Library News

When University Staff Council members arrived at the Library to present David Uspal, senior web specialist for Library Services and Scholarly Applications, with a Work Process Improvement (WPI) award, Uspal’s colleagues may have wondered whether it was for his wheelchair-accessible touchscreen near the library’s entrance or perhaps his imaginative campus map, featured on that same touchscreen. Actually, his interactive map of the Library earned him this distinction.

Uspal’s innovative library map accomplishes two major tasks: First, the map (see “Building Map” link on the library’s homepage) makes it easy for staff to show (instead of just tell) students how to access the adjacent building, the location of the stairs and even the section of shelving that holds the book they need. When they see how easy and fun-to-use the map is, students typically say things like, “that’s cool!””

Second, Uspal has added a “Find on map” link to the catalog record for each book, magazine, DVD, etc. in the Library. That link connects each item’s catalog record to the interactive map, showing the item’s location and even highlighting the section of shelving that holds that item.

David Uspal’s interactive map of Falvey Memorial Library has improved the library staff’s ability to quickly and effectively direct students, faculty and staff to the library resources they seek. His map also empowers all library patrons to find library materials with efficiency and autonomy.

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.

Continuing an initiative Falvey’s University Staff Council (USC) representative, Phylis Wright, began last year, the Library is honoring its senior student employees with personalized bookplates. Each of the library’s twenty nine graduating student employees selected his or her favorite book in Falvey’s collection. Library staff then placed a bookplate bearing each senior’s name in his or her selection.

The bookplate recognizes the students’ graduation and service to the Library, indicating their name and year of graduation.  Our current USC representative, Linda Hauck, says this gesture honors our hardworking student employees on teams throughout the library.

What did they read? Choices ranged from non-fiction to popular fiction as well as books chosen for One Book Villanova: Little Princes: One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of  Nepal , Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet and The Kite Runner. The full assortment appears above the “new books” display on the first floor, under the words “Dedicated to Falvey’s Seniors.”

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

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.

…………  …Child

………by Alyssa Moudis

I did not think that this could happen

to someone as nice as you.

I remember shaking in the Church

As your pretty white coffin

Carried you down the aisle.

With purple flowers placed on top,

And I remembered that was your favorite color.

I never thought a funeral could be beautiful.

The altar was filled with so many flowers.

A big photo of you stood up there

But I can’t remember where.

My eyes kept returning to the white coffin.

Forever a nineteen year old,

Two months before twenty,

You will never suffer aging,

But I know you wanted kids,

And that was the part of you taken first.

With tightened fists of tissues I listened,

To the music and to the voices,

You were so loved, so admired.

And today, two of your pictures

Hang above my head, near my pillow,

While I lay across navy blue sheets.

They do not face me.

I have to look behind me,

As we do to see any memory.

Now I drive past your house in my car

And remember, driving, another thing

You won’t do again.  I wonder what

Your mother’s doing as I pass by.  And I try

To picture her, picture how it must feel

To lose a child.

A Senior-Class-Poet Contestant, Alyssa says “Poetry became my favorite area of writing when I quickly learned it is the only other place for me besides my home where I can make my own rules and create my own structure. It provides a freedom for my thoughts whether or not the words are just for me or to be seen by others. It helps me express what I cannot say logically. In poetry it’s okay to be a mess and it’s okay to not be perfect.”

Alyssa Moudis is an English major and GWS minor from Manhasset, N.Y.

On Tuesday, April 30, members of the Villanova community gathered to celebrate the launch of Aurelius, the library’s very own Digital Humanities Initiative. Those in attendance had the privilege of hearing Villanova faculty members describe fascinating projects developed in collaboration with library staff.

Laura Bang, Digital and Special Collections curatorial assistant, opened the event by asking for a definition of the Digital Humanities. Answering this request was no easy feat: because the Digital Humanities (DH) are in their nascent stages as a discipline, providing a proper definition is difficult. However, one audience member accepted the challenge, describing DH as “a digital framework for investigating the humanities, and a humanities framework for investigating digital scholarship.”

