Jonathan P. Doh, Ph.D., will discuss his recent research on the role of multinational enterprise, governments, and nongovernmental organization on the process and outcomes of development, as part of the Endowed Chair Lecture series.

Dr. Doh, professor of management and operations at the Villanova School of Business, will review the recent developments related to the changing balance of global economic influence and the emergence of developing countries as major players in the world economy.

This featured talk will take place on Thursday, Nov. 5, at 1:00 p.m. in Falvey Memorial Library’s first floor lounge.

In the past, human societies across the globe established economic ties with neighboring countries. Lately, the pace of global integration has significantly increased and has encompassed a range of social, political and economic changes. Dr. Doh will conclude with some implications of his research findings for public policy, corporate strategy and civil society. (more…)

Using the Lifestyle Market Analyst was de rigueur for every single student that took Management Essentials, a core course in the previous Villanova School of Business curriculum.  Because this reference book was in such great demand, it was held at the front desk of the library, so we knew VSB students were visiting Falvey, and often. With the advent of the new VSB curriculum, Management Essentials is no longer offered. Would this mean demand for the Lifestyle Market Analyst would evaporate and, with it, VSB students at Falvey?

The new VSB curriculum is as rigorous as the previous one.  Students taking VSB 2020, Competitive Effectiveness, have an even greater need for a reference work providing market, lifestyle and consumer profiles, but they no longer need to check out the print Lifestyle Market Analyst. Now  this essential source is online SRDS, renamed Local Market Audience Analyst. (more…)

The library recently purchased a Kindle e-reader for the use of students, staff, and faculty. We also made it possible for all Villanova students to use the document delivery service, which provides digitized copies of articles from our print collection. Last fall, we opened a new computer lab/classroom on the first floor. We also added a self check out station.

If you have used any of these new services, please post your feedback.

We’d love to hear from you!

Don’t have time to pull and photocopy a journal article at Falvey? In addition to many online e-journals and full-text databases, Falvey Memorial Library now offers document delivery services to Villanova students, staff and faculty who cannot take the time to retrieve and photocopy articles from the print collection in Falvey. Using ILLiad, the same request and delivery system that is used to satisfy requests for materials from other libraries, we are able to digitize and deliver articles from the Falvey print and microfilm collection.

The digitized articles are delivered to your ILLiad account as electronic files and can be uploaded and saved to your desktop. The files remain active for 30 days.

We will process up to five requests per day, per patron, and can usually deliver the articles within 72 hours, depending on the volume of requests. (Incomplete or incorrect requests can delay the document delivery process.)

If you have any questions, please call the Information Desk at 610-519-4270 or contact a Research Librarian at 610-519-4273 or at ref@villanova.edu. As with all interlibrary loan and document delivery requests, copyright restrictions apply.

There are corrections already to the 6th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. The corrections may be found on the APA site 

It’s the week before midterms and you have to find a book for a paper that is due in a few days. You’ve always liked Jack Kerouac and were hoping to find The Subterraneans on the shelf. You like the way Kerouac weaves together reality and fiction and this has inspired you to write your paper in the same fashion. Unfortunately, you find that the library’s print copy is checked out.

You approach the desk to ask the librarian for help. She checks the catalog, but isn’t able to find another print copy. Suddenly, she has an idea! She suggests downloading Kerouac’s book to the library’s Kindle e-reader for you. Having never used a Kindle, you’re not sure how it works, but in the spirit of Kerouac, your adventurous nature urges you to give it a try.

The above story is true, based on a student’s real need that led to his discovery of the Kindle. Similar stories have been reported by Bartley patrons. The 14-day loan period gives patrons time to read the books and incorporate their findings into a research project or paper. The device is light (about the weight of a Kerouac paperback novel).

Be adventurous! Use the Bartley Kindle request form or the Kindle@Falvey request form to book a Kindle.

By Luisa Cywinski and Laura Hutelmyer

An important part of the Sherman Thackara Collection has been returned to Falvey Memorial Library from a long term loan to the Civil War Museum. General William Tecumseh Sherman’s U.S. Civil War frock coat had been reunited with the papers, photographs, and other items donated by the Sherman Thackara family, making this a unified collection once again. This specific coat was worn during the period when Sherman was a major general. Sherman was promoted to this rank officially on August 12, 1864, but it was likely he wore the uniform much earlier from 1862 when he was promoted to Major General of Volunteers just after Shiloh, so this coat was likely worn during the fateful Georgia Campaign and the subsequent Union army “March to the Sea”. One can almost smell the whiff of burning Atlanta!

The physical coat is on prominent display on the 2nd floor of Falvey Memorial Library in the climate controlled and secure Special Collections Rare Book Room which houses other treasures of the University. A digital surrogate can be viewed online as part of the Digital Library’s Sherman Thackara Collection which documents Sherman’s family especially his favorite daughter Elly Sherman Thackara and her husband Alexander Thackara.

As can been seen in this photograph of the coat, the army’s regulations stipulated an organization of buttons to designate the rank of general officers. The buttons on a major general’s frock coat, like Sherman’s, were grouped in three sets of three; those on a brigadier general’s coat were arranged in four sets of two. This helps us date the garment to a specific date range.

