Library News

A Senior-Class-Poet Contestant, Wesley says “I write my poems with a certain vision in mind, but in important ways that vision doesn’t matter at all. My interpretation of my work is just that, an interpretation. I have often had friends of mine convince me that my poems aren’t about what I thought they were at all.”

Wesley Brown is an English and History major from San Mateo, Calif.

More of Wesley’s poems appear on his poetry blog: beautifularithmetic.wordpress.com.

Using an old-fashioned motif of chalk on blackboards (does anyone other than this writer remember them?), Joanne Quinn, Falvey’s graphic designer and Communication & Publications team leader, created an exhibition based upon two events occurring on April 26: Falvey Scholars Day of Research and Sigma Xi’s Day of Research.

The Falvey Scholars portion features a schedule of events and blackboards with appropriate sketches for each of the disciplines represented: business, nursing, engineering, science and arts. Accompanying each blackboard is a picture frame holding one or more question marks. Photographs of the winners will be added after the event. Other blackboards say, “Winners to be announced next week,” and “Falvey Scholar 2014? Could be you! Contact librarians for A+dvice how!”

To the right of the Falvey Scholars section is information about Sigma Xi, the international honor society of research scientists and engineers. A large blackboard gives the society’s mission and the Villanova chapter’s schedule of events for April 26.

At the bottom right side of the exhibit another blackboard panel says, “For more information scan [the QR] code or visit <library.villanova.edu>.”

The Falvey Scholars Award is an annual event cosponsored by the Library, the Honors Program  and the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships. Faculty advisors nominate their senior students; the nominees then submit an application to the Falvey Scholars selection committee. The committee includes representatives from the Library and each of the Colleges (College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Villanova School of Business, College of Engineering and College of Nursing). The successful candidates will present their research, highlighting their use of Falvey resources.

University Librarian and Library Director Joe Lucia will give a brief talk following the students’ presentations. Lucia will emphasize the importance of undergraduate and graduate research on campus. He will also mention the Sigma Xi Day of Research, held in the Connelly Center after the Falvey Scholars program.

Sigma Xi, founded at Cornell University in 1886, is an honor society of research scientists and engineers which has included women as full members since 1887. Sigma Xi now has over 500 chapters and nearly 60,000 members in the United States, Canada and abroad, wherever scientific research is conducted.

Nostalgic and informative, this exhibit is well worth visiting.

Alice Bampton is a digital image specialist and senior writer on the Communication and Publications Team.

EDITOR’S NOTE: As a celebration of National Poetry Month, we’re extending an invitation to you, in verse, to the Open-Mic Poetry Reading event.

Open-Mic Poetry Reading,

12:00 p.m. Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Now, I overheard a rumor,

And I wish I’d heard it sooner,

About poets lacking humor:

“They’re a dry, dreary bunch

Who take themselves so serious.

Making list’ners delirious

With pond’rous thoughts, they weary us

Then serve a catered lunch.”

If you think poets need tweaking

And it’s me you’re now critiquing

Because from your cares you’re seeking

Some respite, some relief.

I’ll do my part to remedy,

And since the soul of levity

Demands we practice brevity,

I’ll keep my comments brief.

Come one, come all; the Open Mic

Beckons poets of every stripe.

Laugh, bare your soul or vent a gripe,

But most of all, have fun.

Falvey’s first floor provides the space;

In Speakers’ Corner it takes place.

Nourish your soul; relax your pace.

We’ll meet from noon till one.

Gerald Dierkes is an information services specialist for the Information and Research Assistance team,  senior copyeditor for the Communication and Publications team, and a liaison to the Department of Theater.

To honor the University’s Senior-Class-Poet contestants and to commemorate National Poetry Month, the Library is publishing contestants’ poems on Falvey’s blog. The Library also has created posters for the contestants’ poems, which are displayed throughout the first floor.

Each spring semester, all seniors are encouraged to enter the Senior-Class-Poet Contest. The Department of English will announce the 2013 Senior-Class Poet later this semester.

