Looking for an opportunity to discuss the latest popular books with some of the smartest people around (your friends and North Carolina State University’s most engaged scholars)?

NCSU Libraries and Wake County Public Libraries teamed up to make that easy with READ SMART, a series of informal discussions moderated by members of NC State’s faculty.

READ SMART is free and open to the public and is sponsored by Friends of the Library of North Carolina State University. All discussions are held at the Cameron Village Regional Library, 1930 Clark Avenue, Raleigh, NC 27605. For more information, please call 919-513-3481.

Upcoming programs:

	Thursday, May 16 at 7:00 p.m. Book discussion of Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo (winner of the 2012 National Book Award for non-fiction) Moderated by Dr. Sandria Freitag, assistant professor in the Department of History, NC State “. . quite simply, one of the finest works on contemporary India yet written.”” (The Telegraph UK)
	We will be taking a hiatus for the summer in June and July, but join us in August for . . .
	Thursday, August 8 at 7:00 p.m. Book discussion of Salt Sugar Fat by Michael Moss moderated by Dr. Allen Foegeding, professor of Food, Bioprocessing & Nutrition Sciences at NC State From a Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter at The New York Times comes the explosive story of the rise of the processed food industry and its link to the emerging obesity epidemic. Michael Moss reveals how companies use salt, sugar, and fat to addict us and, more important, how we can fight back.

Miami may have won the ACC basketball tournament, but a different kind of championship was awarded in the Hunt Library auditorium last week. Kimberly Dufresne was awarded the first place prize in the NCSU Libraries’ My #HuntLibrary Instagram photo competition after a fierce competition that lasted two months and had 1,400 entries. The quantity and quality of the photographs made the final selection difficult, but in the end, Kimberly’s photograph was the clear winner. It features the unique visualization technology in the building and symbolically illustrates how the James B. Hunt Jr. Library allows our students to reach new heights. Kimberly, a junior graphic design major, received an iPad Mini at an awards ceremony during halftime of NC State’s first-round game during the ACC tournament.

Libraries Communications Director David Hiscoe presents iPad Mini to Kimberly Dufresne

Left to Right: Mike Nutt, Kimberly Dufresne, David Hiscoe, Megan Wood, Emily Reeves, Torey Kiss, Tammy Wingo

Although the contest is over, we are now beginning the process of ingesting the stunning photographs from the My #HuntLibrary contest into the permanent University archives. Our goal is to add all of the Instagram photos that were tagged #HuntLibrary into our digital collections so that they become a permanent part of the story of the James B. Hunt Jr. Library. The My #HuntLibrary website will also continue to live on, so don’t forget to keep tagging your beautiful shots of #HuntLibrary!

Here are Kimberly’s winning photo and the five runners-up category winners.

First Place: Kimberly Dufresne

Most Creative Photograph: Emily Reeves

Best Architectural Photo: Torey Kiss

Best Community Photographer: Joshua Rucker

Wolfpack at Work: Mark Malek

Best Sense of Space: Tammy Wingo

These photographs were also selected as contest Finalists:

Chao Wan

Lauren Lu

Megan Wood

Tammy Wingo

Chris Ragone

Leonora Shell

Tammy Wingo

James Gries

Annotated map from student interview

With over 10,000 visits a day, D. H. Hill Library is undoubtedly a popular campus destination, but have you ever wondered exactly what our students do while they are here? Ph.D. student Dana Gierdowski and librarian Kim Duckett turned that question into a research project. Next Monday, April 30, at 11 a.m., they will present their findings in a talk entitled “Assessing Student Perceptions and Uses of Library Spaces” in the Assembly Room of D.H. Hill Library.

Over the past couple of years library staff have used a variety of strategies to understand how students do their work as well as their perceptions and uses of existing library spaces and other non-classroom spaces. This presentation highlights one project which focused on students’ perceptions and use patterns in the variety of new learning spaces in D. H. Hill Library’s West Wing. In this seminar, Gierdowski and Duckett will share an overview of the project and key findings.

Dana Gierdowski is a Doctoral Candidate in the Communication, Rhetoric, and Digital Media Program at North Carolina State University, where she studies formal and informal learning spaces in higher education.
Kim Duckett is the Principal Librarian for Digital Technologies and Learning at the North Carolina State University Libraries.

This seminar is presented by the NCSU Librarians’ Association (NCSULA). NCSULA’s mission is to provide members with professional enrichment opportunities. This event is free and open to the public.

