The Library is currently running a trial of The Gerritsen Collection of Aletta H Jacobs. The trial will last until March 5, 2009. Log-in with your Villanova user id and password and enter welcome on the Proquest log-in screen. Please take a look and let us know what you think.

The Gerritsen Collection is currently housed in the Spencer Library at the University of Kansas and was until recently only in microfilm available to the wider public. The collection consists of more than 4,700 books, pamphlets and periodicals. The materials span four centuries, from 1543 to 1945 and 15 languages.

In the late 1800’s, Dutch physician Aletta Jacobs and her husband C.V. Gerritsen began collecting books, pamphlets and periodicals reflecting the evolution of a feminist consciousness and the movement for women’s rights. The Gerritsen Collection has since become the greatest single source for the study of women’s history in the world. For a more detailed description, see “The Gerritsen Collection.” by Janet Sharistanian et al. in Feminist Studies, vol. 3, no. 3/4 (spring-summer 1976), pp. 200-206.
                   

PsycArticles (1894- ) Password: welcome

Provides access to full-text articles from journals published by the American Psychological Association, the APA Educational Publishing Foundation, the Canadian Psychological Association, and Hogrefe & Huber. The database includes all material from the print journals with the exception of advertisements and editorial board lists. In 2006, the historical backfiles of the journals were added to the database.

PsycINFO (1806- ) Password: welcome

Provides access to international literature in psychology and related disciplines. Unrivaled in its depth of psychological coverage and respected worldwide for its high quality, the database is enriched with literature from an array of disciplines related to psychology such as psychiatry, education, business, medicine, nursing, pharmacology, law, linguistics, and social work.

Trial subscription until March 20, 2009.

The purpose of the trial is

• to compare the ease of searching in the CSA interface versus the OVID interface.
• to review the record display to see if it is more useful?
• Note that descriptors in a record display can be combined with and or or.

The reigning champion of the world of boxing in 1894 was Gentleman Jim Corbett. Or was he? Corbett was one of the first to treat the sport of boxing as a science and did much to create the modern sport, moving the contest from bare knuckled brawlers of prior days to more “gentle” gloved boxers of the 20th century.

The Pugilistic Publishing Company of Philadelphia was one of the promoters of this movement toward a more educated sport. In 1894, they published a glamorous large photograph laden volume: Portrait gallery of pugilists of America and their contemporaries from James J. Corbett to Tom Hyer. This title features sketches and photographs of famous current fighters, not just from America but from around the world. These oft mustachioed men performed with a theatrical air, even applying makeup before a match, and are somewhat reminiscent of the modern World Wide Wrestling scene. With ear grabbing sobriquets like: “The Marine”, Professor Clark, “The Cleveland Trumpeter”, Sailor Brown, “The Ithica Giant”, “The Brooklyn Strong Boy”, “The Prussian”, “The Nonpareil “, and “The Thunderbolt”, these were the sports celebrities of the Gilded Age. Contained within this title also are a number of plates detailing and describing the best of the modern boxing and footwork techniques.

Like other historical cultural objects this book is a product of the times that created it. At that point in time, race divided and segregated athletes. This book does include boxers of different races and nationalities, but the irrational prejudices that still pervaded the sport can be seen manifested in the ways that awards and boxing titles were awarded and contests scheduled. While Jim Corbett is titled the “World Champion”, George Godfrey is given the title “First Colored Heavy-Weight Champion of America”. Indeed, the white boxer John L. Sullivan refused to fight Godfrey for the championship because of his race. So who was really the best boxer of the bare knuckle era? The defining competition never took place so we can only speculate.

Photo of Godfrey:

“The Science of Humanity: Tongues, Stones, and Bones” is the theme of this year’s Anthropology Lecture Series hosted by Falvey. Lowell Gustafson, Ph.D., professor of political science and associate dean of social sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, will host the first lecture with his presentation, “Speaking Up: The Origins of Language” on Tue., Feb. 10, from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. in the first floor lounge of Falvey.

Linguistics, or the study of language, is one of the main sub-fields of anthropology. It is also one of the most important things that define what it means to be human. Many languages are spoken around the world, and which language we speak, be it French, German, Chinese or Arabic, can often serve to divide us. However, the fact that we have language is common to virtually all human beings.

