Library News

Librarians Susan Ottignon and Merrill Stein participated in the 38^th annual conference of the Mid-Atlantic Region Association for Asian Studies, “Asia Beyond Borders,” held at Villanova University Oct. 30 - Nov. 1.

Susan Ottignon, a research support librarian and a member of the languages and literatures library liaison team, was a co-presenter, with Masako Hamada, Ph.D., coordinator of  Japanese studies and a member of the Institute for Global Interdisciplinary Studies, on the panel, “Teaching Asia Beyond Asia,” chaired by Hank Glassman, Ph.D., of Haverford College. They presented “Instructional Uses of the Web for Academic Courses.”

Merrill Stein, librarian liaison to political science, chaired the session “Texts and Contexts.” Participants in this session came from the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University and the University of Hong Kong.

The Mid-Atlantic Region Association for Asian Studies is “dedicated to improving understanding between Asia and America.” It is “a scholarly, non-political, non-profit professional association open to all persons interested in Asia” with more than 7,000 members in the international Association for Asian Studies.

Alice Bampton, visual resources librarian, recently attended The Image of War seminar sponsored by the Center for Civil War Photography. The seminar was held in Charleston (S.C.) and focused on Civil War photography there. In addition to illustrated lectures by noted Civil War historians such as Edwin C. Bearss, the group participated in walking tours of Civil War Charleston and Fort Sumter and had a group photograph taken with authentic 19^th century equipment. Following the seminar, there was a private visit to the H. L. Hunley, a Confederate submarine recently recovered from the waters near Charleston and currently undergoing conservation.

The Center for Civil War Photography is a non-profit organization founded to “educate the public about Civil War photography, its role in the conflict, and its rich variety of forms; to digitally secure original images and preserve vintage prints; to enhance the accessibility of photographs to the public; and to present interpretative programs that use stereoscopic and standard images to their fullest potential.” The CCWP has held its Image of War seminars annually since 2001.

By Alice Bampton

A professor recently asked the library to place her chess set on reserve so that she and her students could use it while in the library. After processing her request, we pondered the need for more board games at the library. We’ve decided to ask you, our patrons. Taking a break from studying or computing to play a board game may help the brain function better and can relieve stress. Studies have been conducted. Articles have been written.

What do you think? Tell us in the Comments!

Falvey Memorial Library employs dedicated and hardworking students to provide assistance and direction to its patrons. Among these students are seniors Jeffrey Eisenberg and Clare Oven who assist the Access Services staff by helping patrons, by checking in/out books, videos and laptop computers and by assigning study rooms. Both students also shelve books: Clare on a regular basis and Jeffrey during high-volume times.

Jeffrey Eisenberg is a New Jersey native majoring in communication with a business minor and an honors concentration. He has worked at Falvey since September 2006.  Jeffrey says he enjoys being at a job where he can interact with students, faculty and staff rather than sitting in a quiet office on campus. He also appreciates the opportunity to study during quiet times.

According to Jeffrey, he enjoys working with “a great staff” and with other students at the circulation desk. Even though it gets hectic during midterms and finals, Jeffrey still loves his job. “The library is a comfortable and friendly place to work with a very helpful staff,” Jeffrey notes.  About the library staff members, Jeffrey says he considers “them friends more than employers.”

Jeffrey is president of Thundercats, a student-led organization that provides cheap-to-free activities for Villanova students on Friday and Saturday nights. He is also a tour guide with the Blue Key Society and a retreat leader for Campus Ministry. He was in two shows with the Villanova Student Theatre and went on a Habitat for Humanity service trip in 2008.

Clare Oven is a mechanical engineering major from San Diego. She has worked at Falvey since her freshman year, 2006. Clare has always had a passion for reading, and naturally wanted to work in the library. Clare says, “Working at Falvey has been a convenient campus job. It is an easy place to get to, and I have been able to set a good work schedule for myself.” She also adds that everyone who works in the library is very friendly, nice and helpful, which fosters a great working environment.

Clare enjoys being able to help students get started navigating through all the different ways of information acquisition at Falvey. Her duties also include shelving books where she takes pleasure in spending time in a quiet atmosphere and seeing all the different types of books available. Overall, Clare has enjoyed her experience at Falvey and is truly going to miss working here when she graduates.

Clare is a member of Villanovans for Life and serves on the Engineering Student Council.

Reflecting Falvey’s mission of service to the University, this work experience equips students with practical knowledge in patron service and circulation duties, and the students who work at Falvey find this to be true.