Here is a detailed photograph of the buttons from the Sherman coat, which were specific to the General Staff, and worn on Union general’s coats:

Two period photographs from the Library of Congress’s Civil War Photograph Collection showing Sherman wearing his Major General’s coat follow:

Ye who would learn the glory of your past
And form a forecast of the things to be
Give heed to this, a city’s trumpet blast
And see her pictured life in pageantry

And so the citizens of Philadelphia did in October of 1912, when an ornate historical pageant was staged for the general public on the west bank of the Schuylkill River in what is now Fairmount Park. This elaborate presentation, staged by Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer on the model of the pageants that were then very popular throughout England and the continent, involved scores of players and dramatized the major events of centuries of our region’s history, from the first glimpse of the Delaware Bay by Henry Hudson to the 1854 consolidation of the old city proper with the 28 surrounding districts into the metropolis we know today. For an entertaining and thorough view back at this amazing event, look no further than the Pennsylvaniana collection of Villanova University’s Digital Library, where a digitized version of the Official Pictorial and Descriptive Souvenir Book of the Historical Pageant, October Seventh To Twelfth, 1912, is mounted in its entirety and available for public viewing.

The impressive historical scope of this fascinating event was faithfully detailed for the spectator in the extensive Historical Notes which accompany each scene of the script, which itself appears unabridged. Having just spent the summer slogging through H. W. Brands’ sprawling Franklin biography The First American, I delighted in revisiting the famous scenes of colonial times, fleshed out by the notes and then dramatized in grand and often humorous fashion: the opulent Governor Johan Printz of New Sweden, living in splendor at Tinicum as his short-lived “empire” crumbled; the futile rivalry between the Dutch and Swedish as English dominance set in, where a Swedish explorer describes the Schuylkill River as “…This fine stream that empties itself into the great river like a flagon of wine down the throat of a Dutchman”; William Penn frolicking with the Lenapes at Dock Street; General Lafayette’s emotional 1824 homecoming; and the bizarrely baroque finale, in which heralding trumpeters beckon to the four corners as sprites symbolizing the 28 districts (Manayunk and Germantown from the northwest, Kingsessing and West Philadelphia from the southwest, Tacony, Northern Liberties, and Bridesburg from the northeast, Passyunk from the southeast, etc.) appear, nobly gathering in supplication around a central matronly goddess figure—Philadelphia herself. Interspersed throughout the script are color plates of costumes designed for the production: British Redcoats, French Gentlemen, and Marie Antoinette, among others.

In addition to the script, notes, and ample supplemental historical essays which make up the bulk of the text, there is a wealth of incidental materials that paint a rich portrait of early 20th century Philadelphia society. Dozens of photos of dignitaries, planning committee members, benefactors, and other participants provide an intimate glance at period dress, hairstyles, and mustaches. Even more extensive is the advertising section, which covers over 100 pages at the back of the volume. Flip through page after page, and see what industries flourished in the Philadelphia of a century ago. From bankers and insurance companies to furriers and jewelers, from horseshoes and borax soap makers to coal suppliers and gas engine manufacturers, these were the merchants who saw fit to advertise at the biggest civic event of the year. Particularly interesting are the many photos and drawings of the factory buildings used by these companies; considering the huge number of abandoned buildings in present-day Philadelphia, the ads in this book could provide valuable guidance for students of Philadelphia architectural history.

The Official Pictorial and Descriptive Souvenir Book of the Historical Pageant is unique for the view into pre-WWI Philadelphia that its printed historical content affords us. But even beyond this, a certain feature makes this particular copy one of a kind: penciled marginalia from the original owner. On page 11, roll was taken on the list of members of the Women’s Committee, and on page 51, the cast of the scene of Washington at Gray’s Ferry was heavily annotated by someone who evidently knew many of the cast members. These markings lift this volume off the bookshelf and place it in the hands of a spectator in the crowd at the actual event, 97 years ago this month!

Falvey recently acquired the digital edition of the Papers of Thomas Jefferson from the University of Virginia Press. The Jefferson papers are part of the American Founding Era Collection, which includes the papers of other major figures of the early Republic, such as John Adams and George Washington. The digital collection encompasses volumes 1-33 (1760-1801) of the projected 60-volume print edition published by Princeton University Press. The Library has volumes 1-35 of the print edition. Volume 36 is forthcoming in February 2010. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson Digital Edition includes the copious correspondence written and received by Jefferson, as well as his private notes and documents of historical significance, in a fully searchable online environment.

For more information, see Jutta Seibert’s History and Sociology blog entry.

Dr. Suzanne Zamerowski (l.) and Barbara Quintiliano at the NLN Education Summit (Not pictured: Dr. Marcia Costello)

Barbara Quintiliano, M.L.S., M.A., instructional design librarian, presented the poster session “A Collaborative Approach to Population Assessment,” with College of Nursing faculty colleagues Marcia Costello, Ph.D., R.D., L.D., and Suzanne Zamerowski, Ph.D., R.N., at the National League for Nursing Education Summit, held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, on Sept. 24 and 25.

The poster illustrated the collaboration between the instructional librarian and the course faculty that led to the creation of a matrix with hypertext links to important data sources.  The population assessment matrix enabled students in the capstone Nursing 4102 course, “Nursing and Health Promotion,” to locate online international, national, state and local health data quickly and efficiently, affording these students more time to interact directly with the populations being assessed.

The data collected for the population assessment projects helped to guide the students’ clinical experience as they developed and implemented public health education strategies for national and international communities.