Media Contact: David Hiscoe, NCSU Libraries,  (919) 513-3425
http://lib.ncsu.edu/exhibit/malecha

The NCSU Libraries is pleased to present The Urge to Draw, the Cause to Reflect: Drawings, Sketchbooks, Provocations, an exhibit that features over a decade of work by Marvin J. Malecha, dean of the College of Design at North Carolina State University and former president of the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

Athena's Nest for Pegasus

The exhibit explores and embodies Malecha’s fundamental premise that the act of drawing—no matter the task at hand­—can release the innate powers of our own creativity, often bringing us to a state “when clarity is vividly present and understanding seems painfully obvious. It is a moment when all of the noise of extraneous considerations falls away and purpose is immediately before you.”  The exhibit taps deep roots at NC State, an institution where mechanical crafts have always been taught, valued, and practiced as catalysts for growth and creation.

Dean Malecha has had a multi-faceted career encompassing administration, education, research, professional service, and practice as an architect. After earning a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Minnesota and a Master of Architecture from Harvard University, he was dean of the College of Environmental Design at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, for twelve years before coming to NC State University in 1994.

In addition to his teaching and administrative work, Malecha has written several books on design and has maintained an active involvement with architectural practice through his work on a wide variety of projects—including the new chancellor’s residence under construction on NC State’s Centennial Campus. He is an Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) Distinguished Professor, was awarded the prestigious AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education in 2003, and served as President of the AIA from 2008-2009.

Ticino, near Lugano, 1998

The exhibit reflects the strategies that produced Malecha’s recent book, The Urge to Draw, the Cause to Reflect: 100 Drawings and Reflections from Many Places, Times, and Spaces (NCSU Libraries Publications in collaboration with the NC State College of Design, 2011), in which a combination of sketches, evocative quotations, and short, impromptu notes or essays intermingle to capture the creative process at work. Always working with a drawing pad close by, Malecha shows how the notepad at hand in travels ranging from Hong Kong to Minnesota is integral to his practice as an architect and educator.  Both his book and the NCSU Libraries’ exhibit ask each of us to “Draw what you see. Draw to understand.  Draw to enhance your skill of seeing.  Draw to remember. . . . It will bring you an acute understanding of who you are.”

Visitors to the exhibit will quite literally be able to follow Malecha’s advice at two kiosks that invite them to draw what they see.  Facing D. H. Hill’s Conservatory and the landscape beyond, viewers at the kiosks are encouraged to add their own creative observations and experiments to the experience of the exhibit. Both traditional sketchbook and pencil and an iPad loaded with the Brushes app so brilliantly used by fellow artists such as David Hockney or Jorge Columbo will allow visitors to draw from life or from their own imaginations—either just for fun or perhaps to reach one of those moments “when clarity is vividly present and understanding seems painfully obvious.”

“I am so proud that the NCSU Libraries has been able to display Dean Malecha’s thought- and eye-provoking project,” says Susan K. Nutter, vice provost and director of the NCSU Libraries. “NC State excels in teaching our students to engage practical problems with a practical and inspired imagination.  Malecha shows us how to do it.   And the exhibit is not only a great entry point to scholars and the general public who aren’t yet aware of the tremendous cache of valuable architectural and design materials that the we hold in our Special Collections Research Center—its multimedia and immersive kiosks are a nice foretaste of the technology that will make our new James B. Hunt Jr. Library such a great place to showcase faculty and student work when we open it in early 2013.”  

The Urge to Draw, the Cause to Reflect will be open and free to the public in the D. H. Hill Library Exhibit Gallery during regular hours through December 31.  The exhibit was produced with generous support from the Goodnight Educational Foundation Library Endowment for Special Collections.

Dr. Michael Steer

Please join us for the Friends of the Library annual fall luncheon, Monday, October 31 from noon to 1:30 p.m. at the McKimmon Center.

Our featured speaker will be Dr. Michael Steer, the Lampe Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at NC State. Dr. Steer is the recipient of the US Army Commanders Award for Public Service for his work on electronic warfare applications that is credited with saving countless lives in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We will also be honoring the recipient of the twenty-third NCSU Libraries Faculty Award. This award, established in 1989, enables the library to recognize faculty contributions to the efforts of NCSU Libraries. This year’s winner is Dr. Douglas S. Reeves, Professor of Computer Science and Director of Graduate Programs for Computer Science.

Tickets are available:

$20.00 for Friends of the Library members and guests
$25.00 for general public
$10.00 for NC State students

To make your reservation or for more information, please call the Friends of the Library office at (919) 515-2841 or email friends_of_the_library@ncsu.edu.

Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes and American Lynching Culture
Thursday, October 13 at 4:00 p.m.
Assembly Room, 2nd floor, East Wing, D. H. Hill Library

Professor Jason Miller

In celebration of National Arts and Humanities Month, associate professor Jason Miller presents a discussion on Langston Hughes and the relationship between America’s neglected history of lynching and some of the world’s most significant poems. In his recently published book, Langston Hughes and American Lynching Culture, Miller examines Hughes’ poems on lynching and explores their effects on survivors, victims and perpetrators. Miller will be joined by student Jazmine Davis, who will be performing “Strange Fruit,” a song about lynching made famous by Billie Holiday.

This program is free and open to the public. Langston Hughes and American Lynching Culture will be available for on-site purchase and signing. This program is presented in collaboration with the NC State GLBT Center.

Langston Hughes photo credit: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Carl Van Vechten Collection, [LC-USZ62-92598]

Please join us for a lecture that marks the tenth anniversary of September 11:

The World Trade Center: A Complicated History
a talk by Dr. Kristen J. Schaffer

Thursday, September 8 at 4:00 p.m.
Assembly Room, 2nd floor, East Wing, D. H. Hill Library

Before September 11, 2001, the World Trade Center was a much-criticized complex of buildings. Many in the professional and academic communities, as well as among the general public, saw it as an architectural and urban design failure.

Dr. Kristen J. Schaffer, associate professor of architecture at NC State, will discuss the World Trade Center’s history, its relationship to modern architecture and city planning, and its new role as monument. “This lecture will discuss the World Trade Center as an act of creation, by Americans for Americans,” Schaffer said. “[My presentation] will focus on that act of creation and reception, not on the act of destruction.”

Schaffer further explained her approach by saying, “By looking at the history of the Center’s conception, design, construction, and public reception, we reclaim it as an act of American creation and do not cede the Center’s identity to the act of destruction. By entering into its early history we put aside, for the moment, our knowledge of its end. That is not to say forget, but for the time being suppress our knowledge of the future as we walk along with those who created the towers and who could not know its destiny.”

This lecture is free and open to the public and presented by NCSU Libraries. For more information, call 513-3481 or email marian_fragola@ncsu.edu.

Professor Rob Dunn

Join us for our first Fabulous Faculty talk of the semester:

Fabulous Faculty – Dr. Rob Dunn
Tuesday, August 30 at 4:00 p.m.
Assembly Room, 2nd floor, East Wing, D. H. Hill Library

Dunn, a professor of biology at NC State, will read from and discuss his new book The Wild Life of Our Bodies. The book explores the how the influence of wild species—including parasites, bacteria, and predators—underpin humanity’s ability to thrive and prosper. Booklist says the work is, ““Nothing less than an every-person’s handbook for understanding life, great and small, on planet Earth.”

Rob Dunn is an assistant professor of biology at NC State University whose writing has appeared in Scientific American, Smithsonian Magazine, National Geographic and other magazines. His first book, Every Living Thing, was awarded the National Outdoor Book Award for natural history writing.

Books will be available on-site for purchase and signing. This program is free and open to the public and light refreshments will be served. The NCSU Libraries Fabulous Faculty Series is made possible by a grant from the Tom Russell Charitable Foundation, Inc. For more information, contact 919-513-3481 or marian_fragola@ncsu.edu.

Join us for a sneak preview of WMKS: Where Music Kills Sorrow, the final show in Theatrefest 2011 presented by NC State’s University Theatre. Members of the cast will perform songs and discuss the play, which is set in 1935 and features old-time music, gospel and blues. Two pairs of tickets to the show will be given away as doorprizes.

Sunday, June 19 at 3:00 p.m.
Cameron Village Public Library, 1930 Clark Ave

This behind-the-scenes program is free and open to the public and co-presented by NCSU Libraries. WMKS runs through June 26. For more information, call 919-513-3481 or email: marian_fragola@ncsu.edu.

About the play WMKS:
It’s a 1935 barn-style radio show in Southwest Virginia coal country, where old time music, gospel and blues collide. This lively story has oatmeal cookies, the comedy of a romantic triangle, the drama of politics and family dynamics and surprise appearances that face off good and evil. What happens between the toe-tapping music will change forever the lives of the musicians and listeners. Directed by Allison Bergman.

Saturday, June 18 at 10:00 a.m.
Meet on the steps of D. H. Hill Library

NC State’s main campus is home to a variety of fascinating and diverse architectural styles. Catherine Bishir, curator of architecture special collections at NCSU Libraries, and Clymer Cease, NC State alum and principal with Pearce Brinkley Cease & Lee, will share the architectural history of some of NC State’s most interesting structures during this walking tour. Free and open to the public, but space is limited. Please call 919-513-3481 or email marian_fragola@ncsu.edu to reserve your spot.

This program is presented by NCSU Libraries and supported by the Friends of the Library.