Finals are in full swing, so here’s a cute puppy in an elf hat.

Good luck, Nova Nation. You got this!

Kallie Stahl ’17 MA is Communication and Marketing Specialist at Falvey Library.

Mamma mia! Have finals hit you like a ton of bricks? Stop by Falvey Library’s Annual Stress Busting Open House in Speakers’ Corner on Thursday, Dec. 7 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. (or until supplies last). Enjoy some SUPER refreshments and relax with Mario Universe video games and activities. We hope to see you Peaches, Peaches, Peaches, Peaches, Peaches people there! This event, sponsored by Falvey Library, is free and open to the Villanova community. Wowie Zowie, Wildcats—You got this (and Falvey Library is here to help)—Good luck on finals!

Villanova University Archives, Villanova University. Special Olympics, 1992.

This week’s Throwback Thursday (TBT) celebrates the lighting of the Olympic flame at the 1992 Special Olympics Pennsylvania Fall Festival. Hosted and organized by Villanova University students, the festival is the largest annual student-run Special Olympics event in the world. More than 1,200 athletes will compete at the 35th Fall Festival at Villanova University Nov. 3-5. To learn more about Fall Festival, visit this webpage.

Ethan Shea, former Graduate Assistant at Falvey Library, highlighted additional throwbacks to past Special Olympics on this blog. In 2019, Beaudry Rae Allen, Preservation & Digital Archivist, curated an exhibit containing facsimiles of photographs and programs from the early days of the event.

Best of luck to all the athletes competing this weekend!

Kallie Stahl ’17 MA is Communication and Marketing Specialist at Falvey Library.

Halloween may be over, but we’re still celebrating spooky season! This week, we asked students, “What’s your favorite film to watch around Halloween”

Cole Jackson ’24

Brooklyn Phang ’25

Carissa Van Veen ’25

Be on the look out for our team when you’re studying in Falvey, because we’re always giving treats to anyone who answers our weekly questions!

Rebecca Amrick is a first-year graduate student in the English Department and a Graduate Assistant at Falvey Library.

Jadyn Piotrowski ’26 VSB is a Communication & Marketing Student Assistant at Falvey Library.

Geography Awareness Week begins Monday, Nov. 13. Established by a presidential proclamation more than 25 years ago, National Geographic created the annual public awareness program to demonstrate the importance of geography. From National Geographic: too many people are “unable to make effective decisions, understand geo-spatial issues, or even recognize their impacts as global citizens.” Aiming to raise awareness of these issues, more than 10,000 Americans participate in Geography Awareness Week annually. Join Falvey Library’s Digital Scholarship Lab and the Department of Geography and Environment for an exciting lineup of Geography Awareness Week events. Check out the full list of events below.

GEOGRAPHY AWARENESS WEEK: NOVEMBER 13-17, 2023

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 13

GlobePlotters Meeting

6:30-7:30 p.m.; Location: Mendel G83

Join the Villanova GlobePlotters, a student chapter of YouthMappers, for a night of using GIS technology for humanitarian aid mapping projects around the world. No GIS or mapping experience is required! We’ll show you how to get started with mapping.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14

Open House: Geography Virtual Reality exhibit in the CAVE

2-3 p.m.; Location: Old Falvey, Room 203

Come join us at the Villanova Virtual Reality CAVE located on the Mendel Field side of Old Falvey in Room 203. CEET software developer Andrew Grace will host a variety of visualizations produced by Geography staff and students. Visualizations will include 3D models of our beautiful campus captured by drones, immersive 360 panoramas, and much more!

