Due to technical difficulties surrounding storage of the Digital Library web files. no new content had been displayed on the Digital Library since June 2008. Our students and staff continued to scan during this period, saving the image files to portable hard drives. Over the span of 8 months this has amounted to over 2 tetrabytes of locally stored files. With the space issue resolved in January we have been adding to the Digital Library both content currently being scanned as well as items scanned during the hiatus.

There are many very exciting titles and new collections to look at and examine, with more in store in the coming weeks. Future essays on the Blue Electrode will cover some of these in detail. For now here is a small sample of some of the newly available digital content:

In the Catholica Collection:

Conewago, a collection of Catholic local history gathered from the fields of Catholic missionary labor within our reach an humble effort to preserve some remembrance of those who have gone before, and by their lives, their labors and their sacrifices, secured for succeeding generations the enjoyment of happy homes, and all the blessing of our holy Catholic religion. Martinsburg, W. Va.: Herald Print, 1885. [Link]

This is an early illustrated history of the Catholic Church in the Conewago Valley of Pennsylvania and Maryland.

In the Contributions from Augustinian Theologians and Scholars Collection:

Vita gloriosissima: e miracoli eccelsi del beato confessore Nicola di Tolentino. Milano: Appresso l’herede del quon. P. Pontio, & G. B. Piccaglia compagni, 1603. [Link]

This is an illustrated life of Saint Nicholas of Tolentine, O.S.A.

Fasti et triumphi Rom. a Romulo rege usque ad Carolum V. Caes. Aug.,
sive, Epitome regum, consulum, dictatorum, magistror. equitum, tribunorum militum consulari potestate, censorum, impp. & aliorum magistratuum Roman. cum orientalium tum occidentalium, :ex antiquitatum monumentis maxima cum fide ac diligentia desumpta. Onuphrio Panuinio Veronensi F. Augustiniano authore. ; Additæ sunt suis locis impp. & orientalium, & occidentalium uerissimae icones, ex vetustissimis numismatis quam fidelissime delineatae. Ex musaeo Iacobi Stradæ Mantuani, ciuis Romani, antiquarii. Venetiis: Impensis Iacobi Stradae Mantuani, 1577. [Link]

Also richly illustrated is this exacting history of the Roman magistrates and emperors by the remarkable classicist Onofrio Panvinio, O.S.A.

In the Joseph McGarrity Collection:

A geographicall description of ye kingdom of Ireland Collected from ye actual survey made by Sr. William Petty, corrected & amended by the advice & assistance of severall able artists, late inhabitants of that kingdom. London: F. Lamb, 1689. [Link]

An early atlas of Ireland with detailed maps of the country.

From the Americana Collection:

S. A. Lane Manuscript. [Link]

This contains the autobiographical manuscript of Samuel Alanson Lane (1815-1905). From January in 1835 until May of the same year, Lane travels around the U.S., looking for work in numerous cities including, New Orleans, Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland until finally settling in what would become his hometown, Akron, OH on June 29, 1835. S. A. Lane was a dedicated follower and professional lecturer of the American temperance movement as well as an avid supporter and political participant for th Republican Party, formed in 1854. Perhaps one of Lane’s most interesting and daring pursuits, was his active participation in the mass emigration to California in search of fortune like many other easterners during the California Gold Rush which kept Lane from his home and family in Akron for over two years. This manuscript covers his life and contains many depictions of 19th century American frontier life.

Readex just released part 7 (Soviet Union and Central Eurasia) of the Foreign Broadcast Information Services Daily Reports, 1974-1996. Villanova faculty and students now have online access to 3,693 daily news reports from the Soviet Union, Russia, and Central Eurasia which consist of a total of 734,171 Russian newspaper and broadcast items in English translation. Below are two interesting TASS news reports released two days after the Chernobyl disaster. FBIS Daily Reports make Soviet news coverage accessible to non-Russian speakers.

Also recently released were 4,014 daily news reports from Eastern Europe comprising 603,680 articles.

Daily news report from Western Europe will be released this summer. The link to the Daily Reports of the Foreign Broadcast Information Service can be found on the Library’s Databases by Title list.

Will you be sleeping or sunbathing on Spring break?

Building houses? Catching up with old friends? Skiing with your family?

Tell us in the comments!

Phylis Wright, senior access and information specialist and 2006 Facultas Award winner, was elected as the Falvey Memorial Library Staff Council representative. The University Staff Council was created in 2008 by Father Peter Donohue, O.S.A., Villanova University President, as a group to encourage dialogue and involvement from Villanova University staff members.

