» MLC’s Center for the Book

MLC’s Center for the Book

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 2025, the Mississippi Library Commission demonstrated our proud partnership with the America 250-Mississippi Commission.

Mississippi Library Commission booth with books, posters, and balloons celebrating America 250.

The MLC display featured books ranging from regular print for all ages to large print, Braille, and audiobooks aligned to the semiquincentennial and patriotic American themes.

Wooden display rack labeled ‘Early Literacy’ holding children’s books about America, flags, and the Fourth of July, with a red balloon on the side.

There was also an opportunity to record wish “Happy Birthday” wishes to America for 250 years and/or to Mississippi Library Commission for 100 years in preparation for 2026!

Person seated in a wooden chair with a red, white, and blue striped blanket, next to a wall and photography equipment.

Table with notebooks and pens in front of posters reading ‘America 250 Mississippi’ and ‘Happy Birthday MLC 26’ on a stone wall.

MLC also featured games from our special collections and our book bike!

Table with a laptop showing piano keys, colorful handbells, Play-Doh containers, wires connected to a circuit board, and a booklet titled ‘36 Simple Songs for Chromaharp.’

Open book bike display with shelves holding multiple books and pamphlets, including titles like ‘Cotton Gin Port’ and colorful reading guides.

Colorful prize wheel labeled ‘Spin to Win’ with sections for items like stickers, bookmarks, reading ducks, and felt-tip pens, displayed on a table with brochures for Mississippi Library Commission’s Information Services.

Inside, we showed a broad range of MLC services including Patents and Trademarks, information about the statewide database consortium MAGNOLIA, free books for exhibit attendees, …

Poster showing Mississippi Library Commission Center for the Book with sections labeled Magnolia, Talking Book Services, StoryWalk, and Puppet Theatre.

Mississippi Library Commission booth with brochures displayed between two tall banners for Trademark Resource Center and Magnolia.

Display featuring Mississippi Patent Match boards with sketches and a banner for the Patent and Trademark Resource Center against a brick wall.

Brick-walled room with wooden beams, books on shelves, and two people standing near a counter with a window opening to another area.

… Mississippi Talking Book Services, puppets form our special collections…

Brick-walled room with informational displays and a banner for Talking Book Services, with people browsing materials on a wooden counter.

Child standing near a seated adult in front of a small puppet stage with stuffed animals and a large puppet inside a brick-walled room.

… and we even had images of Elivs, one of Mississippi’s very own veterans, helping recruit for the Veterans History Project,

Cardboard cutout of Elvis in a gold suit next to America 250 Mississippi posters on a stone wall.

Brick-walled room with wooden chairs and tables, illuminated by wall lights, featuring posters for American Legion, VFW, and other veteran organizations.

Brick-walled room with a computer on a wooden desk, chairs arranged in front, and posters for veteran organizations on the walls, with a cardboard cutout of Elvis.

and so 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.

MLC’s Great Reads from Great Places 2025 Picks included the following:

Juvenile Readers: Saving Sam! A Banjo the Dog Story by Marshall Ramsey
Download a copy of the Center for the Book’s custom Marshall Ramsey Read poster here!
Adult Readers: Paddleways of Mississippi: Rivers and People of the Magnolia State by Ernest Herndon & Patrick Parker

Author Marshal Ramsey was with us to autograph copies of his book for many of Mississippi’s young readers!

Marshall Ramsey signing a book titled ‘Saving Sam’ at a table outdoors, with markers and a colorful blanket in the background.

Marshall Ramsey holding a large illustrated poster with the word ‘READ’ under a tent decorated with colorful pennant banners during an outdoor event.

National Book Festival

Large convention center lobby with red carpeted stairs, digital banners reading ‘I love Libraries’ and ‘Uniting Book Lovers for 25 Years,’ and crowds walking through the space.

The 2025 National Book Festival was one for the books! Information Services Director Alex Brower and MAGNOLIA Coordinator Billy Loper were able to represent Mississippi’s Center for the Book in the Roadmap to Reading …

National Book Festival graphic with colorful blocks, text reading ‘Uniting Book Lovers for 25 Years,’ and a book cover titled ‘All the Blues in the Sky’ by Renée Watson. Date shown: September 6, 2025

Mississippi Library Commission booth with brochures and magazines on a white table, including a stack titled ‘Mississippi.’

… and were joined by a very special guest: Marshall Ramsey!

Marshall Ramsey and Alex standing in front of a black backdrop with a sign reading ‘Mississippi,’ holding a children’s book titled ‘Saving Sam: A Banjo the Dog Story.’

Marshall Ramsey standing in front of a black backdrop with a sign reading ‘Mississippi,’ holding a children’s book titled ‘Saving Sam: A Banjo the Dog Story,’ with boxes on the floor nearby.

On the day of the festival, thousands of people stopped by the Mississippi table to learn about Mississippi’s literary heritage, connect over a love of reading, and check out our Great Reads from Great Places picks.

Busy event booth with red and black curtains labeled ‘Mississippi’ and ‘Missouri,’ where attendees gather to view displays and collect materials.

Event booth with people browsing magazines and colorful children’s books on a table, with red and black curtains and other booths visible in the background.

Person signing books at a table covered with magazines, brochures, and colorful children’s books, while attendees wait in line at an indoor event.

Marshall Ramsey was able to connect with readers of all ages about the story of Sam, Pip, and Mr. M.L., and signed plenty of coloring sheets and Read posters for excited attendees.

Two people holding smartphones showing dog photos and a children’s book titled ‘Saving Sam: A Banjo the Dog Story’ at an indoor event.

Marshall Ramsey seated at a booth with a book titled ‘Saving Sam’ on the table, interacting with children and adults standing nearby.

Mississippi’s Great Reads form Great Places 2025 Picks were:

Juvenile Readers:
- Saving Sam! A Banjo the Dog Story by Marshall Ramsey
  - Download a copy of the Center for the Book’s custom Marshall Ramsey Read Poster here!
Adult Readers:
- Paddleways of Mississippi : Rivers and People of the Magnolia State by Earnest Herndon & Patrick Parker

We did bring some great supplemental outreach materials from the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks that provided additional details about Mississippi waterways to help people better understand and connect with the full essence of the adult readers pick, Paddleways.

In addition to serving at Mississippi’s table to spread the word about our Great Reads from Great Places, Alex attended a meeting with other Center for the Book representatives to discuss programming ideas, learn about upcoming Library of Congress initiatives, and share plans for America 250.

Presentation room with a wooden podium, U.S. and Smithsonian flags, and a screen displaying ‘Center for the Book’ agenda for September 6, 2025.

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, including the current Poet Laureate: Ann Fisher-Wirth, 2025-2029. The former Poet Laureate, Catherine Pierce, partnered 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. This initiative is being continued for the 2025-2026 school year with our new Poet Laureate! All school-wide winners have their winning poems published in a contest anthology and are invited to share their work at a reading and celebration.

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 .