Frequently Asked Questions

What is the purpose of the Hunt Library?
NC State University's Centennial Campus is known across the U.S. and internationally as a groundbreaking model for a community built around knowledge, a research park where university, corporate, and government groups work together to shape North Carolina's future. The Hunt Library will embody the entrepreneurial spirit of the university, acting as a much-needed intellectual and social heart for the Centennial Campus. The iconic new library will house the engineering, textiles, and parts of the sciences collections and will embody the spirit of NC State's competitive advantage in science and technology. It will be a key factor in attracting and retaining the best faculty, students, and corporate partners. The Hunt Library will also house the Institute for Emerging Issues.

As a great research library, the Hunt Library will be a critical asset for the work being done on Centennial Campus and across the university and a strong force for economic growth; as a great building, it will be an iconic showcase and symbol of the latest technologies and research achievements of the state and the university, attracting visitors from near and far.

The Hunt Library will also begin to remedy a substantial seating problem that has handicapped NC State. The University of North Carolina (UNC) system standard is to provide library study seating for 20% of the student population. NC State is far below that standard; we are currently able to seat less than 5% of our students. The Hunt Library will double our study seating capacity, but it will still be significantly below the UNC standard.

The Hunt Library, through the innovative application of the bookBot automated book delivery system, will also provide capacity for 2 million volumes of the library's collections, helping to alleviate a severe shortage of shelving space. In the past decade, faculty and students have emphasized that strong research collections must be a top priority, and the university has shown the wisdom to make such investments. The library collection constitutes the essential foundation supporting and enabling learning and the creation of knowledge. Print materials remain an important component of research and learning, with hundreds of thousands of uses each year complementing the use of the electronic collection.

Where will the Hunt Library be located?
The Hunt Library will anchor the Centennial Campus' academic Oval, sitting at the southwest end of the Oval overlooking Lake Raleigh. It will primarily serve the Colleges of Engineering and Textiles and be a resource for the whole campus community as well. The College of Textiles is currently on Centennial Campus; Engineering faculty and students are located on the campus in greater numbers as the new Engineering buildings are completed there.

When will the Hunt Library open?
The official groundbreaking for the buillding was held on October 23, 2009. Construction of the Hunt Library is scheduled to be completed in Fall 2012, and the public opening date will be determined as that time approaches. You can use this website to follow the building's construction on the timeline and in real time on our live webcams.

Who will be the primary users of the Hunt Library?
The Hunt Library's primary user community will include faculty, students, and staff in the College of Textiles, the College of Engineering, and portions of the hard sciences and veterinary programs. The library will also serve researchers and employees in the many research centers, institutes, and laboratories on the campus and those of corporate, government, and non-profit partners, including leaders in nanotechnology, information technology, biotechnology, and other growth industries. The campus population currently consists of 2,200 employees of corporate and institutional partners; 1,350 university faculty, staff and post-docs; and 3,400 university students. At buildout, the total population based on Centennial Campus is projected to be nearly 30,000-40,000. Graduate and undergraduate students in all programs at the university will also make use of the new technologies and spaces in the Hunt Library – for many who live south of campus, it will be a convenient location with readily available parking.

The staff, services, and collections of the Burlington Textiles Library will be incorporated into the Hunt Library, and the College of Textiles will use that space for its growing programs.

What collections will the Hunt Library hold?
The Hunt Library will be located on Centennial Campus, the fastest-growing section of NC State's campus and home to the College of Textiles, much (and soon all) of the College of Engineering, and other scientific disciplines. Accordingly, it will house collections centered on these disciplines and material critical to interdisciplinary research on Centennial Campus.

What sorts of study spaces will the Library contain?
The building will recognize the various needs of different user groups—graduate and undergraduate students, faculty members, and researchers—and will offer spaces tailored to those unique demands, including a Research Commons, a Graduate Commons, a Skyline Reading Room, a Creativity Studio, and a Teaching and Visualization Lab, as well as many group study rooms and individual study seats. At this point, almost 100 bookable group study rooms are in the plan.

Because our students and faculty are often in the library for hours at a time, they need a safe, convenient, in-building area to grab a snack or take a break without substantially interrupting work time. The Hunt Library will offer a cafe for light snacks and an area for electronic games.

Will food and game spaces be available in Hunt?
Studies have shown over and over that when students and faculty are in the NCSU Libraries they are often here for hours at a time. They need safe, convenient, in-building areas to grab a snack or relax without substantially interrupting work time. The Hunt Library will have both a venue for snacks and drinks and a gaming space to meet these needs.

Which will be the main library? Hunt or D. H. Hill?
The D. H. Hill Library will continue to be the main library for the north, central, and south campuses. The Hunt Library will serve as the main library for the Centennial Campus.

The branch libraries at NC State are the William Rand Kenan, Jr. Library of Veterinary Medicine; the Harrye B. Lyons Design Library; the Natural Resources Library; and the Burlington Textiles Library. The staff, services, and collections of the Burlington Textiles Library will be incorporated into the Hunt Library.

What is the budget for the Hunt Library?
The North Carolina General Assembly appropriated a $126 million budget for the project, but reduced that budget by $10.7 million during the 2009 budget crisis.

What is the technology plan for Hunt Library?
Much of the NCSU Libraries' international reputation has been earned because of its pioneering role as a technology innovator. The Hunt Library will embody the aspirations of a great, technology-focused university. This requires a forward-looking and adventurous approach to emerging technologies and a commitment to make the best tools readily available to our students and faculty.

We plan to capitalize on three trends in technological change as we outfit the library:

• Ever-greater bandwidth and continued reduction in computing costs will enable expanded use of computing-intensive applications such as large-scale visualization
• User interfaces are becoming more touch-based, making it easier to interact with information and data
• Computing and communication functions are converging in mobile devices, enabling new possibilities for people to interact with information, spaces, and each other

In addition to the basics—wireless connectivity and flexible, easy access to electrical power—the environment in Hunt Library will be permeated with virtual browsing, video-conferencing, on-line room scheduling, collaborative projection, whiteboards, video walls, and technology-enabled furniture.

What is the bookBot automated book delivery system?
The Hunt Library, which is being designed to take full advantage of the latest technology, will house print collections in a state-of-the-art bookBot automated book delivery system. The library will contain up to 2 million volumes—including the working collections for engineering, biotechnology, and textiles, as well as fragile and other materials that benefit most from environmentally stable conditions.

The technology underlying high-density automated shelving has been used in large-scale industries such as automotive manufacturing and textiles for many years. Recently the technology has been adapted for use in research libraries, where the systems are sometimes also known as an Automated Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS or ARS). In these systems, barcoded items are sorted by size and stored in barcoded bins. Each item is scanned into an inventory-control database whenever it is removed from and returned to its storage location, as is the bin into which the item is deposited. The bookBot will allow us to store nine times more books than conventional shelving would.

From the patron's perspective, the system will be fascinating to watch and easy to use. Requests for materials can be made via the online catalog or a virtual-browse display from any computer with an Internet connection. Within minutes of receiving the order, a robotic crane will retrieve the materials and deliver them to a service point.

The bookBot holds nine times the books as traditional shelving, allowing us to free large amounts of space and direct our capital budget towards technology-rich study and collaboration spaces.

How can I support the Hunt Library?
Our donors have traditionally given us the essential help and support that has allowed the NCSU Libraries to be a real competitive advantage for the university. Information on a variety of ways to give is available at the Giving to the Libraries site, and you donate to support the Hunt Library via a simple webform. There are also a limited number of opportunities to name features of the new library - detailed information is available on our Naming Opportunites page.

 

Last updated: December 2010