Phylis, who has been with the University for 13 years, said that the new Staff Council is “VQI (Villanova Quality Improvement) Plus” and, that while “VQI did its purpose,” the new Staff Council will build on that effort, “creating possibilities.” (more…)

Neilson is THE source for audience metrics.  The fact that they don’t offer a subscription product suitable for libraries is lamentable.  But they do have a great Blog any marketing major ought to subscribe to…..

“Moral hazard”, ponzi schemes, “nationalization” and “accountability” are among the catch phrases dominating the business headlines in this time of financial crisis. For a deeper understanding of the ethical dimensions of these concepts check out the Encyclopedia of Business Ethics and Society. You’ll find articles with bibliographies written by experts in the field placing these ideas and trends as well as historical issues in context.

Available online through the library catalog, E-Reference Resources Business & Economics and the Subject pages for business.

UpToDate
Evidence based, peer reviewed information resource for clinicians, allowing them to answer questions quickly, increase their clinical knowledge and improve patient care. IMPORTANT ACCESS INSTRUCTIONS FOR VILLANOVA UNIV USERS: Please click UpToDate link located in the “Databases, A-Z” list or under Subject Guides — Nursing on the library homepage. Once connected, click “Search” and then confirm agreement with terms of use.

Falvey and the department of modern languages are proud to host an afternoon dedicated to the life and work of author Juan Ramón Jiménez, currently considered to be the father of Spanish contemporary poetry.

The symposium will feature three internationally renowned specialists on the poet: Carmen Hernández-Pinzón, grand-niece and representative of the heirs of the poet, will speak about Juan Ramón, the person; Mª Ángeles Sanz Manzano, Ph.D., professor at the University of Alcalá de Henares, will speak about the universal dimensions of Platero and I; and Graciela Palau de Nemes, Ph.D., University of Maryland, will speak on Juan Ramón Jiménez´s constant search for meaning. The symposium will be followed by a poetry recital including faculty and students from the department of modern languages and a concert by Chili Valverde, a singer from Huelva, Spain.

The event will take place on Tue., Mar. 31, from 1:30 to 6:30 p.m. For detailed information about the evening’s events, please visit the events calendar.

Also, be sure to visit the exhibit on Falvey’s fourth floor that commemorates the life and work of the poet and was created by the Junta de Andalucía and the Triennium Juan Ramón Jiménez. An itinerant exhibit at institutions throughout the world during the past few years, the exhibit will be shown during the entire month of March.

Jacqueline (Jackie) Mirabile, a long time reference librarian at Falvey, has been selected to lead the new Information and Research Assistance team. Previously the coordinator of the Research Support team, in her new role she will supervise both the research support librarians and the library information specialists, two groups who have been merged to form one team.

Her goal is to carry out the directive set by Library Director Joe Lucia to “provide accessible, flexible and authoritative library services … to satisfy the intellectual, cultural and scholarly appetites of Villanova students and faculty.”

Jackie also coordinates Falvey’s communication, education and psychology liaison team and she serves as resources editor of the library Publications & Communications team.

A Falvey librarian since 1982, Jackie noted that she has seen huge changes in technology and in the reduction of the physical presence of reference books, many of which were converted to e-books.

Who is Elbert Hubbard? Who or what are the Roycrofters? Don’t Google — Visit the new Special Collections exhibit, The Roycrofters: A Little Journey to the Home of Elbert Hubbard for the answers to these questions.

The exhibit begins with the display cases on Falvey’s first floor and continues on the second floor, displaying materials from the Hubbard Collection donated to Special Collections in 1972. This collection consists of over four hundred pieces relating to Elbert G. Hubbard, originally collected by Ray D. Packard and donated to Falvey by his daughter, Shirley A. Stine. There are books, serials and motto cards printed at the Roycrofter press and/or authored by Hubbard and a box of manuscripts and memorabilia.

Much of the Hubbard Collection’s visual beauty can also be enjoyed on the Digital Library site.

The exhibit title derives from the phrase, “A Little Journey …,” which is part of the title of a number of books printed by the Roycroft press, but the exhibit includes far more than its title suggests. In addition to books and pamphlets, the exhibit features periodicals, The Fra and The Philistine, some motto cards, invitations to events at the Roycroft Library (an early example of library outreach programming?), a June – August 1904 guestbook for the Roycroft Inn, and a photograph of the Roycroft Chapel.

This comprehensive and visually appealing exhibit, curated by Bente Polites, Special Collections librarian, and Teri Ann Pirone, Special Collections curatorial assistant, includes, in addition to the objects themselves, well researched information about a man and his colony that are probably not known to most viewers. The exhibit will be on display until May 17.