Annika Thiem, PhD, Dr. theol. and assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy, was the first faculty member to present. Dr. Thiem’s project involves a full-text archiving of Jahrestage (Anniversaries), a novel by German author Uwe Johnson about New York City. Along with making the sprawling 1700 page book full-text searchable, Dr. Thiem’s project seeks to map the areas described in the novel, opening up a spatial dialogue with Johnson’s fascinating textual exploration of the city in the 1960s. Dr. Thiem remarked upon the “provisionality” of DH as a field and described some of the excitement that provisionality can inspire.

Craig Bailey, PhD, associate professor in the Department of History, presented the second project: a digital archival and local community project which explores the rich history of the city of Ardmore, Pa. Dr. Bailey teaches a junior research seminar in history, during which students will research some component of Ardmore’s history by exploring archived material and then log that material on a digital, interactive map in Aurelius web space. In this course, undergraduate history students will not only learn how to research archived materials but also create an interface for the community to access the material.

The event closed with David Uspal, senior web specialist for Library Services and Scholarly Applications, who spoke on his web-development work for these and other projects. Mr. Uspal described his experience with DH as mutually enriching, a process in which he offers technical expertise to faculty members whose unique projects, in turn, challenge him to hone his skill set and learn new techniques.

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.

Last week Falvey Memorial Library hosted a conference featuring this year’s Falvey Scholars. Representatives from our Library and each of the University’s colleges consider senior class Villanova applicants on the basis of outstanding undergraduate research. This selection committee then chooses five students to be distinguished as Falvey Scholars. The competition confers awards for each of the following five disciplines: the liberal arts, science, engineering, nursing and business.

We caught up with Victoria Horn, this year’s winner from the Villanova School of Business, and asked her about her project, entitled “Examining the Experiential Pedestal: The Negative Side of Experiential Consumption.”

CA: First, congratulations on being named a Falvey Scholar—I’m sure it feels great to see all that hard work paying off.

VH: Thank you! But I can’t celebrate just yet — there’s still a lot of hard work to be done since our study is not complete. I can assure you I will still be spending many of my nights in Falvey Library.

CA: What was the first germ of thought that directed you towards your larger research project?

VH: I’ve always had an interest in Consumer Research. Actually, one of my application essays to Villanova was about branding, materialism and the psyche behind needing a product. I’d say I’ve always had a Consumer Research seed planted in me, but Dr. Chaplin’s Buyer Behavior course was the one that really made it blossom. After her class I realized I wanted to pursue a larger, more intense, research project with her outside of a classroom setting.

CA: What’s the most exciting thing you discovered during your research process?  Anything that made you feel like you were really onto something unique?

VH: One of my favorite finds was an explanation of how experiences are difficult to compare, and thus tend to be safe from disadvantageous comparisons. The author wrote that it was “literally like comparing apples to oranges.” That description really helped put into perspective how unique my research was going to be since we’re trying to apply a set of standards to something that is inherently unique to each person. I also really loved reading one author’s notion of how materialism was evolving to include more than just traits or values, but extrinsic motivation. Basically, materialism wasn’t just about collecting objects anymore but included people having extrinsic (i.e. need validation from other people) goals and motives. This piece I thought would be vital to our study and it made me feel like my notions weren’t far-fetched.

CA: Where is your favorite spot in our Library, or just on campus generally, to hunker down when you have some serious reading, writing or researching to get done?

VH: The President’s Lounge in Connelly used to be my big go-to for work, but there were many times when it was closed for unknown reasons or there was a function going on inside so I had to go to Falvey instead. I typically do work on the first floor either at one of the tables near the printers or in the 24-hour lounge.

CA: Do you have a research tool you use that you think a lot of people on campus may not know about? A database or a resource you find useful.

VH: I think one of the best things someone can utilize is the [Course] Guide page on Falvey’s website. If you don’t know exactly what database or journal to use, you can just pull that up, click the appropriate subject, find the course/professor you’re taking and you’ll see recommended databases/journals. That page saved me so much time and energy when I first started my research because I really wasn’t sure where to begin my searches.

CA: What’s the best thing you bought this year so far?

VH: I’m a bit of a fitness nut, and I found a Groupon with some friends for 10 kickboxing classes in Ardmore. The classes were amazing and I loved going with some fellow Villanovans. I actually ended up buying more classes from a friend who wasn’t too into them so I can keep going once my work subsides.

CA: Do you have a favorite app?  If you don’t use a smart phone you can pretend I meant “appetizer.”  

