Loyola Notre Dame Library News

Introducing Seeker!

2012-01-18T13:58:00.002-05:00

Seeker is an exciting new all-encompassing database that searches books, journal and news articles, DVDs, business publications, and many other resources. It combines the library catalog with most of the other library databases, giving a streamlined search that will let you access everything at once. The link to Seeker is in the top right corner of the library webpage. Try it out and fill out this short survey to let us know what you think! You can also email us at askemail@loyola.edu.

Ebook of the Week - Racing Odysseus: A College President Becomes a Freshman Again

2012-01-18T10:29:00.001-05:00

Martin, Roger H. Racing Racing Odysseus: A College President Becomes a Freshman Again. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008

The idea of reliving youth is a common fantasy, but who among us is actually courageous enough to try it? After surviving a deadly cancer against tremendous odds, college president Roger H. Martin did just that--he enrolled at St. John's College, the Great Books school in Annapolis, Maryland, as a sixty-one-year-old freshman. This engaging, often humorous memoir of his semester at St. John's tells of his journey of discovery as he falls in love again with Plato, Socrates, and Homer, improbably joins the college crew team, and negotiates friendships across generational divides. Along the way, Martin ponders one of the most pressing questions facing education today: do the liberal arts still have a role to play in a society that seems to value professional, vocational, and career training above all else? Elegantly weaving together the themes of the great works he reads with events that transpire on the water, in the coffee shop, and in the classroom, Martin finds that a liberal arts education may be more vital today than ever before. This is the moving story of a man who faces his fears, fully embraces his second chance, and in turn rediscovers the gifts of life and learning.

Previewed by John Breitmeyer*. Click here to read the book

*Synopsis reprinted from Amazon book description, Sept. 2, 2008.

Ebook of the Week - Living in Denial: Climate Change, Emotions, and Everyday Life.

2012-01-10T13:38:00.000-05:00

Norgaard, Kari Marie. Living in Denial: Climate Change, Emotions, and Everyday Life. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2011.

Global warming is perhaps the most significant environmental issue of our time, yet public response in Western nations has been meager. Why have so few taken action? In Living in Denial, sociologist Kari Norgaard searches for answers to this question, drawing on interviews and ethnographic data from her study of "Bygdaby," the fictional name of an actual rural community in western Norway that experienced an unusually warm winter in 2000-2001. Stories in local and national newspapers linked the warm winter explicitly to global warming, yet residents did not write letters to the editor, pressure politicians, or cut down on use of fossil fuels. Norgaard attributes this lack of response to the phenomenon of socially organized denial, by which information about climate science is known in the abstract but disconnected from political, social, and private life, and sees this as emblematic of how citizens of industrialized countries are responding to global warming in general. Norgaard finds that for the highly educated and politically savvy residents of Bygdaby, global warming was both common knowledge and unimaginable. She traces this denial from emotions, to cultural norms, to political economy. Her report from ‘Bygdaby,’ supplemented by comparisons throughout the book to the United States, tells of the larger story behind our paralysis in the face of alarming predictions from climate scientists.

Previewed by John Breitmeyer. Click here to read the book.

2012-01-03T14:42:00.002-05:00

Feeney, Denis. Caesar's Calendar: Ancient Time and the Beginnings of History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.

Denis Feeney’s Caesar's Calendar investigates time and its contours as described by the ancient Romans, both the early empire and later, as Rome exerted its influence as a major world power. Feeney welcomes the reader into a world where time was changeable, and where simply ascertaining a date required a complex and often contentious cultural narrative. Feeney lucidly investigates the pertinent systems, including the Roman calendar (which is still our calendar) and its near-perfect method of capturing the progress of natural time, as well as its incorporation of the rhythms of consular government, the plotting of sacred time, and the meshing of the Roman city-state's concept of time with those of the foreigners they encountered. Because this web of time was Greek before the Romans transformed it, the book is also an interesting study in the cross-cultural interaction between the Greek and Roman worlds.

Feeney's treatment of specialized historical material is engaging and accessible, and ranges from details of the time schemes used by Greeks and Romans to accommodate the Romans' unprecedented rise to world dominance to an edifying discussion of the fixed axis of B.C./A.D. (or B.C.E./C.E.), and the supposedly objective "dates" implied. He closely examines the time divisions between myth and history, and concludes by demonstrating the impact of the reformed calendar on the way the Romans conceived of time's recurrence. Feeney's book achieves a reconstruction of the Roman conception of time – and it may transform the way his readers inhabit and experience time as well.

Previewed by John Breitmeyer. Click here to read the book.

Ebook of the Week - Christmas in America: A History

2011-12-13T09:00:00.003-05:00

Restad, Penne L. Christmas in America: A History. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.

In Christmas in America, Penne Restad reveals that Christmas has always been an ambiguous meld of sacred thoughts
and worldly actions, as well as a reflection of our changing society. In these 240 pages, Restad captures the rise and transformation of our most universal national holiday. Christmas was sometimes solemn, sometimes wildly social -- and sometimes not celebrated at all. Virginians hunted, danced, and feasted, city dwellers flooded the streets in raucous demonstrations, and Puritan New Englanders denounced the whole affair. Restad shows that as times changed, Christmas changed--but it always grew in popularity.

In the early 1800s, New York served as an epicenter of the newly emerging holiday, drawing on its roots as a Dutch colony (St. Nicholas was particularly popular in the Netherlands, even after the Reformation), and aided by such men as Washington Irving. In 1822, another New Yorker named Clement Clarke Moore penned a poem now known as "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," virtually inventing the modern Santa Claus. Well-to-do townspeople displayed a German novelty, the decorated fir tree, in their parlors; an enterprising printer discovered the money to be made from Christmas cards; and a hodgepodge of year-end celebrations began to coalesce around December 25 and the figure of Santa. The homecoming significance of the holiday increased with the Civil War, and by the end of the nineteenth century a full- fledged national holiday had materialized, forged out of borrowed and invented custom alike, and driven by a passion for gift-giving. By the twentieth century, Christmas had seeped into every niche of our conscious and unconscious lives to become a festival of epic proportions. Restad carries the story through to our own time, revealing the inescapable presence, and ambiguous meaning, of Christmas in contemporary culture.

Previewed by John Breitmeyer. Click here to read the book.

Ebook of the Week - Christmas at the Movies: Images of Christmas in American, British and European Cinema.

2011-12-06T09:16:00.000-05:00

Connelly, Mark, ed. Christmas at the Movies: Images of Christmas in American, British and European Cinema. London: I. B. Tauris, 2001.

Love or hate it, Christmas has always played a special role in the cinema, and Christmas movies like "It’s a Wonderful Life" and "Miracle on 34th Street" have assumed a special place in popular affections; by now, they almost constitute a cinematic mini-genre. Cinematic representations of Christmas, as Connelly points out in his introduction, have had a global impact, but resonate especially in Western, Christian societies. So, what does Christmas in the movies mean to societies across the Anglo-Saxon and European world, and what does it have to say about them? The eleven contributors to this book take a good look at popular Christmas films, decoding the messages they convey about Christmas-related preoccupations and attitudes internationally and about the different societies that produce them.

Previewed by John Breitmeyer. Click here to read the book.

Ebook of the Week - Trader Joe’s Adventure: Turning a Unique Approach to Business into a Retail and Cultural Phenomenon

2011-11-29T15:27:00.000-05:00

Lewis, Len. Trader Joe’s Adventure: Turning a Unique Approach to Business into a Retail and Cultural Phenomenon Chicago : Dearborn Trade Pub., 2005.

In Trader Joe’s Adventure, Lewis outlines the unlikely success story of Trader Joe’s, a chain of grocery stores which offers gourmet food and beverages at moderate prices. Since the chain’s inception in the 1970s, Trader Joe’s has steadily grown a loyal, almost cult-like following due to its ability to differentiate itself from competitors. Lewis analyzes the various factors that have contributed to this success, from maintaining a strong business philosophy and corporate culture to knowing the customer and placing the utmost importance on employee satisfaction. Each chapter focuses on a different innovative strategy used by Trader Joe’s to keep customers coming back. This is an entertaining look into a wildly successful business model.

Previewed by Rosie Hanneke. Click here to read the book.

Ebook of the Week - Thanksgiving: The Biography of an American Holiday

2011-11-21T21:00:00.001-05:00

Baker, James W. Thanksgiving: The Biography of an American Holiday Durham, N.H.: University of New Hampshire Press, 2009.

The origins and history of this distinctly American holiday are a great deal more complex than many people realize. The popular conception of the day as a commemoration of a 1621 al fresco dinner where Pilgrims and their Native American guests peacefully celebrated a successful harvest after a very difficult first winter is only a small part of the story. Thanksgiving actually had its origins as a Puritan holy day that predated Pilgrim migration to North America. At first it was celebrated only in New England, but by the late 18th century had been established as a national holiday. Still, it was not associated with the 1621 dinner until the rediscovery in 1840 of a 1622 booklet called Mourt’s Relation that described the Pilgrim/Indian feast. Nevertheless, this image of Thanksgiving did not really take hold until the early 20th century; in fact, some popular depictions from the Victorian era showed the colonists being attacked by their indigenous neighbors while trying to eat their Thanksgiving dinner. Baker is uniquely qualified to write this fascinating account: he grew up in Plymouth, Massachusetts, worked as a teenager on the Mayflower II, and has been the research librarian at Plimoth Plantation since 1975. He traces the evolution of the holiday up to the present, bringing in cultural ramifications and the latter-day protests by Native American groups.

Previewed by Jack Ray. Click here to read the book.

Thanksgiving Holiday Library Hours

2011-11-18T14:32:00.000-05:00

Ebook of the Week - African-American Actresses: The Struggle for Visibility 1900-1960

2011-11-15T08:50:00.000-05:00

Regester, Charlene. African-American Actresses: The Struggle for Visibility 1900-1960. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2010.

Through a look at nine African-American actresses from 1900-1960, Regester explores how mainstream Hollywood movies characterized them as shadow figures designed to illuminate the lead white actress. She examines how the actresses perceived these representations and how it affected their lives off-screen. Particular attention is paid to coverage of these actresses in both mainstream and African-American media outlets.

Previewed by Danielle Johnson. Click here to read the book.

Ebook of the Week - When Janey Comes Marching Home: Portraits of Women Combat Veterans.

2011-11-08T09:00:00.003-05:00

Browder, Laura. When Janey Comes Marching Home: Portraits of Women Combat Veterans. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010.

Browder and photographer Sascha Pflaeging provide a compelling portrait of 52 female veterans from various combat units who were deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan, and neighboring regions in recent years. In her introduction, Browder explores the evolution of roles that women have played in the military dating back to the Revolutionary War and raises some potentially unsettling questions about the incompatibility of “mommyhood” and military service, the various stereotypes with which female soldiers are routinely confronted, and the physical and psychological perils of service that are, arguably, unique to women. Each chapter begins with a brief synthesis of the interviews relevant to the chapter subject, followed by interview excerpts and photographs of the veterans. The inclusion of Pflaeging’s photos helps to personalize the narratives even further, although the quality of the photos is not always consistent. Throughout the book, the juxtaposition of accounts of brutal sexism with expressions of empowerment and accomplishment consistently defy easy conclusions about women in the military. Overall, an illuminating and thought-provoking read.

