Political Science major Will Blackton joined the Libraries in 2007 helping students and faculty in the Digital Media Lab. Rob Rucker, Head of Research and Information Services for the NCSU Libraries, traces the arc of Will’s work experience here: “His understanding of digitization and graphics made him a candidate for the position -- his friendly, engaging personality and first-rate customer service instincts made him a success.”

In 2008 we bid Will bon voyage as his adventurous nature took him overseas for a year to study Chinese. We were happy to welcome him back in 2009, hear his stories, and see him back in the library working with our students and faculty.

Below, Will explains what he learned from his adventure in Taiwan:

Traveling to Taiwan embodied a lot of "firsts" for me. The first time I lived a not easily traverse-able distance from anyone that I know. It was my first time I had to hunt for a job and an apartment completely on my own. My first time filing taxes, immigration papers, or figuring out a bus or train route. Not that any of these things are particularly remarkable, but doing them all in a language I barely had a handle on has set my self-confidence dial to maximum. It's hard to put a finger on exactly what made the experience so awesome. I had never lived in a big city before, or not relied on a car whatsoever. Every face was a fresh one.

I attended TaiDa, Taiwan's most prestigious university. Getting a taste of the intensity of the local academic culture was an eye-opening experience. The ascetic nature of classrooms was also a tough change, but the welcoming nature of the local people more than made up for weeks of adjustment my bottom took to get used to the uncomfortable chairs. The Taiwanese go far out of their way to make sure people know they are some of the most awesome people in the world. On a nearly month long motorcycle trip around the island, after asking for directions, more people led me to my destination rather than just telling me where to go. I was treated to dinners and drinks by strangers much more often than from friends here home in America.

I studied Chinese intensively while over there, and fell in love with Taiwanese culture. The level of social courtesy was astounding. When taking study breaks, people just leave their stuff where they are at without worry that it will be stolen. On metros everyone is allowed off the train before anyone starts boarding. People walk slowly on the right side of the sidewalk and pass on the left. These small notions can overwhelm you with a sense of appreciation of being a part of that community.

Ever try to meet up with your friends for a group study session on a night when D. H. Hill is filled to the brim? Mission impossible.

We have a solution.

D. H. Hill Library has a new tool to help you plan and find your study groups. GroupFinder lets the coordinator of a group post the name and location–Chem 223 exam study @ 4th Floor Group Study–and then the other members of the group can check GroupFinder when they get to the library.

GroupFinder is available on a computer kiosk in first floor lobby, and on the library’s e-boards and on the web.

GroupFinder arose from conversations library staff had with students about the challenges of arranging group study sessions in D. H. Hill Library. The library is often too crowded for a group to pick a location in advance—the spot will probably already be taken. Last-minute coordination can be tricky as well, due to spotty cell phone reception. So that leaves many groups waiting at the entrance for every person in the group to show up.

GroupFinder lets students locate a space, post their location, and then get to work. Latecomers can check the digital signs, the kiosk in the lobby, or the web to find out where their group is.

Give Groupfinder a try.

Contact: David Hiscoe, NCSU Libraries, (919) 513-3425
(Raleigh, N.C.)—North Carolina State University officials today broke ground on a new state-of-the-art library for its Centennial Campus that, through its innovative design and technological sophistication, will set the standard for 21st century academic and research libraries. According to Susan Nutter, vice provost and director of the NCSU Libraries, the new James B. Hunt Jr. Library— named for the former North Carolina governor—“seeks nothing less than to create the best learning and collaborative space in the country.”

The 1,334-acre Centennial Campus serves as NC State’s research park and is home to more than 120 government, industry, and university partners who work collaboratively to drive growth in North Carolina and to work on some of the planet’s most pressing problems. The campus was named outstanding research park by the Association of University Research Parks (AURP) in 2007.

The Hunt Library will be a signature building that will serve as the intellectual and social heart of the rapidly growing population on the Centennial Campus, embodying the essence of the research park as a community built around knowledge. Anchoring the Centennial Campus' academic oval, the new library will embody the spirit of NC State's competitive advantage in science and technology and will be a major factor in attracting and retaining the best faculty, students, and corporate partners.

The Hunt Library will also begin to provide a much-needed solution for the shortage of study seating at the university. The NCSU Libraries can currently seat less than 5% of NC State students at a time when use of the Libraries is growing dramatically. In April 2008, for example, the Libraries averaged over 16,000 visits a day; visits increased by 42% in the last academic year alone. The UNC system standard is to provide study seating for 20% of students. The Hunt Library will double the NCSU Libraries' available study seats.

