU Dean of Libraries Frances N. Coleman. "We are very pleased that Mississippi State will be able to broaden its research collections to offer these resources to scholars."
North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Vanderbilt, Florida State, and Johns Hopkins are some other Southern universities with a similar status.
The official records of the main U.N. organs, periodicals and the United Nations Treaty Series are among materials typically available at participating libraries, Coleman said. At MSU, they will be housed in Mitchell Memorial Library's government documents area.
LaDonne Delgado, MSU Libraries' government documents coordinator, said printed documents "will be accessible during all hours the library is open, with additional online access to some documents."
United Nations Depository Library designation will contribute to MSU's current push to gain national Association of Research Libraries membership, a major institutional goal, said Mississippi State President Malcolm Portera. Currently, no Mississippi library holds ARL status.
For more information about the U.N. documents at Mississippi State, telephone Delgado at (662) 325-7660.