The Libraries’ Neal Hairston receives an Award for Excellence

Neal Hairston, University Library Technician, has won a 2022 NC State Award for Excellence. After being selected as one of five winners of the Provost’s Unit Awards for Excellence in April, Hairston moved on to the university-wide awards. With this new recognition, he moves on to consideration for the statewide Governor's Award for Excellence.

Hairston's work to enable the Libraries to continuously adapt during the pandemic, ensuring that our Technology Lending and Reserve Services have been able to keep serving all students equitably for both onsite and remote work, has been crucial to the university’s academic continuity efforts.

When campus went remote in March 2020, students were unable to physically access the Libraries’ textbook lending collection. Hairston came in to scan and deliver textbook chapters to students, ensuring that students could access this vital resource. He was an integral part of a team that provided 13,000 textbook chapters to students from March 2020-September 2021. Hairston also helped to develop the service over time, providing feedback on what did and did not work, so that the Libraries could make the service more efficient for staff and provide more timely resources for students.

Hairston also helped design and pilot a new program for providing long-term laptop loans to students in crisis or financial need. He was an important member of the team that ingested, cataloged, re-imaged and distributed nearly 400 laptops as part of NC State’s crisis response.

"Neal truly cares about the patrons we serve. He pays attention to the concerns of patrons and will provide creative solutions on how to improve our services to better serve our community,” says Adebola Fabiku, Department Head of Access Services. “I have watched students come to the Ask Us desk just to check out an item but then they feel comfortable enough to tell him about their struggles in school. Neal actively listens and provides solutions that the library has but will also offer resources on campus that a student may not know about.”

“He has called and/or emailed campus offices on behalf of students in order to relieve the stress of having another action that the already distressed student has to do. He is committed to assuring that students have access to all the resources they need to succeed. Neal’s commitment to student success really shines through in the work that he does. He is worthy of this award because by Neal just being himself, he embodies what it means to provide excellent customer service."

Provost Warwick Arden hosted a reception in March to recognize the award winners for 2020-2022. Each winner received eight hours of paid leave, an engraved plaque, and a check for $250. They will now move forward for consideration for the university-wide Awards for Excellence.

Other Libraries staff members were recognized as nominees:

• Jordan Booth, Support Services Associate
• Jason Evans Groth, Digital Media Librarian for Learning Spaces and Services
• Nellie Maurer, Human Resources Specialist
• Trevor Thornton, IT Analyst/Programmer II