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Celebrating Native American Heritage

Paul C. Rosier, Ph.D., an associate professor in history, will discuss his book, Serving Their Country: American Indian Politics and Patriotism in the Twentieth Century, to commemorate Native American Heritage Month on Wednesday, Nov. 18 at 4:30 p.m. in Falvey Memorial Library’s first floor lounge.

Native American Heritage Month celebrates both the distinctive elements of Native culture and the contributions that Native people have made in shaping America. This event will feature Frank L. Henninger, director of the Villanova University Shop, playing a Native American flute.

Dr. Rosier’s talk will focus on the ways in which Native activists and politicians used the material legacy of 19th century conquest in the American West, the hundreds of  international treaties the U.S. government signed with Indian nations, to further the moral reputation of America as it assumed a prominent role in shaping world affairs in the 20th century.

He also considers how the frontier narrative of the 19th century continues to define 21st century events, such as the U.S.–Iraq war. (more…)


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Better by the Numbers – What Statistics Say About Our Service

bythenumbers-small3Are you interested in what numbers can tell us? Here at the library we use statistics to help us make decisions about what our patrons want to read or what services they find most useful. For instance, after installing a Self-Check-Out station near the first floor elevator, we saw that about 10% of our total circulation had taken place at that station.

Many of our users prefer online databases and electronic journals, which explains why we have about 275 databases and over 11,000 e-journals available for remote access by Villanova students, staff and faculty. Many of these items are not available to the general public, even through Google Scholar or other powerful search engines and commercial databases. These services are provided free of charge to Villanova students, staff and faculty. If any given article from a commercial provider were to cost $10 each (a conservative estimate) and 7700 patrons requested those articles (we received over 7700 Interlibrary Loan requests for articles this year), those articles would have cost library patrons $77,000.00.

Our public printers were used to print almost 2 million pages over the course of one year, more than any other public printing location on campus. Fortunately, students have print allotments that defray the cost of printing.

Not only do we count the number of times resources are used in Falvey Library, we listen to your feedback about them. If you have information that could help us improve the library, tell us in the Comments section below.

By Luisa Cywinski and Gerald Dierkes


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Windfall Proquest, Profits All

Due to a fortuitous offer from Proquest, the library has been able to add several new Proquest business databases to our collection at no cost.  Our access to industry specific trade news will be greatly enhanced by the addition of Banking Information Source, Pharmaceutical News Index, Proquest Telecommunications and Proquest Computing.  Our global business and financial news coverage will get a boast by Proquest Asian Business, Proquest European Business and Canadian Business and Current Affairs.  Proquest Snapshop Series will nicely compliment international market research reports from MarketResearch.com, Mintel, and ReferenceUSA Onesource.  Getting a Hoover’s Company Record is easier as we now have a direct link to them throught Proquest.

All of these databases can be access by Business Databases by Title or our Subject pages


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"The Weight is Over," a New Documentary by Leonard Shyles, Ph.D.

lenshylesDr. Shyles, an associate professor in the communication department,  shared his ideas on the impact of the American diet on individual health and on the soaring cost of health care. A presentation of the documentary and discussion took place on Tuesday, Nov. 10 in Falvey Memorial Library’s first floor lounge.

His latest video, “The Weight is Over,” presents the personal story of Debra Weinstein, a 35-year veteran health professional, who discovered the advantages of a pre-agricultural diet on her health. The video also illustrates the power of television to educate citizens about how they may improve their quality of life by offering a solution to a severe and widespread life-threatening problem.

“The Weight is Over” introduces the idea that controlling our general health through proper diet will reduce the financial pressure on our health care system. Dr. Shyles proposes that the money saved on health problems caused by a poor diet, such as obesity, heart disease and diabetes, can then be used for medical research on other chronic diseases.

It is hoped that this program will spark conversation and deepen perspectives about the current national health care debate, the bills before Congress, the soaring costs of health care insurance and the economic implications of passing proposed legislation for reform.

Dr Shyles, author of the books The Art of Video Production and Deciphering Cyberspace, has taught at Villanova University for 20 years. He teaches Media and Technology and Theories of Mass Communications, as well as being an advisor for the Senior Project capstone course.

By Akua K. Adoo, Publications & Communication intern


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General Biology: Some Research Tips

Struggling with a research project in Biology?

The General Biology Research Guide contains links to a huge variety of biology-related databases as well as online reference books and other materials.

The Guide now also contains video tutorials for PubMed and Biological Abstracts.

There are also many other Research Guides in Biology including Human Anatomy and Graduate Biology pages.

See them all at the Course and Topic Guides page, which contains course guides covering a range of subject areas.

For more help in Biology contact the Biology librarian Robin Bowles or 610-519-8129. You can also use this form to make a personal research appointment with Robin.

For Biology updates, please refer to the SweetPea blog.

For help at any time, on any subject, contact the information desk (610.519.4270) or  ask a research librarian.

By Robin Bowles


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Graphic Novels — Literature? Glorified Comic Books? Join the Debate on Nov. 11

comics-blog12Comics go to college? What are graphic novels and why have they appeared on this university campus?

Join us on Wednesday, Nov. 11, as an award-winning comics writer, a college professor who teaches graphic novels, a writer-illustrator, and a grad student / comic book writer talk about the world of graphic novels. For those interested in browsing, comics and graphic novels will be on display.

The thought-provoking panel discussion will take place from 4:30 to 6 p.m. in Falvey’s first floor lounge. Panelists include Jonathan Maberry, a multiple Bram Stoker Award-winning author and Marvel Comics writer; Mary Beth Simmons, M.F.A, director, Villanova Writing Center and ACS faculty member; Matt Phelan, writer and illustrator; and Brian A. Lynch, graduate student, communication department, and amateur comic book writer.

As English professor Karyn Hollis describes her current English course on the graphic novel, “From Superheroes to Manga Plus,” “The graphic novel, an original American art form like jazz, has returned to the literary limelight. From movies, to showcase events and international conferences, the genre is KA-POPPING up all over!” (more…)


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Stephen Spatz presents at Catholic research group's meeting

Stephen Spatz, assistant Outreach and Support librarian, recently attended the Catholic Research Resources Alliance annual meeting at Loyola University, Chicago. While there, Stephen presented information on VuFind and Falvey Memorial Library’s Digital Library.

He demonstrated what Falvey’s VuFind open source software can do for the Catholic Portal, an internet search engine designed by the CRRA. The portal intends to “create easy, effective and global discovery of Catholic research resources” and to provide “access to rare, unique or infrequently held materials in academic libraries’ and seminaries’ special collections and archives.”

Villanova University is a new member of the CRRA. Representatives from other institutions – Notre Dame University, Marquette University, Boston College, Catholic University of America, Georgetown University and Seton Hall University – also attended.

The attendees resolved to implement a pilot project with a test database to experiment with data ingestion. The portal, using VuFind, is currently being reviewed by scholars to assess its usefulness for researchers.

By Alice Bampton


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RefWorks Thursdays: Gathering Citations Getting You Down?

Learn how to organize your research and never type a bibliography again with RefWorks.  MLA, APA and other styles supported. Open to faculty, staff, and students in all disciplines.

When? Nov. 5 & 12

4:00-5:00pm

Where: Driscoll Hall, Room 221

MUST BRING YOUR OWN LAPTOP!

Contact: Barbara Quintiliano, Instructional Design Librarian (telephone: ext.95207)

ENROLLMENT LIMITED TO 20 PERSONS.  PLEASE CONTACT BARBARA IF YOU PLAN TO ATTEND.


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Last Modified: November 1, 2009

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