The library, located in the center of much of NC State’s engineering, textiles, science, and technology expertise, will also continue to enhance the NCSU Libraries’ role as technology incubator on campus. The NCSU Libraries has made its mark by providing generations of students and faculty with access to the latest technology. From its iconic design to the latest in computing and collaboration tools, the Hunt Library will prepare students to lead and support cutting-edge research in a technology-driven economy.

The Hunt Library will contain an automated book-retrieval system–allowing space and budget normally consumed by book “stacks” to be used for learning spaces and technologies to assist students.

"We are absolutely thrilled that the university is going to have one of the finest academic and research libraries anywhere in the world,” adds Nutter. “This building will mark the beginning of a new era in learning and collaboration at NC State University.”

Pearce Brinkley Cease + Lee Architecture (PBC+L), a North Carolina architectural firm that specializes in academic and cultural arts projects with an emphasis on higher education, will serve as architects for Hunt Library. Snøhetta, the designers for the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, will serve as lead designers. Snøhetta was recently awarded the 2009 Mies van der Rohe Prize, Europe’s most prestigious award for architectural excellence.

Construction is expected to be complete in 2012.

Visit the renovated William Rand Kenan, Jr. Library of Veterinary Medicine during the open house on Thursday, October 29, from 4-6 p.m. We invite you to see the new spaces, in and outside of the library, and enjoy light refreshments with us and your colleagues in the library. It will also be a great time to follow up on library resources you may need. The main entrance is still closed for construction, so you will be escorted from the IAMS entrance to the library for the open house. This event is open to all so please share with anyone who might enjoy seeing the library. Directions are available online. Contact us via email or call 919-513-6219 if you have any questions. We look forward to seeing you!

Find out how NC State is transforming forensic science.

You won’t usually find our faculty featured on the latest edition of COPS, but the university is increasingly becoming the scourge of those who break the law and a source of hope for those unjustly accused. Our security and safety is due in part to our ability to prosecute criminals by applying rigorous science and engineering concepts to the law. This is forensic science, a field that is fascinating to scientists and non-scientists alike—and to almost anyone who watches much television these days. It is a discipline critical to ensuring security, safety and a just society. And a discipline that our textiles, engineering, computer science, and microbiology faculty are transforming.

Can you name a discipline that spans textiles, anthropology, entomology, archaeology, chemistry, statistics, computer science and visualization, data mining and library science, material science, toxicology, botany, microbiology, biology, physics, geology, psychology, linguistics, mechanical and civil engineering, and environmental science? Renowned experts at NC State in all these fields–representing all colleges–are increasingly applying their expertise to advancing the field of forensics, ultimately through a rigorous new Forensic Sciences Institute (FSI) here at the university.

Find out more on November 3 at the annual fall luncheon sponsored by the NCSU Friends of the Library, where Professor David Hinks from the Department of Textile Engineering Chemistry and Science will talk about NC State’s synergistic approach to the art. Hinks will tell us about the initiative to pull together transformative cross-functional teams in the research and development of scientifically rigorous methods to advance the field of forensics as a post-disciplinary science.

Learn, for instance, how NCSU’s Textiles Library has become a threat to the bad guys with our unique collection of almost all automotive fabric samples from domestic and imported cars from 1955 to 2006. While one might think this collection might be of interest to only a few automotive and textile designers, it is fascinating to federal and SBI crime investigators. Many crimes involve cars, and fibers become key evidence in criminal investigations more often than DNA evidence. NCSU is developing an unprecedented analytical database of dyed fibers for use in forensic investigations based on this library collection.

Event Details:
Tuesday, November 3, noon-1:30 p.m.
NC State’s McKimmon Center
$18 for Friends of the Library members; $25 for the general public
Reservations or questions:(919)515-2841 or friends_of_the_library@ncsu.edu. This event is part of the ongoing NCSU Libraries Fabulous Faculty Series. The Friends of the Library is part of the NCSU Foundation.

This Friday the lieutenant governor, the interim chancellor, the president of the UNC system, the NC State student body president, as well as James B. Hunt Jr. and other state and university officials, will officially break ground on the new James B. Hunt Jr. 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 be a beautiful and inspiring “signature” building that will embody the entrepreneurial aspirations of the university, acting as a much-needed intellectual and social heart for the Centennial Campus. The iconic new library will house our engineering, textiles, and parts of our hard sciences collections and will embody the spirit of NC State's competitive advantage in science and technology. It is expected to be a key factor in attracting and retaining the best faculty, students, and corporate partners.

In the design of this landmark building, NC State seeks nothing less than to create the best learning and collaborative space in the country.

The Hunt Library will also begin to remedy a substantial seating problem that has handicapped NC State. The 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.