Previewed by Jennie Ray. Click here to read the book.

Ebook of the Week - Flannery O’Connor in the Age of Terrorism: Essays on Violence and Grace

2011-11-01T15:05:00.001-04:00

Avis Hewitt and Robert Donahoo, eds. Flannery O’Connor in the Age of Terrorism: Essays on Violence and Grace. Knoxville: University of Tenessee Press, 2010.

Hewitt and Donahoo have compiled a number of essays that examine violence in the works of Flannery O’Connor. They have organized them into three sections. The first segment consists of essays related to the violence found in O’Connor’s works. The second segment contains essays connecting the portrayal of violence in O’Connor’s works to that of other writers and literary genres. Finally, the third segment of essays examine O’Connor’s works in light of the current culture and theories of violence.

Previewed by Danielle Johnson. Click here to read the book.

Quiet Study Area

2011-10-31T16:06:00.000-04:00

In response to student requests, the long tables in the 2nd level central area between the stacks have been designated as a quiet study area. Your cooperation is appreciated. Please be considerate of others who are studying in other parts of the library as well. Group study rooms are available on the 2nd and 3rd levels.

Ebook of the Week - Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night

2011-10-25T09:00:00.001-04:00

Rogers, Nicholas. Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night

New York : Oxford University Press, 2002.

In this history of Halloween, Rogers emphasizes how many different forms it has taken, even to the present day, when it is part fall festival, part children’s event (costumes, trick or treat), part adult party time, and above all an enormously profitable commercial enterprise. Some religious groups, such as the Puritans in colonial days and evangelical Christianity in modern times, have rejected Halloween with its celebration of witches, goblins, and other unholy creatures. Rogers traces the complex origins of Halloween from the Celtic autumn festival Samhain through its merger with the Christian observances of All Saints and All Souls Days in the British Isles and its nineteenth-century migration to North America. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries it was often an occasion for pranks that at other times would be considered vandalism. After 1920 or so, there was an effort to tone down the “tricks” and make Halloween more of a children’s holiday focusing on “treats.” Even that has been modulated in more recent years by societal fears of adulterated candy and razor blades in apples. In later chapters Rogers discusses Hollywood’s treatment of Halloween, gay street festivals, and the intersection of Halloween with Mexico’s Day of the Dead (celebrated November 1 and 2) in the southwestern United States. This is a very readable account and has quite a few intriguing illustrations.

Previewed by Jack Ray. Click here to read the book.

Ebook of the Week - Homer Simpson Marches on Washington: Dissent through American Popular Culture

2011-10-18T09:00:00.001-04:00

Dale, Timothy M and Joseph J. Foy. Homer Simpson Marches on Washington: Dissent through American Popular Culture. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2010

Homer Simpson Marches on Washington explores the transformative power that enables popular culture to influence political agendas, frame the consciousness of audiences, and create profound shifts in values and ideals. Examples are feminism, environmentalism, and class warfare. Some of the mediums analyzed by various scholars are, in addition to the Simpsons cartoon, the View, The Daily Show with John Stewart and the Colbert Report. These media are incredibly influential in unifying the political agendas and outlooks of the young American middle class, and this book reinforces this claim. The downside to this book is that its currency probably only has a half life of a couple years as these media become eclipsed by new "oracles" in pop culture to unify political sentiment. One example of a new medium not covered is the grassroots "occupy" protest movement which took root on Facebook and spread to the mainstream media rapidly this Fall.

Previewed by Charles Lockwood. Click here to read the book.

Ebook of the Week - Damn Senators: My Grandfather and Washington's Only World Series Championship

2011-10-11T16:33:00.000-04:00

Judge, Mark Gauvreau. Damn Senators: My Grandfather and Washington's Only World Series Championship. San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2003.

Very few people are still alive who would remember the Washington Senators (either the original franchise which became the Minnesota Twins in 1961, or the expansion club that moved to Texas and became the Rangers in 1972) as anything other than the doormats of the American League; their third and last appearance in the World Series was in 1933. But in 1924 they put it all together to win the championship from John McGraw’s vaunted New York Giants. This lovingly rendered account is both a history of the Senators’ rise and triumph and a biographical sketch of Washington first baseman Joe Judge, the author’s grandfather. Even by the standards of his time, Joe Judge was an atypical first sacker: a slightly built slap hitter who managed only 71 home runs in a twenty-year career. But he was a consistently good hitter, amassing a lifetime .298 batting average, and was a Senators regular for fifteen years. In 1924 he hit .324 in the regular season and .385 in the Series.

Mark Judge begins his story by tracing the early (and lackluster) history of professional baseball in Washington. Later chapters recount how the team began to take a turn for the better with the hiring of Clark Griffith as manager in 1912 and the flowering of Hall of Fame pitcher Walter Johnson’s career. After the championship season of 1924 the Senators again went to the World Series in 1925, but lost to the Pirates. After 1933 the team deteriorated rapidly; in a final chapter titled “Twilight” Judge outlines this terminal slide and follows up with the rest of his grandfather’s life story. This history of a largely forgotten team is a great October read. The title’s ironic play on the well-known Broadway musical may have unintended resonance with today’s disaffected American voters.

Previewed by Jack Ray. Click here to read the book

Ebook of the Week - From Du Bois to Obama : African American Intellectuals in the Public Forum

2011-10-04T11:59:00.000-04:00

Banner-Haley, Charles P. From Du Bois to Obama : African American Intellectuals in the Public Forum. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2010

In From Du Bois to Obama, Charles Pete Banner-Haley briefly surveys (in 176 pages) the history of African American intellectualism, describing the efforts of black intellectuals in the ongoing struggle against racism. Banner-Haley asserts that African American intellectuals—a category that includes academicians, social critics, activists, and writers—serve to generate debate, policy, and change, act as a moral force to persuade Americans to acknowledge their history of slavery and racism, and prod the public at large to become more inclusive and accepting of humanity and to take responsibility for social justice.

Topics addressed include the frequent disconnect between black intellectuals and the masses for which they speak, the ways African American intellectuals identify themselves in relation to the larger black community, how black intellectuals have gained legitimacy in American society and have accrued moral capital, and how that moral capital has been expended. Among the figures covered in the book are W. E. B. Du Bois, Ralph Ellison, Oliver C. Cox, George S. Schuyler, Martin Luther King, Jr., Cornel West, Toni Morrison, bell hooks, and many others.

Banner-Haley discusses the emergence of black conservatism, with its accompanying questions about affirmative action, government intervention on behalf of African Americans, and the notion of a color-blind society. He also looks at how popular music—particularly rap and hip-hop—television, movies, cartoons, and other media have functioned as arenas for investigating questions of identity, exploring whether African American intellectuals can also be “authentically” black. In a concluding discussion of the so-called ‘browning’ of America, Banner-Haley ponders what Obama’s election will mean for the future of race relations and black intellectualism in America.

Previewed by John Breitmeyer. Click here to read the book.

Ebook of the Week - Technological Slavery : The Collected Writings of Theodore J. Kaczynski, a.k.a. "The Unabomber"

2011-09-27T15:23:00.000-04:00

Kaczynski, Ted. Technological Slavery: The Collected Writings of Theodore J. Kaczynski, a.k.a. "The Unabomber" Port Townsend, WA: Feral House, 2010.

Theodore J. Kaczynski, the mathematical prodigy and former academic also known as “The Unabomber” (University and Airline Bomber) was convicted in 1998 for illegally transporting, mailing, and using bombs, resulting in the injury of twenty-three people and the deaths of three people. He is now serving a life sentence in the supermax prison in Florence, Colorado. This is the first published collection of his writings.

The existence of this text and the prospect of readers taking any parts of it seriously raise interesting issues. On the one hand, Kaczynski’s actions attest that he is a reactionary Luddite and dangerous psychotic. On the other hand, the ideas and views expressed in Technological Slavery raise crucial issues concerning the evolution and future of our society – though they are arguments that others have advanced as well, generally in denser, more academic texts. Kaczynski himself acknowledges that few, if any, of his arguments are original; however, his position is that he is compelled to speak the truth about what he sees as a the human race’s march toward ecological disaster and self-extinction, and that any arguments in service of this cause can only help – especially arguments written for the layperson, as his writings are intended to be. For the first time, the reader will have access to an uncensored personal account of his anti-technology philosophy, which goes far beyond Unabomber pop culture mythology.

Feral House, in a statement, says “the publisher does not support or justify Kaczynski's crimes, nor does the author receive royalties or compensation for this book.” Whether they are best viewed as a historical curiosity or an urgent call to action, readers have the opportunity here to decide for themselves which parts, if any, of Kaczynski’s writings have relevance for our society and the world.

Previewed by John Breitmeyer. Click here to read the book.

"Book Clubs: Then and Now" Exhibit

2011-09-23T15:29:00.000-04:00

September 23 - October 14

Loyola/Notre Dame Library Gallery

Millions of people worldwide participate in book clubs. Once an enterprise of only the wealthy, book clubs have evolved into an important intellectual and communal pastime for readers of all walks of life. This exhibit pays tribute to this important endeavor and honors two book clubs closely affiliated with Notre Dame of Maryland University.

On left: "Baltimore Book Club," led by Notre Dame alumna Mary Ellen Gunther '54. Pictured here, from bottom: Cecelia McGrain, Paula Carrol '58, Winifred Wood, Mary Ellen Gunther '54, Ida Mae Ashford, Suzi Molz '52, Mary Lu McNeal '50, and Katherine Hammel.

A complete list of members, past and present, is on display in the exhibit.

Above: Members of Jo Trueschler's book club, clockwise from right of couch: Betty Driscoll '85, MLS '91, Duffie Gray, Jan Guild, Betty Nell Wagner '89, Polly Behrens '98, Pam Wilson '94, AnnaMae Becker, Susan Marshall '88, Carol Manfredi '93, and Jo Trueschler '49. Marianna Russell '94, MLS '99, took the photo in her yard.

A complete list of members, past and present, is on display in the exhibit.

Ebook of the Week - The Young and the Digital: What the Migration to Social Network Sites, Games, and Anytime, Anywhere Media Means for Our Future

2011-09-20T14:54:00.001-04:00

Watkins, S. Craig. The Young and the Digital: What the Migration to Social Network Sites, Games, and Anytime, Anywhere Media Means for Our Future. Boston: Beacon Press, 2009.

In The Young and the Digital, S. Craig Watkins offers an interesting portrait, both celebratory and wary, about the coming of age of the first fully wired generation. The book draws from more than 500 surveys and 350 in-depth interviews with young people, parents, and educators to understand how a digital lifestyle is affecting the ways youth learn, play, bond, and communicate. Published in 2009, Watkin’s analysis may not cover the very most recent developments in social networking, but it still has relevance vis-à-vis the current state of online social networking and its (mostly) young user base. In its 208 pages, Watkins debunks popular myths surrounding cyberpredators, Internet addiction, and social isolation, and covers the influence of MySpace and Facebook, the growing appetite for “anytime, anywhere” media and “fast entertainment,” how online “digital gates” reinforce race and class divisions, and how technology is transforming America’s classrooms.

Previewed by John Breitmeyer. Click here to read the book.

Ebook of the Week - The Thinking Student’s Guide to College

2011-09-12T09:00:00.000-04:00

Roberts, Andrew Lawrence. The Thinking Student's Guide to College : 75 Tips for Getting a Better Education. University of Chicago Press, 2010.

