Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Campus & Community
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Campus & Community

Libraries’ Blackstone LaunchPad wins Fast Pitch Competition at Charleston Conference

Monday, November 7, 2016, By Pamela Whiteley McLaughlin
Share

The Blackstone LaunchPad won the Judges’ Prize at the inaugural Charleston Conference Fast Pitch Competition on Nov. 4. The new innovation competition looks for compelling new ideas in academic library and information management. A committee of professional judges selected the winners from a national field of applicants.

Holding a  ceremonial check for Blackstone LaunchPad's win are, from left to right: Braden Croy, program manager, Blackstone LaunchPad Linda Dickerson Hartsock, executive director, Blackstone LaunchPad Scott Warren, associate dean for research and scholarship Natasha Cooper, collection development and analysis librarian Stephanie McReynolds, librarian for business, management, and entrepreneurship

Holding a ceremonial check for Blackstone LaunchPad’s win at the Past Pitch Competition are, from left to right: Braden Croy, program manager for Blackstone LaunchPad; Linda Dickerson Hartsock, executive director for Blackstone LaunchPad; Scott Warren, associate dean for research and scholarship; Natasha Cooper, collection development and analysis librarian; and Stephanie McReynolds, librarian for business, management, and entrepreneurship.

Scott Warren, associate dean for research and scholarship at Syracuse University Libraries, pitched the libraries’ idea. Warren oversees collections and subject librarian services and is taking part in the 2016-2017 Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Leadership Fellows Program. He developed the Fast Pitch proposal with Linda Dickerson Hartsock, Blackstone LaunchPad executive director; Stephanie McReynolds, the University’s business, management and entrepreneurship librarian; and other library staff.

Noting the benefits and added value of placing the Blackstone LaunchPad within the libraries, the winning concept will create a new entrepreneurial resource collection developed by librarians and Blackstone LaunchPad staff. The collection will be installed in “book nodes” adjacent to the LaunchPad in Bird Library. The LaunchPad worked with Syracuse University faculty across many academic program areas to crowdsource the book collection, which encompasses multidisciplinary topics related to ideation, creativity, entrepreneurship, design thinking and more. The collection has already been adopted as a suggested reading list by faculty teaching entrepreneurship and related subjects. LaunchPad students are planning to start a book club around the collection, to continue the interdisciplinary collaboration

“Winning the Judges’ Prize was thrilling because it further validates the University’s vision to place the LaunchPad inside the libraries,” says Warren. “Our team’s pitch centered on student outcomes and how driving student-focused entrepreneurship from within the libraries helps grow our own capacity to innovate—an exciting double win for Syracuse!”

The Charleston Conference is an international gathering of librarians, publishers, electronic resource managers, consultants and vendors of library materials in Charleston, Soouth Carolina, each November. The 2016 Theme was “Roll with the Times, or the Times Roll Over You.” The conference began in 1980 and has grown to more than 1,600 attendees annually.

  • Author

Pamela Whiteley McLaughlin

  • Recent
  • Maxwell’s Robert Rubinstein Honored With 2025 Wasserstrom Prize for Graduate Teaching
    Tuesday, July 15, 2025, By News Staff
  • National Ice Cream Day: We Tried Every Special at ’Cuse Scoops So You Don’t Have To
    Tuesday, July 15, 2025, By News Staff
  • Message From Chief Student Experience Officer Allen W. Groves
    Monday, July 14, 2025, By News Staff
  • Haowei Wang Named Maxwell School Scholar in U.S.-China/Asia Relations
    Monday, July 14, 2025, By News Staff
  • LaunchPad Awards Student Start-Up Fund Grant
    Saturday, July 12, 2025, By Cristina Hatem

More In Campus & Community

Lender Center Researcher Studies Veterans’ Post-Service Lives, Global Conflict Dynamics

Corri Zoli ’91, G’93, G’04 was recently named a research associate of the Lender Center for Social Justice. She applies social science, law and public policy perspectives to problems of warfare, governance in modern human conflicts and the role of…

Maxwell’s Robert Rubinstein Honored With 2025 Wasserstrom Prize for Graduate Teaching

Robert Rubinstein, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and professor of international relations in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, is the recipient of the 2025 Wasserstrom Prize for Graduate Teaching. The prize is awarded annually to a faculty member…

National Ice Cream Day: We Tried Every Special at ’Cuse Scoops So You Don’t Have To

National Ice Cream Day is coming up on Sunday, July 20, and what better way to celebrate than with a brain freeze and a sugar rush? Armed with spoons and an unshakable sense of duty, members of the Syracuse University…

Message From Chief Student Experience Officer Allen W. Groves

Dear Members of the Orange Community: It is with profound sadness that I write to remember two members of our Syracuse University community, whose lives were cut short last Thursday when they were struck by a vehicle at the intersection…

Haowei Wang Named Maxwell School Scholar in U.S.-China/Asia Relations

Haowei Wang, assistant professor of sociology in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, has been named the Yang Ni and Xiaoqing Li Scholar in U.S.-China/Asia Relations for the 2025-26 academic year. Wang’s one-year appointment began on July 1….

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2025 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.