Open House: Falvey Library Map Collections Tour

3-4 p.m.; Location: Falvey Library 205

Peruse georeferenced maps and highlights from The John F. Smith, III and Susan B. Smith Antique Map Collection and other map holdings from Falvey Library’s Distinctive Collections. Rebecca Oviedo, Distinctive Collections Archivist, will show a selection of historic items from early printed maps of the 16th and 17th centuries, 19th century local real estate atlases, to 20th century military maps, and Erica Hayes, Digital Scholarship Librarian, will show some georeferenced historical maps of Villanova’s campus.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15

Policy Map for Practical Purposes

12-1 p.m.; Location: Zoom

Introduction and practical insights to using Policy Map, the interactive mapping and analytics platform that brings together a data warehouse of 21st century Census and policy material from over 50,000 current governmental, proprietary, and open resource agency indicators. No technical skills are required to make understandable data visualizations or reports from information across multiple siloed agencies.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 16

GEV Colloquium Speaker: Jon C. Malinowski

“Ghosts in the Landscape: The Challenges of Creating a Historical Atlas”

5:30-6:30 p.m.; Location: Mendel 154

Dr. Jon Malinowski, Professor of Geography at the United States Military Academy, West Point, NY, will discuss the rewards and pitfalls of bringing historical geography research to a wider audience. In 2022, Dr. Malinowski self-published The West Point Landscape: 1802-1830 and is currently revising and expanding the book for the West Point Press. He will address archival and less obvious data sources, technical obstacles, and the pitfalls and revelations of a multi-year project. This talk is co-sponsored by GTU (Gamma Theta Upsilon), the international honor society in geography.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17

Geospatial Career Panel

12:30-2 p.m.; Location: Mendel G60 Classroom

Come meet geospatial professionals and learn about the many applications of GIS in your career. Panelists will discuss their own career paths, tips for GIS jobseekers, and more. Please come prepared with your own questions for the panelists!

Geography Trivia 

2:30-3:30pm; Location: Mendel G60

Break out that map knowledge and join us for an afternoon of pub-style geography trivia hosted by the GEV Student Association! Teams of 2-4 people can register using the form on the GeoWeek website. Snacks will be provided, and prizes will be awarded to the top-scoring team.

ONGOING WEEKLY EVENTS

Alumni Blog Posts

Catch up with GEV alumni during Geography Awareness Week by reading short blog posts about how geography has been woven into their lives and careers. Hosted on the Falvey Library Blog.

Geography Student Poster Display

Stop by Falvey Library room 205, the Digital Scholarship Lab Lab in Room 218A (9 a.m.- 3:00 p.m., Monday-Friday), and the GEV suite hallway near G61 on the ground floor of Mendel to learn about the latest undergraduate and graduate research at Villanova.

Shawn Proctor, Communication and Marketing Program Manager.

Any guesses for Falvey’s “tent” theme at Villanova’s trick-or-treat community event tomorrow?

Stop by the Riley Ellipse on Sunday, Oct. 29, at 5 p.m. There will be treats, crafts, music, and more. Costumes are encouraged! The rain date will be Monday, Oct. 30, at 5 p.m. We hope to see you Peaches, Peaches, Peaches, Peaches, Peaches people there!

Kallie Stahl ’17 MA is Communication and Marketing Specialist at Falvey Library.

Please join us on Thursday, Nov. 2, from 5-6:30 p.m. in Villanova University’s Falvey Library for the annual Senghor-Damas-Césaire Lecture for Africana Studies, which focuses on African issues and issues connected to the global Black diaspora. ⁠
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Wale Adebanwi, PhD, Presidential Penn Compact Professor of Africana Studies, Director, Center for Africana Studies, University of Pennsylvania, will be speaking about the politics of renaming apartheid-era streets and removing apartheid and colonial-era monuments from public spaces in contemporary South Africa. The talk will take place in the Library’s Speakers’ Corner on the first floor. ⁠
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This Africana Studies event is ACS-approved and is co-sponsored by Falvey Library and the Departments of Political Science and Global Interdisciplinary Studies. Light refreshments will be served.

Please join us for readings from three acclaimed Irish poets, Jane Clarke, Katie Donovan, and Catherine Phil MacCarthy on Monday, Sept. 25, from 5-6:30 p.m. in Falvey Library’s Speakers’ Corner. This event, titled “Wonders and Realities: Three Irish Poets on Sustainability,” will explore how poetry helps us fine-tune our senses and pay attention to the wonders and realities of our threatened world.

