The branch library at the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR) is less than a year old, but it is already making a difference for automotive engineering students and faculty in Greenville. It has also already won a competition hosted by SAE International.
The newest Clemson Libraries branch recently won the SAE Mobilus Discovery Contest, which was a competition designed to promote the use of the SAE Mobilus database, one of the many online resources that Clemson Libraries provides access to for students, faculty and staff.
Students could earn points for completing a variety of tasks, from simply logging into the database, to downloading articles, to finding special trivia Easter eggs hidden throughout the website. Clemson’s automotive engineering students earned the most points of any library in the contest, beating out schools such as Princeton University and Carnegie Mellon University. Library specialist Sarah Fisher, who manages the operations of the branch, received the All-Star Librarian Award, for her work to promote the use of the database, and automotive engineering graduate student Chirag Mutha was recognized as the individual student winner for earning the most points.
“This was a fun way to introduce SAE resources to students while helping Clemson Libraries learn more about the students’ information needs,” Fisher said. “The key to winning the contest was the enthusiastic support and dedication of the students to bring home this prize for Clemson.”
“The SAE Mobilus database is helpful as I got informative articles on the topics I was looking for. Also, I’m extremely happy that we finally have a library at CU-ICAR as it makes our lives easier, as we have a proper place to study or work on our personal projects without leaving the campus,” said Mutha. “We can get our books returned at CU-ICAR rather than going to the Fedex drop box, which is far from the CU-ICAR campus. The availability of state parks passes is also a good addition to the library. Getting a library at CU-ICAR has saved a lot of time for me.”
The new CU-ICAR Library is located on the fourth floor of the Campbell Graduate Engineering Center. It offers a collection of books related to automotive engineering, as well as delivery services for materials from libraries on the main University campus. It also hosts special events, such as a tax preparation workshop for students held by United Way of Pickens County in the spring. Additional seminars and workshops will be held for students in the fall.
A ribbon cutting to celebrate the grand opening of the branch is being planned for August 30.
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