The NCSU Libraries currently receives up to 16,000 visits a day, more than enough to fill up Reynolds Coliseum. Visits increased by 42% during the 2008/09 academic year.

Check out the ongoing construction on our live web cams.

Choose one of the web cameras below and watch the new James B. Hunt Jr. Library starting to take shape on NC State’s Centennial Campus. Careful though—it’s surprising how addictive watching backhoes, a steam shovel and several dump trucks can be.

Camera One (mounted west of the site on the Partners I building—an especially good view of the construction on the south end of the building facing Lake Raleigh)

Camera Two (mounted west of the site on the Corporate Research I building— a great vantage point to view the north end of the site)

A couple of hints:
Take control-You can move the camera to survey the site, so be sure to experiment with the controls under the photo to survey the site for interesting goings on.

Hit the “Home” button before you start-The person who controlled the camera before you may have stopped while looking at a roof or parking lot, or zooming in on a random tree. So hit the “Home” button (located below the image to the right of the controls).

Enjoy the Experience-Each viewer gets to control the camera for 60 seconds. If you aren’t first in line, you can see at the bottom of the web page what number you are in the queue and how long your wait will be.

Contact: Gregory Raschke, NCSU Libraries, (919) 515-7188

The North Carolina State University Libraries Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) announces the acquisition of the professional and personal papers of plant scientist Dr. Robert Phillip (Phil) Upchurch.

Dr. Upchurch conducted his research in a variety of settings, and his work has had a deep impact on the country’s agricultural practices. His primary research interests encompassed forage crops, weed control, and the behavior of herbicides in soil. Dr. Upchurch began his professional career as a member of the faculty at North Carolina State College from 1949 to 1965. While serving in the Air Force from 1955 to 1957, he studied vegetation control on bombing ranges and participated in debates about the future of the atomic bomb. From 1965 through 1975 Dr. Upchurch worked for the Monsanto Corporation as the manager of research for its Agricultural Division in St. Louis, Missouri. He played a key role in the development of the herbicide Roundup™, a compound that proved to be extremely effective and benign for the environment. Dr. Upchurch spent the last two decades of his career with the University of Arizona as a professor and in numerous administrative roles, including head of the Plant Sciences Department, associate director of the Agricultural Experiment Station, and, at the college level, associate dean, director of development, and director of instruction. As director of the Arboretum Affairs Department, he organized the Desert Legume Program. He served often as a consultant to industry and governmental organizations and led an agricultural improvement program in Yemen for the U.S. State Department. Throughout his career Dr. Upchurch was active in several professional groups and was president of three national societies.

Dr. Upchurch’s personal papers reflect a compelling life story with deep roots in North Carolina—a life marked by overcoming obstacles, seizing opportunities, and being committed to doing the best work possible whatever the circumstances. Born in Wake County, Dr. Upchurch was raised in difficult circumstances on a cotton farm plagued by erosion and the boll weevil. The family lost the farm during the Depression, although they were later able to reclaim the land through one of Roosevelt’s New Deal programs. In an oral interview conducted at the University of Arizona in 1994, Dr. Upchurch noted that these early experiences “continued to influence my thinking about agriculture throughout my life.”

During World War II, Dr. Upchurch took a full-time position with the forage crops program at the North Carolina State Agricultural College and did not graduate from high school; nonetheless, he would later enter and work his way through NC State as an agronomy major. He married Eva Sallaine Sledge immediately after completing the requirements for his bachelor’s degree and proceeded to earn a master’s degree from the university in three terms. With Sallaine’s help in collecting data around the clock, Dr. Upchurch took only two years to finish his Ph.D. in plant physiology at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Upchurch returned to NCSU as a faculty member, where the lean budgets of the rapidly expanding university meant he had minimal resources with which to work. By the time he left the Department of Crop Science in 1965, he had been so successful in securing grants and other sources of support that his budget represented about 10% of the total department’s. This “can-do” approach and a willingness to take risks would be consistent hallmarks of his distinguished career.

After retiring from the University of Arizona, Dr. Upchurch returned to the St. Louis area to farm and pursue other business interests. He has also been able to dedicate time and energy to his long-standing interest in North Carolina history. He is the ninth generation of the family started by Michael Upchurch, who was born in England around 1624 and migrated to America around 1638. By the time of the American Revolution, the family had relocated to North Carolina and came to play major roles in all walks of life in the central part of the state. In conjunction with his exploration of the family lineage, Dr. Upchurch plans to write a history of the Swift Creek Township, where Upchurches started settling around 1870. The area occupies approximately eight square miles and is nestled between Raleigh, Cary, and Apex.

