Library News

Join history librarian Jutta Seibert on Wednesday, May 1, for a 30-minute introduction to Ancestry Library Edition. Ancestry is an online database containing a wealth of historical data including U.S. census records, U.K. parish records, military records, and passenger lists. All Villanova students, faculty and staff have free access to Ancestry through the library’s website. The workshop will cover the basics of searching the database and interpreting results.

Location: Falvey Memorial Library, Learning Commons, Room 204
Time: Wednesday, May 1 at 4 p.m.
For more information, contact Jutta Seibert (jutta.seibert@villanova.edu).

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 them 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.

My Sonnet

(I think it’s a sonnet?)

by Lorena Bonner

I don’t really like poetry at all.

Please don’t compare me to a summer’s day,

Don’t serenade me about my smile,

Really, I just wouldn’t know what to say.

Don’t immortalize me with your clichés

about my eyes, or lips, or golden hair,

Thou knowest it would only make me squirm,

Or rush to a window, gasping for air.

Should you absolutely need to confess

a love you cannot hold within yourself,

then write and confess it to a book,

And when you finish, keep it on a shelf.

“My Sonnet” was one of my first attempts at writing poetry, when I had a slight distaste for it. I likened it to “cheesy” pick up attempts and so I attempted to turn poetry, and the sort of male gaze that goes along with certain poems, against itself. Not that I don’t love Shakespeare, but I think I had some of his now stereotypical sonnets in mind when I wrote it. Oh, and poetry has now grown on me a bit since my original dislike of it…

Lorena Bonner is an English major from Miami, Fla.

Sean Devlin, ’13

Hello and welcome back to the most exciting fake tournament in all of fake sports: Falvey Memorial Library’s Author March Madness. The sophisticated-looking pipe smoke has cleared and left us with just four remaining writers, ready and waiting to slug it out for a spot in the final match-up. This week we speak with guest analyst Adam Hembree, VU English Graduate student and Writing Center tutor.

CA: Adam, it was clear we were looking at a real bruiser in the Midwest between the legendary Dr. Seuss and some guy named … let me look it up real quick … oh right, William Shakespeare. This one was even closer than we expected—what did you think?

AH:  Do you hear it?

It’s the anguished silence of all the Whos in Whoville. Not even Horton can hear them now, for the tower of turtles has finally tumbled for dark horse Dr. Seuss’ (14) flamboozling run. To the good Doctor’s credit, he posed the first credible challenge to the Bard’s iambic dictatorship over Western Canon, rhyming valiantly to a one-vote defeat.

CA: I think Shakespeare should win on the merits of Gnomeo and Juliet alone. Now there’s a film that sounds the depth of the human spirit. On to the West, what did we see there?

AH: Buzzer-beating votes were the order of the week, as the much-anticipated match-up between J.R.R. Tokien (1) and C.S. Lewis (3) came down to the last battle. In the end, intricate politics, neo-linguistic triumphs, and an epic storyline were not enough to trump transparent allegory and Liam Neeson in lion form. Know thy audience, J.R.R.

CA: Sounds like you got a bit of a bias there, Adam, but as a LOTR fan I feel your pain. If Tolkien had won I was going to write this entire recap in Elvish, mellon. Your loss, blog readers! Tell me about the South.

AH: The Lost Generation lived up to its name in the Elite Eight as both Hemingway (2) and Fitzgerald (4) fell. It seems neither legend was aware of the contest, electing to continue getting tight on highballs instead of drumming up votes.

CA: Yup, they sure know how to knock ‘em back down there below the Mason Dixon. What do you think Twain’s advantage was over F. Scott in this last round?

AH: These are two inimitable classics, old sport. If it had been Gatsby and Huck Finn mano a mano in a book challenge, I have to think F. Scott would have had the edge. As it stands, Twain’s body of work gets ‘em young with Tom Sawyer and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (you know you’ve seen the TV movie). Plus, the dude is a veritable quote machine and has an unbeatable stache.

CA: He’d better hope this week’s votes were more than just lip service. What can voters expect to see in the coming match-ups?

AH: Ahead lies a Final Four showdown between Twain (3) and Harry Potter creator/billionairess J.K. Rowling (5). Rowling could not be reached for comment, despite being the only living competitor. Sybil Trelawney’s most recent prognostication was quite favorable for the Brit sensation, though Dick Vitale pointed out that the seer’s optimism was “greatly exaggerated, baby!”

The Final Four is shaping up to be quite the scholastic slobberknocker. Shakespeare vs. Lewis. Twain vs. Rowling.

CA: Definitely some titans here in the four, but I gotta think Shakespeare takes the whole thing. Anything he should watch out for against C.S. Lewis?

AH: Forgive me for sounding like a broken record here, but Lewis gets readers early. His direct prose and penchant for bold adventure really takes you back to the good ole days, sipping Surge while Mom reads aloud about dragons … lions … fauns …

CA: Adam? You were saying?

AH: Right! The point is, Shakespeare can nail this whole thing down for sure, but he needs to be wary of the nostalgia vote. Sure, these kids were all reading Romeo and Juliet in ninth grade, but many have painful associations with their introduction to Shakespeare. That could translate to votes against him rather than votes for the opposition. I’ve never heard of a “No Fear” edition of The Chronicles of Narnia, after all.

CA: What’s the celeb social media buzz like right now?

AH: Most folks are choosing to remain diplomatic. Hamlet (@99fardels), however, had this to say: “If the ‘ship comes down to Lewis and JK … I’m totes shuffling off this mortal coil. #done”

CA: Ominous words. I used to have him on Instagram, but I could only tolerate so many photos of his meals. Dude eats a lot of turkey legs. Thanks for chatting with us, Adam.

Readers, stick here for more information on the tournament, including a chance to win a prize during the championship round. And, as always, don’t forget to cast your vote!

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.

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.

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.

The research experts at Falvey Memorial Library will hold instruction sessions on citing sources with The Chicago Manual of Style on April 16 and April 24. Chicago style is used extensively in the humanities and social sciences for its clarity and flexibility. However, its eccentricities (different footnote and bibliography styles, the Ibid. system, etc.) make it tougher to get started with than the other styles.

These classes will lay the groundwork for Chicago style and demonstrate its ability to meet nearly any documentation need. Sessions will be held at 4:00 p.m. on each of the above dates in Falvey 204 in the second-floor Learning Commons. For more information, contact history liaison librarian Jutta Seibert (jutta.seibert@villanova.edu) or philosophy librarian Nikolaus Fogle (nikolaus.fogle@villanova.edu).