Here’s your daily dose of library-oriented speed-reads to start your day!

SAVE THE DATE…

Thursday, December 10th
Library Open House
1-6 pm, First Floor
Sponsored by Falvey Memorial Library
Highlights: Free food, hot drinks (and hopefully games with VEEC and an appearance by the Wildcat- still working on this!)

Friday, December 11th
Stress Free Happy Health Hours
10 am-4 pm, Room 205
Co-Sponsored by the Office of Health Promotion, POWER and Falvey Memorial Library
Highlights: Each hour will feature a stress-relieving activity! Adult coloring books, make-your-own stress balls, game hour with board games and puzzles, snack and hydration hour, and more. And not least, there will be dogs from Comfort Caring Canines Therapy Dogs!

Contact person: Kristy Sillay (kristy.sillay@villanova.edu ), Coordinator of Peer Education Programs and Community Standards,  advisor of POWER (Peers Offering Wellness Education and Resources). FYI: POWER Peers provide health education and programs across campus.

30 YEARS AGO…

Jefferson Starship’s We Built This City was #1 on the Billboard charts. Also named #1 on the “Most Awesomely Bad Songs….Ever” list by VH-1 and now defunct magazine Blender, WBTC, shockingly, was written by Elton John’s collaborator, Bernie Taupin, who also wrote Your Song, Tiny Dancer and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Proving that we all have our off days! 🙂 Co-written as well by a guy named Dennis Lambert, but not the one who works here at the library.  😉

NEW MEDIA NEWS
Speaking of building cities, you may be interested in this new ebook from Springer. From the publisher: From Smart City to Smart Region: Digital Services for an Internet of Places offers a fascinating exploration of the relationship between information and communication technologies (ICTs) and spatial planning, expanding the concept of “urban smartness” from the usual scale of buildings or urban projects to the regional dimension. The book is a source of valuable insights for both scholars and local administrators and operators involved in smart city projects.

NEED A STUDY BREAK?

Find out what the top baby names were last year, or the year you were born! See where your name ranks in popularity. From this site, you can view the changes in popularity of baby names, sort popular names by decade and state (in U.S. territories), and learn the top five names over the last 100 years. Shout out to Sue Ottignon, our research support librarian (who’s always a good place to start!), for providing this link. Turns out that the year the name Susan was most popular is 1960. In that year, the number of births is 39201, which represents 1.885 percent of total female births in 1960.

WE BUILT THIS EARWORM
You have enough on your mind these days without it being colonized by the Jefferson Starship. (Sorry about that.) Fortunately, researchers at the University of Reading in the UK have come up with a easy way to eradicate those annoying earworms – you know, those songs that get stuck in your head. Just pop a stick of gum in your mouth! According to the researchers, chewing gum allows you to shift focus and get past the tune. Want to read more about the study? Here it is, straight from the horse’s mouth.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

It’s the first week of Advent, which might be hard to believe but here we are (wasn’t it just summertime!?). Advent is a period of preparation leading up to Christmas, and you can probably relate, with finals on the horizon and study guides accompanying you to breakfast, lunch and dinner. Try not to forget your inner life this December. Remember what Advent is all about – spiritually preparing for a great moment.

“The extraordinary thing that is about to happen is matched only by the extraordinary moment just before it happens. Advent is the name of that moment.”  – Frederick Buechner

23 days until Christmas!

HAVE A GREAT DAY!

If you have ideas for inclusion in The 8:30 or to Library News in general, you’re invited to send them to joanne.quinn@villanova.edu.

On Thursday, November 12, Villanova University Community members and friends gathered to honor James Murphy, PhD, founder and former director of Villanova’s Irish Studies program and his wife, Kathryn Murphy.

A reception and poetry reading event was held in order to highlight the couple’s recent donation of 300 signed, first-edition Irish poetry books to Villanova University’s Falvey Memorial Library.

Craig Bailey, PhD, associate professor of history and interim director of the Irish Studies program, planned the reception along with the help of Joyce Harden, administrative/events assistant for interdisciplinary and area studies programs, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

(From left to right) Dr. Craig Bailey, Dr. James Murphy and Kathryn Murphy were all smiles at the event.

The reception opened with a festive set of live tunes from musicians (from left to right) Darin Kelly, Siobhan Murray, and Tomás O Cathail.

Award-winning poet and former 2011 Heimbold Chair, Moya Cannon, reads selections of poetry.

The crowd listens attentively as Moya Cannon reads poetry selections. It was a packed house!

At the event’s close, Dr. Murphy acknowledged the crowd and thanked his wife Kathy for her support.

In addition to the generous donation of books, the Murphy’s have contributed greatly to the Irish Studies program since its inception in 1979. See here for a timeline of noteworthy dates for the Irish Studies Program.