Andrew Roberts, a professor at Northwestern University, wrote The Thinking Student’s Guide to College to help students take charge of their university experience by providing concrete tips they can follow to achieve their educational goals—whether at public or private schools, large research universities or small liberal arts colleges. This book offers advice on choosing a college, selecting classes, deciding on a major, interacting with faculty, and applying to graduate school. Roberts discusses what motivates professors, where to find “loopholes” in university bureaucracy, and how to get a personalized education, all in a straightforward style accessible to undergraduates or even high school seniors looking forward to college. Based on the author’s personal experience, interviews with faculty, and educational research, The Thinking Student’s Guide to College is a useful handbook for college students striving to excel academically, creatively, and personally.

Previewed by John Breitmeyer. Click here to read the book.

Ebook of the Week - Disaster and the Politics of Intervention.

2011-09-06T09:00:00.000-04:00

Andrew Lakoff, ed. Disaster and the Politics of Intervention. New York: Columbia University Press, 2009.

In Disaster and the Politics of Intervention, Andrew Lakoff edits and introduces a collection of five essays that make the collective point that government plays a critical role in mitigating individual and collective vulnerability to disaster, and the essay authors also explore the details of how this role has been and can be implemented. The recent drive to replace public institutions with market mechanisms has challenged governmental efforts to manage collective risk. The contributors to this volume analyze the roles of the public and private sectors in the management of catastrophic risk, addressing questions such as: How should homeland security officials evaluate the risk posed by terrorist attacks and natural disasters? Are market-based interventions likely to mitigate our vulnerability to the effects of climate change? What is the appropriate relationship between non-governmental organizations and private security firms in responding to humanitarian emergencies? And how can philanthropic efforts to combat the AIDS crisis ensure ongoing access to life-saving drugs in the developing world? More generally, these essays explore the way thoughtful policy intervention can improve our capacity to withstand catastrophic events.

Previewed by John Breitmeyer. Click here to read the book.

Ebook of the Week - Islam and Political Violence: Muslim Diaspora and Radicalism in the West

2011-08-23T16:19:00.001-04:00

Akbarzadeh, Shahram and Fethi Mansouri, eds. Islam and Political Violence: Muslim Diaspora and Radicalism in the West. I B Tauris & Co Ltd, 2010.

In 'Islam and Political Violence', Akbarzadeh and Mansouri contribute to and edit together current debates on the uneasy and potentially mutually destructive relationship between the Muslim world and the West. Arguments are advanced that we are on a dangerous trajectory, strengthening dichotomous notions of the divide between the West and the Muslim world. Basic questions are asked and answered regarding relations between Islam and relevant aspects of “the West:” How do we engage with the pressing challenges of xenophobia, radicalism and security in the current political climate? How do we ameliorate a widely felt sense of insecurity about the West that is shared by Muslims both within and outside Western societies? Growing Islamic militancy and subsequent increased security measures by Western powers have contributed to a pervasive sense among Muslims of being under attack both physically and culturally. Contributions such as this volume are valuable in understanding the problem and suggesting a way forward.

Previewed by John Breitmeyer. Click here to read the book.

Ebook of the Week - The Feminist Promise: 1792 to the Present.

2011-08-16T09:00:00.002-04:00

Stansell, Christine. Feminist Promise: 1792 to the Present. New York: Modern Library, 2010.

Stansell's comprehensive history of Western feminism surveys all the ‘promises’ of feminism as an identifiable political identity and movement – the promises that were realized as well as those that were (or remain) unmet. Beginning with the release of Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and concluding with the connection of modern American feminism to global human rights, Stansell’s sweeping narrative puts the accomplishments of important figures such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Maria Stewart and many others into a larger historical context, and also chronicles organizations and acts of protest that defined feminism in the 20th century. At 528 pages, this volume has sufficient content to be a useful all-purpose general resource for a student of modern European and American feminism.

Previewed by John Breitmeyer. Click here to read the book.

Ebook of the Week - Do Deficits Matter?

2011-08-09T09:00:00.000-04:00

Shaviro, Daniel. Do Deficits Matter? Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997

Shaviro’s answer to this starkly posed question is that yes, the federal deficit does matter, even though it is often misunderstood by the general public and politicians alike. In this economic analysis, Shaviro discusses concepts such as “tax lag” and “generational accounting” in concluding that while deficits are not in themselves an evil, the present (and this was written fourteen years ago) degree of national deficit formation is unsustainable for much longer. Indeed, he likens American fiscal policy in the last fifty years to a Ponzi scheme that can only be remedied by making choices among tax increases, benefit reductions, debt issuance at higher interest rates, and printing money. Ultimately, Shaviro concludes that Americans will have to adjust to “realistic expectations about what government-provided benefits, at what cost in lifetime taxes” can be had “in a world where resources are finite.” The recent crisis involving the raising of the debt ceiling has brought these issues sharply into focus, but will obviously not be the end of this highly charged debate.

Preview by Jack Ray. Click here to read the book.

Ebook of the Week - Fast Forward: Ethics and Politics in the Age of Global Warming

2011-08-02T09:00:00.002-04:00

Antholis, William and Strobe Talbott. Fast Forward : Ethics and Politics in the Age of Global Warming. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2010.

“We have no excuse,” write the authors of the Brookings Institute publication “Fast Forward : Ethics and Politics in the Age of Global Warming.” This bracing statement begins a brief (156 pages) but urgent discussion of global warming that is a combination of science primer, history lesson in the last 20 years of global climate change politics, policy prescription, and ethical treatise. The book recaps what we know and don t know about global warming and why it requires immediate action. The way forward, the authors argue, is to begin the historically difficult but necessary transition to a global low-carbon economy, and this will require a revolution in our sense of civic responsibility and in standards for international cooperation regarding this issue.
Previewed by John Breitmeyer. Click here to read the book.

Ebook of the Week -The Fruit, the Tree and the Serpent : Why We See so Well.

2011-07-25T09:00:00.001-04:00

Isbell, Lynne A. The Fruit, the Tree and the Serpent : Why We See so Well.

Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 2009.

Lynne Isbell has developed a thesis that exceptional aspects of vision in humans and other primates evolved largely to help detect and avoid venomous snakes. She weaves together facts from anthropology, neuroscience, paleontology, and psychology to explain our emotional connection to snakes. The book is interesting and funny and the author manages to make even complex arguments accessible. Her book should be of great interest to biologists, neuroscientists, psychologists, as well as the lay reader looking for a fascinating read.

Previewed by Joanne Helouvry. Click here to read the book.

Check Out HathiTrust!

2011-07-22T09:00:00.004-04:00

Hathitrust (http://www.hathitrust.org/home), founded in October 2008 by the Committee on Institutional Cooperation and now with over 50 of the largest libraries in the world as members, is the next big thing in online digital books for its members and for the public. Its fast-growing holdings (numbering over 9 million total volumes, about half of which are book titles) include content from the Google Books initiative, Microsoft’s projects to digitize library contents worldwide, and contents from all its member libraries. It indexes both public-domain works and works still in copyright, and – the best part – much of its content is downloadable in full directly from the HathiTrust website. Readers can create permanent labeled collections of titles, complete with a form of catalog records for each title, within the site. (Guests can register for free!)

Hathitrust also includes content from other well-known public digitization projects such as Project Gutenberg (public domain works) and the Internet Archive project (Web content). In doing so, it is creating a massive online archive of all kinds of content while still maintaining a strong commitment to preservation of book and serial titles. Membership in Hathitrust is open to institutions worldwide – let’s hope it grows and prospers!

E-Book of the Week - Anatomy of a Trial : Public Loss, Lessons Learned from The People vs. O.J. Simpson

2011-07-19T09:00:00.003-04:00

Hayslett, Jerrianne. Anatomy of a Trial : Public Loss, Lessons Learned from The People vs. O.J. Simpson.

Columbia : University of Missouri Press, 2008.

The recent trial and acquittal of Casey Anthony in the death of her two-year-old daughter has awakened memories of and evoked comparisons with the 1994-95 murder trial of O.J. Simpson. In both cases media and public attention were riveted upon the proceedings, and in both cases there was a widely-held perception that justice was not done in the end. In this insider account of the Simpson trial, Hayslett, the Los Angeles court’s information officer and media liaison, provides a unique perspective on what she terms “a very public yet poorly understood trial.” Hayslett defends the performance of the much-maligned Judge Lance Ito and discusses how this trial led to the tightening of media access to judicial proceedings. It is worthy of note that one factor that allowed the Anthony trial to go viral is that Florida law allows cameras in courtroom, and hence enabled almost continuous live coverage of the proceedings.

Preview by Jack Ray. Click here to read the book.

E-Book of the Week - Reel Men at War: Masculinity and the American War Film

2011-07-12T09:00:00.002-04:00

Donald, Ralph and Karen MacDonald. Reel Men at War : Masculinity and the American War Film. Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, 2011.

Reel Men at War examines how depictions of manhood in films about war affect young men. Representations of appropriate codes of manly behavior and behaviors to avoid during war are looked at through 143 scenes of American war in film in the forms of screenplay text, acting, and directing choices. Commentary by psychologist Dr. Karen MacDonald is provided at the end of each chapter analyzing the psychological ramifications of viewing these films.

Previewed by Danielle Johnson. Click here to read the book.

E-Book of the Week: Cult Magazines A to Z

2011-07-05T09:00:00.010-04:00

Kemp, Earl Ortiz, Luis. Cult Magazines A to Z : A Compendium of Culturally Obsessive and Curiously Expressive Publications. New York: NonStop Press, 2009. 219 p.

Exploring the subcultures of mid-20th-century America, editors Kemp and Ortiz have collected the work of 19 contributors (including themselves) that document the huge quantity of 'cult', or at least special-interest, magazines that thrived beneath the mainstream in the period between 1925 and 1990, prior to the rise of the Internet. This collection reveals how thousands of these specialized magazines were produced, and how they attempted to gratify the fans of every fad, taste, obsession, and hush-hush desire. This guide reveals the scope and inclinations of the various publications' imaginative publishers and eccentric editors, as it goes behind the scenes of titles such as Amazing Stories, Doctor Death, Gee-Whiz, Jaybird, Phantom Detective, and True Thrills. Featuring full-color reproductions of hundreds of distinctive magazine cover images, this reference's backgrounds, histories, and essays offer a panoramic picture of a bygone era.

Previewed by John Breitmeyer. Click here to read the book

E-Book of the Week: Irrational Security : The Politics of Defense from Reagan to Obama

2011-06-29T09:45:00.005-04:00

Wirls, Daniel. Irrational Security : The Politics of Defense from Reagan to Obama.
Baltimore, MD, USA: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010.

Daniel Wirls describes Irrational Security as “a purposefully compact critical history of the relationship between military policy and national politics from 1989 to 2009.” In this survey of the modern military-industrial complex, Daniel Wirls demonstrates that when it comes to national security, America is beholden to the results of hawkish policies and commitments to excessive military spending, regardless of whether Democrats or Republicans control Congress or the White house. National security policy, in Wirls’ critique, has derived largely from efforts to satisfy various domestic interests rather than genuine security concerns.
Previewed by John Breitmeyer. Click here to read the book.

