Contact: David Hiscoe, NCSU Libraries, (919) 513-3425

(Raleigh, NC)—The North Carolina State University Libraries and architectural historian Catherine Bishir have collaborated to publish North Carolina Architects and Builders, the authoritative resource on the men and women who shaped the architectural culture and heritage of the state. Delivered as a state-of-the-art online tool instead of a traditional book, the site is a marquee example of what can be accomplished when original, innovative scholarship is powered up by the digital expertise of today’s new generation of professional librarians.

The standard scholarly work on North Carolina architects and builders has long been Architects and Builders in North Carolina: a History of the Practice of Building (University of North Carolina Press, 1990), by Bishir, Charlotte V. Brown, Carl R. Lounsbury, and Ernest H. Wood III. The authors originally intended to complement it with an authoritative biographical dictionary on the architects, builders, and artisans of the state.

When Bishir turned renewed attention to the project in the last decade, she explains that “the project underwent a serendipitous paradigm shift,” as she began to imagine the transformational way that scholarly, collaborative publishing could be done on the Internet.

“When Catherine came to us with her idea,” says Susan Nutter, Vice Provost and Director of Libraries at NC State University, “I knew we had the staff on board with the expertise and enthusiasm to embrace the work. And I was delighted to have a signature project that could highlight the great work of our faculty and capitalize on the strengths of the NCSU Libraries’ Special Collections in architecture and design. We have built something that will be invaluable to those—both scholars and the general public—who love the architecture and the culture of North Carolina.”

Combining the expertise of over forty authors with the NCSU Libraries’ leadership in digital publishing and with collections from numerous state and national cultural institutions, the web site provides extensive biographical accounts, building lists, and bibliographical information about architects, builders, and other artisans who planned and built North Carolina's architecture.

Unlike traditionally published scholarly works of the past, the web site will continue to grow on a regular basis as scholars extend and expand their work. At launch, the site covers approximately 170 North Carolina professionals and 1500 buildings. But because it is an online resource, it can continuously be updated as the array of scholars working on it continue to add new entries—future-proofing the resource and demonstrating one of the powerful advantages of online publishing of reference and research materials.

As an online tool, North Carolina Architects and Builders also provides powerful abilities to sort, search, and browse its content in ways not available with traditional printed materials. Researchers, for instance, can explore the site’s material by architect, by building name or type, by location, by the years that an architect practiced, or by the place of a builder’s office or birth—sorting the results in ways to fit the individual needs of the researcher’s project.

“The website is wonderful,” according to Howard Davis, Professor of Architecture at the University of Oregon and author of The Culture of Building. "What an appealing, easy-to-use, clear product. A model for the other 49 states. . . that I hope we will pursue here in Oregon."