Sometimes it’s hard to grab onto the gratefulness. You know you feel it, somewhere, under the hectic heartbeat of your day-to-day. Even when you don’t feel it at all, it’s always there, waiting for you to recognize it.

It’s there when you catch the sunset on your walk to Main Lot.

It’s there when you notice the golden ginkgo tree in front of Austin Hall.

It’s there when you see your family and friends again, maybe even all around the same table.

If ever you worry about not being thankful enough, remember – mindfulness is thankfulness. Happy Thanksgiving, Villanova. Take it all in today and hold it in your heart.

Ginkgo in front of Austin Hall. Photo by Michelle Callaghan.

It’s Thanksgiving week and to celebrate the holiday, this article was written by Kallie Stahl, graduate assistant on the Library Events & Outreach team. She is currently pursuing her MA in communication at Villanova University.

Happy Thanksgiving! It’s that time of year again, the day we all take a moment to appreciate the blessings in our lives: family, friends, the ability to pursue dreams at Villanova and much more! As you reflect during this day of thanks (while watching football and eating pumpkin pie), don’t forget about the little things, those small everyday moments that are easy to take for granted. That being said, keep in mind the hardworking staff at Falvey Memorial Library who are here to assist you during your academic journey.

Give thanks to the Library for providing these helpful resources!

24 Hour Study Lounge and Reading Room

Are you a night owl or an early riser? Do you enjoy studying in calming silence or amongst the conversations of others? Have no fear – whatever your study habits, the Library has a space for you. The first floor lounge (perfect for studying with a group of friends) and the reading room (great for reflection and concentration) are open 24 hours for your convenience. Whether you’re finishing a research paper or studying for finals, be sure to take advantage of these locations!

Research Assistance

No matter what stage you’re at in the research process, the librarians at Falvey are here to help. Have a question? Stop by the Library! Your subject librarian can assist you in accruing the right sources for any assignment. If you prefer working from your dorm, visit the library’s website to live chat with a librarian. There are many helpful tips and tools available through Falvey, many of which are accessible online.

Holy Grounds

You never know when hunger will strike (and it usually does at the most inconvenient times … i.e. when you have no food). Rushing to get to class? Forgot to go grocery shopping? Have no fear, Holy Grounds is open all day. During a study session, grab yourself a bagel, sandwich, pretzel or salad and keep working! The greatest gift of all is the distribution of that marvelous caffeinated beverage. Coffee is brewed fresh all day – need I say more?

Free Printing

You can print for “free” at the Library with a valid Wildcard (if you stay under your VPrint limit, as determined by your college). Don’t waste unnecessary funds on printer ink and paper. Save yourself time and effort, exploit the library’s printing (and scanning) resources.

Movies

Everyone needs a study break, and while Netflix is pretty awesome, the website may not provide the movie(s) you are searching for. Call me old fashioned, but there’s something nice about watching a DVD, plus who doesn’t enjoy the special features? But when you finish watching a movie on DVD, it sadly does not suggest and provide similar movies to view. Some might view this as unfortunate, but a DVD may help you stick to your study schedule. Drop by the Library in your free time to check out a variety of novels, films and music.

Be thankful for your collegiate adventure and those that are helping you achieve your goals. Happy Thanksgiving, Wildcats!

Here’s your daily dose of library-oriented speed-reads to start your day!

SAVE THE DATE…

Reading Villanova: The Global and the Interdisciplinary ‘Diversity.’ Tuesday, December 1 at 4:30 p.m. in Speakers’ Corner. Camille Burge, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Political Science;Brighid Dwyer, PhD, director, Program on Intergroup Relations, Multicultural Affairs; Katina Sawyer, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Psychology will share their thoughts with us at this event, which is the final event in the Reading Villanova series. ACS Approved!

AN INSPIRING TED TALK

Ann Morgan spent a year reading a book from every country in the world. Check out her TED talk to find out why you should do the same – or at least reach beyond English-speaking borders and read some translations for some global inspiration.  To see which books Morgan read from each country, take a gander at this interactive map!

image via BBC

WINTER WORKOUTS

It’s getting chilly out and with all the studying and writing you need to be doing, you might be leaving workouts by the wayside. But if you want your brain working at peak performance, leaving out the exercise is a bad idea! If you’re stumped for winter workout options, check out twenty awesome indoor workouts.

image via Book Riot

QUOTE OF THE DAY

On this day in 1868, composer Scott Joplin was born. In his lifetime, Joplin wrote 44 ragtime pieces, including “Maple Leaf Rag” and “The Entertainer.” If you would like to learn more about Joplin, check out our stacks. And here’s a tune to add a little bounce and pep to your morning!

“It is never right to play ragtime fast.” – Scott Joplin

HAVE A GREAT DAY!

If you have ideas for inclusion in The 8:30 or to Library News in general, you’re invited to send them to joanne.quinn@villanova.edu.

