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 web site 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."

The Special Collections Research Center and Exhibit Hall on the first floor of the East Wing of D. H. Hill Library will close for a private event Wednesday, June 24, at 12 noon and will reopen Thursday at 11 a.m. We apologize for any inconvenience.

The NCSU Libraries has received a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation (NFPF) to restore and make widely accessible a group of home movies created in the early twentieth century by the owners of the Chinqua-Penn Plantation.

Built beginning in 1923 and featured on A&E's America's Castles, the Chinqua-Penn Plantation in Rockingham County, NC is a 27-room mansion where Thomas Jefferson “Jeff” Penn and Betsy Penn amassed a now-famous collection of paintings, furniture, and other decorative arts. Built with tobacco and dairy profits, the mansion is now a museum open to the public.

At a time when motion picture technology was rare and far too costly for most private individuals or families, the Penns used it to document their world travels and their family and social life in rural Reidsville. Restored for scholars and for the general public, the films will strengthen the growing use of home movies and amateur films in research, especially in the study of the times and mores of the “tobacco royalty” in the South.

According to Katherine Charron, assistant professor of history at NC State, the films “provide a glimpse of what daily life was like in a rural southern community during the 1930s.” They are also particularly interesting for historians because Jeff Penn’s “privileged and racially romantic view of the southern past informed . . . how [he] interpreted what he saw . . . . The films simultaneously offer insight into race, gender, and class in both the world he encountered in their travels and the world he inhabited.”

The NFPF is the nonprofit organization created by the U.S. Congress to help save America's film heritage. The Foundation supports activities nationwide that preserve American films and improve film access for study, education, and exhibition. The NFPF grant to restore the Penn family home movies was awarded to the Special Collections Research Center at the NCSU Libraries. The project supports the Research Center’s mission to identify and collect rare and unique materials to support the research and teaching needs of the University. The restored moving images will enhance the Center’s present Chinqua-Penn Collection—and will be available on the Libraries’ website once restoration is completed.

Need access to the network quickly, but all the computers in the Libraries are already taken?

Maybe the materials you need for a paper are all in one place in D. H. Hill, but there’s no workstation nearby?

Or your prof has asked you to polish up a presentation before class in two hours, and there’s no time to head home or to the dorm to get your laptop?

The NCSU Libraries can help with our Laptop Lending Service. We have helped out students and faculty with a quick laptop loan over 60,000 times during the last academic year. In one crunch, in fact, more than 80 laptops were checked out in a single hour.

Stop by the Service Desk in the D. H. Hill Learning Commons or the Circulation Desk in the branch libraries, and you can check out a PC, Mac, or tablet for four hours, with another four-hour renewal if you need it. With access to the Virtual Computing Lab and the Libraries’ wireless network, you should be able to use all your favorite applications.

It doesn’t just stop with laptops. Part of the Libraries’ mission is to make sure you have easy access to the technologies you need to succeed at NC State. If you need a camcorder, an SLR camera, the latest Kindle, a digital recorder, or a GPS, just show us your ID, check out the latest, and go get the work done.

After a brief closing to complete construction, including beautiful new touches designed by artist Joy Wulke, the Creamery has reopened in the West Wing of D. H. Hill. Those of us who spend lengths of time in the Library with our heads down in our work can now take a quick break for some Howling Cow premium ice cream made here at NC State. It is a joint venture between the library, NC State Food Science, and University Dining.

The Creamery did a soft opening in April to ensure that graduating students had a chance to experience it during their exams and before they left NC State.

Patrons of twenty-first-century libraries value them as secure spaces—comfortable areas that provide access to the latest technology—as well as both quiet and collaborative places to work. It’s the place students go when they get serious about getting their work done, and they are often in the building for hours at a time. The Creamery provides a safe, convenient, in-building area to grab a snack without substantially interrupting work time. And it’s been built without state money.

With some good planning, the Creamery is also helping D. H. Hill with its seating problems. By consolidating service points, the ongoing makeover of the West Wing has made room for an area adjacent to the Creamery that will provide 60 additional student seats: a welcome addition since the NCSU Libraries can seat less than 5% of NCSU students, far below the 20% recommended by the UNC system.

Signs in and around the new seating area, the The ConeZone, ask that ice cream eaters not take their cones into the library proper. Managing food in the library is always a potential challenge, but it is a commitment that students have asked the Libraries to make, and so far it has not been a problem.

The Creamery accepts AllCampus and Meal Plan Board Bucks, as well as Visa, Mastercard, and American Express.