Would you like to use ARTstor, but aren’t sure how to proceed? Are you already a user but want to brush up on your skills? Come to the ARTstor workshop in Falvey on Friday, December 10, at 2:30 pm. ARTstor offers various training modules and we would like to offer the two most popular ones chosen by potential users.

Please look at the following training modules and let us know which interest you on the sign up sheet.

• Introduction to ARTstor
• Teaching with ARTstor
• Presenting with ARTstor
  

Click here to sign up for the workshop.

Did you know that the library’s catalog includes a New Items search feature, that makes it easy and convenient to browse the new books and films acquired for your department?  You can use it to browse the new titles ordered in your field.  Many of the titles ordered in the last thirty days are unavailable and have titles in all capital letters.  These items are currently on order and have not yet arrived on the book shelf.  Please note that these order records are short records and do not include call numbers or subject headings.  Available catalog facets will only work for complete records with the exception of the format facet.

Click here to browse new history titles ordered in the last thirty days
Click here to browse new art history titles ordered in the last thirty days

Visit the New Items link on a regular basis and keep up to date with new purchases in your subject area.  Feel free to contact me with any feedback and comments that you may have.

Last year, Falvey acquired the digital edition of the Papers of Thomas Jefferson from the University of Virginia Press. These papers are part of the American Founding Era Collection, which contains the papers of other noteworthy figures of the early republic. Falvey has recently acquired access to three more of these collections: the Adams Papers, the Papers of George Washington, and the Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution.

The Adams Papers Digital Edition brings together all volumes printed in the series to date, including John Adams’s complete diaries, selected legal papers, family correspondence, and state papers.

The Papers of George Washington Digital Edition consists of electronic editions of all 59 volumes that have appeared in print thus far. This collection includes the complete diaries as well as five series representing various stages of Washington’s life.

The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution traces the evolution of the Constitution through each of the thirteen states’ conventions. The collection contains “copies of over 60,000 documents from well over 1,000 libraries” encompassing “convention and legislative records, private papers, and all newspapers, broadsides, and pamphlets … when relevant.”

All editions are annotated and allow users to switch between the hierarchical print volume arrangements and a chronological arrangement. In addition, all collections are cross-searchable. The search page allows users to refine their search in many useful ways. You can search the text within the content or the notes (or both, of course), search for names, set date range limits, and specify which collection or collections to search within. Please note, however, that while you can search all collections in the American Founding Era Collection, the library only has access to Jefferson, Adams, Washington, and the Ratification collections. For more details and tips about searching these collections, see the help page.

The library also owns print editions of these works. Check the catalog for the Adams Papers, the Papers of George Washington (Colonial Series, Revolutionary War Series, Confederation Series, Presidential Series, Retirement Series), and the Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to get in touch with us.

RefWorks Library Workshop
Date: Sunday, September 12
Time: 12:30-2:00 p.m.
Location: Griffin Room, 1st floor, Falvey

Please set up a RefWorks account by clicking on the “Sign up for an Individual Account” link before you come to the workshop and download Write-N-Cite if you bring your personal laptop.

You will learn how to

• — export references from catalogs, indexes, and digital collections,
• — edit references,
• — create folders for different projects,
• — create references from scratch in RefWorks,
• — cite in Microsoft Word with Write-N-Cite (Chicago style).

Please e-mail me at jutta.seibert@villanova.edu if you would like to attend, but have not yet signed up.

Medical research has come a long way since the 1918 influenza epidemic, but last year’s H1-N1 scare demonstrated how vulnerable we still are when faced with a new and highly contagious virus. Today’s population density and global travel habits increase the speed with which epidemics can turn into pandemics.

Are you interested in learning more about the history of the “French disease” or the yellow fever outbreak in Philadelphia in the 18th century? Would you like to learn more about the field of public health as it emerged in response to epidemic diseases.
Falvey’s large collection comprises encyclopedic essays, books, primary sources in digital collections and peer-reviewed journal articles about the history of epidemics, public health, and hygiene.

The Epidemics in History Research Guide identifies numerous library resources and lists relevant Library of Congress subject headings that will improve search results in the online catalog. It includes links to sample essays, articles and primary sources in Falvey’s digital collections.
The online research guide can be found on the Course & Topic Guides page under the Guides tab on the library home page. Please feel free to contact us with any questions or comments that you may have.

The Getty announced in April that it will provide free access to the Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA) from its Website. The Getty news release does not mention that interested scholars and students will search a static database without any indexing or abstracting of scholarly output published after 2009 unless new funding can be found in the near future.  A Biblio-File Brouhaha by Lee Rosenbaum, recently published in the Wall Street Journal, gives detailed information about the events that led to the termination of BHA.

As a result CSA no longer offers BHA as a subscription database and students and faculty have to make do without the convenient FindIt button that links to the Library’s holdings and interlibrary loan forms. The Library’s Databases A-Z list now links to the Getty Website for continued access. We hope that the new search interface hosted by the Getty will not prevent faculty and students from future use of this important research resource in art history.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions or comments that you may have.
Contributed by Alice Bampton.

A recent publication from the Oxford University Press is the Encyclopedia of African American History: 1896 to the Present (2009), edited by Paul Finkelman. This five-volume set follows the 3-volume Encyclopedia of African American History: 1619 to 1895 (published in 2006) and covers the “Age of Segregation to the Twenty-First Century,” including the 2008 presidential election. This set contains over 1,250 signed entries, with nearly equal division between biographies and topical entries.