I’m Michelle Callaghan, a first-year graduate student at Villanova University. This is our new column, “‘Cat in the Stacks.” I’m the ‘cat. Falvey Memorial Library is the stacks. I’ll be posting about living that scholarly life, from research to study habits to embracing your inner-geek, and how the library community might aid you in all of it.

Here’s your daily dose of library-oriented speed-reads to start your day!

TODAY IN THE LIBRARY…

Villanova Electronic Enthusiasts Club (VEEC) Club Meeting. 2:30-4:30 p.m. in the first-floor lounge. Questions? Contact: Matthew Pasquale 

SAVE THE DATE…

Stress Relief at Falvey! Thursday, December 10 and Friday, December 11. Falvey Memorial Library will be co-sponsoring a series of events in order to help students relieve stress during finals time. Events will include an open house featuring games and free snacks and refreshments, therapy dogs, stress-relieving workshops organized by POWER (Peers Offering Wellness Education and Resources) as well as free massages courtesy of the Campus Activities Team.

NEW MEDIA NEWS

Got time? Thankfully, you might have just enough to watch this DVD over the long holiday weekend. In fact, you would probably have time to read the book too. A brief history of time was written by Stephen Hawking and the book title was used as the title of a documentary film by Errol Morris that was released last year. It was added to the library collection last month. While the book explains Time and Space in layman’s terms, the film documents Hawking’s life and imagination. Criterion describes the film as an “adroitly crafted tale of personal adversity, professional triumph, and cosmological inquiry.”

Everybody in this room loves books, right?

…so began Andy Borowitz, editor of the New Yorker‘s humor column, The Borowitz Report and emcee at the 2015 National Book Award ceremony hosted by the National Book Foundation and held in New York City this past Wednesday. Winners for this year were Adam Johnson, for this year’s prize in fiction for Fortune Smiles, a short story collection; Ta-Nehisi Coates, in the nonfiction category for Between the World and Me; Robin Coste Lewis, with the poetry award for Voyage of the Sable Venus; and Neal Shusterman, who authored the YA award for Challenger Deep. Click here for a list and short bios of each of the finalists, whittled from a wealth of 1428 submissions from publishers.  Remember you can tap Falvey’s fast and efficient EZ-Borrow or Interlibrary Loan Services to find and read ‘most anything #1 in your book.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Today is National Absurdity Day, a day to think about all the absurd things in your life and in the world. How do you celebrate National Absurdity Day? Be absurd, of course. Or you could read literature in the absurdist tradition!

“Let’s go.”
“We can’t.”
“Why not?”
“We’re waiting for Godot.”

…from Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett

image via Reddit

HAVE A GREAT DAY!

If you have ideas for inclusion in The 8:30 or to Library News in general, you’re invited to send them to joanne.quinn@villanova.edu.

I’m Michelle Callaghan, a second-year graduate student at Villanova University. This is our column, “‘Cat in the Stacks.” I’m the ‘cat. Falvey Memorial Library is the stacks. I’ll be posting about living that scholarly life, from research to study habits to embracing your inner-geek, and how the library community might aid you in all of it.

It’s just about that time in my second year of graduate school – yep, thesis prep is well upon me – and you better believe I’m compiling and reading mountains upon mountains of research (and being careful not to make multi-page docs of urls with no explanation). With the magnitude of my stacks searches increasing daily, I feel like I’m getting very attached to certain research tools. Last week, my Thankfulness Month post focused on thankfulness as an emotional state, on expressing gratitude for being here and for having this opportunity. This week, it’s all about the research tools I’ve grown to cherish. Frankly, a good research moment feels like Christmas morning–oh. Too early. You’re right. Thanksgiving first! These are the three library tools and tricks I am endlessly thankful for lately.

I’ve geeked about Zotero before, and while my Zotero library has grown tenfold since then, I am not too much more proficient than I was to begin with. Le sigh.

Oh? What’s this? Yonder this handy dandy guide awaits our joint perusal. Go forth and use the Zotero.  

Log into your account at library.villanova.edu and then look up anything in our catalog. Go ahead, look. Anything. I used “dogs” for this example.

See the yellow star to the right of the listing? Click that little guy. BOOM. Lists! On the Falvey website!

I’ve survived two and three-quarters semesters here without using this tool. I don’t think I’m ever going back to the Stone Age.

As librarian Nikolaus Fogle informed us a few weeks ago, JSTOR has a ton of e-books (35K+) for all your research needs and Falvey has special access. You know, when this was first announced I thought well, okay, that’s cool and all. But what are the chances they’d even have a book I’d ever need? I got my answer last week: they had a piece by the first author I popped into the search bar. Just be sure to use JSTOR’s search function and not Falvey’s for now – and make sure you’re logged into your Villanova account first!