The Upchurch collection contains reports documenting his research activities, class notes, publications related to the Plant Growth Regulation Society of America, complete runs of the “Upchurch Bulletin” and “Englandia” (quarterlies related to the Upchurch family history), and awards, mementos, and artifacts.

Greg Raschke, Associate Director for Collections and Scholarly Communication, observes that “the collection, with its emphasis on innovation in agriculture and its documentation of NC State and Wake County history, is important for the Libraries, the university, and the state. As a former administrator, Dr. Upchurch realizes that a collection of this magnitude requires resources to make it accessible, and he has established an endowment to support its processing and future growth. We very much appreciate his sustained involvement with the university and the local area.”

The NCSU Libraries’ Special Collections Research Center, located in the East Wing of D. H. Hill Library, holds research and primary resource materials in subjects that reflect and support the teaching and research needs of the university. By emphasizing established and emerging areas of excellence at the university and corresponding strengths within the Libraries’ overall collection, the SCRC is strategically developing collections with the aim of becoming an indispensable source of information for generations of scholars.

It’s not enough that she’s an active member of the Spanish Club, a participant in the University Scholars Program, and a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars. Or that when she’s not excelling in her class work, she’s up to her elbows and knees is some outdoor activity, hiking, biking, playing soccer, chasing a Frisbee, or playing with her fabulous dog Jake.

Jennifer Blue also helps pay her way through school by being a model employee and student leader in the Natural Resources Library (NRL), a perfect part-time job for someone who knows the inside and out of so many outdoor activities. For three years, Jennifer has been a thoroughly dependable, genuine, and capable worker in the NRL, assisting patrons with everything from database searching to computer problems and printing concerns. Early on, says Karen Ciccone, the director of the NRL, “we saw that we had hired someone whose skill, sense of responsibility, and dedication to excellent customer service were a treasure that could be put to good use in our organization.”

The result: Jennifer has been enlisted to help train other student workers and to help produce the student calendar each month that ensures proper coverage of the circulation desk.

After graduation, Jennifer plans to attend graduate school to earn a Master’s Degree (and possibly a Ph.D.) in Environmental History. Kevin Atkinson, University Library Technician at the NRL, says, “One of the great things about working with students is watching them develop both personally and professionally. Jennifer has a wonderful personality and is very quick witted. Her smile brightens our office and her helpfulness is essential. She will go on to do greater things after she leaves the university, but when she graduates and leaves us we will definitely have appreciated her years of service to our community of faculty, staff, and students.”

On September 2, 2009, Michael Watson and John Jacques, board members of the American Institute of Architects of South Carolina, visited the NCSU Libraries as a model repository for architectural special collections. AIASC plans to develop an architectural history center for South Carolina, a need that is especially pressing because the state does not have a repository for architectural records, and there is mounting concern over the potential loss of documents vital to the history of the state's architecture. Associate Director for Collections and Scholarly Communication Greg Raschke and Special Collections staff Lisa Carter, Linda Sellars, Brian Dietz, Catherine Bishir, and Todd Kosmerick met with the two visitors.

Before touring the Special Collections Research Center, the group discussed the history and development of the SCRC as the major repository for architectural special collections in North Carolina. The NCSU Libraries staff described our methods for collecting, storing, and preserving our architectural holdings and how we provide access to these materials. The discussion also focused on digital projects for architectural special collections, including North Carolina Architects and Builders, The Built Heritage of North Carolina, and Beaux Arts to Modernism.

A recommendation that emerged from the meeting was for the AIASC to convene a round table meeting of all interested parties, including architects, historic preservationists, and representatives from various archives and libraries, to explore possibilities. AIASC plans to hold such a meeting in early November, and NCSU Libraries staff will continue to offer advice and support to our sister state as requested.

Sarah Ash, associate professor in the Department of Food, Bioprocessing, and Nutrition Sciences and the coordinator of the undergraduate Nutrition Program, will explain our way of eating today by examining social, economic, and scientific factors that existed during the mid-nineteenth through the early twentieth century. Ash teaches over 1,000 students a year in a wide variety of classes, including one on US food history. She is the recipient of numerous teaching awards including the NCSU Alumni Distinguished Professor Award and the USDA Food and Agriculture Sciences Excellence in Teaching Award.

This event is part of the ongoing NCSU Libraries Fabulous Faculty Series and is cosponsored by NCSULA. Samples of popular foods from the 30’s through the 80’s will be available for tasting. The Fabulous Faculty Series is generously sponsored by a grant from the Tom Russell Foundation, Inc.

Join us on Thursday, October 15, 2009 at 4:00 p.m., the NCSU D. H. Hill Library, Assembly Room, (2nd Floor, East Wing). This event is free and open to the public.