NCSU Libraries Celebrates Olympic Spirit with 3000m bookBot Relay Video

This summer, all over campus, curious onlookers saw NC State celebrities and student athletes running, strolling, gamboling, and even doing the robot across Western Boulevard (thanks, Andy Walsh!), all in the making of the 3000m bookBot Relay  video.

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This video , produced by the NCSU Libraries, was created to celebrate and commemorate the move of 1.5 million books and other materials into the bookBot automated book retrieval system that is one of the hallmarks of the new James B. Hunt Jr. Library. In all, thirteen special friends participated in the video by taking a leg  of the relay and handing off the ceremonial book, Marks' Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers , 11th edition, to the next person in the relay.

Emily Schmidt

The video's producers did not want a single book to be harmed in the making of the video, so they turned to the technical expertise of NCSU Libraries' Emily Schmidt , who works in the preservation department. Using professional techniques, along with make-it-happen  ingenuity, Emily went to work creating a stunt double for the book. The stunt double was put through its paces, getting handled by multiple people in 90+ degree weather and, most notably, zooming through the air via a helicopter built and piloted by NC State's Aerial Robotics Club . Because the stunt double was too heavy to fly, club members scooped out a chunk of its middle, allowing it to be airborne.

Jamie Nance

The video premiered on the NCSU Libraries' Facebook page , along with a quiz contest that asked participants to name all the guests who appear in the video. Jamie Nance was the super duper senior  (his description) who won the contest and the prize of an iPod shuffle by correctly identifying eleven of the possible thirteen champions in the quiz. Jamie's varied interests and experiences helped him to victory: he shares a lab with members of the Aerial Robotics Club ; through his work at University Theatre he has provided backstage support for many university meetings, allowing him to identify Provost Warwick Arden and Dean Louis Martin-Vega ; he had seen Student Body President Andy Walsh repeatedly on a looped video shown at Talley; he had watched a panel discussion aired on public television featuring Dean Marvin Malecha ; and Dr. Larry Silverberg advises one of his projects. For the track team members, he looked at online photos of the team to pick out the student-athletes seen in the video (Jazmyne Childs , Samantha Norman , Brian Himelright , and Mitch Mallory ). And Mr. Wuf? Well, everyone knows Mr. Wuf!

Thanks to everyone who watched the video and those who played the quiz. We had a great time making it and can't wait to see you at the Hunt Library when it opens January 2013.