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Resource Highlight: Falvey offers Times Higher Education

By Laurie Ortiz Rivera

Falvey Library provides online access to the Times Higher Education, a website that presents a range of international higher education news, data, insights, and opportunities. It includes:

  • Times Higher Education logo.

    News – Award-winning journalists bring together the latest news in higher education focusing on Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Europe, and North America.

  • Data – Data editors and scientists offer fresh insights on global trends.
  • Digital editions and Archive of the Times Higher Education magazine and previous issues.
  • Opinion – Contributors provide insightful and provocative comments and opinions on higher education topics.

Times Higher Education is home to the World University Rankings database on global university performance. It also features an interview series titled “Talking Leadership” that includes Anton Muscatelli on social justice and Brexit, Nancy Rothwell on superstar academics, Stephen Toope on culture wars and collaboration, Suzanne Fortier on supporting refugees and addressing racism, and Mamokgethi Phakeng on culture change, among others.

It has dedicated sections for job listings, study abroad, events, and other resources. Signing up for newsletters is a great way to keep up with all the latest news and research across higher education. To ensure your access via the institutional subscription, you must register using your Villanova email address. Feel free to contact Laurie Ortiz-Rivera, Education & Counseling Subject Librarian, if you need more information.


Photo of Laurie Ortiz-Rivera, Social Science Librarian.Laurie Ortiz Rivera, PhD, is Subject Librarian for History, Art History, Education & Counseling at Falvey Library. 

 

 


 


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Dig Deeper: 2,409—A Historic Milestone and an Unbreakable Bond

Maddy Siegrist. Photo courtesy of Villanova Athletics.

Maddy Siegrist. Photo courtesy of Villanova Athletics.

2,409…That’s the number of points needed to break Villanova’s basketball all-time leading scoring record. Shelly Pennefather, now Sister Rose Marie of the Queen of Angels, since becoming a cloistered nun in 1994, has held the record since 1987. She was the school’s all-time leading scorer for both women and men with a career total of 2,408 points. Villanova senior forward Maddy Siegrist scored 23 points on Friday, Jan. 20, at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., surpassing Sister Rose Marie, for a career total of 2,571 points (as of Feb. 14, 2023).

2,409…A unique number, but a quick search using VUFind [a library resource portal designed and developed by Falvey Library’s Technology team] yielded an interesting note on that exact numeral. Harley 2409 is a manuscript written in the first half of the fifteenth century. It contains the longest version of “The Cleanness of Sowle,” which has been attributed to the spiritual teachings of St. Catherine of Siena. Cleanness, as Jennifer N. Brown states, is “St. Catherine’s spiritual beliefs in a nutshell.” In Harley 2409, “The Cleanness of Sowle begins with God’s voice directing the listener, clearly a woman (‘my daughter’) that he will lead her to the cleanness that she desires if she follows his teaching.”

Serendipitously stumbling upon the spiritual connection of this historic moment seems fitting. As Mike Jensen writes in the Philadelphia Inquirer, “Siegrist’s own faith is important to her…[She] feels a bond [with Sister Rose Marie] beyond their points. She’ll get a letter in Villanova’s basketball office, return address, the convent. Sister Rose Marie often will include a prayer card.” In St. Catherine’s definitive work, her “Dialogue” (which includes over 400 letters and prayers), she speaks of her “conversations between God and the soul.” St. Catherine shares her revelations from God with her readers—with all of God’s daughters. “We can read God’s communications to [Catherine] with detached awe or we can receive His messages to us through her writings” (Tan Books, 2010).

2,409…A seemingly random number at first glance, is now a historic milestone and an unbreakable bond.

Dig deeper and explore the links below:

More milestones achieved:

Maddy Siegrist scored 50 points on Saturday, Feb. 11, at Seton Hall University in South Orange, NJ., breaking the program’s single game record. Sister Rose Marie held the record for 38 years, scoring 44 points in a single game. With her 50 point performance, Siegrist became the new all-time leading scorer in Big East Women’s Basketball history for regular season conference games. 

Save the date: 

Join us on Monday, April 24, from 3:30-4:30 p.m. in Room 205 of Falvey Library for the StCatherine of Siena Research Award Symposium. The StCatherine of Siena Undergraduate Peace and Justice Research Award is awarded annually to an undergraduate student for a research project relevant to peace and justice issues. Submitted papers are evaluated by CPJE affiliated faculty. The top three students, including the winner, present their work on a panel with a faculty respondent to a University-wide audience. This event, co-sponsored by the Center for Peace and Justice Education and Falvey Library, is free and open to the public.