Zotero, Falvey account lists, JSTOR books – this week and every week until May, I’m thankful for you. Cheers.

Article by Michelle Callaghan, graduate assistant on the Communication and Service Promotion team. She is currently pursuing her MA in English at Villanova University.

Here’s your daily dose of library-oriented speed-reads to start your day!

TODAY IN THE LIBRARY…

OUS: Pre-Law Advising Workshop. 12:00 – 1:30 p.m. in room 204. Questions? Contact: Michael J Pennington

SAVE THE DATE…

Tomorrow! Villanova Electronic Enthusiasts Club (VEEC) Club Meeting. Friday, November 20 at 2:30-4:30 p.m. in the first-floor lounge. The VEEC is a social club, focused on recreation and relaxation. Participants gather to play video games in a safe and fun environment. The VEEC is always accepting new members. Open to all. Come join in for games and fun.

NEW MEDIA NEWS

Did you know that many e-books can be found by conducting an article search? Contact a librarian to find out how to tap into the wealth of Falvey’s “hidden” e-book collections! New titles are added all the time!

#TBT

Feast your eyes on this gem from the 1980 yearbook! Two lovebirds are pictured holding hands while taking a stroll and enjoying the beautiful fall foliage.

Oxford Dictionaries announces an emoji as 2015’s Word of the Year 

In what may also be the Publicity Stunt of the Year, Oxford Dictionaries has chosen everyone’s favorite oxymoronic emoji – the “I’m laughing so hard, I’m crying” as 2015’s Word of the Year. Heir to the honor given in years past to hashtag (2012), app (2010) and plutoed (2006 & personal favorite) , half the fun is reading the torrent of crazed reactions to the controversial #WOTY choice on Twitter. Hey, there are worse emoji’s they could have picked!

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Today in 1863 (and also a Thursday!), President Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address at the Consecration of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg. Lincoln delivered this speech during the Civil War and succinctly brought back into focus the purpose of the battle for human equality. The address is efficient, clocking in at only 272 words. That’s no longer than an abstract! Read the whole address below:

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

President Abraham Lincoln, November 19, 1863

HAVE A GREAT DAY!

If you have ideas for inclusion in The 8:30 or to Library News in general, you’re invited to send them to joanne.quinn@villanova.edu.

Here’s your daily dose of library-oriented speed-reads to start your day!

TODAY IN THE LIBRARY…

CLAS Lunch and Learn: “Admission Tips and Funding Opportunities.” 12:30 – 1:30 p.m. in room 205. Questions? Contact: Linda Buonanno

SAVE THE DATE…

Stress Relief at Falvey! Thursday, December 10 and Friday, December 11. Falvey Memorial Library will be co-sponsoring a series of events in order to help students relieve stress during finals time. Events will include an open house featuring games and free snacks and refreshments, therapy dogs, stress-relieving workshops organized by POWER (Peers Offering Wellness Education and Resources) as well as free massages courtesy of the Campus Activities Team.

POTENTIALLY ANNOYING APP OF THE WEEK…

You know us, we’re a sucker for a new app. So we couldn’t help but download the new app from the folks at Facebook, called Notify. This was an urge we couldn’t suppress despite others’ reviews calling it ‘annoying’. Notify allows you receive notifications on your lock screen from sources you select. They promise to be ‘timely’ and ‘relevant’ so who could ask for more! Besides must-haves such as the New York Times and CNN, you can receive noteys from the Weather Channel from the zip code of your choice or even a PLL (Pretty Little Liar) Watch from Seventeen magazine. You can even Keep Up With the Kandidates with Mashable. Opting in for ten or more of these could be the best thing ever if you’re a news junkie like us. With fashion, sports or even foodie options, there’s something for everyone. Or it might be incredibly annoying….we’ll let you know!

NEW MEDIA NEWS

According to the OUP website, the author of The Return to Ordinary Capitalism: Neoliberalism, Precarity, Sanford Schram, argues “that each economic shift produces its own path [of] dependency even as it represents yet another iteration of what he (somewhat ironically) calls “ordinary capitalism,” where the changes in market logic inevitably produce changes in the structure of the state.” With neoliberalism as the new normal, “economic actors, especially financiers” have a heightened role in shaping public policy. Wendy Brown, University of California, calls the book “clear, unpretentious and unafraid” and proclaims it “a work for Occupy’s next round.”

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Today is the birthday of Mickey Mouse. How does a cartoon character have a birthday? Well, gosh! It’s not completely arbitrary. November 18, 1928 was Mickey’s first appearance in Steamboat Willie.

“I only hope that we don’t lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse.” – Walt Disney

HAVE A GREAT DAY!

If you have ideas for inclusion in The 8:30 or to Library News in general, you’re invited to send them to joanne.quinn@villanova.edu.