E-Book of the Week: Management Across Cultures

2011-06-21T09:00:00.003-04:00

Steers, Richard M., Sanchez-Runde, Carlos J., Nardon, Luciara. Management Across Cultures: Challenges and Strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

According to the authors, in a survey among US college students, only 7 percent could identify the national origins of many of their favorite brands, including Adidas, Samsung, Nokia, Lego, and Ericsson. In particular, quality ratings of Nokia cell phones soared when students believed (incorrectly) that they were made in Japan. This book addresses how management works in different parts of the world and, equally important, why these differences occur. With chapters such as "Communication Across Cultures," "Culture, Work and Motivation," "Inside the Managerial Mind," "Developing Global Management Skills," and "Leadership and Global Teams," this work digs deeper into the underlying reasons for global differences, and this information can help managers be more effective in their work or students become more familiar with global issues in the field of management. Two appendices, the first on models of national cultures and the second on OECD guidelines for global managers, offer more insight into expanding communication literacy amongst cultures.

Previewed by Joanne Helouvry, Head of Research and Instruction. Click here to read this book.

E-Book of the Week: Counseling Practicum and Internship Manual

2011-06-14T09:00:00.002-04:00

Hodges, Shannon. Counseling Practicum and Internship Manual: A Resource for Graduate Counseling Students. New York: Springer Publishing Company, 2010.

This book is an excellent tool for graduate counseling students as they apply for and complete internships and practica. It provides helpful advice on how to select and apply for internships/practica. It also walks students through some of the issues they will probably face while completing their internships/practica, including ethical issues, multicultural issues, how to manage stress, crisis intervention, and how to terminate the counseling relationships at the end of the practicum/internship. The book also addresses practical matters such as clinical writing skills and what students can expect during the classroom component of their internship/practicum and their site supervision.

Previewed by Danielle Whren Johnson, Digital Access Librarian. Click here to read this book.

E-Book of the Week: Children's Nature

2011-06-07T09:00:00.001-04:00

Paris, Leslie. Children's Nature: The Rise of the American Summer Camp. New York: NYU Press, 2008.

Drawing upon camp archives as well as the writings of children (diaries, letters home), Paris presents a history of the American summer residential camp, the aspirations of the adults who created them (physical and moral invigoration for their children, temporary liberation from parental duties for themselves) and the experiences of the children who attended them from the late 19th century through the 1930s. As the nation became increasingly industrialized, many adults began to see summer camps as a way of recapturing a simpler time when contact with nature was more common. Early camps catered to the Christian elite, but as the movement flourished during the Progressive era, camps for Jewish and other working-class urban children grew in number. In the first part of the book Paris discusses the “ideological, economic, physical, and social landscape of summer camps” in the early years, while the second part focuses on the interwar years when ideals and expectations began to change. While some children, like Charlie Brown, did not enjoy being shipped off to camp, Paris concludes that for the great majority of children this was an enjoyable, even transforming, experience.

Previewed by Jack Ray, Associate Director. Click here to read this book.

E-Book of the Week: Chic Ironic Bitterness

2011-05-31T09:00:00.002-04:00

Magill, R. Jay. Chic Ironic Bitterness. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2009.

In Chic Ironic Bitterness, author Jay Magill takes a rambling stroll through Western popular and intellectual traditions to discern the origins, purposes, and perception of irony in current culture and individual consciousness. His focus and anchor is recent (post-9/11) American culture, and he is trying to locate both what irony is and what it does. He champions the validity of comedic/political discourse in American popular culture such as The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, The Simpsons, and The Onion, and makes compelling arguments that satire speaks most effectively to people who have turned ironically ‘inward’ in an effort to hold themselves above the inauthentic mainstream of American culture.

Magill’s prose lurches between the drily academic and the snarkily adolescent, in ways that are sometimes charming and sometimes clumsy, but the overall effect is entertaining, informative, and even thought-provoking. This shelf-life of this sort of cultural argument is brief (it’s only two years old, and some of its references already seem slightly dated), so read it today! Then you can be, like, all ironic and stuff, or whatever.*

*This closing sentence is a self-aware device meant to ironically distance the writer from any earnest conclusions he appears to have reached in the course of the review.**

**This second footnote, like the first, is meant to evoke the multilayered consciousness necessary to maintain an ironic viewpoint – a technique popularized by such popular postmodern authors as David Foster Wallace and Dave Eggers, both of whom are quoted by Magill in his book.Ψ

Ψ Magill likes footnotes. A third footnote on a page, like this one, is a common occurrence in the text.

Previewed by John Breitmeyer, Research and Instruction Librarian/Web Support Specialist. Click here to read this book.

E-Book of the Week: The Motivated Student

2011-05-24T09:00:00.001-04:00

Sullo, Bob. The Motivated Student: Unlocking the Enthusiasm for Learning. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2009.

The Motivated Student provides strategies to engage and internally motivate students in order to create a meaningful learning environment. Chapters offer firsthand accounts of classroom management techniques to integrate into the classroom as well as those to avoid. Sullo’s book presents an approach that educators can incorporate into their teaching in order to minimize classroom disruptions and inspire achievement.

Previewed by Julie Nanavati, Research and Instruction Librarian. Click here to read this book.

New Interface for RefWorks Staring May 25

2011-05-17T11:17:00.000-04:00

On May 25th we will be moving from the current Refworks platform to Refworks 2.0. You can access Refworks 2.0 right now by logging in and clicking on "Refworks 2.0" at the top right. To change back prior to May 25th, click on Refworks Classic.

To help with this transition, the library will be offering a session on Thursday, June 2, from 2-3pm. Come enjoy cookies and tea and get a demo on the new Refworks platform. Please RSVP to Joanne Helouvry at jhelouvry@loyola.edu / jhelouvry@ndm.edu or 410-617-6834.

The new platform has a clean design and has many features that will make it easier for you to organize your research. Some of these features include rollovers to allow you to view a reference without clicking on it, a new right hand navigation bar that allows you to quickly access the things you need, and RefShare, which will allow you to share folders with students and classmates. The familiar toolbars at the top of the page are still there and our search for full-text button is still with each reference.

RefWorks has created a multi-part tutorial for the new platform. Click here to access the tutorial - you have the option of watching screencasts or downloading PDFs.

E-Book of the Week: The Memory of the Civil War in American Culture

2011-05-17T09:00:00.001-04:00

Fahs, Alice, and Joan Waugh, eds. The Memory of the Civil War in American Culture. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004.

The Memory of the Civil War in American Culture is a collection of essays which explores the Civil War’s continuing social and political impact from the beginning of the war to the present. It describes changes in the portrayal of the Civil War in American culture over time and across place, and it illustrates how the varying representations of the Civil War in celebrations, monuments, textbooks, fiction, and political speech are the result of differing views of the meaning of the war. Essays on the following topics, among others, are included:

Ulysses S. Grant’s accounts of Civil War battles in his Memoirs and in contemporary periodicals
The “Southern Textbook Crusade,” in which southern textbook writers in the decades after the war replaced northern accounts of the War with ones that emphasized Confederate heroism and viewpoint
Controversies over erecting Confederate monuments and statues in both northern and southern regions, and
The portrayal of the Civil War throughout the United States during the Civil War centennial celebration.

Previewed by Anna D'Agostino, Serials/Cataloging Librarian. Click here to read this book.

Update to final exam hours

2011-05-11T09:10:00.000-04:00

Please note that starting at 2am on Thursday, May 12, only the Main Level Gallery and Cyber Café will be open between 2am and 8am. The full library will be open at all other scheduled hours.

Remaining hours for final exams:

LNDL will be open continously until 10pm on Friday, 5/13.

Saturday, 5/14, hours will be 8am - 10pm.

Starting at 10am on Sunday, 5/15, the library will remain open continuously until 5pm on Friday, 5/20.

The library will be closed on Saturday, 5/21 and Sunday, 5/22.

E-Book of the Week: Making Reform Work

2011-05-10T09:00:00.000-04:00

Zemsky, Robert. Making Reform Work: The Case for Transforming American Higher Education. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2009.

Robert Zemsky has been an important and influential scholar of American higher education for many years at the University of Pennsylvania. This book tackles the difficult matter of changing the American university for the better, to be bolder and take more risks to improve the quality of teaching and learning. He examines the key issues of access, affordability, accountability and quality within the context of the new technologies that have emerged to challenge the way higher education has been delivered for a millennium: as “a guild of expertise.” He recommends the development of long-term strategies and a clear, definitive process of change rather than a reactionary approach to global and political forces now at play.

Previewed by John McGinty, Library Director. Click here to read this book.

E-Book of the Week: Body Panic

2011-05-03T09:00:00.001-04:00

Dworkin, Shari and Faye Wachs. Body Panic: Gender, Health and the Selling of Fitness. New York: NYU Press, 2009.

In this work the authors explore cultural portrayals of health and body image, and how the two have been conflated, focusing primarily on health and fitness magazines. Do they encourage readers to stay fit in order to stay healthy, or for better performance in sports or outdoor activities? Or are they focused on how the reader can improve their looks and sexual success? In exploring these questions, the authors look at gendered presentations of men and women depicted in these publications, and how the pursuit of health and fitness has been commercialized.

Previewed by Alison Cody, Public Relations & Instruction Librarian. Click here to read this book.

Extended Hours for Final Exams

2011-04-27T11:42:00.001-04:00

Once again, the Loyola/Notre Dame Library will be open overnight on several days during finals. As in the fall semester, the entire library will be open! Access will be limited to current students from Notre Dame and Loyola; all students will be required to show their institutional ID to enter.

UPDATE 5/11/11: Please note that starting at 2am on Thursday, May 12, only the Main Level Gallery and Cyber Café will be open between 2am and 8am. The full library will be open at all other scheduled hours.

Extended hours will begin on Sunday, 5/1:

Starting at 10am on Sunday, 5/1, the entire library will be open continuously until 10pm on Saturday, 5/7.
LNDL will reopen at 10am on Sunday, 5/8, and will remain open continously until 10pm on Friday, 5/13.
Saturday, 5/14, hours will be 8am - 10pm.
Starting at 10am on Sunday, 5/15, the library will remain open continuously until 5pm on Friday, 5/20.
The library will be closed on Saturday, 5/21 and Sunday, 5/22.

Please check the website for more information about library hours.

E-Book of the Week: Conspiracy Theories

2011-04-26T09:00:00.001-04:00

Fenster, Mark. Conspiracy Theories: Secrecy and Power in American Culture (2nd ed.). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2008.

Fenster advances a progressive argument that conspiracy theories are a form of American (though perhaps not exclusively American) popular political interpretation, and he contends that understanding how they circulate through mass culture helps us better understand our society as a whole. Starting with (and revising) theories from Richard Hofstadter's seminal work The Paranoid Style in American Politics, he goes on to offer contemporary critiques of the militia movement, "The X-Files," popular Christian apocalyptic thought, and such artifacts of suspicion as The Turner Diaries, the Illuminatus! trilogy, and the novels of Richard Condon. He also analyzes the "conspiracy community" that exists in radio, publishing, Internet sites, and role-playing games. He believes conspiracy theory has become, among other things, a thrill for a bored subculture that reinterprets "accepted" history and is cynical about contemporary politics, but often longs, implicitly or explicitly, for a utopian future.

Previewed by John Breitmeyer, Research and Instruction Librarian/Web Support Specialist. Click here to read this book.