Children at Play

by Haley Potter

For Margaret Atwood

Remember that time you stabbed me?

I still have the scar.

You pillaged your dad’s old Swiss army knife,

the red paint chipped and camouflaged by rust,

so we could build a wobbly fortress in the woods.

You tossed it to me, closed, but

the wind caught the loose hinge, unmasked it in mid-air.

A flare of silver flickered across my leg

before a burn of flaming fluid trickled down.

I cried, but we laughed

and swore we wouldn’t tell.

Now you clutch at your real weapons:

not a Swiss army knife, but an American Army rifle;

not stolen, but proudly, desperately entrusted.

You find yourself a toy soldier,

green with inexperience and nauseous fear,

panicked that you may have jumped the gun.

We don’t laugh now.

Do we cry?

I won’t tell.

“For me, writing poetry is always an arduous but enjoyable experience. Sometimes a poem will begin because I think of some memory or experience that I want to memorialize or explore, and other times just a word or image can spark an idea. My favorite thing about writing poetry is the way that it allows me to think of things from different perspectives and provides a means for understanding my own emotions.”

Haley Potter, from Mechanicsville, Md., is an English and honors major with a writing-and-rhetoric concentration. She minors in Spanish, sociology, and gender and women’s studies.

After viewing the many creative photos submitted by enthusiastic Villanova students, and discussing the merits of each, which was not an easy task, a panel of library staff and students have chosen the winners of the Falvey Memorial Library “Falvey Through Your Eyes” photo contest.

Congratulations to Amanda Borroughs, our first prize winner, for her “Falvey West Stacks” photo!

Brenden Tervo-Clemmens takes second place with his “Your Eyes” photo offering a night view of the Library entrance.

Coming in third is Christine Fossaceca‘s photo of a “Huge Webster’s Dictionary” showing the entry for ‘Villanovan.’

As you can see in the photos, each photographer showed a unique view of the Library, highlighting the importance of the Library as a place and as a resource. Amanda will be awarded a Kindle Fire and Brenden and Christine will each receive an iPod Shuffle. The winning photo will become Falvey’s Pinterest profile photo until the end of term. Congratulations to you all!

All the photos entered in the contest will be added to Falvey’s Pinterest Photo Contest board. Thank you to everyone who took the time to capture their view of the library and who entered their photos in the contest!

To honor the University’s Senior-Class-Poet contestants and to commemorate National Poetry Month, the Library is publishing contestants’ poems on Falvey’s blog. The Library also has created posters for the contestants’ poems, which are displayed throughout the first floor.

Each spring semester, all seniors are encouraged to enter the Senior-Class-Poet Contest. The Department of English will announce the 2013 Senior-Class Poet later this semester.

……….Love on the Spanish Steps

…………..by Gregory Watry

Picture perfect:

she in a white dress

and he in a black suit.

Fingers laced,

looking at each other

they are poised;

positioned by the photographer.

Fanny pack tourists

with their cameras and maps

look on.

…………Haven’t they ever seen staged love?

The bulbs flash;

fingers unlace.

…………Give ‘em a peck for the show

…………they deserve it.

The crowd golf-claps;

she traces the fountain’s water

with a fingertip.

And there I sit,

…………watching from the steps

……………………sick to the stomach

………………………………thinking I am somehow above love.

A Senior-Class-Poet Contestant, Gregory says “Poetry writing, for me, grows out of observation. The daily images that pass before my eyes hold more than I can ever imagine. It’s a bottomless well.”

Gregory Watry is an English and communication double major from Sparta, NJ.

Please join Villanova University’s Earth Day Committee in celebrating the 43rd anniversary of Earth Day on Monday, Apr. 22, 2013. Falvey Memorial Library’s Speakers’ Corner will host the first event of the day at 8:30 a.m.: a panel discussion on hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking (the propagation of fractures in a rock layer by a pressurized fluid), in the Marcellus Shale formation of Pennsylvania.