Works Cited:

Brown, Jennifer N. “The Many Misattributions of Catherine of Siena: Beyond The Orchard in England.” Journal of Medieval Religious Cultures, vol. 41, no. 1, 2015, pp. 67–84. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.5325/jmedirelicult.41.1.0067.

Catherine, o. S. (2010). Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena: A conversation with God on living your spiritual life to the fullest (New and abridged edition.). Tan Books.

Jensen (Staff Writer), M. (2023, January 22). Siegrist has formed bond with ex-’Nova great. Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA), p. C9. Available from NewsBank: Access World News: https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=AWNB&docref=news/18F34FB6B7B2D1D0.

Schultze, D. (2018). Spiritual Teachings by Catherine of Siena in BL Harley 2409: An Edition. Anglia: Zeitschrift für Englische Philologie/Journal of English Philology, 136(2), 296-325. https://doi.org/10.1515/ang-2018-0033.

Villanova’s Maddy Siegrist explodes for 50 points, shatters multiple records | NCAA.com. (n.d.). Retrieved February 13, 2023, from https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-women/article/2023-02-11/villanovas-maddy-siegrist-explodes-50-points-shatters-multiple-records.


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

 

 


 


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Policy Commons and Mindscape Resources

By Merrill Stein

Policy Commons and Mindscape Commons, two databases from Coherent Digital, are available for a trial until November 20. Policy Commons brings together the full-text of publicly available and licensed policy related documents in one search interface.

Search options include topics, tables, publications, Boolean operators, controlled vocabularies, and usual all field, keyword, title and author searches along with choices for additional searches by organization type, forty different document types, country of origin and language. The North American Cities module in this trial is optionally available and includes the full text of surveys, budgets, statistical records, case studies, planning documents, training manuals, policy guidelines, reports, and news from the five hundred largest cities in North America.

A brief introduction can be found at https://coherentdigital.net/policycommons.

Mindscape Commons is an online resource for immersive and interactive content in mental health. It provides access to nearly 300 VR experiences, many in 360-degree views, as well as some games and apps, for teaching and research in counseling, social work, psychology, health sciences, and related programs. VR tools are optional in the use of this database.

Content is also meant to be collaborative in nature, so faculty and researchers can create member profiles, upload their projects, and connect with others. Videos are searchable by subjects, publisher, device (Ocolus, desktop, Ipad and mobile), immersive virtual microcases and interactive simulation. Teacher materials and video transcripts are included. National and international (BBC, Guardian) content is open access, created by Coherent Digital or arranged through major producers and developed to represent a diverse community.

A brief introduction can be found at https://coherentdigital.net/mindscape. These resources are available from the Falvey Library homepage, Databases A-Z list.


""Merrill Stein is Political Science Librarian at Falvey Memorial Library.

 

 


 


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Resource Trial: Sanborn Digital Maps, 1867-1970 (ProQuest)

By Merrill Stein

Image courtesy of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanborn_maps

Sanborn Digital Maps, 1867-1970 (ProQuest), provide access to more than 660,000 Sanborn maps, produced over a century, charting the growth, layout and development of more than 12,000 American towns and cities. Originally produced in color, these black and white Sanborn maps are large-scale plans of a city or town, drawn at a scale of fifty feet to an inch. They were created to assist fire insurance companies as they assessed the risk associated with insuring a particular property. The maps list street blocks and building numbers including numbers in use at the time the map was made and previous numbers. A legend has also been added to assist with interpretation of the black and white maps.

Although Sanborn maps today have minimal interest for the fire insurance industry, municipal governments are Sanborn’s best customers today. Engineering and architectural concerns are also significant purchasers of corrected Sanborn maps. The maps can be useful for geography and urban planning, ancestry, history and policy studies.

For additional information and history about Sanborn maps, visit the ProQuest guide and the Library of Congress Introduction to the Sanborn Map Collection. Access the Sanborn Digital Maps, 1867-1970 (ProQuest) trial under Falvey Library’s Databases A to Z. Access the Sanborn Digital Maps, 1867-1970 (ProQuest) trial under Falvey Library’s Databases A to Z, until Nov. 4.


""Merrill Stein is Political Science Librarian at Falvey Memorial Library.

 

 


 


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Freedom To Read: Celebrate Banned Book Week with These “Most Challenged” Books From Falvey Memorial Library

American Library Association's poster announcing Banned Books Week 2020.


