By: Library Staff

We’ve had to wait since 1921.  But students at NC State think that we have now waited long enough, and are doing something about it.  The result: the first of the long-awaited bells for our Bell Tower are now here and on display in the D. H. Hill Library.

The NC State University Memorial Bell Tower has been a work-in-progress since its granite cornerstone was laid in 1921. Conceived and funded by alumni as a monument to honor alumni killed in World War I, it was designed by architect William Henry Deacy and partially constructed in phases between 1922 and 1926. Work came to a halt during the Great Depression and World War II.

In 1937 the stonework was finished with funding from the federal Works Progress Administration. The class of 1938 student honor societies donated the clock, and floodlights were the class gift of 1939. It took another decade to complete the shrine room and memorial plaque. The formal dedication was held on November 11, 1949.

Yet, the Bell Tower has never had any real bells.  For more than half a century, the chimes that you hear ringing out on the hour have been produced by a recording and a speaker system.

In 2008, Masters of Architecture candidate and College of Design alumnus Matt Robbins discovered the empty carillon during his thesis research on NC State architecture. This inspired the founding of FINISH THE [BELL] TOWER, a student-initiated grassroots movement that encourages students, alumni, and the community to raise the funds needed to procure and install fifty-five bells to complete the carillon.

The bells now at D. H. Hill are gifts from the 2010 senior class and individual donors and are the first three of a five-bell array that will make up the “Westminster” set that strikes the hour.

You can see them in the main floor of the west wing, just past the Creamery and the Silent Reading Room.

Read more about the Memorial Bell Tower at ncsu.edu/about-nc-state/belltower/.

Get involved with Finish the [Bell] Tower at bells.ncsu.edu/.

–Memorial Bell Tower modeling and rendering courtesy of Matt Robbins.

By: Library Staff

(Raleigh, N.C.)—The North Carolina State University Libraries has received substantial funding to organize and make accessible an important body of rare materials that documents efforts in animal welfare and the animal rights movements of the second half of the 20^th century.

Supported by a two-year, $219,600 grant from the Council on Library and Information  Resources (CLIR), Acting for Animals: Revealing the Records of Animal Rights and Animal Welfare Movements will allow the Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) at the NCSU Libraries to catalog one of the most comprehensive troves of such material in North America.

In 1979 universities in the United States offered only a total of nine courses focused on human-animal studies. Today more than 25 academic disciplines at 120 U.S. universities and colleges teach courses in the field. What has been called the “question of the animal” has become a recurrent challenge in our daily lives and a central issue within academic research across the humanities, human and veterinary medicine, and the sciences.   However, the lack of substantial archival collections continues to hamper study of these movements. The work at the NCSU Libraries will help remedy this situation by making accessible the records of the Animal Rights Network (ARN), portions of the records of the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), and the Ron Scott videotapes.

Animal advocacy movements since the 1950s have tended to move in two key directions.  The animal welfare movement has worked for reforms in how animals are treated in all aspects of society, including agriculture, industry, science, conservation, and recreation. The AWI was at the center of this movement, playing a key role in much federal legislation related to the humane treatment of animals in laboratories and farms across the country.  The AWI collection contains correspondence and other material from the AWI and its lobbying organization, the Society for Animal Protective Legislation, including a large number of files on international issues such as whaling and the exotic animal trade. The AWI collection also will make accessible hundreds of files documenting groups opposed to the animal welfare movement.

The animal rights movement historically staked out the position that non-human animals have inherent moral status–usually including the right not to be treated as property.  The ARN, primarily through its magazine The Animal Rights Agenda, was at the core of this line of argumentation.   As Dr. Tom Regan, professor emeritus of philosophy at NC State University, has explained, “it would not be possible to understand the growth of animal rights advocacy during the last fifty years without having access to the . . . archival materials in the ARN collection.”