The Encyclopedia of Race and Racism (2008, Macmillan/Gale), edited by John Hartwell Moore, contains nearly 400 articles in three volumes, with content contributed by experts on race, ethnicity, sociology, and other social sciences. The articles focus mainly on biographies and historical events. U.S. topics dominate the set, but there is also a good variety of global topics covered. Additional materials include an annotated filmography, excerpts from significant court cases, and the full text of influential civil rights speeches and other relevant material.

Other noteworthy reference titles in Falvey’s collection include:
African-American Years: Chronologies of American History and Experience (2003, Scribner, print and online)
Encyclopedia of African American Culture & History, 2nd edition (2006, Macmillan, 5 vols., online)
Encyclopedia of African American History (2010, ABC-Clio, 3 vols., print)
Encyclopedia of African American Society (2007, Sage, online)
Encyclopedia of Black Studies (2005, Sage, online)
Encyclopedia of the African Diaspora: Origins, Experiences, and Culture (2008, ABC-Clio, 3 vols., online)
Oxford African American Studies Center: Falvey’s gateway to the African American National Biography

All titles are all available through the Library catalog. Please feel free to contact us with any questions or comments that you may have.
Contributed by Laura Bang.

Falvey recently acquired the online edition of the Encyclopedia of U.S. Indian Policy and Law. Edited by Paul Finkelman and Tim Garrison and published in 2009 by CQ Press, this encyclopedia examines the history and impact of U.S. relations with Native Americans. Entries cover many topics relating to U.S./Native American relations, from history, politics, and sociology to civil rights and culture. The first volume includes eight overview chapters over U.S. Indian policy starting with the Indian policy of the Continental Congress. Entries cover a wide variety of topics from The Census to Environment and Environmental Protection. All entries are signed and include recommended readings and cross-references. Maps, statistics and documents such as the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act from 1990 can be found in the appendices. The Quick Search feature can be used to locate keywords anywhere in the full text of the online encyclopedia.

Related online reference materials in the Falvey collection:
American Indian Culture: A survey Native American history from ancient times to the twentieth century edited by Carole Barrett and published by Salem Press in 2003. (2 vols.)
American Indian History: Edited by Carole Barrett and Harvey Markovitz and published in 2004 by Salem Press. (3 vols.)
American Indian Tribes: Edited by R. Rasmussen and published by Salem Press in 1995. (2 vols.)

Related print titles:
Chronology of Native North American History
Tiller’s Guide to Indian Country
Atlas of the North American Indian
Native America in the Twentieth Century
Biographical Dictionary of American Indian History to 1900

All of these titles can be found with the help of the Library’s catalog. Online titles are also listed on the e-reference history page and on the history subject guide.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments that you may have.

Falvey recently acquired the digital edition of the Papers of Thomas Jefferson from the University of Virginia Press. The Jefferson papers are part of the American Founding Era Collection, which includes the papers of other major figures of the early republic such as John Adams and George Washington. The digital collection encompasses volumes 1-33 (1760-1801) of the projected 60-volume print edition published by Princeton University Press. The Library has volumes 1-35 of the print edition. Volume 36 is forthcoming in February 2010.  The digital edition of the Papers of Thomas Jefferson includes the copious correspondence written and received by Jefferson as well as his private notes and documents of historical significance in a fully searchable online environment. Volumes 1-4 of the retirement series are slated to be added to the digital collection in the near future.

The electronic version of Jefferson’s papers presents unique opportunities to Villanova University faculty and students. With a few keyboard strokes interested scholars can find all letters from Jefferson to or from any of his many correspondents. A unique lookup feature for letter authors and recipients (see image below) makes it possible to limit search results to a unique person, inconsistent spelling notwithstanding. Letters that are dispersed over 35 print volumes are brought together on the screen. The full text search feature will find all instances of any word or name in a matter of seconds. Different forms of nouns and verbs are matched through stemming. For instance, fight will be matched to fights, fought, and fighting. Word stemming is also supported for French, since a significant part of Jefferson’s correspondence is in French language: a search for œil or oeil will retrieve documents with the plural form yeux. Other search features are wildcards, phrase searching, automatic “and” queries, and exact form matches. Click here for detailed search instructions.

The correspondence can also be browsed in chronological order or by print volume. Letters can be saved as jpeg files by clicking on the small icon next to the page number at the top of each page. Unfortunately, it is not possible to save search results to a folder or email them. Each document includes a reference to the print volume, a canonical URL and a recommended citation. Please note that the canonical URL lacks Villanova ldap authentication and will hence only work on campus. Please contact me if you need authenticated URLs to individual documents for your students.

At the current time Villanova University has only access to the full text of the Jefferson papers in the American Founding Era collection even though you will be able to see and search the other collections. Links to the digital collection can be found in the Library’s catalog, on the Databases A-Z list and on the history subject guide under the primary sources tab.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments that you may have.

RefWorks Library Workshop
Date: Friday, September 18
Time: 5-6 p.m.
Location: Griffin Room, 1st floor, Falvey

Please set up a RefWorks account by clicking on the “Sign up for an Individual Account” link before you come to the workshop and download Write-N-Cite if you bring your personal laptop.

You will learn how to

• — export references from catalogs, indexes, and digital collections,
• — edit references,
• — create folders for different projects,
• — create references from scratch in RefWorks,
• — cite in Microsoft Word with Write-N-Cite (Chicago style).

Please e-mail me at jutta.seibert@villanova.edu if you would like to attend, but have not yet signed up. The workshop is close to full and there is only limited space left.