Creating the Best Learning and Collaborative Space in the Country
September 13, 2011
Media Contact: dwhiscoe , NCSU Libraries, (919) 513-3425
The NCSU Libraries has launched a $10,000,000 initiative to ensure that the new James B. Hunt Jr. Library can become nothing less than the best learning and collaborative space in the country. Funds from the Everything you can imagine . . . and more initiative will be used to enhance its inspiring spaces, sustain the building's excellence for the future, and supply the immersive technology that will make this signature building a competitive edge for the people of North Carolina and the students, faculty, and researchers at North Carolina State University.
Designed to be an iconic space that will say this is NC State in the 21st century, the Hunt Library will anchor the academic oval on Centennial Campus, bringing a heart and intellectual center to this rapidly growing research park and farsighted collaboration between the university and over sixty corporate, governmental, and institutional partners. The building's bold design embodies a spirit of discovery and innovation that will be instrumental in creating the next several generations of technology-savvy citizens, researchers, and scholars.
The citizens of North Carolina, through funding from the North Carolina General Assembly, have enabled a magnificent building, but that building is being outfitted during an extremely demanding economic environment. Through its three funds, the Everything you can imagine . . . and more initiative will ensure that the new library can realize its vision of embodying NC State's prowess in technology, engineering, textiles, and science and becoming a major factor in attracting and retaining the best faculty, students, and corporate partners:
- Space Enhancements for the Hunt Library
To ensure that every corner of the Hunt library can be a memorable, stunning place ”environments where students and researchers are encouraged to breathe life into the aspirations of a great university.
- Technology Enhancements for the Hunt Library
To purchase the latest and most productive computing, learning, and collaboration tools that will allow students and faculty to put their talents to work, at almost any hour of any day, with the emerging large-scale display and gesture-based computing technologies that are now powering a new wave of sophistication in how we see data and create digital media.
- The Endowment for Library Learning Spaces
To allow the NCSU Libraries to continue to provide innovative spaces and tools well into the future as new game-changing technologies become available and as the Libraries envisions new types of spaces to support new learning opportunities.
The Everything you can imagine . . . and more initiative also makes available a range of naming opportunities for donors who want to honor a family member, place their company name in a high-profile space in this signature building, or ensure their legacy at NC State.
I don't know of another educational building in North Carolina that is in its league. It's going to be an iconic building, not just for NC State but for the state of North Carolina ”it makes a bold statement about the excellence of NC State University, explains Wyndham Robertson, a long time supporter of the NCSU Libraries, former editor at Time and Fortune magazines, and early contributor to the Everything you can imagine . . . and more initiative. And the naming opportunities for the Hunt Library spaces are just a really good value, a great opportunity to help define the face of the university in this century, she adds.
We've worked for decades to make this new library happen; the structure itself is paid for, and construction is moving toward completion. The building is bold and astounding, everything we hoped for, says Susan K. Nutter, vice provost and director of the NCSU Libraries. Now we need to fill it with the technologies and spaces that will make it come alive as both a symbol and enabler of NC State's economic and intellectual achievements. There has never been a time in our history when we have more needed the edge that our donors can give us.