NCSU Libraries has been selected as a finalist for the 2016 National Medal for Museum and Library Service. The award is considered the nation’s highest honor given to libraries and museums for serving the community. Out of the 15 library finalists selected, NCSU Libraries is one of two universities.
To learn how the library system got to where it is today, here is a brief history lesson on the libraries at NC State, made possible by their online digital archives.
1889 — A total of $650 is allocated for acquiring a collection of periodicals and books to be placed in Holladay Hall. Daniel Harvey Hill, Jr., NC State’s first English professor and the namesake of D.H. Hill Library, is placed to oversee the collection, mostly focusing on works of literature.
1899 — The Dewey Decimal system is implemented to help organize the small 3,000 book and article collection.
1902 — After the university’s first full time librarian quit following his first year, Caroline Sherman was hired. Sherman was known to fumigate books returned from patrons whom she believed had infectious diseases. The library was moved to Pullen Hall, which was destroyed by an arsonist in 1965.
1925 — D. H. Hill Library is constructed, now known as Brooks Hall, after the campus library had been in a dismal state for several years before. One dean recalled the library before D. H. Hill “consisted of a half-dozen, half-filled stacks. Nearly everything was hopelessly out of date.”
1953 — D. H. Hill Library moves to its current location in what is now the east wing of D. H. Hill. The original building was one story.
1967 — A set of journals and bibliographical works are stolen from the library, including rare 18th- and 19th-century botanical journals. In response, a security checkpoint is established at the entrance to the bookstacks.
1971 — The 10-story bookstack North Tower is completed with space for 1,200,000 volumes.
1975 — The library begins categorizing materials by computer.
1986 — The library institutes its first online catalog, the Bibliographic Information System (BIS). The BIS was used to provide information on library holdings.
1990 — The 11-story South Tower bookstacks are completed in D. H. Hill.
1997 — NCSU Libraries becomes a charter member of the JSTOR, an electronic archive of journal articles. The archive continues to be used on campus.
2005 —Library director, Susan Nutter, is named Librarian of the Year by the Library Journal.
2013 — Hunt Library opens on Centennial Campus. The system’s total holdings amount to over 4.6 million volumes. In this year, the libraries saw over 11.4 million uses.
1954. Students read in the newly constructed D.H. Hill Library which consisted of what is now the East Wing.