Finally, Acting for Animals will catalog and preserve hundreds of audio and videotapes documenting conferences, demonstrations, debates, and oral histories with important figures in the these movements, most recorded by Ron Scott, a retired Air Force pilot who travelled extensively in the United States and abroad filming key events during the formative history of animal advocacy.

In addition to making these collections available, the Acting for Animals project will do extensive and ongoing user testing in the process of developing its finding guides.  The knowledge gained will advance our understanding of how users of archival materials actually navigate and suggest how they can more easily discover information in modern mixed-media collections that can intimidate with their size, inconsistent organization, and vast range of formats.

Created in 2008 with funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the CLIR Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives program that will support Acting for Animals is designed to bring to light the staggering volume of items of potentially substantive intellectual value that are currently held in museums, libraries, and other cultural institutions, but are largely unknown and inaccessible to scholars and the public.

By: Marian Fragola

Amazing Alumni – Barbara Mulkey
Wednesday, February 15 at 4:00 p.m.
Auditorium, West Wing, D. H. Hill Library

Please join us as Barbara Mulkey, Chair of the NC State University Board of Trustees, discusses her experiences as a successful engineer and businessperson at the NCSU Libraries’ next Amazing Alumni program. The discussion will be moderated by Catherina Gomes, an NC State student who is majoring in chemical engineering.

A native of North Carolina, Mulkey has used her skills in structural engineering and marketing and business development to build a successful engineering firm, Mulkey Engineers & Consultants, which she started in 1993. She received both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering from NC State.

Mulkey’s new book, Building Bridges, will be available on site for purchase and signing.

The Amazing Alumni series is presented by NCSU Libraries and supported by the Friends of the Library. This program is presented in partnership with Women In Science & Engineering (WISE) at NC State.

For more information, contact Marian Fragola at 919-513-3481 or marian_fragola@ncsu.edu.

By: Library Staff

If you were given everything you needed to make a short film, one week to tell your story, and the chance to transform your vision into reality, would you take it?  Winning fame and some great prizes?  Becoming a campus legend?

Campus MovieFest will be here on Wednesday, February 15^th, from 12-5 p.m. inside the Reading Room on the ground floor of the D.H. Hill Library. Come find out how YOU can become a filmmaker.

Each team of students that registers will be provided with a loaner Apple laptop, an HD video camera, and 24-hour-a-day technical support.  You will have one week to make a five-minute masterpiece. Submissions will be judged, and the top movies will be showcased at a Campus MovieFest Finale celebration–red carpet and all.  All of the movies will be featured in highlights on the web for the campus to see.  In addition to unparalleled fame in Wolfpack Land, there will be prizes, exposure opportunities, and the chance to see your movie on the big screen–as well as an opportunity to enter the regional and national competitions! Top CMF films are showcased in-flight on Virgin America and at the Cannes Film Festival Short Film Corner.

How are you going to pass that up?

Categories include “Best Picture,” “Best Drama,” and “Best Comedy,” as well as the “CMF Elfenworks Social Justice Category,” an opportunity to create a short movie or song about poverty and social injustices for a chance to win up to $20,000 in cash grants.

Movies are turned in on Tuesday, February 21^st and then judged by a panel of N.C. State students, staff, and faculty. On Sunday February 26^th, the top short movies will be shown at the finale in the Witherspoon Student Center Cinema at 8:00 p.m. Top winners from N.C. State advance to the CMF Grand Finale in Hollywood, CA, in June 2012.

N.C. State winners are also invited to join the CMF Distinguished Filmmakers Network, a program that provides top students with opportunities ranging from paid content production to unforgettable experiences within the film industry.

Online registration is available now.

We’ll see you on February 15th, when your team can pick up your equipment at the D. H. Hill Library.

This event is sponsored by the Union Activities Board, University Housing, the Wolfpack Club, the IRC, WolfTV, the C.A.M.P.U.S Community Coalition, Student Media, Live It Up On Hillsborough Street, and—of course—the NCSU Libraries.  Watch past award-winning films from other universities and find out more information at www.campusmoviefest.com/.

