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.

Laurie Ortiz Rivera, PhD, is Subject Librarian for History, Art History, Education & Counseling at Falvey Library. 

Erica Hayes, Digital Scholarship Librarian; Rebecca Oviedo, Distinctive Collections Librarian Archivist; and Jennifer Santoro, Department of Geography and the Environment, examine maps from the John F. Smith, III and Susan B. Smith Antique Map Collection with Villanova students.

Jennifer Santoro, Department of Geography and the Environment, talks with a student about historic maps.

Erica Hayes, Digital Scholarship Librarian, shows students Falvey’s online exhibit, “Projecting the World: An Audio Tour of the John F. Smith, III & Susan B. Smith Antique Map Collection,” and georeferencing tools.

Students focus on maps from the John F. Smith, III and Susan B. Smith Antique Map Collection.

Learning about georeferencing historic maps, students in Jennifer Santoro’s Introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) course had the opportunity to examine maps from the John F. Smith, III and Susan B. Smith Antique Map Collection on Thursday, Feb. 23, in Falvey Library. Collaborating with Santoro, Erica Hayes, Digital Scholarship Librarian, showed students georeferencing tools and Rebecca Oviedo, Distinctive Collections Librarian Archivist, shared more information about historic maps in the collection.

View the John F. Smith, III and Susan B. Smith Antique Map Collection here. Contact Rebecca Oviedo for more information.

Interested in integrating digital tools and methods into your research? Contact Erica Hayes.

Kallie Stahl ’17 MA is Communication and Marketing Specialist at Falvey Library. Photos courtesy of Shawn Proctor, Communication and Marketing Program Manager.

Students conversing outside Connelly Center, 1990s.

Whether you’re studying or catching up with some friends, we hope you enjoy this warm February day, Wildcats! Photo courtesy of the Villanova University Digital Library.

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

Will D. Cat. Photo courtesy of Shawn Proctor, Communication & Marketing Program Manager.

Will D. Cat stopped by Falvey Library to check out the new Digital Scholarship Lab!

Located in Room 218A (second floor of Falvey), the Digital Scholarship Lab is designed to support Villanova faculty, students, and staff who are working on creating digital projects and/or are interested in learning more about digital media, digital humanities, or data-intensive research and teaching. The Lab offers an expanded range of software covering a variety of digital methods and tasks, including GIS mapping, data visualization, text analysis, multimodal publishing, and more.

The Digital Scholarship Lab also offers a digital media technology loan program, where the Villanova community can check out DSLR cameras, 360-degree cameras, and podcasting equipment from the Lab for up to 1 week, with no renewals. The Lab is open by reservation-only during the following days and times: Mondays–Tuesdays, 9 a.m.–5 p.m.; Wednesday–Fridays, 9 a.m.–3 p.m.

More info: https://library.villanova.edu/digital-scholarship/lab

Contact: digitalscholarship@villanova.edu

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:

• The Life of St. Catherine of Siena (Raymond, o. C., 2011) *eBook
• The Letters of St. Catherine of Siena (Catherine, o. S., & Noffke, S., 1988)
• The Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena (Catherine, o. S., 2018) *eBook
• The Steps of Love in The Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena (Follmar, M. A., & Catherine, o. S., 1987)
• Catherine of Siena: A Life of Passion and Purpose (Vauchez, A., 2018)
• “A Long Embrace” (ESPN, 2019)
• Whatever happened to Villanova basketball star Shelly Pennefather? ‘So I made this deal with God.’ (Merrill, 2019)
• ‘Shelly Pennefather Day’ honors hoopster who pivoted to cloister (Loughlin, 2021)
• Maddy Siegrist (Villanova Athletics)
• Villanova’s Maddy Siegrist breaks all-time scoring record (Rapay, 2023)
• Magic Maddy Siegrist: The Big Baller on Villanova’s campus (Godin, 2023)

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 St. Catherine of Siena Research Award Symposium. The St. Catherine 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.

“Poetic License” is now on display on the Library’s first floor. The exhibit features poems selected from Falvey Library’s Distinctive Collections. Seven curators were given “poetic license” to curate an exhibit case; selecting specific materials to tell a unique story. Rebecca Oviedo, Distinctive Collections Archivist, focused on American Dialect Poetry, “a style of writing that attempts to replicate the sound and speech patterns of people from a particular region or social group.” Pictured above is Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem “Sympathy” from his book Lyrics of the Hearthside (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1899). “This poem later inspired the title to Maya Angelou’s autobiography, I know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969).”

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

Beaudry Allen, Digital and Preservation Archivist. Photo courtesy of Ethan Shea, Graduate Assistant Falvey Library.

Rebecca Oviedo, Distinctive Collections Archivist. Photo courtesy of Ethan Shea, Graduate Assistant Falvey Library.

Linda Hauck, Business Librarian. Photos courtesy of Kallie Stahl, Communication & Marketing Specialist.

Thanks to everyone who attended the 2023 Freedom School yesterday! Falvey Library staff celebrated the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  with two workshops focusing on various topics surrounding MLK’s vision and work:

• “Nurturing Social and Economic Justice on Campus: Affordable Materials Project” by Linda Hauck, Business Librarian, and Amy Spare, Associate Director for Law Library Services & Legal Research Instructor.
• “Students Call for Divestment: Student Activism and their Records” by Beaudry Allen, Digital and Preservation Archivist, University Archives, and Rebecca Oviedo, Distinctive Collections Archivist.

Gina Duffy, Communication & Marketing Program Manager, and Kallie Stahl, Communication & Marketing Specialist, were also in attendance sharing helpful library recourses with attendees.

Gina Duffy, Communication & Marketing Program Manager, and Kallie Stahl, Communication & Marketing Specialist. Photo courtesy of Ethan Shea, Graduate Assistant Falvey Library.

Looking for some reading recommendations for the new year? Former President Barack Obama shared his favorite books of 2022. His recommendations are listed below. All titles are available at Falvey Library through interlibrary loan.

• The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times by Michelle Obama
• Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
• Trust by Hernan Diaz
• The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams by Stacy Schiff
• The Furrows by Namwali Serpell
• South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry
• The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan
• Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
• Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton
• An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong
• Liberation Day by George Saunders
• The Candy House by Jennifer Egan
• Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah

Other lists:

• “The 10 Best Books of 2022” (The New York Times)
• “The 100 Must-Read Books of 2022” (Time)
• “The 10 Best Books of 2022” (The Washington Post)
• “The Best Books of 2022” (The New Yorker)
• “The Best Books of 2022” (NPR)
• “Best Books of 2022” (The New York Public Library)
• “Literary Critics Give Their Takes on the Best Books of 2022” (PBS)

Falvey Library staff shared their reading recommendations last year, if you’d like to add more titles to your “to be read” list.

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