You can see what the new Centennial Campus library will look like here:
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/higher_education/story/1489110.html

Evidently, there will be no bookstacks in the library - books will be retrieved by robot.

4/17/2009 12:06:40 PM

o rulz?! that's cool

4/17/2009 12:07:25 PM

a robot? how many books does a person check out from just browsing the general section stack though

4/17/2009 12:08:04 PM

personally, i never just "browse" the stacks...i peruse the section of the book i am looking for, but that is the extent of it

[Edited on April 17, 2009 at 12:12 PM. Reason : ]

4/17/2009 12:11:35 PM

i do it a lot actually.

i've found some neat stuff that way. if you're doing research and find a specific book that you're interested in, if you look in that general area, a lot of times you'll find other books that you might be interested.

[Edited on April 17, 2009 at 12:12 PM. Reason : .]

4/17/2009 12:11:48 PM

when i say browse, i mean i look up a book's location online, then when i find that book, i also look at the surrounding books, and a lot of the time i will either see a better one, or ill get multiple

maybe they will enhance the "if you like this book, maybe you will be interested in these others..." part of the search process

4/17/2009 12:13:31 PM

4/17/2009 12:13:39 PM

browsing can sometimes be useful when you know what topic you're looking for but don't have a specific book in mind

it's really only a matter of time until all of the library's content is digitized but I guess its useful to keep stacks around, since reading a real book is sometimes superior to an e-book or pdf

[Edited on April 17, 2009 at 12:19 PM. Reason : oops]

4/17/2009 12:14:00 PM

it's like they're tempting the robots to become sentient

4/17/2009 12:16:18 PM

Quote :

"when i say browse, i mean i look up a book's location online, then when i find that book, i also look at the surrounding books, and a lot of the time i will either see a better one, or ill get multiple"

Very common for me.

Well, common when I used the library, at least. Sometimes I'd just go to the NASA papers section, grab a random book, and flip through it to see if anything caught my eye. If it looked boring, I'd put it back and get a different one to flip through.

4/17/2009 12:24:28 PM

So what do you think of the building?
My first reaction is "Where are all the bricks?!"

4/17/2009 12:27:32 PM

Quote :

"since reading a real book is sometimes superior to an e-book or pdf"

do people actually prefer looking at a computer screen to read an entire book??

4/17/2009 12:28:16 PM

i wish these professional news publications would post images that are bigger than a thumbnail




[Edited on April 17, 2009 at 12:30 PM. Reason : ccxzczxc]

4/17/2009 12:28:28 PM

Quote :

"do people actually prefer looking at a computer screen to read an entire book??"

for an entire book, no way - I guess my point is that each media has benefits and drawbacks.

E-book:
+Easy to retrieve/download
+Takes up no physical space
+Easily searchable (ctrl+f)
-Need a computer to read
-Have to look at a computer screen

Real book:
+Can take anywhere and read w/o computer
+More comfortable to read
-Takes up space / is heavy
-Have to go to library to retrieve
-Searching is somewhat cumbersome - index, etc

There's a better, larger image in today's print N&O but I don't have a scanner

[Edited on April 17, 2009 at 12:39 PM. Reason : ]

4/17/2009 12:37:31 PM

here's some photos/plans from the library website

i dont think there are any of the building design

4/17/2009 12:40:18 PM

4/17/2009 12:42:06 PM

base of the building does look like it will be brick after all

4/17/2009 12:45:03 PM

click on 'em.

4/17/2009 12:53:39 PM

MC Escher approves of the interior

4/17/2009 1:09:58 PM

^LOL

I like it. Especially since they said the skin of the building will be a semi-reflective metal--pretty damn cool design, and one that will finally give NCSU a showpiece modern building. I'm of two minds about the robots--the idea is very cool, and the technology is quite appropriate for our engineering/computer specialization. As several folks have said, though, it is sometimes fun to browse the books around what you went to find, which can't be done anymore...

4/17/2009 1:52:10 PM

Sorry, teach.
Couldn't get that book we were supposed to read

Oh really?

Yeah, the library was broken.

4/17/2009 1:56:19 PM

Damn, I wish I was smart enough to be an engineer.

4/17/2009 2:34:29 PM

Damn, uh. That's a big library. 200,000 sq feet compares to what? How big is D.H. Hill?

I mean, if this is bigger than D.H. Hill, is it planning on replacing what's there? Are they just gonna move over books like CoT (where all textile related books, journal publications, etc are located)? If so and it is bigger than D.H. Hill, I don't know their motivation behind building another library.

Looks cool though. Should mesh well with the rest of Centennial Campus.

4/17/2009 3:37:21 PM

im thinking maybe some of the engineering books would be sent over to Centennial, but of course they would get new books too

i wonder if the $100somethin million figure includes that to fill it with books

4/17/2009 3:39:12 PM

HEY I WONDER IF THEY WILL FORGET ABOUT THE WEIGHT OF THE BOOKS SO THAT IT SINKS LIKE HARRELSON

4/17/2009 4:54:01 PM

it'd be kinda funny if the main storage for the books was a big building-tall cylinder in the middle and they had a harrelson type of helical walkway around it to different floors

4/17/2009 4:57:26 PM

As far as I know, a mix of items from D.H. Hill and from the Satellite Shelving Facility will be moved over there - there have also been rumbling of eventually converting the top floor (and maybe some other areas) of the Hill stacks into a Learning Commons type space once some of the books are moved.

But of course they'll also continue to acquire lots of new books, like they do each year.

4/17/2009 4:57:28 PM

A lot of folks don't even know about the Satellite Shelving Facility.

For those of you who don't, it's a medium-size building on Sullivan Drive, the former Central Stores building. Full o' books that don't fit in DH Hill anymore. I imagine it's long since reached capacity and they're probably pretty densely packed in there, too.

4/17/2009 6:13:02 PM

http://www.alumni.ncsu.edu/blog/2009/09/14/work-starting-on-the-hunt-library/

cool

9/14/2009 12:51:04 PM

As an employee of the NCSU Libraries, we are involved in a lot of talks about the new Hunt Library (Cent. Campus). There was actually a lot of debate about whether or not students "browse" the collections. Some people agreed that certain disciplines may browse more than others. Not sure though. They're gonna have a better coffee bar/cafe

9/14/2009 12:59:30 PM

Maybe they could look at which books are checked out the most and keep copies in the robot controlled section.

But keep the bulk of the books browsable.

9/14/2009 1:09:36 PM

^I believe it's going to be a pretty small percent of the collection that will actually be browsable. Perhaps less than 100,000 books? I believe it will probably be restricted to mostly the Engineering/Sciences though. Also, they may have a popular book collection that is browsable as well.

9/14/2009 1:48:47 PM