NCSU Libraries Focus Online
Volume 25 number 2 - Winter 2005
Richard H. Bernhard Receives NCSU Libraries Faculty Award
By Linda Saunders, Research and Information Services
Richard H. Bernhard, professor of industrial engineering in NC State University's
College of Engineering, received the 2004 NCSU Libraries Faculty Award. The
award is presented annually to an NC State faculty member in recognition of
that individual's outstanding contributions in support of the Libraries' mission
and its role within the university. Bernhard received the library's sixteenth
annual award at the Friends of the Library Fall Luncheon on November 10, 2004.
Bernhard's active partnership with the Libraries has lasted for more than
twenty-five years. He has been a member of the University Library Committee
(ULC) since 1979, acting as its chair from 1980 through 1982. In 1990 he served
on the Commission on the State of the Library, which was formed to investigate
and recommend short- and long-term strategies to overcome critical problems
caused by state budget reductions and consequent serials cancellations and
service reductions. The commission carried out a comprehensive review of the
NCSU Libraries, and its recommendations helped to spur the advancement of the
Libraries, which today is ranked 32 out of 113 top academic research libraries
in North America.
Over the years, Bernhard has been active on several library search committees,
including the committee that recruited Susan K. Nutter as director of the NCSU
Libraries. He has been a member of the Scholarly Communication Subcommittee
of the ULC and a member of the library's Satellite Shelving Facility Task Force,
which advised on plans to create a new on-campus storage facility for the library's
least-used materials. When the library was forced to make radical changes in
the structure of fees for overdue and lost materials, Bernhard served as the
first chair of the Library Appeals Committee, a post in which he currently
continues to serve. He has truly exemplified dedication, professionalism, and
fairness in all his work on behalf of the Libraries.
During the negotiations between the Libraries and Reed Elsevier last year,
Bernha rd introduced a resolution in the Faculty Senate to support the library
in rejecting a prohibitive consortial license offer, and he played a key role
in the passage of the resolution. He also assisted the Student Senate with
drafting a resolution on the matter.
Bernhard is a life member of the Friends of the Library and has served as
a member of the board. In 1992 he and his wife Cindy honored their daughter
on the occasion of her graduation from NC State by establishing the Barbara
Bernhard Windom Incubator Endowment, which has reached nearly $10,000.
Bernhard's dedication to the NCSU Libraries is clearly revealed through his
long-term commitment to library programs and willingness to serve in so many
capacities. Alex De Grand, an NCSU professor of history and a past recipient
of the Faculty Award, says, "Of all the people whom I know at this university,
no one has taken as great a personal interest in the library as Dick Bernhard.
He has worked constantly on library issues in the Faculty Senate. He understands
what is important to the administration and staff of the Libraries, and, as
in the case of the negotiations with Elsevier, he seeks to publicize and advance
the positions taken by the NCSU Libraries."
The NCSU Libraries is pleased to recognize Richard H. Bernhard's contributions
by awarding him the 2004 Faculty Award.
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