Health Sciences Library celebrates grand opening
| March 07, 2005 | |
| CHAPEL HILL — With its warm colors, new cafe, 140 workstations and innovative collaborative spaces, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Health Sciences Library aims to become a vital gathering place for those who seek health information.The library recently completed two years of redesign and renovation – during which it remained open to the campus community and public – and celebrated its grand opening with a public ceremony today (March 7). The Health Sciences Library is one of the largest libraries of its kind in the Southeast.
Speakers at the ceremony included UNC Chancellor James Moeser; University of North Carolina President Molly Corbett Broad; Carol Jenkins, director of the library; Jennifer Solms, a student in UNC’s School of Medicine; Dr. Charles Hamner, retired president and chief executive officer of the N.C. Biotechnology Center and library supporter; and Glen Williams, senior director of manufacturing for Biogen Idec. The library received $11.4 million from the higher education bond referendum of 2000. Other support includes $1 million in private funds and $600,000 in overhead receipts, which are generated by faculty research. The Biogen Idec Foundation has donated $150,000 to the library to equip a state-of-the-art classroom to support student scientists, as part of a partnership announced today. The classroom is designed to help students discover, evaluate and apply information found in scientific databases and published literature. Most of the library’s private funding and the Biogen Idec Foundation gift count toward the Carolina First campaign, a comprehensive, multi-year private fund-raising campaign to support Carolina’s vision of becoming the nation’s leading public university. Moeser said that the Health Sciences Library represented just one example of how the higher education bond referendum of 2000, overwhelmingly approved by N.C. voters, had helped the university serve the public. The library is headquarters for the UNC School of Medicine-based Area Health Education Center libraries, in communities from Asheville to Wilmington. More than 10,000 N.C. health-care professionals use the electronic health library to keep up-to-date in their fields. “Today’s rapidly evolving technology offers a wealth of opportunities for libraries and for those seeking knowledge,” Moeser said. “The Health Sciences Library is leveraging how technology can enhance information-gathering efforts and collaboration to address significant health concerns.” Jenkins said that the renovation and redesign will enable the Health Sciences Library to enhance research, health education and health care at Carolina. “With this renovation complete, the Health Sciences Library is poised to take on new roles as an essential partner in achieving the university’s health-care missions. The library is committed to helping train tomorrow’s health-care providers, to supporting research to prevent and cure disease and to promoting access to health information for everyone that can improve the quality of our lives.” The building will feature wired and wireless high-speed Internet access. A planned collaboration center will include a “visualization wall” (16 monitors forming a 20-by-10 viewing screen) and other technology and library services that will encourage collaboration among scientists and educators both here on campus and afar. Among other new additions are:
The Friends’ Cafi, offering the community an opportunity to chat or catch up on work, is open. Hours are 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Fridays and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays. The library is able to house older print books and journals in high density-shelving, while creating more space for users to work with electronic information at library workstations or using personal laptops or palmtop computers and the wireless network throughout the building. Most of the new information sources the library acquires are electronic. The library will feature a medicinal plant garden designed to educate about the various uses of different plants, and create a green space surrounding the library. Older materials in medicine, dentistry, nursing and pharmacy, dating from the 19th century and earlier, are housed in climate-controlled stacks and are available for use in the rare books reading room. Among the library’s selections on the history of the health sciences and medicine are one of two existing hand-colored “de Humani Corporis Fabrica” by Vesalius; the original drawings and research of noted medical artist Frank Netter; first editions of Dr. Edward Jenner’s work on smallpox; writings of Pierre Fauchard, the father of dentistry; an early book on Cherokee medicine; and handwritten letters of Florence Nightingale. The new History of the Health Sciences Suite includes a fully equipped conference center for hosting large meetings. The original two-story building was built in 1970 in the MacNider courtyard and was later expanded to five stories in 1980. The Health Sciences Library is open to the public. For more information, including hours of operation, visit http://www.hsl.unc.edu/.
Health Sciences Library contact: Kelly Wooten, (919) 966-1047 or wootenk@email.unc.edu News Services contact: Deb Saine, (919) 962-8415 or deborah_saine@unc.edu For further information please contact Emily Smith either by phone at 919.966.8498 or by email at emily_smith@unc.edu |