E-Book of the Week: Uncorking the Past

2011-04-19T09:00:00.000-04:00

McGovern, Patrick E. Uncorking the Past: The Quest for Wine, Beer, and Other Alcoholic Beverages. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009.

In Uncorking the Past, Patrick McGovern explores the history of alcohol in civilizations around the world. From Africa to Asia, he discusses archaeological sites he’s visited and the types of analysis used to determine what types of beverages were consumed. He also provides background information on the types of situations in which these beverages were used (burials, particular celebrations, etc.) and how they may have been enjoyed.

Previewed by Alison Cody, Public Relations & Instruction Librarian. Click here to read this book.

E-Book of the Week: Demanding Respect

2011-04-12T09:00:00.002-04:00

Lopes, Paul. Demanding Respect: The Evolution of the American Comic Book. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2009.

You might think an erudite text about comic book history is a bit oxymoronic. But you may be wrong. It’s not as if Paul Lopes uses a graphic presentation to tell this story.

The first age is referred to as the “industrial age,” later ages as “heroic,” from the 1930's till 2008. That was then and this is now. Today we live in an era of graphic novels, graphic education and still graphic entertainment, with great appeal to an ever widening audience. I recommend this E-book for anyone wishing to connect the dots between Marvel and DC comics, the works of Harvey Pekar, Robert Crumb (“American Splendor”) and Art Spiegelman. Just imagine movies today without all the metaphoric action heroes including: Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, Cat Woman, Iron Man, Swamp Thing and the Incredible Hulk. Mainly but not exclusively male.

I then recommend going beyond American graphic novels to such artworks as “Maus,” “Persepolis” and “Stuck Rubber Baby.” The concluding chapter, “The Development of an Art Form” is particularly fascinating. The graphic publishing field is evolving at lightning speed now, quickly suggesting an update is in order, even with a historical treatment. And what about the graphic material now on the Web? So don't get me started.

Previewed by Philip Fryer, Digital Media Librarian. Click here to read this book.

Speakers for Celebration of Faculty Scholarship

2011-04-05T13:59:00.001-04:00

We are pleased to announce that the following faculty will present at this year's Celebration of Faculty Scholarship on Friday, April 8. Each will give a brief presentation on their own research, and then the group will form a panel to address questions from the audience. Presentations will run from 3:30-4:30pm in the Ridley Auditorium.

Associate Professor Kim Derrickson, Loyola University Department of Biology
Professor Joseph Di Rienzi, College of Notre Dame Department of Mathematics and Physics
Assistant Professor Jocelyn McKeon, College of Notre Dame Department of Chemistry
Associate Professor Robert B. Pond, Jr., Loyola University Department of Engineering Science & Associate Dean for Natural Sciences
Assistant Professor Mili Shah, Loyola University Department of Mathematics & Statistics

E-Book of the Week: Japan

2011-04-05T09:00:00.002-04:00

OECD Publishing. Japan: Large-Scale Floods and Earthquakes. Paris, France: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), 2009.

In view of the recent catastrophes suffered by Japan, it is instructive to peruse this 2009 report from the OECD Futures Project on Risk Management. As the project name suggests, this review plays more to policy wonks than general readers, but it is well organized, clearly written, and features executive summaries for its two major topics. Interestingly, threats to nuclear power plants receive scant attention, although buried on p. 104 is the prescient recommendation that “chemical and nuclear industries and activities need to be obliged by law to take flood-related risks…more specifically into account, especially large scale ones…”

Previewed by Jack Ray, Associate Director. Click here to read this book.

Contemporary Catholic Writers Series: Paul Mariani

2011-03-31T16:56:00.001-04:00

The Loyola/Notre Dame Library is honored to host Paul Mariani, University Professor of English at Boston College, for our third annual lecture in the Contemporary Catholic Writers Series. Prof. Mariani is the author of sixteen books, including five biographies and six volumes of poetry. His biography "Gerard Manley Hopkins: A Life" was named one of The Washington Post's Best Books of 2008. We hope you'll join us!

How the Sacramental Imagination Works: 

The Impact of Gerard Manley Hopkins and Flannery O’Connor on Writing Today 

Thursday, April 7, 2011 at 7:00 pm

Ridley Auditorium, Loyola ▪ Notre Dame Library

A reception will follow. Space at the lecture is limited; To reserve a free ticket, please visit http://flanneryoconnor.lndlibrary.org

This event is free and open to the public, so please feel free to share this information with any interested friends, family or colleagues.

E-Book of the Week: Politics of the Piazza

2011-03-29T09:00:00.003-04:00

Canniffe, Eamonn. Politics of the Piazza: The History and Meaning of the Italian Square. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2008.

Broken into four parts, this book discusses the relationship between political systems and their methods of representation in architecture. Illustrated with contemporary photographs, analytical drawings and historic images, it examines approximately 70 significant piazzas and situates these in their social and political contexts, highlighting shifts between autocratic and democratic forms of government from antiquity to the present day. Great for people planning on traveling to Italy or interested in Italian history.

Previewed by Joanne Helouvry, Head of Research and Instruction Services. Click here to read this book.

Guest Access During Final Exams

2011-03-25T10:52:00.001-04:00

UPDATE 5/17/11: As library usage has been very light the last few days, we are lifting the restrictions on guest access today.

Due to final exams, from Monday, April 25 through Friday, May 20, only students, faculty and staff from the College of Notre Dame and Loyola University will be admitted to the Library. Students from other institutions, as well as the general public, will not be admitted. We apologize for any inconvenience, and appreciate your understanding.

E-Book of the Week: Mobile Phones

2011-03-22T09:00:00.006-04:00

de Bruijin, Mirjam, Francis Nyamnjoh and Inge Brinkman. Mobile Phones: The New Talking Drums of Everyday Africa. Bamenda, Cameroon: Langaa Research and Publishing Common Initiative Group, 2009.

Mobile Phones explores the way cell phones are reshaping Africa. Each chapter, written by a scholar from a different African country (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Mali, Sudan and Tanzania), delves into the societal, economic, and cultural changes brought on by the use of cell phones in these regions, and how the technology is being adapted and transformed by African society. Topics include the many ways in which cell phones are being used: indigenous healers treating patients, individuals staying connected with family members who migrate to other countries, and farmers and merchants selling their goods.

Previewed by Julie Nanavati, Research and Instruction Librarian. Click here to read this book.

Seventh Annual Celebration of Faculty Scholarship

2011-03-16T11:12:00.002-04:00

The seventh annual Celebration of Faculty Scholarship is coming up in early April! This celebration will highlight the wide variety of publications authored by faculty of Loyola University Maryland and College of Notre Dame of Maryland, focusing on those published from July 2009 to June 2010.

The Celebration will take place at the library, in the Ferguson Gallery and the Ridley Auditorium. Please join us here on Friday, April 8, from 3:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. for an exhibit of publications, refreshments, and presentations by several faculty members, who will discuss their research and the publication process (presenters will be announced soon). For additional information, please visit our Faculty Publications page.

UPDATE 4/5: We are pleased to announce our slate of faculty presenters for this year.

E-Book of the Week: The Invisible Gorilla

2011-03-15T09:00:00.003-04:00

Chabris, Christopher F. and Daniel J. Simons. The Invisible Gorilla: And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us. New York: Crown Publishers, 2010.

The Invisible Gorilla examines six areas related to our perceptions -- areas that are often faulty, yet stubbornly resistant to change even when we are made aware of the flaws. Chabris and Simons use examples from psychological experiments and real life situations to demonstrate the illusions of attention, memory, confidence, knowledge, cause, and potential. They also discuss how we can attempt to overcome the flawed logic that results from these illusions.

Previewed by Danielle Whren Johnson, Digital Access Librarian. Click here to read this book.

E-Book of the Week: Buffalo Gal

2011-03-08T09:00:00.001-05:00

Pedersen, Laura. Buffalo Gal: A Memoir. Golden, CO: Fulcrum Publishing, 2008.

Laura Pedersen is a Wall Street millionaire who grew up the snowy city of Buffalo, New York, and this is her comically written memoir. Like many families subsisting in the frigid North during the energy crisis, the Pedersens feared rising prices at the gas pump, argued about the thermostat, fought over the dog to stay warm at night, and often slept in their clothes. From a blue collar family, Laura became the neighborhood wild child, skipping school, playing poker, betting on the horses, and trading stocks. After graduating from high school Pedersen became the youngest person to have a seat on the American Stock Exchange and a millionaire by age 21.

Previewed by Charles Lockwood, Digital Services Librarian. Click here to read this book.

E-Book of the Week: William Shakesepare's A Midsummer Night's Dream

2011-03-01T09:00:00.001-05:00

Bloom, Harold (ed.). William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Broomall, PA: Chelsea House Publishers, 1996.

This book provides a critical overview of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Bloom starts off the work with a biography of Shakespeare, followed by information on the characters, themes and structure of the play, an especially helpful foundation for those who have found Shakespeare's language difficult to interpret. Following this, Bloom has compiled a list of extracts from critical works reaching back to the early 1800s. Each extract is prefaced by a very brief biography of the author and the work being quoted. Bloom concludes the volume with a bibliography of Shakespeare's works and works about A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Previewed by Alison Cody, Public Relations & Instruction Librarian. Click here to read this book.

On Exhibit -- Flannery O'Connor: Letters from Andalusia

2011-02-28T08:00:00.001-05:00

Starting today, the exhibit "Flannery O'Connor: Letters from Andalusia" will be open in the Library's Ferguson Gallery, highlighting the writer's unique relationship with the College of Notre Dame of Maryland. It is free and open to the public, and can be viewed during the library’s regular hours. For a full description, as well as a list of related events, including short story discussion groups, lectures and a film screening, please see the exhibit website: http://flanneryoconnor.lndlibrary.org/.

Gift Funds Addition of the Saint John's Bible to LNDL's Collection

2011-02-24T14:03:00.000-05:00

The Library is honored to announce the acquisition of the magnificent 7-volume Heritage Edition of the Saint John’s Bible for our permanent collection, thanks to a gift of $130,000 from Mary C. Mangione and her family in memory of her late husband Nicholas B. Mangione. For the full announcement, please see the press release issued by Loyola University Maryland.

Our newly acquired Heritage Edition will be on display at the Baltimore Basilica on Tuesday, April 5, from 7 – 9 p.m. during a Lenten celebration of Jesuit meditations, choir performances, and Benedictine chants in anticipation of the Easter holiday. For more information on this event, please contact Melinda Timlen at 410-532-3179 or mtimlen@ndm.edu.

E-Book of the Week: Growing the Game

2011-02-22T09:00:00.002-05:00

Klein, Alan M. Growing the Game: The Globalization of Major League Baseball. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006.

Major League Baseball (MLB) is becoming an increasingly international enterprise, seeking out talent and business opportunities not only in areas such as Asia and Latin America where the sport is well established, but also in Europe and Africa where interest is still marginal and development is necessary. Indeed, Klein argues that globalization is “imperative” to ensure MLB’s future prosperity, but to succeed it must be a “decentralized global enterprise” and not a form of neo-colonialism. He focuses on the efforts of the Dodgers and Royals, as well as the Commissioner’s Office; his final chapter poses the intriguing question, “When Will There Be a Real World Series?”

Previewed by Jack Ray, Associate Director. Click here to read this book.

