Library News

If you’ve been following our renovation updates, then you know that the second floor of the Library has been completely gutted in the space of one week. Marble slabs were removed, walls were disassembled, and the elevator was blocked off to keep curiosity at bay (and our patrons safe). Now begins new construction – wiring, plumbing, lighting and ventilation – cranes will lift the building materials from the loading dock and through a second floor window. We ask that patrons stay clear of the second floor stairwell doors and be aware that delays might be experienced when using the elevator.

And don’t forget, the books that were once housed on the second floor can be found in Falvey West, which patrons can enter from the first floor near the print center. Feel free to ask for help at the front desk!

Photo by Alice Bampton

On Monday, Aug. 22, surveyors and contractors began working on the second floor “Learning Commons in Falvey” project, which will eventually bring together academic research librarians and staff from the mathematics lab, learning support and writing center into one unified space.

The book collections that were once housed on that floor have been moved to Falvey West, a section of Old Falvey Hall that was refurbished over the summer. The entrance to Falvey West is on the first floor of Falvey Library and can be freely accessed by patrons who wish to browse and retrieve books in the A – DX call number ranges.

“The first day or two of work involved site assessment and the development of a project sequencing plan by the contractors themselves,” according to Joe Lucia, University librarian. Demolition and infrastructure work will take place over the next few weeks with louder work taking place between midnight and 6:00 a.m. “Scheduling work this way will minimize the impact of construction noise on the library study and work environment,” said Lucia. (Watch a video of the marble slab removal below.)

The Special Collections room will be sealed off from the rest of the second floor in order to protect the valuable collections from dust.  The elevator and stairwells will be blocked off at the second floor to prevent unauthorized entrance and to protect library patrons.

As always, library staff can be called upon for assistance and information. Our aim is to provide a comfortable and accessible work and study space throughout construction.

(Previous blog posts about the renovations can be found here.)

Photo by Alice Bampton – Video by Joe Lucia

At long last, the Falvey West stacks, which contain circulating books in the A – DX call number ranges, are now open for patron browsing and borrowing. Our new collection space can be accessed from the former bound periodical entrance (Falvey Library, first floor) adjacent to the print center. Signs are posted inside the new stacks directing patrons to call number ranges. The center stairwell in Falvey West connects the three lower floors, ground through second.

The Falvey West upper floors (third & fourth) are restricted and contain special collections, microfilm, videotapes and other miscellaneous materials.

As always, staff at the front service desk are available for assistance. Please stop by or call us at 610-519-4270 with any questions you may have. We’re here to help!

Photo by Laura Hutelmyer

Are you a student looking for a job in the library? Do you need to meet with the library director? Are you a contractor working in the library facility? Are you working with library staff on an event?

We can help you find your way to our temporary offices.

In order for construction to begin on the second floor of Falvey Library, a few people had to move into Old Falvey. The library director and staff from the business & administration, outreach, communication, and digital projects teams are now located in the former Reading Room on the second floor of Old Falvey Hall. That area can be accessed from the Old Falvey main entrance. Listed below are staff who are located in this space:

Jeannine Ahern, Alice Bampton, Margaret Duffy, Alexandra Edwards, Jeff Eisenberg, Mary Heyman, Joseph Lucia, Gina McFadden, Darren Poley, Joanne Quinn, Jackie Smith and Stephen Spatz. (Laura Bang temporarily resides in the resource management area on Falvey Library’s ground floor.)

Feel free to visit our temporary offices!

Photo by Luisa Cywinski

The renovation construction project has been put out to bid and once we have a contractor selected, as early as the first week of August, it could get quite noisy in the library. They will be using jack hammers to create passages for new pipe work and to reroute plumbing for sprinkler systems. The Special Collections room and its contents will be protected by sealing off the entire area with plastic sheeting.

The Old Falvey reading room is almost ready for its new occupants – Director, Business & Administration, Outreach, and Communications staff. The photo at right shows the original floor in that room, which will be temporarily carpeted as an office space.

By the end of July, the Old Falvey Reading Room, where our VHS and microfilm collection was previously housed, will become a temporary office area for Business & Administration, Outreach, Communication, and Director’s Office staff. Old furniture, curtains, and shelving will be removed and new temporary carpeting will be laid and data and phone lines added. After the Reading Room space is clean, office staff will relocate so that their former offices on the second floor of Falvey Library can be dismantled.

It could get very noisy in the library over the next few weeks, but we hope library patrons and staff will be happy when they see the end result.

(A search on our web site for “Renovation Review” will result in previous articles about the renovation.)

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.)

The moving and storage crew has dismantled the second floor shelving in preparation for more drastic renovations. They’re taking it down to the nuts and bolts, stripping away the old carpeting and ceiling tiles, and calculating how many additional electrical and phone lines will be needed. We look forward to sharing the new space with our new residents (Writing Center, Math Lab, & Learning Support Services). During construction, second floor staff  — Outreach, Digital Projects, Director’s Office, Business & Administration — will temporarily relocate to other office areas in the building.

For safety reasons, we can’t let anyone into the construction area, but we will post photographs so you can watch our progress.

Call our service desk at 610-519-4270 to request retrieval of main stacks books in the A – DX call number range.

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.