Dig deeper and explore the links below for more information on the featured poets.

Jane Clarke grew up in County Roscommon, Ireland. She is the author of three poetry collections: The River, When the Tree Falls, and A Change in the Air. The latter is shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection 2023. When the Tree Falls was shortlisted for the Pigott Prize 2020, the Irish Times Poetry Now Award 2020, and the Farmgate Café National Poetry Award in 2020.

• The River (Clarke, 2015)
• When the Tree Falls (2019)
• A Change in the Air (2023)
• Jane Clarke website
• Jane Clarke reads and introduces twelve poems from When the Tree Falls (Bloodaxe Books)
• Three poems by Jane Clarke (And Other Poems)
• Conversation with Jane Clarke (Rattle Poetry)
• Interview with poet Jane Clarke (Writing.ie)
• NYU DC Salon Series: A Conversation with Jane Clarke

Katie Donovan was born near Camolin in County Wexford, Ireland and earned degrees from Trinity College Dublin as well as the University of California at Berkeley. Her five books of poetry have all been published by Bloodaxe Books. Her most recent, Off-Duty appeared in September 2016. It was shortlisted for the Irish Times/Poetry Now Prize in 2017. She is the 2017 recipient of the O’Shaughnessy Award for Irish Poetry.

• Entering the Mare (Donovan, 1997)
• Watermelon Man (Donovan, 1999)
• Day of the Dead (Donovan, 2002)
• Rootling (Donovan, 2010)
• Off Duty (Donovan, 2016)
• Katie Donovan website
• Expert workshop: Katie Donovan and how family inspires creativity (Irish Family History Centre)
• Writer’s Block with Katie Donovan (The Gloss)
• Poems from Off Duty by Katie Donovan (Poethead by Chris Murray)
• In conversation with Katie Donovan (The Attic Sessions)
• Katie Donovan reads from Rootling (Bloodaxe Books)

Catherine Phil MacCarthy was born in County Limerick, Ireland. The author of five poetry collections, she studied at University College Cork, Trinity College Dublin, and Central School of Speech and Drama, London. She is the 2014 winner of the O’Shaughnessy Award for Irish Poetry. The Arts Council, An Comhairle Ealaíon, have awarded her a Bursary in Literature towards each of her 2013 and 2020 poetry collections.

• How High the Moon (MacCarthy, 1991)
• This Hour of the Tide (MacCarthy, 1994)
• The Blue Globe (MacCarthy, 1998)
• One Room An Everywhere (MacCarthy, 2003)
• Suntrap (MacCarthy, 2007)
• The Invisible Threshold (MacCarthy, 2012)
• Daughters of the House (MacCarthy, 2019)
• Catherine Phil MacCarthy website
• “Limbo,” read by Catherine Phil MacCarthy (UCD Library Special Collections)
• Interview with Catherine Phil MacCarthy (Island’s Edge)

This ACS-approved event, co-sponsored by the Center for Irish Studies, Falvey Library, and Global Interdisciplinary Studies, is free and open to the public.

Julia Wagner ‘26 CLAS is a Communication major from New Hampshire (Go Patriots!). She works as a Communication & Marketing Student Assistant at Falvey Library. Links provided by Kallie Stahl, Communication & Marketing Specialist at Falvey Library. 

Photo courtesy of Jadyn Piotrowski.

Amidst the chaos of semester’s start, we find time to catch up with old friends. Take advantage of the mild weather and snag a seat outside!

Jadyn Piotrowski ’26 VSB, Communication & Marketing Student Assistant at Falvey Library.

From an endless array of resources and support, to a dongle for your Mac, you’re likely to find everything you’re looking for at Falvey Library! Keep scrolling for your library essentials guide. Graphics created by Joanne Quinn, Director of Communication and Marketing. Press CTRL and + to zoom in.

Drop by the library for a print copy!