Banned Books Week commenced on Sept. 18! Beginning in the early 1980s, the annual event, celebrated the last week of September, spotlights “current and historical attempts to censor books in libraries and schools.” Show your support for “the freedom to read” and checkout these frequently challenged titles available at Falvey Memorial Library.

The titles listed below are featured in the “Top 10 Most Challenged Books” lists spanning from 2001-2021. “Lists are based on information from media stories and voluntary reports sent to the Office for Intellectual Freedom from communities across the U.S.

Books are accessible through Falvey’s collection and Interlibrary Loan.

For more information about Banned Books Week visit the American Library Association’s website. Looking for a specific title not available at Falvey Memorial Library? Villanova students, staff, and faculty can use the E-ZBorrow service to request print materials from regional libraries. Chat with a librarian during business hours: Monday–Friday, 9 a.m.–5 p.m. for inquires regarding Falvey Library’s collection.


Kallie Stahl ’17 MA is Communication and Marketing Specialist at Falvey Memorial Library. *Article originally published on Sept. 28, 2020.

 

 


 


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Resource Highlight: Immigration Law and Policy Information

By Merrill Stein

World map.

If you are seeking policy, legal and historical information about immigration, trial access is now available to the Immigration Law & Policy in the U.S. database, included within the already subscribed to HeinOnline database, a subscription courtesy of the Charles Widger School of Law Library.

The database brings together a comprehensive collection of sixteen subcollections about immigration. Select features include scholarly articles focused on immigration law from the HeinOnline law journal library, congressional hearings, Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports, Government Accountability Office (GAO) and Board of Immigration Appeals Precedent Decisions and several immigration-related acts and legislative histories and relevant Supreme Court briefs in 750,000 pages of material. While the database is meant to be a unique set of resources within HeinOnline, some information can also be found elsewhere and within other scholarly resources.

The trial ends September 26, 2022. More information is available at the HeinOnline’s Immigration Law & Policy guide. The immigration database can be accessed in the Falvey Library Databases A-Z list or from within the HeinOnline database, a subscription courtesy of the Charles Widger School of Law Library.


""Merrill Stein is Political Science Librarian at Falvey Memorial Library.

 

 


 


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Library 101: Visit the Library Blog and Social Media for Daily Updates


Check out our website and social media every day for the latest library news, resources, fun stuff, and throwbacks!

Weekly Blogs

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday 

Thursday

 

Friday 

 

Social Media


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

 

 


 


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Library 101: Here’s Your Falvey Library Essentials Guide

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.


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Resource Highlight: Cold War Intelligence from Brill Academic Publishers

By Merrill Stein

35th POTUS John F. Kennedy (left) in front of American Flag and Premiere Nikita Krushchev (right) in front of Soviet Flag. Photo courtesy of Ruby Jennings from Wikimedia Commons.

35th POTUS John F. Kennedy (left) in front of American Flag and Premiere Nikita Krushchev (right) in front of Soviet Flag. Photo courtesy of Ruby Jennings from Wikimedia Commons.


If you’re interested in Cold War Intelligence (Brill), please review this collection of over 2,300 formerly classified U.S. government documents (Top Secret or higher) that provide readers with the documentary record of the successes and failures of the U.S. intelligence community in its efforts to spy on the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The collection covers the period from the end of World War II in 1945 until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and includes several formerly classified historical reports and articles written by U.S. intelligence historians since the end of the Cold War.

Different than a searchable database, the selected collection is arranged by Cold War years and ending in the 2000’s. Included here are: contents, a “documents by date” section, suggested bibliography/chronology, and glossaries. Summary details are available at https://brill.com/fileasset/downloads_products/36760_CWIO_Background_Article.pdf. Though not officially part of any other database collection, Cold War Intelligence (Brill), complements a host of documents from Falvey Library’s Digital National Security Archive (ProQuest) subscription. A link to the collection is also available on the Falvey Library Databases A-Z list.


""Merrill Stein is Political Science Librarian at Falvey Memorial Library.

 

 


 


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Photo Friday: Stand With Ukraine


 


Falvey Memorial Library stands in support with the people of Ukraine. Featured in the display on the first floor are library resources on Ukraine—history, literature, geography, and more. No list could ever be comprehensive, but we hope the information listed below and in the display will serve as a starting point. Be sure to stop by the display on your next visit to Falvey Library.

How you can help and support Ukrainians:

How to remain informed about the conflict:

Resources on Ukraine:

 

 


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

 

 


 


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Last Modified: June 17, 2022

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