The Mississippi Library Commission is the proud home of the Mississippi Center for the Book, the state affiliate for the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. The Center for the Book is tasked with promoting books, reading, literacy, and libraries. Much of the Mississippi Library Commission’s work exists to support and improve library service for all Mississippians, so being charged with promoting public libraries and a love of the books that they provide is an honor! The Mississippi Library Commission’s Center for the Book is involved in the following programs, each of which ties into some facet of what we are tasked with as Mississippi’s CFB affiliate:
Mississippi Book Festival
The Mississippi Library Commission and our Center for the Book are greatly involved with the Mississippi Book Festival to help promote Mississippi’s outstanding literary heritage. Each year, MLC and our CFB have a special exhibit or program at the Festival. In 2024, the Mississippi Library Commission featured our book bike, information about the statewide database consortium MAGNOLIA, free books for exhibit attendees, and much more! Visitors to our booth extolled their love of their local public libraries and had the chance to learn how the Mississippi Library Commission supports those vital community institutions.
National Book Festival
The Mississippi Library Commission participates in the National Book Festival’s Roadmap to Reading exhibit each year in Washington, D.C., where we engage with folks from around the country about Mississippi’s rich literary heritage. The Mississippi Library Commission’s Center for the Book selects two Great Reads from Great Places picks, one for children and one for adults, that are written by a Mississippi author, take place within the state, or celebrate Mississippi’s unique culture and heritage. At the 2024 National Book Festival, our booth gave out 3,000 stickers to festivalgoers participating in the Roadmap to Reading and MLC staff had the opportunity to discuss Mississippi authors, answer questions about the state, and discuss our love of reading with many more visitors.
Community Reads Support
As part of our charge to encourage literacy, a love of reading, and libraries, the Center for the Book assisted with Northeast Regional Library System’s Community Reads project by providing copies of The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown for use in their Community Reads initiative: The Olympic Journey: The Story of Perseverance. In addition to reading books centered on the Olympics, the Community Reads project will include activities and community partnerships to get as many community members as possible reading and learning about the perseverance and hard work that it takes to be an Olympic champion.
Mississippi Poet Laureate
The Mississippi Library Commission’s Center for the Book is honored to participate in the advisory council that selects the Mississippi Poet Laureate. The current Poet Laureate, Catherine Pierce partners with the Mississippi Library Commission to host information about the Mississippi Poetry Project, a statewide poetry initiative for k-12 students where participating schools select three winning poems per grade to send in to a statewide competition. All school-wide winners have their winning poems published in a contest anthology and are invited to attend the Mississippi Young Poetry Festival in April. For more information, visit the Mississippi Poetry Project page on MLC’s website.
Mississippi Literary Map
Thanks to a Bicentennial grant from the Mississippi Humanities Council, Mississippi’s literary map was updated in August 2017 and unveiled at the Mississippi Book Festival by Librarian of Congress Dr. Carla Hayden, former U.S. Representative Gregg Harper, former Governor Phil Bryant, Mississippi Humanities Council Director Stuart Rockoff, and the Mississippi Library Commisson’s Center for the Book Coordinator. If you’d like a copy of the map, email us at mlcref@mlc.lib.ms.us.
Jane Smith Literacy Award
The Jane Smith Literacy Award recognizes an existing literacy project or program that is:
- outside of traditional library service
- innovative in nature
- in a Mississippi public library
Projects involve a partner of some kind, whether it’s a school system, Friends group, community organization, or other group.
Past Jane Smith Literacy Award Winners:
2017: South Mississippi Regional Library for their Families Read First program
2019: Waynesboro-Wayne County Library for their Laundry and Literacy program
2020: Jackson-Hinds Library System for their Our Reading Families program
2024: Sunflower County Library System for their Annie’s House Outreach Project
For more information, contact Jennifer Lena, Center for the Book Coordinator, at 601-432-4042 or jlena@mlc.lib.ms.us .