Italian Week at the Library

2011-02-17T12:46:00.000-05:00

From February 21 to March 1, Loyola's Department of Modern Languages and Literatures is sponsoring Italian Week. This year the focus is on Dante, and the celebration will kick off with a screening of "Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic." Rather than being a straight adaptation of the poem, this film falls squarely into the genre of horror, playing fast and loose with details to tell a story inspired by the Inferno. The film will be shown on Monday, February 21 at 6:30pm in the Library's Ridley Auditorium.

Several other events have been planned, including a lecture by Dr. Dennis R. Looney of the University of Pittsburgh, who will speak about his forthcoming book "Freedom Readers: The African-American Reception of Dante's Divine Comedy." This lecture will be held on Monday, February 28 at 4pm on the Loyola campus, in the 4th Floor Programming Room of the Andrew White Student Center. For additional information on Italian week, please visit the Cultural Events page on the department's website.

For more information on Dante, please visit the library's Dante Resources page, where you'll be able to quickly find background information and a bibliography of important critical works. We've also mounted an exhibit of books on Dante and Italian culture -- you'll find them underneath the Italian flag mounted on the main level.

E-Book of the Week: Women and Romance

2011-02-15T09:00:00.003-05:00

Weisser, Susan Ostrov. Women and romance a reader. New York: New York University Press, 2001.

Here’s an e-book to read during the month honoring romantic love. This academic, but engaging and lucid, compilation of readings explores the subject which the editor states as the “female urge to experience the pleasure and endure the pain of romantic love.” Susan Ostrov Weisser provides short, insightful introductions to a range of essays and excerpts from longer pieces of literature by many notable feminist theorists and other important writers, which together form a broad historical, psychological and sociological perspective on the endlessly fascinating and enduring topic of womens’ love with/without the male of the species.

Previewed by John McGinty, Library Director. Click here to read this book.

E-Book of the Week: Approaching the Apocalypse

2011-02-08T09:00:00.001-05:00

Court, John M. Approaching the Apocalypse: A Short History of Christian Millenarianism. New York: I. B. Tauris, 2008.

John M. Court’s Approaching the Apocalypse is a fascinating history of the ideas and passions concerning the “end of days” and the coming of the Kingdom of God within western cultural history (alternately referred to as Millenarianism, anticipating the Apocalypse/End of Days/Second Coming, or Christian eschatology). The book’s scope includes examples all the way from the Book of Daniel (though Approaching the Apocalypse is primarily concerned with Christian millenarianism, as opposed to Jewish anticipation of the Messiah) to the Left Behind novels. The book covers a wealth of historical and textual material, and reveals, through striking examples of apocalyptic leaders, cults and movements, 2000 years of Christian eschatological thinking. This lively historical survey is recommended for undergraduate and graduate courses in apocalyptic ideas or millenarian movements, or just for anyone interested in the history of the influence of Christian ideas and philosophy.

Previewed by John Breitmeyer, Research & Instruction Librarian/Web Support Specialist. Click here to read this book.

E-Book of the Week: Globesity

2011-02-01T09:00:00.001-05:00

Delpeuch, Francis, Bernard Maire, Emmanuel Monnier and Michelle Holdsworth. Globesity: A Planet Out of Control? Sterling, VA: Earthscan, 2009.

Globesity illustrates how obesity is not just a problem facing the United States, but one that is affecting the entire world—underdeveloped and developed countries alike. This book looks at the large-scale causes of obesity, as well as the related impact this epidemic has on personal health, the economy, and the environment. In addition to raising awareness of the problem, the writers offer effective solutions to addressing the issue.

Previewed by Julie Nanavati, Research & Instruction Librarian. Click here to read this book.

E-Book of the Week: Doing Time Together

2011-01-25T09:00:00.002-05:00

Comfort, Megan. Doing Time Together: Love and Family in the Shadow of the Prison. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002.

Based on Comfort's doctoral dissertation, Doing Time Together examines the lives of women who have a significant other imprisoned in San Quentin. She discusses such issues as how the lives of the women are affected in terms of finances and living situation. She explains how they too in some respects become part of the prison system, having to follow its not always consistent rules to visit and keep in contact with their partners. Comfort also touches on such issues as why women choose to stay with men after they go to prison or even begin relationships with men who are already in prison.

Previewed by Danielle Whren Johnson, Digital Access Librarian. Click here to read this book.

E-Book of the Week: Amy Beach, Passionate Victorian

2011-01-18T09:00:00.002-05:00

Block, Adrienne Fried. Amy Beach, Passionate Victorian: the Life and Works of the American Composer, 1867-1944. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Tracing Amy Beach’s life from her childhood as a musical prodigy in New England through her career as composer of works such as her Gaelic Symphony, Three Browning Songs, and Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in C sharp minor, Adrienne Fried Block (co-director of the City University of New York’s Project for the Study of Women in Music) provides the first full-length critical biography of Amy Beach, the "Dean of American Women Composers” with Amy Beach, Passionate Victorian. The first focus of this biography is how Amy Beach’s legacy fits in with other composers of her generation: with detailed musical analyses, Block illustrates how Beach wrote in a style closer to the Romantic idiom than to the techniques of the avant-garde European composers of her time. The second is how Beach’s adherence to the traditional roles of a Victorian woman impacted her musical career, for example noting that Beach’s husband for many years restricted her public performances to one recital per year. Amy Beach, Passionate Victorian includes numerous musical examples, a catalog of Beach’s works, and a reprinting of Amy Beach’s “Music’s Ten Commandments as Given for Young Composers.”

Previewed by Anna D'Agostino, Serials/Cataloging Librarian. Click here to read this book.

E-Book of the Week: Future of Education

2011-01-11T09:00:00.003-05:00

Egan, Kieran. Future of Education : Reimagining Our Schools from the Ground Up. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008.

Egan, an avant-garde educational reformer, explores the three big ideas and aims of education—academic, social, and developmental growth—and exposes their flaws and fundamental incompatibility. He speaks to the idea of learning as the use of “cognitive tools” and proposes and describes a process called Imaginative Education that would take place over the next fifty years and dramatically change teaching and curriculum while delivering the skills and understanding that children need to acquire. He states and gives examples that show that “the professional expertise of teachers … is tied up with their skill in knowing the subjects they teach and teaching them in a way that can engage the imaginations and emotions and humor of their students.”

Previewed by Joanne Helouvry, Head of Research & Instruction Services. Click here to read this book.

Spring Semester Course Reserves

2011-01-06T08:47:00.000-05:00

It is now time to plan reserves—both print and media—for your spring classes. The beginning of the semester is busy, and reserve requests are handled on a first-come/first-serve basis, so please plan accordingly. As the semester progresses, you may add material at any time, and we can usually make it available to students within 24 hours.

Reserve requests can be submitted through campus mail or via the Faculty Request form. For detailed information about submitting requests, electronic reserves, and reserves delivered through Blackboard, please visit our Faculty Resources page. If you have any questions or concerns about book or article reserves, please contact Linda Tanton, x6823, or ltanton@ndm.edu / ltanton@loyola.edu. For media reserves, please contact Pat Turkos, x6822, or pturkos@ndm.edu / ppturkos@loyola.edu.

E-Book of the Week: Persons of Color and Religious at the Same Time

2011-01-04T09:00:00.001-05:00

Morrow, Diane Batts. Persons of Color and Religious at the Same Time: The Oblate Sisters of Providence, 1828-1860. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002.

The Oblate Sisters of Providence were organized in 1828 in Baltimore as the first permanent community of Roman Catholic women religious of African descent in the United States. They founded St. Frances Academy for the education of young girls of color; this institution lives on today as a coeducational high school on East Chase Street in Baltimore. This study by Morrow (Associate Professor of History and African American Studies, University of Georgia) analyzes aspects of the relationships among the Oblate Sisters, the Catholic Church, and antebellum southern society, highlighting the critical role the sisters played in their own history.

Previewed by Jack Ray, Associate Director. Click here to read this book.

New in 2011: E-Book of the Week

2011-01-03T16:16:00.000-05:00

Over the last couple of semesters, you may have noticed more and more e-books coming up in your library catalog search results. Our e-book collection covers a range of disciplines, including nursing, history, literature, and many more. As a way of highlighting the diversity of this collection, we're introducing a new feature: E-Book of the Week. Each Wednesday, visit the homepage to see a short review of an e-book from our collection. The books are being chosen and reviewed by librarians from every department, in hopes that this will give you a sense of the breadth of this online collection.

We hope you enjoy this new feature! If you have any questions about our e-book collection, please contact the Research Assistance Desk at (410) 617-6802 or askemail@loyola.edu.

Extended Hours for Final Exams

2010-11-29T09:52:00.000-05:00

We are pleased to announce that this semester, the entire library will be open overnight for several days during the final exam period. Overnight access will be limited to current students from Notre Dame and Loyola; all students will be required to show their institutional ID to enter.

Extended hours will begin on Friday, 12/10:

Friday, Dec. 10: 8am – 10pm
Saturday, Dec. 11: 8am – 10pm
Starting Sunday, Dec. 12 at 10am, the entire library will be open continuously until 10pm on Saturday, Dec. 18.
LNDL will reopen at 10am on Sunday, Dec. 19 and will remain open until 6pm on Tuesday, Dec. 21.

On Wednesday, Dec. 22 we will be open from 8am - noon, at which point the library will close for the holidays, and reopen on Monday, Jan. 3.

Please check the website for more information about library hours.

Thanksgiving Hours

2010-11-12T09:00:00.001-05:00

Thanksgiving will be here soon and we wanted to get the word out about our hours that week:

Tuesday, Nov. 23: 8am-5pm
Wednesday, Nov. 24 - Friday, Nov. 26: Closed
Saturday, Nov. 27: 10am - 8pm

Regular hours will resume on Sunday, November 28. Information about extended hours for final exams will be released in the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned!

Edited 11/22: We just realized there was an error on our Saturday hours -- we are open loger than was initially posted. This has been corrected in the information above.

Student Exhibit: Painting: Color

2010-11-10T14:09:00.007-05:00

We're pleased to host an exhibit of paintings created by students in SA 314 - Painting: Color, a Studio Arts class at Loyola taught by Prof. Christopher Lonegan. In this course, students look at color relationships and the historic context of color, through observation, research and by creating their own paintings. Come by and take a look at samples of their work this semester, paired with some of the research that inspired them. The assignments highlighted include The Renaissance Triptych, The Gothic Page and Painted Mosaics.

You'll find the exhibit on the Second Level, across from the elevator up from the Ferguson Gallery.

Guest Access During Final Exams

2010-11-10T09:46:00.002-05:00

Due to final exams, from Wednesday, December 1 through Wednesday, December 22, only students, faculty and staff from the College of Notre Dame and Loyola University will be admitted to the Library. Students from other institutions, as well as the general public, will not be admitted. We apologize for any inconvenience, and appreciate your understanding.

The Saint John's Bible: Faculty Forum

2010-10-25T15:23:00.009-04:00

As a part of our exhibit The Saint John's Bible: Inspiration and Illumination, we are pleased to host a Faculty Forum on Monday, November 8 at 4:30pm. The event will feature members of College of Notre Dame’s Religious Studies Department and Loyola University’s Department of Theology, who will speak about Isaiah 53, one of the passages on display for the exhibit. A reception will follow. This event is free and open to the public -- we hope you will join us! RSVPs are appreciated; please contact Alison Cody at acody3@loyola.edu / acody@ndm.edu or (410) 617-6835.

