Cultural Heritage Digitization Award

View the 2020 Awardee collection
”Brenda Brentz Heinsch Papers”
from Singing River Genealogy-Local History Library.

Discover Mississippi history and culture from partners all across the state.

 

The Mississippi Digital Library is the collaborative digital library for the state of Mississippi. Our mission is to provide an online space to search and explore Mississippi’s rich abundance of cultural and historical resources held by institutions and repositories all across the state. Emphasizing collection building and discoverability, our goal is to help our partners build sustainable, high-quality digital collections and deliver those materials to the researchers. We are committed to providing free open access to these digital collections.

Made up of over 40 institutions, our partners include archives, historical societies, museums, public libraries, academic libraries and more. Partnership and searching the collections are always free!

See what Mississippi has to offer. Search the collections.

 

Explore our Partner Network

 

More than just collections.

 

The Mississippi Digital Library is dedicated to helping institutions digitize materials and provide access to the wealth of resources our partners have to offer. More than just materials, MDL is a network, connecting institutions with one another.

 

 
Bay St. Louis, St. Augustine Seminary; Nov 1, 1936 Bishop R. O. Gerow Collection ~ Roman Catholic Diocese of Jackson

Bay St. Louis, St. Augustine Seminary; Nov 1, 1936
Bishop R. O. Gerow Collection ~Roman Catholic Diocese of Jackson

Hosting

Content platform services

Maintaining content management systems can be time consuming and expensive. We offer free hosting for 24/7 public access to your digital collections.

Native American women Marion Stark Gaines Collection ~ Columbus-Lowndes Public Library

Native American women
Marion Stark Gaines Collection ~Columbus-Lowndes Public Library

Training

Personalized digitization Training

Whole project emphasis. From concept to creation, and everything in-between, learn how to independently preserve history for the future.

 
Mississippi Delta Chinese Joy Woo-Chow Collection ~ Delta State University Archives and Museum

Mississippi Delta Chinese
Joy Woo-Chow Collection ~Delta State University Archives and Museum

Digitization

digitization assistance

We provide digitization assistance through programs such as the Cultural Heritage Digitization Award and grant funded projects. The MDL currently has a grant from the Knight Foundation to build collections about Mississippi history particularly focusing on Mississippi’s Gulf Coast communities. If you or an institution you know could benefit from digitization assistance, please contact us.

Displaying balloons received as gifts Rex A. Moore Collection ~ Jackson-George Regional Library System

Displaying balloons received as gifts
Rex A. Moore Collection ~Jackson-George Regional Library System

Resources

Best Practices

Our resources section is designed to help cultural heritage institutions digitize items for inclusion in the Mississippi Digital Library. From policies to metadata, workflows to rights statements, we’re here to help.

We are Mississippi.

 

Our partners represent the diverse and rich history of the state. These institutions own and maintain the original materials featured on our site. Due to the volume of collections, institutions often have more than what can be shown online.

Want to see more? Have an item to donate? Find and connect with a partner near you. 

 
 

MDL Team

The Mississippi Digital Library is governed by a director and an advisory board. Board members are from institutions across the state.

 
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Lisa Jones

Director, MDL

Lisa became MDL Director in 2011. She is committed to building vibrant, sustainable digital collections throughout the state. Under her direction, MDL has expanded to over 40 institutions and now includes museums, historical societies, and other types of cultural heritage institutions. Lisa also serves as the Head of Technology and Technical Services at USM.

Email Lisa

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Elizabeth La Beaud

Assistant Director, MDL

Elizabeth served as interim MDL Coordinator in 2016, and officially joined MDL as Assistant Director in January 2018. She is the Digital Lab Manager at USM, holds a MLIS, a certificate in Archives and Special Collections, the Digital Archives Specialist Certificate from SAA, and is a Library of Congress trained Digital Preservation trainer.

Email Elizabeth

 
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Jess Brown

Coordinator, MDL

Jess joined MDL in 2016. As Coordinator, she is passionate about digital archives and preservation, and is committed to creating and maintaining partner relations, managing collections, social media marketing and website design.

Email Jess

CURRENT ADVISORY BOARD

Delta State University

  • Emily Irwin Jones

Mississippi Department of Archives and History

  • David Pilcher

Mississippi State University

  • TBD

University of Mississippi

  • Jennifer Ford

University of Southern Mississippi

  • Elizabeth La Beaud

Explore Mississippi’s collections.