Library News

On Thursday, Feb. 21, at 3:00 p.m. the Library will host a Scholarship@Villanova event featuring Ronald Hill, PhD, Richard J. and Barbara Naclerio Chair and professor of marketing and business law in the Villanova School of Business. Dr. Hill’s lecture, “A Manifesto on Marketing as Exchange,” will address contemporary trends in the discipline and practice of marketing and also their relationship to human value.

Dr. Hill’s research, which will be presented Thursday as part of his lecture, led to his selection for last year’s prestigious Outstanding Faculty Research Award. His approach begins with several criticisms of marketing as a discipline, including its recent theoretical tendency to “disregard of the vast majority of consumers in favor of a narrow, affluent socioeconomic subset.” Over the years Dr. Hill has developed a broad and eclectic body of research, and his work on the intersection between marketing and society can be found in illustrious publications like Harvard Business Review and Human Rights Quarterly.

Scholarship@Villanova events are dedicated to recognition of bold scholarly publications, exciting ongoing research, and other intellectual contributions of faculty members from all four of Villanova University’s colleges. Dr. Hill’s talk represents the second spring-semester lecture in this series. In the tradition of past Scholarship@Villanova lectures, this event is free and open to the public, and will be held at the Speakers’ Corner on the first floor of the Library.

The Library is making The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics available to the entire campus community. The Encyclopedia is an online resource accessible through a catalog search.

The Encyclopedia, published in November, is an online comprehensive reference resource covering the highly diverse field of applied linguistics. Coverage includes “27 key areas of the field,” including

language learning and teaching,

bilingual and multilingual education,

assessment and testing,

corpus linguistics,

conversation analysis,

discourse,

cognitive second language acquisition,

language policy and planning,

literacy, and

technology and language.

Additional features available with this resource include regular additions and updates to articles, as well as new entries, to keep the Encyclopedia current and cutting edge. It offers a wealth of additional material, too, such as sound files and direct links to cross referenced articles, creating a multifaceted learning experience. Entries are available in both HTML and PDF, enabling users to print in a clean, easy-to-read format, which includes citation and cross-references. The encyclopedia is easy to navigate and available 24/7 through the library’s website.

Image courtesy of The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics

By Rob LeBlanc

After nine weeks of day-long, live reading from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., the loyal readers at Falvey Memorial Library successfully completed all seven Harry Potter books on Thursday, Dec. 6 at 4 p.m.

Not to be derailed by severe weather, flu season or “pesky exams,” the final (extra) day of reading carried us over the finish line in fine style. We envisioned this multi-week event as a nostalgic look back at a series that helped define a generation, and thanks to the help of a host of readers from all divisions of the Villanova University community, we were more than successful.

Over 50 separate readers participated, and their creative reading styles brought smiles to our faces.  More than one couple read in tandem – one doing the dialogue and the other the text. Many readers tried out their acting chops by giving voices to the famous characters. One reader used Skype to read a chapter from Iowa! We even (gasp!) had a few children read from these “kid’s books.”

Leah Fett, costume winner

Faculty, staff and student readers, especially the members of the University’s Harry Potter fan club (Epilogue: the Villanovan Order of the Phoenix) and the Villanova Quidditch team took turns at the microphone, lending hours of their personal time to bring J.K. Rowling’s famous stories to life each week in the library’s 24/7 lounge.

Two of our regular readers won substantial prizes for their loyal participation. Graduate student Leah Fett won an iPod shuffle for our Halloween Costume contest with her fantastic (and extremely accurate)  Slytherin prefect costume.

Each reader was also entered into a raffle each time they took a turn reading, and one of our most loyal participants, Chelsea Peláez, won our grand prize: a Kindle with all seven Harry Potter e-books!

Chelsea Peláez, raffle winner

All and all, our readers came away with fond memories, a rekindling of their childhood love of the Potter books, and a few extra ounces (pounds?!) in the form of tasty snacks, including “authentic” butterbeer, contributed and arranged by our fabulous Outreach team.

In addition to all our faithful readers, I would especially like to thank the Falvey staff and student workers for all their time and support. Without their tireless proctoring and reading, we could not have succeeded in this wonderful project.

Many thanks and Happy Holidays!

Photographs by Alice Bampton, Laura Hutelmyer, Robin Bowles and Luisa Cywinski

Due to the impact of Hurricane Sandy on the Villanova community, the Harry Potter costume contest scheduled for this Wednesday, Oct. 31, at the Library is POSTPONED until next Wednesday, November 7th at 5pm. All members of the Villanova community are invited to participate in next Wednesday’s weekly reading and costume contest to enjoy fun, refreshments and seasonal butterbeer! The winning Harry Potter themed costume contestant will win an iPod Shuffle!

Additionally, tomorrow’s weekly Harry Potter live reading event will be cancelled. Please join us next week on Nov. 7  as we continue to work our way through all seven Potter books, read out loud, from cover to cover!

This Tuesday, Oct. 30, at 4:15 p.m. Lauren Shohet, PhD, will deliver a lecture entitled “Othello’s iPad: Editing, Adapting, Translating.” The lecture will focus on Dr. Shohet’s work on Othello in a variety of exciting contexts, including her recent task editing the play for an iPad app. Dr. Shohet is the Luckow Family Endowed Chair and professor of literature in Villanova University’s Department of English.

The event is part of the Scholarship@Villanova series, a string of lectures highlighting bold publications and research from distinguished faculty members at Villanova University. The Library will host five more Scholarship@Villanova events before the end of the academic year.

