Rob LeBlanc, first-year experience/humanities librarian, and Barbara Quintiliano, nursing/life sciences and instructional services librarian, recently published an article, “Recycling C.R.A.P.: Reframing a Popular Mnemonic for Library Instruction,” in Pennsylvania Libraries: Research and Practice, volume 3, number 2 (Fall 2015).

Librarians Barbara Quintiliano and Rob LeBlanc, with their manuscript

Quintiliano and LeBlanc were interested in applying the new Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education that was adopted by the ACRL (Association of College and Research Libraries) in 2015. This Framework replaced the previous Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. The two librarians were reshaping their information literacy programs to incorporate the new Framework.

Quintiliano explains, “Rob and I were tossing around ideas one day about how the new Framework could be applied, and we thought of the C.R.A.P. acronym which had been used by instruction librarians … to teach students how to evaluate information, especially information that they find on the web. With a bit of imagination and prestidigitation, we were able to transform the acronym into a concise, snappy way of conveying the Framework concepts to first-year students. As first-year librarian, Rob immediately started to put it into practice.”

Quintiliano and LeBlanc originally hoped to present a session on the topic at the fall 2015 Pennsylvania Libraries Association conference. That conference, however, already had more proposals than time slots available, so the organizers suggested the topic would make an interesting article for Pennsylvania Libraries: Research and Practice.  Consequently, the two collaborated on the article, which was accepted for publication.

What is C.R.A.P. in the context of library instruction? According to LeBlanc and Quintiliano it stands for “Conversation, Revision, Authority and Property.” These concepts are taught by the authors so that students can properly evaluate information needed to write college-level research papers. The full article can be accessed here.

Stress Busters, an open house sponsored by Falvey Memorial Library and the Villanova Electronic Enthusiasts Club, was held on Dec. 10, from 1 to 6 p.m. Soft pretzels, hot drinks, games, Star Wars themed coloring books, cootie catchers, a floor puzzle and a special appearance by Will D. Cat were featured. In keeping with the Star Wars theme, Han Solo (Sarah Wingo, liaison librarian for English and Theatre) and Darth Vader (Michelle Callaghan, Communication and Service Promotion team graduate assistant) attended the open house and also roamed the campus inviting students to the Stress Busters open house.

Students enjoy soft pretzels and other free snacks

Han Solo dueling with Darth Vader

Will D. Cat and student play with cootie catcher

Student coloring in a Star Wars coloring book

Will D. Cat, Rob LeBlanc and students playing video game

On Friday, Dec. 11, Stress Free Happy Healthy Hours were held from 10 am until 4 p.m. in room 205 in Falvey. Each hour featured a different activity, such as grown-up coloring books, making your own stress balls, snacks and drinks. From noon until 2 p.m. visiting therapy dogs were available for petting.

Photos by Alice Bampton

Why have a silent night when you can rock around the Christmas tree? When you’re finished reflecting on the quiet of the season, crank up the Christmas cheer with another K+M collection, filled to the brim with covers, classics, and fresh sounds for your holiday soundscapes. We send you love, light, and warmth this Advent!

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

Laura Hutelmyer is the photography coordinator for the Communication and Service Promotion Team and Special Acquisitions Coordinator in Resource Management

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

Jedi Master Chris Hallberg
Technology Development Team

TODAY IN THE LIBRARY…

Stress Free Happy Healthy Hours. 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. in room 205 of Falvey Memorial Library. Take a break from studying and enjoy a variety of stress-relieving activities. Each hour will feature a different activity, including coloring books for grown-ups, making your own stress balls, board games and puzzles, a combined yoga mindfulness session, and, of course, plenty of snacks and drinks. Comfort Caring Canines will also be here with therapy dogs from 12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Extended Hours

To provide students with additional late night study facilities, the main Library will have extended hours beginning Monday, Dec. 7th. We’ll be open most nights until 3:00 a.m.

As always, you can use your Wildcard to swipe into the 24/7 lounge, Falvey Hall lounge and Reading Room after hours. Take advantage of our cozy and inspirational spaces for quiet study. Check the Hours link on the library homepage for a full listing of extended hours.

From everyone at Falvey, good luck on your papers and final exams!

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Today is International Mountain Day, and it couldn’t have come at  a better time – I’ll bet it feels like you’re climbing mountains today! This international holiday was established in 2003 by the U.N. General Assembly to promote recognition of mountains and their contribution and importance to life, and to encourage positive ecological steps in mountain regions. Check out our science-oriented mountain holdings today!

“If you drive to, say, Shenandoah National Park, or the Great Smoky Mountains, you’ll get some appreciation for the scale and beauty of the outdoors. When you walk into it, then you see it in a completely different way. You discover it in a much slower, more majestic sort of way.” – Bill Bryson

Photo via US National Park Service. Denali – Mt. McKinley.

SIGNING OFF FOR THE SEMESTER!

This has been the final 8:30 for the fall 2015 semester. We hope you have an excellent holiday and best of luck with final exams and papers! It has been a pleasure to serve your daily speed-reads.

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.

‘Tis the season to be writing. Fa la la la la, blah blah blah blaaaah. Okay, so we all know how it feels to be stuck writing – you know, when you think you’re cruising along and then

…sorry, what were we talking about?

Writing. Do you know what your writing weaknesses are? It’s good to get in touch with your common missteps. Knowing where you usually go wrong is not at all a bad thing, and it definitely doesn’t make you a bad writer. After all, the real writing skill shines during editing! But cutting down on the amount of editing you have to do by being aware of what usually goes wrong in your writing is definitely worth your time and effort.