From the College of Notre Dame of Maryland:
Dr. Lyle Weiss, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies
Dr. Henrietta Wiley, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies

From Loyola University Maryland:
Dr. James Buckley, Professor of Theology
Dr. Angela Christman, Professor of Theology
Dr. Adam Gregerman, Affiliate Faculty Department of Theology, and Jewish Scholar at the Institute for Christian & Jewish Studies

The Saint John's Bible: Inspiration and Illumination

2010-10-21T14:25:00.009-04:00

The Loyola/Notre Dame Library is honored to announce the installation of a new exhibit in the Ferguson Gallery. The Saint John's Bible: Inspiration and Illumination will run from October 25 through December 3. The exhibit is free and open to the public during library hours.

The St. John's Bible is a handwritten, hand-illuminated Bible. It was commissioned by the Saint John's Abbey and University in Collegeville, Minn., in 1998. Renowned calligrapher Donald Jackson coordinated teams of artists in Wales and scholars in Central Minnesota. Together, they created The Saint John's Bible, in which calligraphy and illumination bring the Word of God to life in an exquisite and inspiring blend of art and theology. Our exhibit features four books from the Heritage Edition, a fine art reproduction of the original.

In addition to the exhibit, the Library will host a faculty forum on Monday, November 8 at 4:30 pm. Please see our announcement about the Forum for complete details.

Text an LNDL Librarian

2010-09-29T13:54:00.002-04:00

In December 2008, we debuted a new service -- you could send us a text to ask a question. The hack we used to capture and respond to text messages was buggy and difficult for customers to use, and over the summer we decided to try something new.

You can now text the Research Assistance desk at (410) 929-6876. You might notice this isn't quite a campus number -- that's because we're using Google Voice to provide this service. This is still a hack, rather than a fully-supported system, and so it's not perfect. The back-and-forth can be slow, and if we're closed you won't get a message back telling you that. But, we hope that it's at least easier to use!

Please keep in mind that we can only answer texts when the Research Assistance Desk is open. That's until 9:30pm, unless the whole library closes earlier that day. And remember that this is a text-only number. If you'd like to call us, you'll want to dial (410) 617-6802.

Please note that your carrier may charge you for text messages sent and received, and that the library is not responsible for these charges.

National Visionary Leadership Project

2010-09-15T10:37:00.009-04:00

The Loyola ▪ Notre Dame Library is pleased to announce the donation of tapes and transcripts of interviews of many notable African American Visionaries that were recorded by the National Visionary Leadership Project. The subjects of these interviews have shaped American history in many different ways and come from all walks of life; some of these Visionaries are nationally recognized leaders, while others are known primarily in their local communities. LNDL is cataloging the materials and placing them on reserve for use by students, including those taking courses in Loyola’s new African and African American Studies minor.

The library’s holdings include videos of full-length interviews with Quincy Jones and Coretta Scott King (see clips below), among many others. Transcripts of many of the interviews are also available. The interviews cover everything from their thoughts on leadership and the civil rights movement, to anecdotes from childhood.

In addition to the acquisition of this collection, the faculty of the Loyola African and African American Studies minor are co-sponsoring an inaugural lecture by Benjamin Todd Jealous, President and CEO of NAACP, on September 29. For details and to RSVP, please visit the website for the AAAS minor.

Coretta Scott King on her childhood:

Quincy Jones on America’s racial future:

Medical Baltimore: A Visit with Dr. Paul McHugh

2010-09-03T16:12:00.004-04:00

Join us for the first in a Baltimore authors lecture series, sponsored by the Friends of the Loyola ▪ Notre Dame Library. Our first speaker is Dr. Paul McHugh,
Distinguished Professor and long-time Director of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. McHugh, a dynamic lecturer, will speak on his book “The Mind Has Mountains: Reflections on Society and Psychiatry” followed by questions, discussion and a reception.

The lecture will be held in the Loyola ▪ Notre Dame Library’s Ridley Auditorium on Monday, October 4, 2010 at 4:00 pm. Light refreshments will be available. RSVP to Alison Cody at (410) 617-6835 or acody3@loyola.edu / acody@ndm.edu.

Change to Alumni & Community Borrowing

2010-09-02T14:31:00.007-04:00

Beginning October 1, in order to borrow books, alumni and community borrowers will be required to obtain a library card by joining the Friends of the Loyola ▪ Notre Dame Library. A one-year membership begins at $25, and will enable you to check out up to 10 books for 6 weeks. It will also give you access to a variety of cultural programming throughout the year. For details and to obtain a card, please visit the Friends of LNDL webpage or stop at the Customer Services desk.

This change will not affect current students, faculty or staff of College of Notre Dame or Loyola University; nor will it impact students at local colleges and universities with whom we have reciprocal borrowing agreements. To check if your school offers reciprocal borrowing priveleges, please visit our Other MD Libraries contact page, and look to see if your institution is starred.

Course Reserves for Fall 2010

2010-07-30T14:48:00.003-04:00

It is now time to plan reserves—both print and media—for your fall classes. Please try to submit your reserve requests to the by Library by August 16. Material requested by this date will be available to your students by the first day of classes. The beginning of the semester is busy, and reserve requests are handled on a first-come/first-serve basis. As the semester progresses, you may add material at any time, and we can make it available to students within 24 hours.

Reserve requests can be submitted through campus mail or via the Library Home Page. For detailed information about submitting requests for media items, books, electronic reserves, and reserves delivered through Blackboard, please see our Faculty Resources page. If you have any questions or concerns, contact Linda Tanton for print reserves (x6823—or ltanton@loyola.edu) or Pat Turkos concerning media reserves (x6822—or ppturkos@loyola.edu)

New Resources on the Renaissance

2010-06-29T14:21:00.004-04:00

We are pleased to provide access to three new resources through Iter's Gateway to the Middle Ages & the Renaissance. Those researching the Renaissance and Middle Ages can now make use of:

Iter Bibliography
Secondary source material pertaining to the Middle Ages and Renaissance (400-1700), including citations for books, journal articles, dissertation abstracts, conference proceedings, festschriften, encyclopedias and exhibition catalogues.

Iter Italicum
Iter Italicum is a finding list of previously uncatalogued or incompletely catalogued Renaissance humanistic manuscripts found in libraries and collections around the world. It is a tool for any scholar working in the fields of classical, medieval and Renaissance studies.

Renaissance and Reformation/Renaissance et Réforme
Renaissance and Reformation/Renaissance et Réforme is a peer-reviewed journal that publishes articles and reviews on all aspects of the Renaissance, Reformation and Early Modern world: literature, geography, history, religion, art, music, society and economics.

You'll find Iter Bibliography and Iter Italicum listed in the Databases by Title list on the library homepage. Both of those, as well as Renaissance and Reformation, can be found on the appropriate subject guides on the Research Wiki. If you have any questions about these new resources, just ask!

Problems with the "Find E-Journals" search

2010-06-09T14:25:00.004-04:00

We're currently experiencing some technical difficulties with the search that powers the "Find E-Journals" section of the homepage. Some patrons are being presented with a login screen instead of search results. In talking with people who have experienced this problem, we have determined that trying your search three times in a row will get you past the login screen, at which point you can proceed as usual. We realize this is an unorthodox approach, but while we work to diagnose the problem we wanted to share information about this workaround.

If you are experiencing this problem and you have a moment or two, we'd appreciate it if you could answer the following questions via an email to Charles Lockwood, our Digital Services Librarian (clockwood@loyola.edu):

Are you using a PC or a Mac?
What browser are you using? Explorer? Firefox? Something else? What version? (You can usually find this information in the "Help" menu by selecting the "About this browser" option.)
What is the computer's IP address? (Just visit WhatIsMyIP.com.)
Does this happen every time you try to access a journal this way, or just for a certain title? If so, please let us know which title.
Have you tried deleting cookies from the browser? If you have, did it solve the problem? (If you're not sure how to do this, search the help menu in your browser for instructions.)

If you encounter this problem and can't work through it, please don't hesitate to contact the Research Assistance Desk at (410) 617-6802.

New Database: PsychiatryOnline

2010-06-03T14:33:00.005-04:00

We are happy to announce that we now have online access to the DSM-IV-TR, and the Handbook of Differential Diagnostics! This comes as part of the addition of a new database to our collection: PsychiatryOnline. In addition to the DSM, this also gives us online access to several other psychiatry textbooks and reference books, as well as five scholarly journals (American Journal of Psychiatry, Psychiatric Services, Academic Psychiatry, Neuropsychiatry & Clinical Neurosciences, Psychosomatics) and Psychiatric News, the newsletter of the American Psychiatry Association. (Full-text is available for a limited date range of these publications.)

We're still working on getting the links to these new resources in the library catalog and database list. For now, you can access everything from our subject guides, which are linked on our homepage. In the "Articles & Other Resources" section, use the subject menu and chose either Psychology or Pastoral Counseling. Click into the databases page, and you'll see PsychiatryOnline listed with the rest of our resources.

Summer Book Delivery Schedule

2010-06-02T10:59:00.004-04:00

If you're taking a summer class, please make a note of this important information!

In the summer, the book delivery service provided by MIC -- the group of libraries with which we share our catalog (more here) -- is scaled back. This affects books that you find in our library catalog and request using the "Make a Request" link. Here is this summer's delivery schedule:

Through Friday, June 18: Tuesday & Thursday only
June 21 through July 9: Daily Monday through Friday (no delivery Monday, July 5)
July 12 through August 20: Tuesday & Thursday
Starting August 23: Daily Monday through Friday

If you have questions about what day a request you have made will arrive at your requested pickup point, please call the LNDL circulation desk at (410) 617-6801.

If you find yourself in a jam, don't forget that you can always go directly to the college that holds the book you need. You can also check the catalogs of other area libraries that offer LNDL patrons the ability to borrow material (they're the starred ones). And don't forget that the Enoch Pratt Free Library has extensive holdings that might just include what you're looking for. Get in touch with the LNDL reference desk if you need help figuring this out.

The regular delivery schedule -- daily, Monday through Friday -- will resume in the fall. We'll keep you posted!

Colm Tóibín lecture online

2010-04-20T13:35:00.004-04:00

Did you miss Colm Tóibín's visit to the library last week? Well, you're in luck! We recorded his reading and lecture at the library and you can now watch it online at your leisure. The video is a little over an hour long and encompasses the entire presentation. The sound level of the recording is a little low, so you will want to turn up the volume on your computer's speakers before you begin. We hope you enjoy it!

Contemporary Catholic Writers Series - Colm Tóibín

Extended Hours for Final Exams

2010-04-19T14:21:00.005-04:00

Once again, the main lobby area of the Loyola/Notre Dame Library will be open overnight on several days during finals. The rest of the library (book stacks, etc.) will remain open until 2am but will be closed off for the overnight hours. Overnight access will be limited to current students from Notre Dame and Loyola; all students will be required to show their institutional ID to enter. For security reasons, at 2am the entire building will be cleared, and those who wish to stay will have to show their IDs. (Think of it as a chance to stretch your legs and pick out a new seat!)

