Library News

In May the Digital Library added its 10,000^th item, an April 4, 1944 edition of  The Villanovan, the University student newspaper. This issue featured numerous articles related to World War II.

Laura Bang, special and digital collections curatorial assistant, says that “[W]e have been steadily working on adding the individual issues to our Digital Library.”

The full story about the 10,000^th item is in the Blue Electrode, the digital library blog.

Work is ongoing: see the current count for digitized works in the DL.

The Blue Electrode blog began July 16, 2007. Michael Foight, special collections and digital library coordinator, says, “The objective of the Blue Electrode column is to showcase an item or items recently digitized  and displayed in the Villanova University Digital Library.”

Blue Electrode articles are written by members of the digital library team.

Contributed by Alice Bampton

The Special Collections Reading Room will be closed from June 24 to Nov. 1 while the renovation of the library second floor is taking place. Please feel free to contact us by email (bente.polites@villanova.edu or michael.foight@villanova.edu), or phone (610-519-5271) if you would like to consult items from Special Collections during this period. We will attempt to make individual arrangements for consultation in another area of the Library.

by Raamaan McBride

The last few reviews have been about films I recommend you watch. You don’t have to watch this one. For a film that tries to be a drama and a comedy, It’s Kind of a Funny Story (based on a novel) is actually a group of characters who tell one bad, awkward joke after another. Other reviewers have compared this film to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, perhaps because it takes place in a mental ward, but I refuse to allow the film I’m reviewing to share the same sentence with an Oscar winner.

The movie starts off with Craig (Keir Gilchrist), a troubled teen who contemplates suicide and who faces problems that all teens face. He decides to check himself into a mental ward. Due to construction he has to stay in the adult section. This is where Craig meets fellow patient, Bobby (Zach Galifianakis), who gives him fatherly advice that he never got at home. Quick note on Zach, I don’t think there’s been an actor in history who made one hit movie and who then went on to make only horrible ones. Because of a weird rule, Craig has to stay in the psychiatric ward for five days (even though the only thing I see wrong with him is that he has crappy friends). Love interests, moral stories and real friends may have framed the film, but the result was disappointing.

The real problem with this film, aside from it not being funny, is that it miraculously takes place over the course of five days. This kid manages to get over his problems, find a girlfriend, reconcile the relationship with his parents, make life long friends and completely change the lives of the patients in the ward! The plot holes and bad acting make it easy for me to suggest you skip this movie and watch One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest instead.

(You may not necessarily want to borrow this film, but our other videotapes & DVDs circulate to Villanova faculty, staff and students for a period of 7 days.)

by Raamaan McBride

As evidenced by the two previous reviews I’ve written (Waiting for Superman and Frontrunners), one of my many passions is education in America and how it can be improved. In keeping with the trend, the The Boys of Baraka tries to solve the so called “education gap” with a very drastic solution of its own.

Prefaced with the statistic, “75% of African-American males in Baltimore don’t graduate High School,” the film follows the lives of troubled Baltimore youths in an experimental Kenyan boarding school named Baraka.

At first this concept rubbed me the wrong way; the best country in the world has a school system in shambles so it needs to send these boys to a third world country that lacks current technology. This feeling quickly subsides after the film shows the school as a place for young boys to be just that, young boys. Moreover, it gives them a chance to escape their troubled environment.

The school identifies each of the kids’ problems (academic, disciplinary, etc.) and finds interesting remedies for each. After the first year, of a 2 year commitment, the school has security issues and the program is compromised. I was struck by one parent who made the comment that it was safer to send their kids to this school in Kenya than sending them to school in Baltimore. The film, through the lives of four boys, tries to convey the message that every kid has the ability to do great things if they are put in the right situation.

Is this film perfect? No, it isn’t. The ending needed more resolution, there should have been more back story with the program itself and there were too may plot holes that needed to be explained. Be that as it may, this film pulls at your heart and doesn’t let go. To see the parental problems (or lack thereof) is sad, and to watch a kid with so much potential lose hope is rough. I dare you to watch this film and not have feelings for the kids, to see an eighth grader “passed over” by the system so many times that he can only read at second grade level.

