Contact: Maridith Geuder
A daylong meeting Friday [May 16] at Mississippi State will introduce nearly 40 librarians from three states to U.N. documents and the benefits of serving as a data depository for the New York-based world body.
To be held at the university's Mitchell Memorial Library, the program is titled "United Nations: Bringing the World to Mississippi." Program chair LaDonne Delgado, also one of the workshop speakers, said librarians from Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee are participating.
The event is co-sponsored with the Mississippi Library Association's Government Document Roundtable.
MSU has been building its information collection since becoming a United Nations Depository in 2001. The only one holding the designation in Mississippi, it is among some 400 depositories located in more than 140 countries.
By virtue of the classification, MSU receives copies of all U.N. documents and materials in either paper or electronic formats, excluding restricted documents, conference papers and related items. Access is available through a primary database called the Official Document System. The holdings may be viewed at http://library.msstate.edu/govdocs/UNdepository.asp.
"As the state's only U.N. depository, we want to educate citizens about the valuable resources included in the collection and ways in which they can locate and use them," said Delgado, an associate professor of government documents.
She said workshop participants will receive instruction on the process for becoming a depository and be introduced to the use of specific databases. Future sessions will be geared toward students and researchers seeking U.N. information for class assignments, she added.
For more information on the workshop, telephone Delgado at (662) 325-7660.