Welcome to “The Highlighter,” where we’ll be exploring the various new and old services and resources available through the Falvey!

“Did you know that US lexicography even had a seamy underbelly?” Asked esteemed author David Foster Wallace in the intro of his famous essay Authority and American Usage. This essay, released in review/commentary of Bryan A. Garner’s A Dictionary of Modern American Usage, introduced the lay public to the nuanced debate of prescriptive versus descriptive grammar, conservative versus liberal usage, and the term SNOOT.

With the release of the new “Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition,” I thought it might be important to revisit one of the key questions DFW raised in his essay, not least of all because Garner himself is credited with writing full chapters of the style manual. In his (in)famous piece, DFW asks, “It’s the millennium, post-Everything: Whence the authority to make any sort of credible Appeal for SWE at all?”

The cover of the new “Chicago Manual of Style.” (Courtesy of the CMOS website, linked below.)

The answer to DFW’s question, it so turns out, is the 17th edition of the “Chicago Manual of Style.” The new edition contains updated rules on “etc,” bureaucratese, and capitalization of internet. It also contains a series of established SWE (Standard Written English) rules, such as clarifications on gerunds and infinitives (though Garner doesn’t cover split infinitives here!).

The most prominent change of all might be the elimination of “ibid.” or “ibidem” for citations of the same source.

Best of all, the interactive, online edition available through the Falvey contains each of these rules in discrete segments that make searching through the new rules navigable and manageable. Take a look at the full list of updates, available here.

(For any assistance with understanding these changes, reach out to Director of Academic Integration and History, Sociology & Criminology Liaison Librarian Jutta Seibert.)

Article by William Repetto, a graduate assistant in the Communication and Marketing Dept. at the Falvey Memorial Library. He is currently pursuing an MA in English at Villanova University.

Hi! Welcome to my first Tuesday Morning Highlighter. I’ll be stepping in for my friend and esteemed colleague Alice Bampton, who will be retiring later this week. Congratulations, Alice!

My first order of business is to update you on some of the changes that have occurred at the library over the summer. I don’t mean service changes this time, but actual physical changes that have happened here within the building. Our biggest changes have happened in the Learning Commons on the second floor.

Remember the Learning Commons? It looks a little something like this…

Well, there has only been one minor structural change, but let’s get to the major things first – a big, warm, Falvey welcome to the Center for Access Success and Achievement. You can now find CASA in Room 211 on the second floor of the Falvey Memorial Library. With a stated purpose of aiding “underrepresented, first generation, and Pell Grant eligible students,” this graduate assistant thinks that CASA makes an excellent addition to the Falvey family.

If you’re doing the math, you’ll realize that CASA has taken the room that used to be the Mathematics Learning Resource Center. Don’t panic, all you long dividers and promising, young physicists! The MLRC has moved directly across the hall to occupy Room 204. (The smart, suave structural engineers of the MLRC even knocked down one of our walls and invaded the former Room 207; enjoy the extra space, math whizzes!)

Here’s a photo of CASA’s new prime real estate.

Here are the minor things to note: Learning and Support Services remains in Room 212, where you can stop by for any learning and study skill resources you may require. The Writing Center is also still in Room 212. Remember, though, Room 212 is not a mechanic’s shop for just your latest assignment; they look to create “better writers, not better texts,” through a “collaborative effort” with students.

Now I must point out one small change from the map above. See that tiny space between the stairs at the very top of the map and the entrance to the Dugan Polk Family Reading Room? Well, we’ve built a beautiful conference room and a couple of offices there. Stop by and check them out!

Those new offices by the Dugan Polk Family Reading Room. Office occupants and room numbers TBD.

Article by William Repetto, a graduate assistant in the Communication and Marketing Dept. at the Falvey Memorial Library. He is currently pursuing an MA in English at Villanova University. (Graphic courtesy of TechDev and photos courtesy of yours truly.)

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Photos from Falvey Christmas parties featuring staff we remember fondly:

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

This video highlights quiet study spaces in the Library:

To access the library’s “How to” videos, click the “Help” button on Falvey’s homepage.

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.

Villanova University students studying St. Augustine’s Confessions may now benefit from an interactive digital app for their Apple or Android devices. This innovation provides several new ways to read and analyze the Confessions. Features include—

– interactive digital sourcebook—images, maps, timeline of Augustine’s life and journeys

– audio and visual components

– note-taking facility—annotate the text, jot down personal reflections

– expert commentary and explanatory notes—by Villanova professors and Augustine scholars from across the country

– recordings—by Villanova faculty and by University President the Rev. Peter M. Donohue, OSA, PhD, ’75 CLAS.

University professionals from the Augustine and Culture Seminar Program (ACSP), the Department of Computing Sciences, The Augustinian Institute at Villanova, and University Information Technologies (UNIT) collaborated to create this powerful app that expands students’ ability to understand and analyze the text (See press release for details).

Is this app available to anyone, only for the Villanova University community, or only for students taking the ACS program? Noël Dolan, director, academic learning communities, ACSP, explains, “Although we designed with a Villanova first-year student as our goal audience, the app is indeed for everyone.”

How can people get/purchase it? Dolan further explains, “It may be purchased from the App Store for iPad and iPhone, and Google Play for Android. Links to those sites may be found on our homepage.”

The library’s Help pages have undergone a major upgrade. To check it out, click the Help button.

Then click a link, such as “Most Popular Tips & Guides.”

The  “Tips & Guides” page (below) offers resources for discerning “Types of sources,” “Evaluating Your Sources,” “Citing Your Sources” and accessing “Step-by-Step guides,” to name a few. 

Check out Falvey’s enhanced Help pages: available 24/7 over the long holiday weekend. 

The new Idea Accelerator—This video shows what is, where it is, and who can use it:

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

Falvey Memorial Library does not have its own climate control system; it gets its heat and air conditioning from neighboring buildings, such as Mendel Hall. Changing the temperature, therefore, requires the library’s contact person to notify the Facilities Management Office (the FMO will only accept messages from Falvey’s contact person). The FMO will then adjust the heat/air conditioning flowing among the buildings. Such changes do not take effect for at least 24 hours.

Also, if the outdoor temperature becomes unseasonably warm or cool, that too can magnify the temperature inside the Library.

Library staff are well-aware of temperature variations in the Library and appreciate your patience as we work to provide a comfortable atmosphere for you to study, collaborate, research or relax.

Is there a secret to developing a superior research paper?
This video reveals the answer to that question:

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