(DVDs and videotapes in the library collection can be borrowed by faculty, staff, and students for a period of 7 days.)

All of the books from Falvey’s second floor have been successfully relocated to Old Falvey with room to spare. The next phase involves the electrical upgrades in Old Falvey that are required for the installation of a public address system, doors that release automatically when the fire alarm system is triggered, and new light fixtures that respond to movement. We don’t yet have a firm completion date for this work.

Book stacks, now completely empty, are being disassembled on the second floor of Falvey Library and heavier construction is due to begin in the next week or two. We will keep you informed of our progress on that front.

Library staff will continue to page main stacks materials in the A – DZ call number ranges from the Old Falvey Annex. Please contact us at the service desk for assistance at 610-519-4270 or by sending an email to circ@villanova.edu. As always, patrons can also place a hold in the catalog for a particular title, prompting staff to retrieve it and hold it at the front desk.

by Raamaan McBride

Wow! This movie is a must-see, if only for the performances of Christian Bale and Melissa Leo, both of whom won Oscars for best supporting roles (with Bale winning). Honestly, if this movie had focused on just these two characters, it still would have been a great movie; the other actors in this movie are icing on the cake.

The Fighter is based on a true story about the early days of boxer Micky Ward as played by Mark Wahlberg. Micky tries to make a name for himself as a boxer by escaping the seemingly giant shadow of his older brother, also a fighter, Dicky (Bale). Unfortunately, Dicky, once a prominent boxer who “knocked out” Sugar Ray Leonard, has now spiraled down a path of drugs. He has an HBO film crew following him, filming a documentary about crack in America (he thinks it’s about his comeback at 40 years old). This is the foundation of the story (Micky’s rise and Dicky’s fall), with Melissa Leo playing the overbearing, overprotective mom. Amy Adams (also seen in Sunshine Cleaning) plays the love interest and does a great job. A departure from her usual role; she plays a foul mouthed, hardnosed chick. The fight scenes in this film are excellent and look like an authentic boxing match with a believable script. It’s a shame that Wahlberg gets the lead role because the supporting actors really outshine him.

I recommend The Fighter for everyone, especially for this Fourth of July weekend. If you want that Rocky-like story, but you’ve seen the movie one too many times, then you should give this a try. It’s one of the best boxing movies I’ve ever seen. (DVDs are located on the first floor and circulate to Villanova students, faculty, and staff.)

(from left to right, back row) Hatem Manosrah, Eric Ullmer, Eric Wagner, Bala Guduru, Raamaan McBride, Phylis Wright (left to right, front) Becky Whidden, Trisha Kemp

At a moment’s notice, Phylis Wright was asked to organize a group of staff to move the entire microfilm collection (28,000 reels) and videotape collection (4,000 items) from the Media Room to the Old Falvey 3rd floor stacks. She quickly assembled a group of volunteers from almost every team in the library. As needed, library team leaders and other staff provided input on the items to be weeded (close to 1600 reels) or on the placement of special materials. We also couldn’t have done this without the generous contributions of library book trucks from every library team. The project was accomplished in only four days, a Herculean effort given the amount of items to be moved. Hundreds of metal shelves had to be moved or adjusted to accommodate the 230 carts of materials that were moved while Phylis organized the process of “rack ‘em, stack ‘em, and pack ‘em,” keeping the energy and good vibes flowing. Volunteers were provided with snacks, grapes, juice, and water throughout the week.

For those who wish to use microfilm or videotapes, library staff at the front desk are ready and waiting to retrieve them for you!

Our special thanks to: Trisha Kemp, Becky Whidden, Ann Stango, Bill Greene, Fr. Dennis Gallagher, Michael Foight, Darren Poley, Gina McFadden, Jeff Eisenberg, Raamaan McBride, Margaret Duffy, Gerald Dierkes, Donna Chadderton, Mimi DiLenge, Anne Ford, Sarah Hidding, Krishna Bethanbhatla, Bala Guduru, June Jiang, Chris Altonji, Hatem Manosrah, Eric Ulmer, Eric Wagner, FeiFei Yang & Luisa Cywinski.

