NCSU Libraries Focus Online

Volume 24 number 1 - Fall 2003

By Assad Meymandi, President, Friends of the Library Board of Directors

One of the most exciting events of the twenty-first century, which holds much promise for the future of this country and the world, is textonics. The first half of the twentieth century saw many inventions including the flight of the Wright brothers, Salk vaccine, and the discovery of antibiotics. The second half of the century witnessed the stunning and most important discovery in the ten-thousand-year history of Neolithic man, namely DNA, in February 1953. Its discoverers--James Watson of America and Francis Crick of Great Britain--were awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1962.

The twenty-first century harbors the possibility of offering mankind the most important undertaking of textonics. It is digitizing the literature of the world and making it available to every child, even in the most remote villages in all corners of the world. Just think, it will bring the content of the world's libraries to students everywhere. One is reminded of Al Gore's comment several years ago that we should strive to bring the content of the Library of Congress to every student in America. Librarian of Congress James Billington, in several commentaries, emphasized the staggering problem of copyright laws, just to mention one drawback. But over the past several years, an enormous amount of progress has been made to overcome these barriers. There are a number of incentives in the form of awards created by academic centers and devoted to the fostering and encouragement of rapid development of this field. Among these awards are the A. R. Zipf Award and, for the past two years, the Richard Lyman Award given by the National Humanities Center in the Research Triangle Park in North Carolina. Jerome McGann, chair of the Department of Textonics at the University of Virginia, received the 2002 Lyman Award. The 2003 Lyman Award winner is Roy Rosenzweig of the College of Arts and Sciences, George Mason University. The award ceremonies were held in the Great Hall of the Library of Congress, an elegant venue. Those of us privileged to attend were witness to an exciting event not dissimilar to the first flight of the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

The fields of genomics, which has produced five Nobel Prize winners, and of proteomics, with its three Nobel Prize winners, are merging with the field of textonics (no Noble Prize yet) and asymptotically approaching the holy grail of artificial intelligence.

One of the best-kept secrets of NC State is its program of textonics. This is a labor intensive initiative of our own NCSU Libraries to digitize and preserve world literature. Recently, I spent two afternoons at the British Library, conferring with its director and the person in charge of information technology and digitization. I can tell you that we are far ahead of the United Kingdom. I am also in touch with the University of Paris and the Sorbonne. They, too, are nowhere near where NCSU and its program of digitization now stand. We applaud the leadership of Susan Nutter, her able staff, and the leadership of Chancellor Marye Anne Fox. Without hubris, all of us should be proud of NC State.

Now I want to welcome and introduce the newest members of the Board of Directors. Each brings a unique perspective and wealth of experience that will benefit the board's work.

Sory Bowers is a local arts advocate in Raleigh. She and her husband Henry, vice chancellor emeritus of student affairs at NC State, established an Incubator Endowment to support the visual arts collections in the library.

Alex De Grand has been a professor with the Department of History at NC State since 1986. He is currently the president of the Society for Italian Historical Studies. He and his wife Linda have started an Incubator Endowment to support the library.

Cindy Joseph works for a family owned business, the Joseph Agency. She and her husband Fred are enthusiastic Wolfpack supporters. She is an avid community volunteer and is from Greensboro.

Charlotte Martin is active in many Raleigh-area organizations such as the North Carolina Symphony, Carolina Ballet, White Memorial Church, and the YMCA. She and her husband Leroy established the Leroy and Charlotte Martin Foundation.

Hayne Palmour is a professor emeritus of materials science and engineering who lives in Raleigh. He is currently completing one term on the board and has been asked to serve another term. He and his wife Barbara have funded an endowment for the library.

Charles Sedberry is a lawyer from Raleigh who works with the law firm Joslin, Sedberry & Lamkin. He is a 1959 NC State chemical engineering graduate.

Jane Warren is a 1968 graduate of NC State with a degree in math education. She taught math and computers for nineteen years. She is currently the office manager and bookkeeper for the family's restaurant management business in Greensboro. Her husband Steve is also an NC State alumnus and current member of the NC State Board of Trustees. They are avid Wolfpack fans.