The two universities in 1993 formed the Golden Triangle Regional Library Consortium to share library databases and technical expertise. All of Starkville High School's library holdings now are in the consortium's electronic database. As students check out their first books, the staff creates patron records in the database, said school library media specialist Florence Box. More than 1,200 students attend the school. The transaction requires no paper and takes only seconds.
Students also have access from their high school library to library holdings at both universities.
That gives them access to more than 850,000 volumes. A student can sit in our library and can tell if a particular book is available at the other libraries. SHS used the system to check out its first book only weeks ago, but the preparation has taken several years, said Stephen Cunetto, coordinator of computer systems for Mitchell Memorial Library at Mississippi State. One of the issues was converting the school from the Dewey Decimal classification system to the Library of Congress system. That process was begun in 1995 with assistance from Mississippi State.