scriptygoddessPagination is a great way to show a bunch of data from a MySQL database without showing it all at once. An example: the Picture Yourself sidebar is paginated.
I saw a great overview article at DevShed this morning on this subject. Check out Paginating MySQL Data with PHP. For some Movable Type specific options, this thread (scroll down to the long post by Brenna) is where I started when I was learning to do this. And there's even an MT plugin called Paginate that I haven't tried out, but looks like it would be a good tool.
