Photo courtesy of Gina Duffy, Communication and Marketing Program Manager.

“B” for Blue and “W” for White. #FotoFriday

Nova Nation—Thank you for stopping by Distinctive Collections and Digital Engagement‘s (DCDE) annual Halloween event on Tuesday, Oct. 31, in Speakers’ Corner! It was fun telling Villanova ghost stories and sharing some of DCDE collections’ spookiest items. For more on this eerie event, check out Preservation & Digital Archivist Beaudry Allen’s blog post.

Photo courtesy of Shawn Proctor, Communication and Marketing Program Manager.

Homecoming is going to be in-tent-se!

We’re excited to welcome all the Wildcats back to campus! View the full event schedule here.

Be sure to stop by Falvey Library this weekend! Once a Wildcat, always a Wildcat!

Take one, leave one, share one, Villanova!

If you have been walking the pathway near Old Falvey, perhaps you’ve noticed a new, blue pop-up Little Free Library. The idea of Maria Tagliaferri ’23 and sponsored by the Student Government Association, it is an opportunity to find or contribute a book to a shared community library. This is just one of 150,000 such libraries around the world that have shared more than 300 million books. Give it a look! You never know what read you may discover.

There is a time to work hard and a time to relax and celebrate that work. And at the St. Thomas of Villanova Day of Service last weekend, we stumbled upon a pair of boots with just this vibe. The owner, we imagine, dropped these on the Riley Ellipse in the rush to line up for delicious food and to meet up with friends who also came back from their service sites.

Photo courtesy of Jadyn Piotrowski.

As summer winds down, we’ve been seeing some of the prettiest sunsets.

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

Photo courtesy of Kallie Stahl. Filter by Prisma.

The once empty whiteboards on Falvey’s first floor are starting to fill up—The semester is right around the corner! Study tip: The rolling whiteboards are perfect for group (or solo) study. #FotoFriday

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

“If we fail to anticipate the unforeseen or expect the unexpected in a universe of infinite possibilities, we may find ourselves at the mercy of anyone or anything that cannot be programmed, categorized, or easily referenced.” — Fox Mulder (David Duchovny), The X-Files: Fight the Future 

Fox Mulder was right! Well, that depends on your thoughts on Congress’ UFO hearing. According to Michael Mitsanas of NBC News, five former military officials testified before Congress on Wed., July 26, making five main claims: “the Government is ‘absolutely’ in possession of UAPs (unidentified aerial phenomena); ‘nonhuman biologics’ were found at a crash site; officials must establish a ‘safe and transparent reporting process’; stigma associated with sightings ‘silences’ possible witnesses; and a UFO was spotted accelerating to ‘supersonic speeds’.”

Photo courtesy of the Villanova University Digital Library.

Villanova had its own Astronomical Society. From the Belle Air 1969 (p. 109), “A program of films and lectures, operation of the Tolentine observatory’s ten inch Schmidt Cassegrain telescope, and participation in the Symposium on the Natural Sciences were among the many activities conducted this year by the members of the Astronomical Society.”

Maybe they saw some UAPs. Do you WANT to believe? Whatever your stance, the truth is in Falvey’s resources!

Falvey Library Resources:

• UFOs: An Insider’s View of the Official Quest for Evidence (Craig, 1995)
• UFO Religion: Inside Flying Saucer Cults and Culture (Reece, 2007)
• Beyond UFOs: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life and Its Astonishing Implications for Our Future (Bennett, 2011)
• The UFO Evidence (Hall, 2001)
• The UFO Encyclopedia: The Phenomenon from the Beginning (Clark, 1998)
• The UFO Files: The Inside Story of Real-life Sightings (Clarke, 2013)
• Intimate Alien: The Hidden Story of the UFO (Halperin, 2020)

Additional Reading:

• What We Know—and Don’t Know—About UFOs After the Congressional Hearing (TIME, 2022)
• Lawmakers and Former Officials Press for Answers on U.F.O.s (The New York Times, 2022)
• U.S. Recovered Non-Human ‘Biologics’ from UFO Crash Sites, Former Intel Official Says (NPR, 2022)
• Officials and Lawmakers Push For More Government Transparency on UFOs (CNN, 2022)
• Here Are the 5 Most Memorable Moments from Congress’ UFO Hearing (CNN, 2022)

X-Files Resources:

• The X-Files: The Official Archives: Cryptids, Biological Anomalies, and Parapsychic Phenomena (Terry, 2020)
• X-Files and Philosophy (Arp, 2017)
• The X-Files and Literature: Unweaving the Story, Unraveling the Lie to Find the Truth (Yang, 2007)
• The Philosophy of The X-Files (Kowalski & Davis, 2009)
• The Mystery Chronicles: More Real-Life X-Files (Nickell, 2010)
• Entertainment the Ultimate Guide to the X-files: 25 Years Inside Every Season & Film (PALCI EBSCO, 2018)
• Monsters of the Week: The Complete Critical Companion to the X-Files (Handlen Et al., 2018)

Kallie Stahl ’17 MA is Communication and Marketing Specialist at Falvey Library. Her favorite X-Files episode is “Bad Blood.” 

2023 Barack Obama’s Summer Reading List (Barack Obama/X)

Looking for a few last-minute reads before the end of summer? Former President Barack Obama shared his summer reading list on July 20. His recommendations are listed below. All titles are available at Falvey Library through Interlibrary loan. Enjoy the final weeks of summer, Wildcats!

• Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond
• Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane
• King: A Life by Jonathan Eig
• Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
• All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby
• Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton
• What Napoleon Could Not Do by DK Nnuro
• The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann
• Blue Hour by Tiffany Clarke Harrison

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