But what is language? When and how did it originate? How did it reach the highly sophisticated level it is at today such that it significantly distinguishes humanity? Why did human beings start to speak up in the first place? Dr. Gustafson will offer insights and answers into these questions.

Dr. Gustafson has been teaching at Villanova University for the past 23 years. He offers classes in political anthropology, Latin American politics and international relations. His research interests focus on the same areas

This is the first of three presentations that make up the Anthropology Lecture Series for the spring semester.

Folklore in New World Black Fiction: Writing and the Oral Traditional Aesthetics, the recent book by Chiji Akoma, Ph.D., focuses on his new readings of African folklore. Dr. Akoma will present his scholarship on Wed., Feb. 11, from 2:30 to 4:00 p.m. in the first floor lounge of Falvey.

His talk, open to all, will be of special interest to those in Africana Studies, as well as those intrigued by investigations of orality and literacy in black fiction.

In his book, Dr. Akoma offers a different perspective for approaching the African New World novel, one which focuses on folklore. Rather than identifying African cultural references in the narratives of some New World writers of African descent, Dr. Akoma contends that these writers may, in fact, be reconfiguring the aesthetics of African oral performance. (more…)

The database provides students, scholars and librarians with online access to the finest reference resources in African American studies.

At its core, AASC features:

• the new Encyclopedia of African American History 1619-1895
• Black Women in America
• the highly acclaimed Africana, a five-volume history of the African and African American experience
• African American National Biography project (estimated at 8 volumes)
• the Encyclopedia of African American Art and Architecture

In addition to these major reference works, AASC offers other key resources from Oxford’s reference program, including the Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature and selected articles from other reference works.

(According to the terms of our contract, note that no more than 100 pages may be downloaded at a time.)

Joanne Quinn said she wanted her display “to reflect the clean lines of the book cover.”

To commemorate this year’s One Book Villanova selection, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, Joanne, the member of the Events and Outreach team responsible for displays and special design projects, created a window display in the large case at the entrance to Falvey. The display focuses on four passages in the memoir which Joanne found most heart wrenching. (more…)

Barbara Quintiliano, instructional services librarian and coordinator of the nursing/biology library liaison team, recently received the Facultas Award for fall 2008.

The award was presented by Villanova University President, Rev. Peter M. Donohue, O.S.A., Ph.D.; he was accompanied by two members of the Facultas committee, Victoria B. McWilliams, Ph.D., and Lillian (Boots) Cassel, Ph.D.

Library Director Joe Lucia said, “This is a well deserved honor for Barbara. She is one of our most able and committed professionals who is always eager to go the extra mile in her work. She is creative and enthusiastic in the work she does, most notably for the College of Nursing. Congratulations, Barbara, on this richly deserved honor.”

Commenting on the award, Barbara said, “I was stunned! And I’m very grateful to the faculty for this honor.” (more…)

In the fourth quarter of 2008 Global Insight was acquired by IHS.  It continues to provide comprehensive international industry and macroeconomic data.  Accessible from the Economics, Management and Finance subject pages.

In an effort to address the ongoing globalization of the curriculum, the Bartley Business Information Team is pleased to bring you an extended trial of a compliment of Bureau Van Dijk databases.  BVD is a leader in global company information.  You and your students can test drive the following databases:  Bankscope (private and public  banks & financial institutions), ISIS (worldwide insurance companies) ORBIS (worldwide private companies) OSIRIS (worldwide quoted companies) and ZEPHYR (a five year archive of M&A, IPO and private equity deals both rumored and completed). 

BVD may be accessed either on or off campus from the Business Databases pages and Finance, Marketing, Management and Accounting Subject pages.  Once you have authenticated with your LDAP user name and password,  select Login to BVD products by using the drop down menu to choose a database.  You will be prompted for case sensitive user name and password: linda.hauck.

This trial compliments and in some cases goes well beyond our offerings included in MarketInsight (S&P), MarketLine(Datamonitor), Lexis-Nexis (Company Dossier), North American Financial Institutions Directory (Print Reference Collection) and SDC (M&A).   

For questions or comments contact Linda.Hauck@villanova.edu or 494-685-6759.  The trial runs through the end of the Spring 2009 semester.