By Akua K. Adoo, Publications & Communication intern; photographs by Natalie Tomasco

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

Dr. Suzanne Zamerowski (l.) and Barbara Quintiliano at the NLN Education Summit (Not pictured: Dr. Marcia Costello)

Barbara Quintiliano, M.L.S., M.A., instructional design librarian, presented the poster session “A Collaborative Approach to Population Assessment,” with College of Nursing faculty colleagues Marcia Costello, Ph.D., R.D., L.D., and Suzanne Zamerowski, Ph.D., R.N., at the National League for Nursing Education Summit, held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, on Sept. 24 and 25.

The poster illustrated the collaboration between the instructional librarian and the course faculty that led to the creation of a matrix with hypertext links to important data sources.  The population assessment matrix enabled students in the capstone Nursing 4102 course, “Nursing and Health Promotion,” to locate online international, national, state and local health data quickly and efficiently, affording these students more time to interact directly with the populations being assessed.

The data collected for the population assessment projects helped to guide the students’ clinical experience as they developed and implemented public health education strategies for national and international communities.

On October 27, Falvey Memorial Library will host the inaugural lecture in the “Alfred F. Mannella and Rose T. Lauria-Mannella Distinguished Speakers Series.” Richard Juliani, Ph.D., sociology department, will describe his four decades of research on the Italian experience in Philadelphia, highlighting both challenges and future opportunities. His talk will begin at 7 p.m.

Alfred S. Mannella

In 1996, Falvey Memorial Library’s friend and supporter Alfred S. Mannella, ‘58 VSB, established two endowed library funds to support the purchase of books and other research materials as memorials to family members.

Now one of those funds will also support a lecture series.

The Speakers series honors Mr. Mannella’s parents, Alfred F. and Rose T. Lauria-Mannella. His father, the son of immigrants, was born in Philadelphia in 1904 and established himself as a tailor. An avid sports fan, he developed an interest in Villanova football starting in the 1930s when Maurice J. “Clipper” Smith was the coach.

His mother was the grandchild of immigrants and grew up in south Philadelphia. (more…)

Outreach librarian and Events and Outreach team leader Darren G. Poley, MA, MS, was promoted to Library Professional III, effective June 1.

An undergraduate alumnus of Gettysburg College, he represented Villanova University at the inauguration of Gettysburg’s new president, Janet Morgan Riggs, Ph.D., September 12.

Poley has been a librarian in Falvey Memorial Library for over ten years and teaches as an adjunct faculty member in the theology and religious studies department.

~Alice Bampton

Bartley Business Information Center, a branch location of Falvey Memorial Library, can be found in Room 1005, Bartley Hall. The center is a convenient location for VSB students to get expert assistance with their business research problems. It is staffed Monday through Thursday by librarians and MBAs: (left to right) Merrill Stein, Dennis Lambert and Linda Hauck.

Demian Katz recently joined VU as a library technology development specialist. Demian said that he is “excited to work with VuFind (Falvey’s open source online public access catalog).” He is “enthusiastic about open source” and  is “glad the library here embraces it.”

Library Director Joe Lucia said that Demian is a “talented and creative programmer,” and he will enable us “to regain some momentum with VuFind and related initiatives.”

Demian has both programming and reference experience. His latest position was with a software development company and earlier he worked as a reference technical assistant at Chester County Library in Exton. He has a bachelor’s degree in computer science from West Chester University and a master of library and information science degree from the University of Pittsburgh.

His hobby, which grew from a childhood interest and became a graduate school project, is maintaining a large bibliography of interactive fiction.

Article and photograph by Alice Bampton

Robin Bowles

Robin Bowles recently joined Falvey Memorial Library as a member of the Life Sciences/Nursing team. Robin has a master of science in library and information science from Drexel University where she specialized in medical and life sciences research and instruction. She received her bachelor’s degree in liberal studies with a concentration in science and mathematics from West Chester University. 

Before coming to Villanova University, she worked at Colorado State University as the interim liaison librarian in biology and veterinary medicine. She has also held positions at the University of Pennsylvania Biomedical Library in reference and interlibrary loan, and at the Devereux Behavioral Healthcare Library (Villanova, Pa.) in serials management, assessment, interlibrary loan and document delivery. 

Robin, a native of the Philadelphia area, noted that her high school graduation was held here on campus in the Pavilion. 

Her hobbies are hiking, sewing, logic puzzles and attempting to master all of Google’s products and services.

 Robin said, “I’m very excited by the prospect of forging long-term relationships with people here at Villanova …and integrating new technology into the learning environment of the future.”

Article by Alice Bampton; Photograph by Laura Hutelmyer