For a little inspiration, check out the 2011 NC State campus winners:

Best Picture: The Revolutionary
Most Popular: So We Got a Guy . . .
Best Comedy: Panda Bear Affair
Best Drama: Walkman

See a full selection of NC State top picks here.

By: Library Staff

This past Thursday, ten library staff members “flash mobbed” the Raleigh City Museum and cataloged 444 of their books.

The Raleigh City Museum, located in the historic Briggs Hardware Building in downtown Raleigh, “is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to collecting, preserving and interpreting the history of Raleigh, North Carolina’s capital city.” The museum’s library collection was largely gathered in the process of researching specific exhibits, and it contains books on Raleigh and North Carolina history dating back to 1873.

Museum collections staff member Elizabeth Weichel contacted the library after hearing about past flash mob cataloging events at the Joel Lane House and local elementary schools. (See the video, Flash Mob! NCSU Libraries Storm Raleigh’s Oldest House.) According to Elizabeth, “With our limited resources, cataloging our entire library would have been a tremendous undertaking, but the flash mob got it all done in mere hours, allowing us to proceed with our goal of providing a Reading and Research Room that is open to the public.”

Library staff created the museum’s catalog using LibraryThing, a free online book cataloging service. Catalogers assigned “tags” to major topical categories to aid in finding resources. LibraryThing includes book covers, Library of Congress cataloging information (when available), and links to user reviews and author information. Museum staff can also add reviews and track circulation using the system.

This volunteer event was organized by the Libraries’ Community Service Committee, which provides opportunities for library staff to engage in group community service activities throughout the year. Library participants were Laura Abraham, Karen Ciccone, Kellie Burris-Walton, Liz Bell, Molly Renda, Rob E. Loomis, Barbara Weinberg, Jennifer Baker, Keisha Poole, and Charlie Pennel. Kellie Burris-Walton’s husband, Grayson Walton, who is an employee at Raleigh City Museum, also helped.

You can view the Raleigh City Museum’s catalog in LibraryThing at http://www.librarything.com/profile/RaleighCityMuseum.

By: Library Staff

No. 1: You voted the Creamery and Howling Cow at the top of things that must be done at NC State. So we know we’re helping provide the comfort food you need.

No. 9: “Pulling an all-nighter at D. H. Hill” comes in some place little further down the list of Wolfpack “musts.” You clearly know where to go when push comes to shove.

But, of course the real number one thing to do at NC State is to excel at your studies, to become the expert, skilled professional that will set the course of your life for decades. That can transform everything. We suggest an additional great NC State experience.

Starting a project or paper? Down into it, but running into problems finding what you need? Way past being a Google amateur? Just ask us (in person, text, email, cell, whatever)—and our librarians and info gurus will get you on the right path.

By: Library Staff

(Raleigh, N.C.)—The North Carolina State University Libraries is proud to announce the immediate availability of drawings and papers of well-known modernist architect Richard B. “Dick” Schnedl.

Raised in Charlotte, N.C., Schnedl was a member of the first graduating class of the North Carolina State University School (now College) of Design, where he studied with architect luminaries Jim Fitzgibbon, George Matsumoto, Ed Waugh, and Matthew Nowicki.

Holy Infant Catholic Church
(Photo courtesy of Fr. Joseph W. Mack)

After graduation, he worked briefly for Leslie Boney, Sr. in Wilmington, N.C., before joining his brother Ed in 1953 to form Schnedl & Schnedl in Reidsville, N.C. An admirer of Frank Lloyd Wright, Schnedl’s early residential designs reflect sophisticated open floor plans uncommon for Southern residences at the time. His approach to commercial and institutional facilities resulted in statements of simplicity and elegance as in his design for the Holy Infant Catholic Church in Reidsville featured in Progressive Architecture in the early 1960s.