VH: I’m probably one of the only Falvey Scholars that doesn’t have a smart phone. But hopefully I can get my hands on one soon. My favorite appetizer would have to be a spinach and artichoke dip; it’s too good.

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.

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.

……………Hullabaloo

……….by Christi Danner

our argyle eyes and two hands full of dust:

all we had.

and Silence. Silence that cramped

against ‘Moderne White’ painted plaster

into ‘Downy Gray’ sooted corners

and had to stick its elbows and feet out the windows

of our assembly line house.

………..[ if you look long enough into the void

............and decorate it and dust it every Monday

............the void begins to look back through you ]

…………we named it Fred.

mornings were streaming sunlight and its sticky skin

and playing possum under ‘Haven Green’ paisley sheets.

we spent our days like dogs in heat and our nights

…………orphans

one Saturday afternoon, in January, maybe,

(the month of sleet and gift receipts and whiskey)

we dropped a “Carnival Orange” lit match

on the hardwood kitchen floor.

…………our lips met

…………soft

…………melting

…………in the undulating haze and heat and

…………alien orange world

…………of raw throats and roasted eyes.

there we gave birth

to our remains.

…………we left the scene, our moonlit eyes and two hands, hand in hand.

………………………………………………………………………………..all we had.

A Senior-Class-Poet Contestant, Christi says, “Poetry, like real life, is often very confusing. Unlike life, it’s organized, even if the logic is hidden. I like poetry because it lets me put complicated thoughts into concise lines and words.”

Christi Danner is an English major from Allentown, Pa.

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.

……………………Untitled #1

……………………by Jack Clark

A cool breeze strikes his face as he walks down the street,
The ever persistent rain soaking his clothes as he reaches for his mittens.
Two holes in the right mitten,
Enough to remind him that he is in fact cold.
The left one is missing the tips of the pointer and middle finger.
It’s February 23rd and it’s raining.
He thinks of nothing but how wet his socks are inside what he calls shoes.
No laces, holes in the sole, the cloth that was at one time white is now brown.
And to think it’s only Monday.
To go home would mean going back to the park, the subway, the alley way.
He turns around to head in what seems to be the right direction.
His hair collects the rain and lets it slowly run down his face into his beard and eventually down to his shirt
His watch reads quarter past 7.
The subway is only a half a mile away and he can already feel the warmth of the dry shelter.
The smell of freshly cooked hot dogs emanates from the underground.
A smell so delicious he can taste it with every inhale.
As he enters the subway he curiously looks around for company,
A middle aged, overweight police officer, an anxious looking woman and the hot dog vendor.
With a sigh he walks over to the vendor and asks him how much a hot dog is.
$4.
Four dollars. Four dollars.
He turns around in time to see the train leave,
Leaving him alone in the subway to look for a place to call home.

“Poetry has always been a great way for me to capture the world I see around me and manifest it into something tangible. People channel this desire in many different ways, in many different artistic manners, and for me that artistic manner happens to be poetry. The story in this poem, which I have left Untitled, is not something I have directly experienced, but everyone has seen a homeless person; everyone has walked by a homeless person and made that split second decision: do I give him or her the two dollars in my pocket? I thought it would be powerful to write a poem from a homeless man’s perspective, albeit it is written from the third person; I tried to capture the feeling and emotion so the reader could empathize with this anonymous man and maybe understand his plight.”

Jack Clark is an English and economics major from Marblehead, Mass.: a small north-shore fishing town that borders the infamous “Witch Town” of Salem, Mass.

It was quite a thrill for library staff to learn the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) chose Falvey Memorial Library as a recipient for the  2013 ACRL Excellence in Academic Libraries Award. The ACRL honor is a peer-review recognition through which experts review and validate the work of their colleagues in the library field. It goes further, however, in that it presents a new challenge “to sustain our record of energetic community involvement and innovation,” according to Joe Lucia, University librarian and library director.

Falvey Library Staff – March 2013

But first on the agenda? It’s time to party! The Villanova community is cordially invited to join the library staff for a four-hour gala and mini “rock concert” to commemorate the award (Falvey-palooza, anyone?). Besides being celebratory, the event will be historical as well, as it will re-inaugurate usage of the Falvey Hall (aka Old Falvey) reading room, a spacious hidden treasure on campus with impressive vaulted ceilings and towering windows, which has been closed to public access for over 30 years.