Five panelists including Steven Goldsmith, PhD, from the Villanova University Department of Geography and the Environment, Ruth McDermott-Levy, PhD, from the College of Nursing, Jerry Mead, PhD, from the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, Joseph Nye, Eastern Pennsylvania Program Organizer for Clean Water Action, and Susan Phillips, reporter for WHYY and StateImpact Pennsylvania, will discuss the pros and cons of fracking. Nathaniel Weston, PhD, from the Department of Geography and the Environment will moderate. A complimentary continental breakfast will be provided.

Natural gas extraction in the Marcellus Shale has produced jobs, helped reduce dependence on foreign oil and produced profits for landowners who lease mineral rights for drilling. But it has also caused damaged roads; contaminated groundwater in wells, reservoirs and sensitive environmental areas; methane releases into homes; increased seismic activity and acidic runoff that causes soil erosion.

Following the panel discussion, Earth Day 2013 activities will continue from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in lower level Connelly Center, where a sustainability fair will showcase indoor exhibits from environmental organizations, VIDA (Villanovans in Defense of Animals), student displays and raffles. Villanova’s new director of sustainability, Liesel Schwarz, will introduce herself to the community.

Concurrent with the indoor sustainability fair, Dining Services will host an outdoor farmer’s market with fresh local produce, breads, ice cream, beverages and free food samples from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Proceeds from the farmer’s market and sustainability fair raffles will benefit Tsinelas of Hope, the Philippines, towards the purchase of a mobile environmental classroom.

The keynote address, presented by Katherine Gajewski, sustainability director of the City of Philadelphia, will take place at 4:30 p.m. in Connelly Cinema. Ms. Gajewski will discuss Greenworks Philadelphia, a plan that sets 15 sustainability targets throughout the city, including energy, economy, engagement and equity, with the intent of making Philadelphia the greenest city in America by 2015.

The day will conclude with an 8 p.m. showing of the documentary film: “Planet Earth,” in 201A John Barry Hall. This film is sponsored by VEG (Villanova Environmental Group) and includes unique footage from all seven continents, giving insight into not previously seen species, locations and events.

All Earth Day 2013 events are free and open to all students, faculty, staff and the general public. Please come and enjoy as many as possible and hopefully take away a greater appreciation for the need for continuing environmental stewardship.

Donna Chadderton, a library information services specialist, is a member of the Villanova University President’s Environmental Sustainability Committee and Earth Day Committee.

On Tuesday, Apr. 16, at 7 p.m. in Connelly Center Cinema, critically acclaimed author Junot Díaz will conclude Villanova University’s 15th Annual Villanova Literary Festival with a free reading, book signing and reception.

Born in the Dominican Republic and raised in New Jersey, Díaz made his literary debut with his short story collection Drown (1996), which addresses the brutal and somehow beautiful realities of urban life. By offering a sharp, unflinching glare at life in the margins of modern America, Drown became a best-seller and introduced Díaz as a new, fresh voice to be reckoned with in the world of fiction.

After its success, Díaz took an eleven year hiatus, during which he produced his only novel, The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007), which won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. In this multi-generational story, Díaz merges the history of his own birthplace with modern American culture. In doing so, he crosses traditional boundaries of gender, nationality, class and language in order to create an overarching narrative of the struggle and survival so central to the narrative of being human.

His most recent collection of short stories, This Is How You Lose Her (2012), is on The New York Times Best Seller list and was a National Book Award finalist. It carries the same spirit of his previous works as the character Yunior, who narrates The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and is the predominating voice in Drown, once again becomes the focus in many of these stories about identity, family, romance, literary struggle and multicultural conflict. As with his previous works, Díaz confronts his audience with Spanish words and phrases, which have the effect of either alienating readers or inviting them into the diversity that influences American language and culture today.

Díaz is the recipient of many honors such as a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, a Dayton Literary Peace Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a PEN/Malamud Award and The O. Henry Award, among others. Currently, he is the fiction editor at Boston Review, creative writing professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and honorary chairman of the Dream Project. His current work in progress, tentatively entitled Monstro, will hopefully fulfill his dream of becoming an established voice in the science-fiction genre.