On the following days, the Ferguson Gallery at LNDL will be open from 2am - 8am:

Tuesday, April 27 - Saturday, May 1
Monday, May 3 - Thursday, May 6
Monday, May 10 - Thursday, May 13

This means that at least a portion of the building will be open continuously from:
8am on Monday, 4/26 through 8pm on Saturday, 5/1
and again from
10am on Sunday, 5/2 through 2am on Friday, 5/7
and finally, from
noon on Sunday, 5/9 through 2am on Friday, 5/14

In addition, the library will be open from 8am - 10pm on Friday, 5/7; 10:30am-8pm on Saturday, 5/8; and 8am-5pm on Friday, 5/14. (Please check the website for more information about library hours.)

Contemporary Catholic Writers Series: Colm Tóibín

2010-03-29T18:15:00.006-04:00

The Loyola/Notre Dame Library is proud to announce the second lecture in our annual Contemporary Catholic Writers Series: Colm Tóibín, the award-winning author of Brooklyn.

Tóibín’s previous novels include The South and The Master, which won the 2006 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Most recently, Brooklyn was named the winner in the novels category of the 2010 Costa Book of the Year awards.

Colm Tóibín will be joining us on Thursday, April 15, 2010 at 6:30 p.m. in the library’s Ridley Auditorium. A reception will follow.

Space at the lecture is limited. Contact Alison Cody to reserve a free ticket: (410) 617-6835 or acody@ndm.edu/acody3@loyola.edu.

LNDL On the Go!

2010-03-26T14:35:00.003-04:00

Ever wished the library website worked better on your smartphone? Well, we're happy to announce the debut of a mobile site made just for smartphones and other mobile devices — iPhones, iPod Touches, Android phones, Blackberries and more! The site is made to fit on your device’s screen, and presents the library’s crucial information right at your fingertips – hours, directions, events, contacts, the library catalog, and even mobile versions of some (but not all) research databases!

If you’re not taken to the library’s mobile site automatically on your mobile device, just click on the "mobile site" link at the top left corner of the library’s main page, or point your browser to http://mobile.lndlibrary.org/ to access the site. For your convenience, we've also provided a link to the full library site at the bottom of the mobile site. Check it out, and get access to the library’s services wherever you are.

We've tested this out on a few different devices, but if you try it and have any problems, please let us know! Send any comments, information on technical difficulties, or questions to askemail@loyola.edu.

Currently on Exhibit: Artesanos Don Bosco

2010-03-24T14:11:00.000-04:00

This semester at Loyola University Maryland, two of Dr. Tom Ward’s Spanish classes have been engaged in a service-learning project with Artesanos Don Bosco, a Baltimore non-profit organization. Artesanos Don Bosco sells hand-crafted furniture and religious art that is made in Peru by locally trained artisans who are able to receive fair pay for their work without having to leave their country. Their work is shipped to Baltimore and to Italy, where it is sold; all of the profits go directly to the carpenters and artists.

As a part of this collaboration, the Loyola/Notre Dame Library is pleased to host an exhibit of some of the furniture sold through Artesanos Don Bosco. The pieces on exhibit will not be for sale, but one chair will be raffled off at the opening reception on Thursday, March 25, from 5:00pm-8:00pm in the library's Ferguson Gallery. We hope you will be able to join us!

Celebration of Faculty Scholarship -- Second Panel

2010-03-15T13:47:00.003-04:00

The sixth annual Celebration of Faculty Scholarship will be held on Tuesday, March 23, from 2:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. We are happy to announce the second faculty panel, taking place at 3:15pm and featuring two philosophers discussing their research and the publications being highlighted in this year's Celebration of Faculty Scholarship:

Desiree Melton, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, College of Notre Dame of Maryland, will discuss "The vulnerable self: Enabling the recognition of racial inequality," a chapter in the book Feminist Ethics and Social and Political Philosophy: Theorizing the non-ideal."

Nadja Germann, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Loyola University Maryland, will discuss her articles "Signification and truth: epistemology at the crossroads of semantics and ontology in Augustine's early philosophical writings" and "Philosophizing without philosophy? The concept of philosophy in Ibn Tufayl's Hayy Ibn Yaqzan."

Celebration of Faculty Scholarship -- First Panel

2010-03-11T14:44:00.006-05:00

The sixth annual Celebration of Faculty Scholarship will be held on Tuesday, March 23, from 2:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. We are happy to announce the first faculty panel, taking place at 2:30pm and featuring three historians discussing their research and the publications being highlighted in this year's Celebration of Faculty Scholarship:

Charles Ritter, Professor of History, and Susan Barber, Associate Professor of History, both of College of Notre Dame of Maryland, will discuss "Physical abuse . . . and rough handling: Race, gender, and sexual justice in the occupied South," a chapter in the book Occupied women: Gender, military occupation, and the American Civil War.

Matthew Mulcahy, Associate Professor of History and chair of the Department of History, Loyola University Maryland, will discuss his article "The Port Royal earthquake and the world of wonders in 17th century Jamaica," published in the journal Early American Studies.

Limited Hours for Library Guests: Spring 2010

2010-03-03T08:47:00.000-05:00

Beginning on Monday, April 5, 2010, and continuing through Friday, May 14, 2010, the Loyola/Notre Dame Library will be limiting access to the library. After 2:00 p.m. each day only students, faculty, and staff from the College of Notre Dame and Loyola University will be admitted. This will enable us to maximize the study space available to students of the two institutions during the final exam period.

Students from other institutions as well as the general public will be admitted only before 2:00 p.m. each day. In addition, priority use of library computers and study rooms will be given to students from Loyola University and College of Notre Dame.

These restrictions do not apply to students, faculty and staff of Loyola University and College of Notre Dame.

Celebration of Faculty Scholarship

2010-03-01T12:45:00.005-05:00

The sixth annual Celebration of Faculty Scholarship is coming up later this month! This celebration will highlight the wide variety of publications authored by faculty of Loyola University Maryland and College of Notre Dame of Maryland, focusing on those published from July 2008 to June 2009.

The Celebration will take place at the library, in the Ferguson Gallery and the Ridley Auditorium. Please join us here on Tuesday, March 23, from 2:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. for an exhibit of publications, refreshments, and presentations by several faculty members, who will discuss their research and the publication process. For additional information, please visit our Faculty Publications page.

UPDATE 3/15: Our faculty panels have been set! Join us at 2:30pm for a panel of historians, and at 3:15pm for a panel of philosophers.

Closed on Sunday, Feb. 7

2010-02-07T10:15:00.002-05:00

LNDL will remain closed on Sunday, Feb. 7. All online resources are still available; for research assistance, please use the 24/7 Chat service.

Updated information about any additional changes to library hours will be posted to the library homepage.

Survival Skills Workshops

2010-02-02T09:33:00.000-05:00

Have you taken a look at your syllabi and started wondering how you're going to find the information you need for your papers and other projects? If it doesn't look like your professor is bringing your class to the library for a workshop, you can drop in on one of our Survival Skills Workshops. In our General Research classes, we'll help you figure out the best way to get the research materials you need for your topic*. Come to a RefWorks class to learn about a tool that can help you track and manage the references for your projects, and can take some of the tedium out of making a list of works cited.

*We're holding a class with a special focus on social sciences research -- Saturday, March 13 at 11:30am.

Ever check the web from your cell?

2010-01-29T15:19:00.004-05:00

We're working on creating a mobile version of the library website, and we'd like to know if you ever go online with your phone (or any other mobile device). What parts of the library website would you most like to be able to access from your phone? Take this survey and let us know!

Currently on Exhibit: The City That Reads

2010-01-22T13:59:00.002-05:00

Stop by the library through February 11 to enjoy our latest exhibit -- The City That Reads: Novels in Baltimore. The exhibit displays final projects created by students in the Fall 2009 section EN 367: The Novel in America, a course taught by Loyola Associate Professor Jean Lee Cole. Students were asked to examine reading practices in the Baltimore area, either through interaction with members of the community, or through archival and secondary-source research.

The exhibit also includes an online component, so if you can't make it to the library you can view the projects online.

New year, new software

2010-01-05T13:30:00.001-05:00

While students and faculty were working on final exams and enjoying the holiday break, LNDL librarians have been implementing some changes to library software. As a result, you may have noticed that the look and feel of the library catalog and E-Journal Locator have changed: The library catalog has been upgraded to a new version, and we have changed to a completely new E-Journal Locator system. In both cases, you will see some new features that we hope you find useful. The library catalog will be displaying book covers for many items, and features a more modern look. The E-Journal locator has an improved search results page, as well as an option to explore our e-journals by loose subject categories.

We are still working on fully implementing all of this software. Please bear with us as we continue to make changes and tweaks, and be sure to contact the Research Assistance Desk if you have any difficulty with either system, or if you have questions about the new features.

In addition, those of you who make frequent use of the Research Wiki, LNDL’s subject guides, may notice that we’re making some changes there as well. The Research and Instruction Team is working on updating and standardizing the pages, so you will have a more consistent experience as you click through the resources. We’ll also be updating links that take you to LNDL’s catalog – the change in the catalog software means that each link from the Research Wiki to the catalog must be updated. We plan to complete this work by January 14. In the meantime, if you need help accessing something you find on the Research Wiki, please do not hesitate to contact the Research Assistance Desk.

Lastly, due to an increase in the volume of spam that was being posted, anyone who makes contributions or edits to the Research Wiki will now be asked to create an account and log in. The login system for the Research Wiki is separate from the rest of the library systems, so you may use any combination of username and password that you like. If you would prefer not to make an account but have changes that you would like made, please send them to your library liaison or to the Research Assistance Desk (askemail@loyola.edu) and we’ll get them posted for you.

Expanded Hours for Final Exams

2009-11-30T09:00:00.000-05:00

Once again, the main lobby area of the Loyola/Notre Dame Library will be open overnight on several days during finals. The rest of the library (book stacks, etc.) will remain open until 2am but will be closed off for the overnight hours. Overnight access will be limited to current students from Notre Dame and Loyola; all students will be required to show their institutional ID to enter. For security reasons, at 2am the entire building will be cleared, and those who wish to stay will have to show their IDs. (Think of it as a chance to stretch your legs and pick out a new seat!)

On the following days, the Ferguson Gallery at LNDL will be open from 2am - 8am:

Sunday, 12/6 to Saturday, 12/12
Sunday, 12/13 to Friday, 12/18

This means that at least a portion of the building will be open continuously from:
10am on Sunday, 12/6 through 8pm on Saturday, 12/12
and again from
10am on Sunday, 12/13 through 2am on Saturday, 12/19

In addition, the library will be open from 8am - 10pm on Friday, 12/4 and and 8am - 8pm on Saturday, 12/5. (Please check the website for more information about library hours.)

Limited Hours for Library Guests

2009-11-24T15:46:00.000-05:00

Beginning on Sunday, November 29, 2009, and continuing through Sunday, December 20, 2009, the Loyola/Notre Dame Library will be limiting access to the library. After 2:00 p.m. each day only students, faculty, and staff from the College of Notre Dame and Loyola University will be admitted. This will enable us to maximize the study space available to students of the two institutions during the final exam period.

Students from other institutions as well as the general public will be admitted only before 2:00 p.m. each day. In addition, priority use of library computers and study rooms will be given to students from Loyola University and College of Notre Dame.

These restrictions do not apply to students, faculty and staff of Loyola University and College of Notre Dame.