As part of the fun, the evening will feature two sets of music by Villanova University’s very own librarian band, Marc Fields & Bad Data, covering an eclectic range of styles from traditional songs and ballads to bluegrass and country through straight ahead rock-n-roll, including a number of original tunes written by library staff members!

The celebration will take place on May 14 from 5-9 p.m. in the Falvey Hall (aka Old Falvey) reading room, and light food & beverages will be served.

The ACRL award seems a worthy symbol of the culmination of three years of construction and change in Falvey Memorial Library, the focal point of which is the stylish and very popular Learning Commons, a state of the art center for learning and inquiry that integrates in a single physical setting access to key academic services, including Research Support Librarians, the Writing Center, Learning Support Services and the Mathematical Learning Resource Center. Its large meeting rooms and funky retro furniture have become favorite places to study on campus.

University President the Rev. Peter M. Donohue, OSA, PhD, ’75 LAS will formally accept the award from ACRL President for 2012-2013, Steven Bell, on the morning of May 14. A symposium on the future of libraries will follow the ceremony,  featuring a cavalcade of 30+ ‘lightning talks’ given by faculty and Falvey staff and a catered lunch. The symposium will begin at 8:30 a.m. with a continental breakfast, and end at 3:30 p.m.

So save the date—Tuesday, May 14—and join us for this celebration of fun, music and fulfillment of the University’s goal to ignite change through creativity, innovation and commitment to academic excellence. If you’d like to attend the daytime symposium, the nighttime celebration or both, please RSVP before May 10 to Gina Duffy.

Joanne Quinn is the team leader of the Communication and Publications team and a graphic designer.

Corey Arnold reads “Mosquito in Amber” and “Invocations”.

Falvey Memorial Library’s Speakers’ Corner provided the setting for Villanova University’s eighth annual Open Mic Poetry Reading. Master of Ceremonies Lisa Sewell, PhD, welcomed students, faculty, staff and guests to the event. Dr. Sewell, an associate professor in the Department of English and also the director of programming, Gender and Women’s Studies, began the event with her poem about an endangered species—the honey bee—titled, “Apis Mellifera.”

Timothy Freeman, PhD, professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, came to the microphone next to read “Universal Declaration of Life.” Christina Danner, a Senior Class Poet contestant, shared “Dumb Luck.” Each Senior Class Poet contestant had one of his/her poems published on posters and displayed throughout the library’s first floor. After Christina, Juan Castillo presented “Antonio.”

Library staff member Gerald Dierkes reads from his selection of poetry.

Next, Matt Enright offered “Self-Fashioning,” a Zachary Hayes poem featured in Arthology. Gerald Dierkes, a library staff member, read his own “That Wonderful Sense of …” and a Harry LeFever poem, “At the Nadir of my Night”: both from Call me Ishmael, Still. Then Senior Class Poet contestant Gregory Watry delivered “Love on the Spanish Steps.”

Catherine Staples, ’86 MA, adjunct professor of English, presented “Conversation” and “Fear of Heights,” both from her new book: The Rattling Window. Corey Arnold offered “Mosquito in Amber” and “Invocations.” And Mary O’Malley, PhD, Heimbold Chair and professor of Irish studies in Villanova University’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences for spring 2013, shared “Before Winter Comes.”

Dr. Sewell introduced senior class member Lauren Clem to talk about Arthology, one of the University’s student literary-art journals. Co-editor-in-chief of Arthology, Lauren presented the just-released 2013 issue of Arthology and made copies of the journal available at no charge to attendees.

Kamran Javadizadeh, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of English delivered “Blessings II Go.” Next, Senior Class Poet contestant Wesley Brown read “Gas Money.” And Alyssa Moudis, a Senior Class Poet contestant, offered “Child” and “Black Eye.”

Then the Director of Irish Studies, Joseph Lennon, PhD, presented “Circle,” “Ophthalmologists Reign” and “Spree.” Haley Potter, a Senior Class Poet contestant, shared “Children at Play” and “Quarantine.” Matt Riddle, the event’s final reader, delivered “night again” and “a subtle theology”; both poems appear in Arthology.

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 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.