It’s pretty simple.

More and more of you are doing your work here:
• In April, we averaged over 16,000 visits a day;
• Last academic year we had almost 2.5 million visitors;
• That’s an increase of 42% from the previous year;
• And more than enough to fill up Reynolds Coliseum every day.

And you are using more and more Libraries services. Last year you:
• Downloaded almost 2 million full-text articles;
• Checked out or renewed 325,000 printed books;
• Started almost 800,000 database sessions;
• Checked out almost 80,000 ebooks.

The NCSU Libraries Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) recently participated in BugFest 2009 at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in downtown Raleigh alongside activities like beetle battles, roach races, and bee bearding. Over 25,000 children and parents made their way through events such as Fantastic but Forlorn Flies and the Anthropod Olympics, and at least 800 stopped by the SCRC table to learn about our various entomolgy-based print and digital special collections.

With help from BugFest volunteers Elina and Alisha Spradlin, who brought their own insect collections for viewing, everyone learned how research in the library can connect them with knowledge about local insects they see every day. While attendees munched on edible insects, children spent hours coloring select black and white copies of prints from Papillons by E. A. Seguy, assisted by SCRC staff members Cate Putirskis, Genya O’Gara and Carmen Spradlin. Nearby, the bug handling station, hosted by students in the NC State Entomology Graduate Student Association, created a corner of BugFest ’09 devoted to learning and outreach from North Carolina State University and its Libraries. This is just one more way in which the Libraries is extending NSCU’s land-grant mission to our community, by engaging young people in the wonders of science and the natural world and the primary sources that support research in these areas.

The NCSU Libraries Student Advisory Board is a group of students dedicated to providing input on the programs and services offered by the NCSU Libraries. The Board provides feedback on current offerings as well as suggestions for new programs and services to meet the library-related needs of NC State student community.

Meetings of the Student Advisory Board are held monthly and are open to all members of the student community undergraduate and graduate, traditional and non-traditional, across all disciplines. Currently the Board has over 40 active members including freshmen, transfer, PhD, and lifelong students.

Contact Joe Sevits to be alerted to upcoming meetings as well as other opportunities to join in the discussion on how the NCSU Libraries can best meet student needs. Food is provided at every meeting, compliments of Friends of the Libraries.

The NCSU Libraries is pleased to announce the appointment of Chadwick Seagraves as Library Technology Services Leader, effective September 28, 2009.

Seagraves will provide direction for the library's technology service program, including customer service, technology planning, and resource administration. He will manage a full range of library computing services including cross-platform desktop hardware and software, network services, multimedia technologies, training, and small- to medium-scale application development of library technologies.

Seagraves brings a strong background in library information technology and customer service to the NCSU Libraries. He currently serves as Library Systems Analyst for the Indiana Cooperative Library Services Authority, supporting the Ex Libris Aleph 500 Integrated Library System for the Private Academic Library Network of Indiana (PALNI). As a member of the New Products and Services Implementation Task Force, he monitors new technological developments in the field of library automation, evaluates the impact of new library applications, and plans for new hardware, software, and network technologies. He is responsible for system implementation, technical support, and user training for a variety of library systems.

Previously, Seagraves was the Information Technology Librarian at Marion College, where he supported all library technology, assisted with the planning and implementation of a learning commons, redesigned the library website, and initiated various Library 2.0 services. Earlier in his career he served as Team Manager for Customer Services with Gateway Inc., where he was recognized with a Top Service Team award and for Above Target performance in achieving customer satisfaction.

Seagraves holds the Master of Science in Library and Information Science from the University of Kentucky. He received the Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Eastern Kentucky University, where he was a member of the University Honors Program and Honors Scholar Graduate. His professional activities include serving as a member of the Expert Panel of TechCast, and as a member of the Indiana Online Library Users Group and the Indiana Academic Library Association. In 2008, he presented a post conference workshop, “Customer Service 101 for a 2.0 World” at the Computers in Libraries conference.

Since the 1970’s Tracy Kidder has written some of the funniest, most moving, and most penetrating material about what it means to be an American--and to be a caring, eyes-wide-open global citizen. The NCSU community will have a chance to hear the Pulitzer Prize-winning author read from his latest book on September 30 at the McKimmon Center.

No contemporary author has been more successful at identifying and then putting us inside the changes and groundswells that resonate in our private and public lives. His early work gave us a glimpse of what it was like to be on the ground conducting the war in Vietnam, where he served as an officer in military intelligence. Before computers were on most of our desks, his Soul of the New Machine sniffed out the ways that the work styles of the American-driven software industry would set a new pace for our work lives, banishing boredom but demanding 24/7 commitment. House and Among School Children took the temperature of two of our most cherished dreams, following a couple as they built their first house and a teacher as she inspired her fifth grade class throughout a year.

Mountains Beyond Mountains introduced us to Duke University grad and physician Dr. Paul Farmer, who practiced much more than he preached in his work trying to beat back fatal diseases in Haiti.

The NCSU Friends of the Library and Quail Ridge Books & Music will sponsor Kidder’s reading from Strength in What Remains, the story of a refugee from Burundian genocide who lands at JFK airport with two hundred dollars, no English, and no contacts in the US—and who moves from homelessness in Central Park to medical school and a career as a healer.

Admission is $5 or free with purchase of Strength in What Remains from Quail Ridge Books & Music. The doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the talk will begin at 7:30 p.m. NCSU Friends of the Library members will have access to a reserved section at the front of the auditorium. Please contact the Friends office at (919) 515-2841 to purchase your ticket and reserve your seat. This event is supported by the North Carolina State University Foundation.