Around 1968, Schnedl partnered with architects Dick Mitchell, Tommy Hayes, and Calvin Howell at Hayes Howell in Southern Pines, where he initiated imaginative designs for multi-purposed spaces in public schools specially conceived to accommodate teaching innovations developed in the federal government’s model schools programs. Also, while at Hayes Howell, he was the partner in charge of design for the award-winning African Pavilion building at the North Carolina Zoo.

In 1984, Schnedl left Hayes Howell and moved to Bald Head Island, where over the remainder of his career he designed more than forty houses, all intricately respectful and reflective of the sensitive ecosystems into which they were built.

“Dick Schnedl’s drawings are a fine addition to the NCSU Libraries’ growing archive of works by North Carolina architects, and they especially strengthen our valuable documentation of the Modernist influences on the Southern built-environment,” explains Susan K. Nutter, vice provost and director of the NCSU Libraries. “We are proud to make the work of this noted architect and NC State graduate available to researchers and lovers of architecture around the world.”

A guide detailing materials in the collection is available online at http://lib.ncsu.edu/findingaids/mc00428. Researchers can access the drawings in the Special Collections Research Center of the D.H. Hill Library on the NC State campus.

By: Marian Fragola

Image from A Life Long Identity by Meredith Laxton

Back by popular demand!

Short Film Screening
Thursday, February 2 at 7:00 p.m.
Auditorium, West Wing, D. H. Hill Library

Experience the talent of NC State students as they screen their best short films. Ranging from computer animation to experimental pieces, all films are under four minutes long. During the program, students will talk about the process of creating their work. Professors Sarah Stein and Jim Alchediak from the Department of Communications and Professors McArthur Freeman and Marc Russo from the College of Design will be on hand to facilitate discussion about the student pieces. Participating students include Griff Edwards, Matt King, Zoe Symon, Darius Dawson, Tyler Monroe, Tyler Borden, Kirby Culbertson, Meredith Laxton, Nick Helton, Karoon McDowell, Ross Emery, Derek Maclellan, Lorrie Guess and Jedidiah Gant.

Free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served. This program is co-presented by NCSU Libraries, the Department of Communication and the College of Design. For more information, call 513-3481 or marian_fragola@ncsu.edu.

Image from I Wake by Tyler Monroe

By: Library Staff

Registration is now open for the DELTA Spring 2012 workshop series and our schedule of classes begins on January 24th. Attend a free DELTA Workshop or Seminar to learn about learning management system (LMS) tools, best practices for developing online content, proven methods for teaching online effectively and more.

Workshops & seminars are offered at no charge, and are available to all NC State faculty, staff and graduate students.

For a full description of our classes and to register online, please visit http://delta.ncsu.edu/workshops and click the “Register now!” link. [You will be prompted to login with your Unity ID and password. If you have any questions, or need assistance, please contact us at learntech@ncsu.edu or call 513-7094.

By: Marian Fragola

Andrew Revkin

Science Blogger Andy Revkin
Wednesday, January 18 at 11:30 a.m.
Auditorium, West Wing, D. H. Hill Library

During this fast-paced “lunch and learn” program, prize-winning journalist, science blogger and author Andrew C. Revkin will discuss how innovations created in universities and laboratories can best be transmitted to parts of the world where they are most needed. Revkin is the author of The New York Times blog Dot Earth and has spent more than a quarter of a century covering subjects ranging from the troubled relationship between science and politics to climate change at the North Pole.

Free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served. Copies of two of Revkin’s recent works — The Burning Season: The Murder of Chico Mendes and the Fight for the Amazon Rain Forest and The North Pole Was Here: Puzzles and Perils at the Top of the World (children’s book) — will be available for on-site purchase and signing.

For more information call 513-3481 or email marian_fragola@ncsu.edu.

This program is sponsored by the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and co-hosted by NC State’s College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences and College of Humanities and Social Sciences, and the NCSU Libraries.

Andy Revkin’s visit to Raleigh is made possible, in part, by Earth: The Operators’ Manual (ETOM), supported by the National Science Foundation: earththeoperatorsmanual.com.