Domenick Liberato and Tim Coghlan

The moving company arrived today with a team of about 20 people to start the transfer of second floor books to the newly renovated space in Old Falvey. Domenick Liberato, stacks manager, and other staff worked hard to prepare the space and to measure the exact sections that would be relocated. The movers are working in several sections of the 2nd floor and are using both elevators, a ramp from Falvey Library to Old Falvey, and specially designed wooden library carts. Patrons may contact the front desk to arrange for retrieval of books in the A – DZ call number range.

Photo by Alice Bampton

By Alice Bampton

The Special Collections first floor exhibit, mounted by Laura Bang, Special and Digital Collections curatorial assistant, commemorated this year as the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the American Civil War.

This display of six books, published from 1863 to 1902, covers a variety of topics: Ulysses S. Grant’s personal memoirs, travels through a number of Southern States, poetry, a novel, a report to the Pennsylvania House of  Representatives and a tribute to those who supported the Union cause.

A small book of poetry, Candle-lightin’ Time (1901) written by Paul Laurence Dunbar and illustrated with photographs taken by members of the Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) Camera Club, is opened to a poem, “When Dey ‘Listed Colored Soldiers,”  and its illustration. Both pages have decorative borders by Margaret Armstrong. Dunbar was the son of freed slaves and a noted poet who frequently wrote in dialect as he did in the poem on display, a work presenting the view of a female slave watching a man she loves leaving for the Civil War.

Shoulder-straps: A Novel of New York and the Army, 1862, written by Henry Morford, was published in Philadelphia in 1863 during the height of the conflict. A book review from the time period noted that Morford dealt with some of the strange social and criminal relations growing out of a period of civil war” (Curator’s placard). Bang notes that modern readers may not appreciate the author’s writing style, but “the novel may still be of interest from a social history perspective.”

The other works on display include Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant (1885); The Southern States of North America: A Record of Journeys in Louisiana, Texas, the Indian Territory, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland (1875) by Edward King with illustrations from original sketches by J. Wells Champney; Report of the Select Committee Relative to the Soldiers’ National Cemetery [Gettysburg]: Together with the Accompanying Documents (1864); and The Tribute Book: A Record of the Munificence, Self-Sacrifice and Patriotism of the American People During the War for the Union (1865) by Frank B. Goodrich.

By Raamaan McBride

Public education in the U.S. is a broken system. When one school has a college-like campus but another one can’t even afford enough books for its students, something has to change. Directed by Davis Guggenheim, Waiting for Superman tries to shed light on this subject by looking at the past and predicting the future.

The film takes several different tracks. The first follows five families who enter lotteries to try to get their children into better schools. Waiting for Superman also examines the history of public schools and how these were formerly the best schools in the country. It then looks at current problems with public schools and finally suggests solutions.

The information is mind-blowing, especially one scene in particular which shows a chart of the “education gap” versus the money spent on education. It was shocking to see that it’s been unchanged for three decades. The statistics provide a good break from the film while offering meaningful information.

The families that they follow are heart-breaking, and Waiting for Superman challenges the viewer to think of better ways than watching children hope to win a lottery to get a better education. With that being said, the film does show bias. It spends a lot of time bashing teachers’ unions (which are honestly not great in my opinion), but unions are not the only contributors to the problem.

Anyone who has children or who is interested in education should see this film. Waiting for Superman is thought-provoking and sweet; it’s suspenseful while also being informative. This film isn’t perfect, but it does a great job telling you that there is a problem and it makes you want to fix it.

A documentary is supposed to inform while being enlightening; it’s supposed make you think and, hopefully, want to engage. This film does that and more. This review doesn’t come close to describing the greatness of the film: I can honestly say that this is one of the best documentaries I’ve ever seen.

(DVDs are located on the first floor and circulate to Villanova faculty, staff and students.)