Library News

Visit the Writing Center’s NEW LOCATION

210 FALVEY, 2nd floor, Learning Commons in Falvey

SPRING 2012  30-MINUTE WORKSHOPS

Thursday, Feb. 2—Avoiding the Passive Voice

Tuesday, Feb. 7—The Debatable Thesis

Wednesday, Feb. 15—Constructing an Academic Voice

Monday, Feb. 20—The Comparison/Contrast Essay

Tuesday, Feb. 28—Crafting Conclusions

Thursday, Mar. 15—The Marvelous MLA

Tuesday, Mar. 20—Planning the Perfect Paragraph

Wednesday, Mar. 28—Integrating Quotations

Tuesday, Apr. 17—How to Be Your Own Writing Tutor

Monday, Apr. 23—How to Write a Successful Statement of Purpose

ALL WORKSHOPS ARE AT 7:30 p.m. IN 210 FALVEY LIBRARY, THE WRITING CENTER.  STUDENTS RECEIVE A CERTIFICATE OF ATTENDANCE AND A HANDOUT FOR FUTURE REFERENCE.

According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, “A protest against Elsevier, the world’s largest scientific journal publisher, is rapidly gaining momentum since it began as an irate blog post at the end of January. By Tuesday evening, about 2,400 scholars had put their names to an online pledge not to publish or do any editorial work for the company’s journals, including refereeing papers.” Scientists too are putting their name to the protest. One blogger on MetaFilter informed readers that “The Cost of Knowledge lets scientists register their support for a boycott of all Elsevier journals for their support of SOPA, PIPA and the Research Works Act. It appears the boycott was inspired by Field’s medalist Tim Gowers’ recent comments describing his personal boycott of Elsevier journals.” What are your opinions about the journal boycott? How about the recent efforts to impose restrictions on internet sites by way of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)? Tell us what you think.

By Alexandra Edwards

Schizophrenia is a dangerous disease — “like a death sentence,” as Bernard J. Gallagher III, professor of Psychiatric Sociology in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, explains. For over 20 years, Dr. Gallagher and his Villanova University research team have sought to uncover the hidden causes of schizophrenia.

The causes of the disease have traditionally been elusive, he says. But recent findings have uncovered intriguing patterns that change the way we understand schizophrenia’s origins.

Falvey Memorial Library kicks off its spring Scholarship@Villanova series on Monday, Feb. 6, at 1:00 p.m. with a lecture by Dr.  Gallagher entitled “Schizophrenia: Groups at Risk and Recently Discovered Causes.” The lecture will be held on the newly renovated second floor of Falvey, known as the Learning Commons, in Room 204.

Combing through the records of 2,000 schizophrenia patients, Dr. Gallagher and his team worked to put together patterns in the data. They found that patients with a certain subset of the disease were more likely to have been conceived in January and born into impoverished households. These two factors meant their mothers had a higher risk of contracting influenza while pregnant. (more…)