Some common mistakes are passive voicing. 

Two independent clauses cannot be linked with a comma, comma splicing is a common writing mistake.

Sentence sprawl happens to the best of us. You don’t want to make your sentences too unwieldy, because they become tiresome to read, and you might lose the persuasive thrust of your essay, which is why you really don’t want to include so many ideas in one sentence, because it’s hard to read, and it’s also not fun.

Of course, you’re not on this writerly journey alone! The Writing Center is here for you.

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!

Jedi Master Nicole B. Subik
Assistant Director, Learning Support Services
Learning Commons in Falvey, 212 C

TODAY IN THE LIBRARY…

Finals Stress Busting Open House. 1:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. in the first-floor lounge. Fight the dark side with free Philly soft pretzels, hot beverages, video games and other activities to unplug and unwind. Use the #falveyforce.

SAVE THE DATE…

Stress Free Happy Healthy Hours. Friday, December 11 at 10:00 a.m. in room 205 of Falvey Memorial Library. Take a break from studying and enjoy a variety of stress-relieving activities. Each hour will feature a different activity, including coloring books for grown-ups, making your own stress balls, board games and puzzles, a combined yoga mindfulness session, and, of course, plenty of snacks and drinks. Comfort Caring Canines will also be here with therapy dogs from 12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.

#TBT

Check out these #TBT pics from the 1975 yearbook.  These students are chillin’ out, maxin’, relaxin’ all cool. Make sure you get some stress relief this week, too, Wildcats!

QUOTE OF THE DAY

On this day in 1830, poet Emily Dickinson was born. While after her death Dickinson was discovered to have written well over a thousand poems, only a handful were published during her lifetime – and the ones that were had been manipulated by publishers to fit more conventional poetic practices of the time. It was Emily’s sister Lavinia who discovered Emily’s stockpile after her death, and it is thanks to her that Emily’s poetry gained public acknowledgment. Still, it took until 1955 for a mostly unaltered collection of Dickinson’s poetry to be compiled and released. Check out Dickinson’s poetry from our stacks today!

“Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –

And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –
And sore must be the storm –
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm –

I’ve heard it in the chillest land –
And on the strangest Sea –
Yet – never – in Extremity,
It asked a crumb – of me.

– Emily Dickinson

image via poets.org

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!

Does writing papers make you want to pull out your hair buns? Jedi Master Mary Beth Simmons suggests you come to the event below!

TODAY IN THE LIBRARY…

To provide students with additional late night study facilities, the main Library will have extended hours beginning Monday, Dec. 7th. We’ll be open most nights until 3:00 a.m.

As always, you can use your Wildcard to swipe into the 24/7 lounge, Falvey Hall lounge and Reading Room after hours. Take advantage of our cozy and inspirational spaces for quiet study. Check the Hours link on the library homepage for a full listing of extended hours.

From everyone at Falvey, good luck on your papers and final exams!

SAVE THE DATE

DID YOU KNOW—Daily Advent reflections by our University community are posted on the Office for Mission and Ministry’s website.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Today in 1902, actress Margaret Hamilton was born. Hamilton is most famous for her portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz – a character recognized as one of the greatest film villains of all time (seriously, check out the internet lists!). A former schoolteacher, Hamilton went from teaching kindergarteners to scaring them. Did you know that the world of Oz has been the focus of much scholarly research – literary, sociological, and historical? You can learn more from our holdings.

“No matter how dreary and gray our homes are, we people of flesh and blood would rather live there than in any other country, be it ever so beautiful. There is no place like home.”  – L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

image via imdb.com

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.

For a Star Wars themed promotion of Falvey Memorial Library, please click the following:

For “How to” videos about the Library, click the “Help” button on Falvey’s homepage.

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

Jedi Master Sarah Wingo
Liaison Librarian English & Theatre

TODAY IN THE LIBRARY…

To provide students with additional late night study facilities, the main Library will have extended hours beginning Monday, Dec. 7th. We’ll be open most nights until 3:00 a.m.

As always, you can use your Wildcard to swipe into the 24/7 lounge, Falvey Hall lounge and Reading Room after hours. Take advantage of our cozy and inspirational spaces for quiet study. Check the Hours link on the library homepage for a full listing of extended hours.

From everyone at Falvey, good luck on your papers and final exams!

SAVE THE DATE

NEW MEDIA NEWS

You get more than text in How to Make and Set Traps, the latest eBook release produced by Falvey’s collaboration with Distributed Proofreaders. There are trap illustrations and songs about rats & otters! According to a review by Demian Katz of Dime Novel fame, the book mixes “dense and convoluted details of trap-building with anecdotes about animal behavior, reflections on the definition of “vermin,” and a strong sense of the Victorian era.” Allow us to share a rather graphic quote that Katz highlighted in his review:

Emphatically I declare it—a weasel never relinquishes its quarry till the life’s blood has been sucked and the brain extracted and eaten.

Makes you want to download it and read it right now, doesn’t it? Uh huh. Thought so.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Today music fans remember John Lennon, half of the songwriting team that made The Beatles, well, The Beatles. As most people know, John Lennon was assassinated this day in 1980.

“If someone thinks that love and peace is a cliche that must have been left behind in the Sixties, that’s his problem. Love and peace are eternal.” – John Lennon

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.