Dr. Shohet truly works on the cutting edge of her field. Focusing on topics of adaptation, materiality and the digital humanities, she often examines the relationship between form and history. These are subjects of particular relevance to Dr. Shohet, as a scholar of Shakespeare and Milton who often works in a digital context.

But the lecture will focus on more than just the digital; it will also examine Othello in translation, as a common component of high school curricula, and in the context of some of its adaptations from around the world. The lecture will illuminate the many lives of this classic play, and is sure to inspire conversation. The audience will even be invited to play with the materials Dr. Shohet helped develop for the Othello iPad app.

The event will be held in the Speaker’s Corner on the first floor of Falvey Memorial Library, and in the tradition of previous Scholarship@Villanova events, it is free and open to the public. 

This Tuesday, Oct. 23, at 2:30 p.m., Falvey Memorial Library will host the first of two events centered on the 2012 US Presidential Election. Two Political Science professors from the University will cover the particulars of this year’s election along with some relevant trends from elections past.

The event will give students and community members a chance to consider some of the more nuanced characteristics of the 2012 race and to participate in a political discourse, which is especially important here in one of the most hotly contested regions of this year’s election.

Matt Kerbel, PhD, professor and chair of the Department of Political Science, will deliver the first lecture, entitled “Understanding the 2012 Election: What’s Likely to Happen in Two Weeks?” He will discuss how—after a long primary campaign, two national conventions and four debates—the 2012 presidential election is about to be decided as voters go to the polls and how control of the Senate and possibly the House of Representatives is also at stake.

Dr. Kerbel will examine how the race stands at the moment and describe what we can expect to happen on Election Day.

Immediately following, David Barrett, PhD, professor, Department of Political Science, will talk about “Some Lessons from Political Science about Presidential Elections.” He will provide insight on what political science can reveal about candidates, campaigns and elections, and will also elaborate on how many of the colorful details of campaigns are rather predictable and have minimal influence on the outcome.

Dr. Barrett’s talk will focus on instances in which particular debates or other events did seem to shape the outcome on Election Day in prior years and speculate on which events, if any, seem to have mattered so far in the current election cycle.

The event begins at 2:30 pm and will take place in Speakers’ Corner, on the library’s first floor.

Barrett photograph by Jen Cywinski ’10 A&S

The Bartley Business Information Office has closed, freeing up much needed space for faculty offices.  The Business Research Team has moved into Falvey Memorial Library’s new Learning Commons Research Center on Falvey’s second floor on a full time basis.

We expect this change to be a winning solution for all constituents. You can still chat with us or email us for immediate assistance. Business team librarians Linda Hauck, Merrill Stein and Dennis Lambert are at your service.

For more information, see the Business Reference blog.

Oct. 3—See what’s happening and be seen at Falvey Memorial Library as we participate in SnapShot PA 2012. Be a part of our effort to represent in images, statistics and stories the library’s significance to our community.

SnapShot PA is an initiative to capture a day in the life of libraries across the state, sponsored by the Office of Commonwealth Libraries and supported by the Pennsylvania Library Association. This crowd-sourced event was last held in 2009 when libraries of all stripes documented the front-and-center as well as behind-the-scenes work done in libraries, collected stories from users and took photos of people at work and play in libraries. Similar “SnapShot days” have been held in at least 35 states. SnapShot PA is a fun way to show your love for the library and help libraries demonstrate their worth! Come to the library on Wednesday, Oct. 3, to have your picture taken, or leave us a comment!

Carol Weiss, Villanova Institute for Teaching and Learning (VITAL) director, and her assistant, Ramona Kuczewski, planned the New Faculty Orientation program, part of which was held in Falvey Memorial Library. University Librarian and Director Joe Lucia welcomed faculty and introduced librarians and staff. Jutta Seibert, Academic Integration team leader, coordinated the Library’s portion of the orientation. Faculty were encouraged to sit in groups according to discipline for informal discussions with liaison librarians.

Lt. John Krewer, Lt. Timothy Rustico and Theodore Arapis

Patrick J. Okernick and Jutta Seibert

Sue Ottignon, Francois Massonnat and Salvatore Pappalardo

By Alice Bampton

Lisa Kruczek, currently enrolled in Drexel University’s Master of Library and Information Science program, is a Digital Library intern for the summer. She is specializing in archival studies, one of Drexel’s six optional concentrations, but is considering adding digital libraries for a double concentration.

Kruczek says that her internship, which is “structured in such a way that it is a meaningful experience,” providing experience in scanning, metadata and other aspects of digital librarianship, will aid in making her decision.

Kruczek, a resident of Merchantville, N.J., has a bachelor’s degree in media arts from Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pa. She worked as a video editor and as a graphic artist before reevaluating her career. She has always been interested in history, media and computers, and these interests led her to enroll in Drexel’s Library and Information Science program. “In a perfect world I’d work in a moving image archive,” says Kruczek.

Her research interests are music (its different types and its history) and film, noting that in her first career she worked with film. Her hobbies include movies, books and music. She is currently reading Snow Crash, a “light contemporary science fiction adventure,” by Neal Stephenson.

Michael Foight, Special Collections and Digital Library coordinator, says, “After a period of intensive training and practical experience consisting of a set of modules including management of digital libraries, selection for digitization, social media, online exhibits, copyright, metadata, cataloguing, rare materials handling and scanner training, each intern selects, in conjunction with the needs and priorities of the digital library enterprise, a project that highlights one of these content area modules and produces a representative work project” about four weeks into his or her internship.