During an interview hosted by John Joseph Adams and David Barr Kirtley for Wired.com, Díaz described the work as an “insane novel about a strange invader virus-type thing that takes root in the poorest, hottest places in the world in the near future, and of course one of those places is going to be Haiti.” The novel, he explains, came from “this crazy idea to write a near-future story where these virused-up 40-foot monstrosities are going around eating people, and taking it from there. I’m only at the first part of the novel, so I haven’t really gotten down to the eating, and I’ve got to eat a couple cities before I think the thing will really get going.”

Alexander Williams, ’11 MA, is an intern on the Academic Integration and the Information and Research Assistance teams. He is currently pursuing an MS in Library and Information Science at Drexel University’s iSchool.

To honor the University’s Senior-Class-Poet contestants and to commemorate National Poetry Month, the Library is publishing contestants’ poems on Falvey’s blog. The Library also has created posters for the contestants’ poems, which are displayed throughout the first floor.

Each spring semester, all seniors are encouraged to enter the Senior-Class-Poet Contest. The Department of English will announce the 2013 Senior-Class Poet later this semester.

Forecasting

by Laura Solomon

Expecting snow, but feeling rain

Expecting sun, but feeling shade

Forecasting is

risky, indeed

but it is wise

to expect

the unexpected

and isn’t it funny

that the Spanish word

tiempo

means both weather and time

because when they change

so do we

A Senior-Class-Poet contestant, Laura says “I enjoy poetry because it’s whimsical and it creates song in speech.”

Meghan Rodgers, ’13

With the Louisville Cardinals bringing the NCAA tournament to an exciting close, bracket addicts everywhere are looking around for their next fix. But before you go and do something drastic like following the 76ers, why not try voting in the Library’s Author March Madness? The tournament enters the Elegant Eight this week, and we’ve got all the re-caps and previews right here. Be sure to stick the Library News blog for more updates, including forthcoming announcements regarding the prize drawing we’ll be holding during the Final Four. On to the games!

WEST

What’s the best part about March Madness? The story lines! And with J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis defeating Ray Bradbury and Agatha Christie respectively, we’ve got ourselves an Elegant Eight match-up made in heaven. I’ve got an inkling that Tolkien will win handily, but that’s only because I carry a picture of Legolas with me at all times (just in case).

MIDWEST

Shakespeare was heavily favored in his match-up against Oscar Wilde, but the witty aesthete came out swinging in earnest and created one of the most exciting matches of the tournament thus far.  Wilde may have gotten support from the theater department here at Villanova—they are putting on a production of Salome that runs this very weekend.  But alas, The Great Bard finished strong, eking out a 32-27 victory. He’s earned himself a rhyme-time match-up against tournament favorite Dr. Seuss in the eight, so there’s one to watch out for.

SOUTH

Another major upset in the South, with four seed F. Scott Fitzgerald taking down powerhouse Charles Dickens. Everything I want to say about this victory has already been communicated by this Lee Greenwood song, so why should I waste my breath?

EAST

J.K. Rowling defeated Herman Melville 47-15, proving once and for all that booger flavored jellybeans have stronger cultural influence than Herman’s sprawling nautical epic of the American sublime. The debate is over everyone, we can stop talking about it.

Further down we saw an interesting match-up between Joyce and Hemingway.  Legend has it these two were drinking buddies, to the extent that anyone could be a “buddy” to Ernest after he’d had a few (read: eight) mojitos. There may have been a strategic valence to this relationship, as you can see in the video below. In any case, Hemingway had no problem “dealing with” Joyce. He took the match 37-20.

So there you have it folks.  Be sure to look at the tournament board on the first floor of the library and to cast one vote in each match. See you in the Final Four.

Corey Waite Arnold is a writer and intern on the Communication and Publications Team. He is currently pursuing an MA in English at Villanova University.