The magazine of the American Institute of Architects explains why the Hunt Library is an iconic social monument.

Earlier this year, the AIA and the American Library Association honored the Hunt Library with a 2013 AIA / ALA Library Building Award.

“It is with good reason that we remember the Library of Alexandria today as a fulcrum of intellectual curiosity and invention.  Just as libraries modernized with the invention of printing, why can’t libraries today enjoy another, digital renaissance?”

On Friday, May 17th, library staff participated in what is becoming a regular seasonal event for us: volunteering with the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle’s Field Gleaning program. Gleaning is the act of picking farm produce that is left over after harvest or that would otherwise go to waste. IFFS then distributes the food as part of its mission to end hunger in our community.

Thirteen library staff left the comfortable air-conditioning of the libraries, packing two minivans on a journey to Faison, NC where we picked collard greens. Seasonal eaters will know that May is the end of the collard season, which is why this field was donated for gleaning. We avoided plants that were beginning to flower, focusing on tall, lush plants with greens at full maturity.

Scratch Bakery of Durham generously provided “gleaner fuel” in the form of donuts, coffee cake and tarts–just the thing to power a beginner through some farm labor.

Over the course of a few hours, our crew picked 3127 pounds of collard greens, filling a refrigerated IFFS truck to capacity. That’s over 200 pounds per person! This fresh, healthy food went out for distribution the following day at IFFS mobile markets, which serve people in need throughout the Triangle.

This marks the Libraries’ third gleaning (see last year’s), in what is becoming a tradition of volunteering with the Food Shuttle, who are newly our neighbors (their offices are on Blair Drive, very near the new Hunt Library). These library staff participated in the gleaning: Brent Brafford, Erin Campbell, Karen Ciccone, Sarah Craig, David Hiscoe, Nancy Kress, Cory Lown, Jason Raitz, Adam Rogers, Charles Samuels, Sydney Thompson, and Barbara Weinberg.

Photographs by Brent Brafford and Charles Samuels.

When: 1 a.m., during final exams (except for Saturday and Sunday mornings)

Where: the D. H. Hill and Hunt Libraries

Long after the cafes have closed for the night, the Friends of the Library will be providing free coffee, donuts, and more in the lobbies of the D. H. Hill Library and the Hunt Library throughout final examinations (except for Saturday and Sunday mornings).

So put down the books for a few moments, take a deep breath or two, and meet us at 1 a.m. to throw off the stress and boost up the energy

Thanks to University Dining for providing the coffee.

The Boston Globe’s “Travel” section chooses the Hunt Library as one of the nation’s “5 novel libraries.”

William Aycock (Student Body President [SBP], 1935-36) explains what it was like at NC State at the height of the Great Depression and how his generation prepared itself for combat in Europe.  William Friday (Senior Class President, 1941, and later the president of the University of North Carolina system for thirty years) recalls the atmosphere on campus on the day Pearl Harbor was attacked.

Four-time North Carolina governor James B. Hunt, Jr. (SBP, 1957-59) pays homage to the respected faculty who shaped his political thinking and remembers realizing at this critical point in his life how the political system could play a role in improving citizens’ lives. Eric Moore (Student Senate President, 1970) describes what campus life was like for African American students in the late 1960s, while Cathy Sterling reflects on being the first woman to serve as NC State’s Student Body President (1970-71).

Returning to campus after two years of service in the Vietnam War to see the student newspaper earnestly in debate over what types of sandwiches should be served in the cafeteria, Terry Carroll (SBP, 1973-74) found an atmosphere of complacency that “put a fire in [his] gut” and inspired his own attempts to awaken fellow students to what he saw as “a world on fire.”  “I met a whole fleet of people . . . and between us all someone is going to change the world . . . and owe it to NC State,” concludes Greg Doucette (Student Senate President, 2009, and UNC Association of Student Government President, 2008-10).

After leaving NC State, the students profiled in the project went on to a wide variety of distinguished careers as governors, legislators, educators, business entrepreneurs, as well as leadership roles in the medical, banking, computing, and legal professions.

The Student Leadership Initiative currently highlights more than 130 former student leaders and provides engaging video interviews with over 30 who share memories of their experiences on campus.  Their stories encourage present-day students to connect to the past, alumni to put their own time at NC State into perspective, and scholars to access a collection of oral histories that help tell the story of North Carolina and NC State University for almost ninety years.

The project will add new profiles as research continues and is also available as a multimedia presentation on the large-scale visualization display in the iPearl Immersion Theater in the Hunt Library.

The library is expected to receive LEED Silver certification, making it the fourth LEED certified building on campus.  See the Hunt Library sustainability site for more information about how the Hunt Library represents NC State’s commitment to leading by example in advancing sustainability as a moral imperative and as an economic advantage.

Matt Ratto, University of Toronto

On May 9, 2013, Matt Ratto, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto, will present his talk “Why Johnny Can’t Read (an iPhone): Literacy, Maker Spaces, and the Modern Library,” as the featured speaker at the NCSU Libraries’ I.T. Littleton Seminar. The seminar will be held at 2:00 p.m. in the Auditorium at the James B. Hunt Jr. Library on NC State’s Centennial Campus.

Ratto will explore how new technologies are dominating the educational landscape and transforming how people experience, share, and communicate about the world.  Educational institutions and libraries are grappling with how to incorporate and provide access to these technologies, while addressing their critical issues and problems. Ratto suggests that the ‘maker movement’ presents an opportunity for these institutions to engage and promote a socio-technical literacy that emphasizes not just technical skills, but individuals’ ability to make sense of the sociality of these new technologies.

Matt Ratto is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto and Director of the Semaphore research cluster on Inclusive Design, Mobile and Pervasive Computing. He also leads ThingTank Lab, a non-profit lab space and research project examining and designing the Internet of Things. Matt’s research examines how hands-on productive work – making – can supplement and extend critical reflection on the relations between digital technologies and society. This work builds upon the new possibilities offered by open source software and hardware, as well as the developing technologies of 3D printing and rapid prototyping. These technologies and the social collectives that create, use, and share them provide the context for exploring the relationship between ‘critical making’ and ‘critical thinking.’

The annual I. T. Littleton Seminar is funded by an endowment established in 1987 to explore key issues in the development of academic libraries and to honor former Library Director Littleton upon his retirement from NC State. The Libraries welcomes your continued support of the I. T. Littleton Seminar series. If you would like to make a contribution to support future seminars, please send your check, payable to the Friends of the Library, to: Friends of the Library, NCSU Libraries, Box 7111, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-7111. Please note I. T. Littleton Seminar Endowment on your check. For more information, please call (919) 515-7315.