North Carolina State University Libraries’ James B. Hunt Jr. Library recognized for its signature building that leverages digital technology to foster collaboration, reflection and awe.
(20 March 2014, Stanford, CA) Entries for this year’s Stanford Prize for Innovation in Research Libraries (SPIRL) spanned the globe. Institutions from Germany, Japan, Korea and Spain as well as several from the U.S. competed for the international award and recognition.
North Carolina State University Libraries’ James B. Hunt Jr. Library was chosen as this year’s winner for the creative and bold vision that went into designing an innovative model for a research library as a high-technology research platform. “The multi-faceted planning and execution of the Hunt library space(s) as laboratory for research and research infrastructure has been brilliantly conceived and implemented,” said SPIRL judge, Richard Luce.
With its colorful and comfortable study spaces, bookBot—the 2-million-volume automated storage and retrieval system, a state-of-the-art teaching and visualization lab and creativity studio, Luce believes the Hunt Library experiment is highly relevant to every research library today. “As libraries think deeply about and plan for the implications of the paradigm shifts we are experiencing, the Hunt Library can serve as exemplar, both in terms of cyber-infrastructure and associated services, as well as in facility planning,” notes Luce.
The judges also awarded commendations of merit to Harvard Law Library’s LibraryCloud and StackLife and the National Institute for Informatics’ (Japan) JAIRO Cloud.
Established last year by Stanford Libraries, SPIRL showcases the programs, projects, and/or new or improved services that benefit readers and users. “One of the many reasons we decided to conduct this prize competition was to make it possible for really innovative libraries to get some much deserved attention to their most advanced work,” said Michael Keller, University Librarian at Stanford.
Elisabeth Niggemann, director general of the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, chaired the international panel of judges, who included, Dame Lynne Brindley, master of Pembroke College, Oxford; Charles Henry, president of the Council on Library and Information Resources; Richard Luce, university librarian, dean, and associate vice provost for research at the University of Oklahoma; Ann Okerson, senior advisor for electronic strategies of the Center for Research Libraries; Bruno Racine, president of the Bibliothèque nationale de France and recipient of the 2013 SPIRL prize; Dr. Dongfang Shao, chief of the Asia Division of the Library of Congress; and Karin Wittenborg, university librarian at the University of Virginia.
A complete list of submissions can be found on the Stanford Libraries website.
