The results of the survey of library services for the School of Theology and Religious Studies Library committee are now available [Executive summary][Survey results]. This survey was done at the request of the School of Theology and Religious Studies Library committee to ascertain the quality of library products and services for STRS faculty and graduate students. 113 out of 375 individuals participated.

Recently, I was sent a link to the website of a group called Catholic Scholars for Worker Justice, which was founded by Joseph Fahey, a Professor of Religious Studies at Manhattan College in the Bronx.  Here’s a link to their site:

http://www.catholicscholarsforjustice.org

The group and the site are new, and their stated mission is “to promote Catholic Social Teaching on the rights of workers and the indispensible role that unions play in securing justice (1) for workers and their families, (2) in the workplace, and (3) for the universal common good.”  According to its stated purpose, CSWJ members are trying to bring the strong knowledge of Catholic social justice teachings to bear on public perceptions of those teachings and to actually apply it in real world situations involving union organizing and labor disputes.

This brings to mind individuals like George Higgins and John A. Ryan (whose papers we have here at the archives), two scholarly priests who spent their lives trying to apply Catholic teachings as expressed Rerum Novarum, Quadragesimo Anno, as well as the U.S. Bishops’ teachings on economic justice.   Both Ryan and Higgins, in fact, headed the Social Action Department of the National Catholic Welfare Conference, and their opinions were highly respected by Catholic and non-Catholic leaders alike.  We are still working on processing Monsignor Higgins’ papers, but our websites feature lots of materials that anyone who wants to educate themselves on matters of Catholic social justice.  In addition to the site on the Bishops’ Program, we have a site on Catholic responses to industrialization, which focuses on three different approaches to problems of social justice precipitated by industrial change.  You can find that one here:

http://libraries.cua.edu/achrcua/industrial/cri_wel.html

Another one that focuses wholly on the question of the living wage—How Much Is Enough?  Can be found here: 

http://libraries.cua.edu/achrcua/howmuch/hm_wel.html

This last site addresses many issues that continue to be relevant, such as the role of advertising in creating need, and a Catholic perspective on when consumption shades into excess.  This 1999 OSV article suggests the continuing relevance of the question: 

http://libraries.cua.edu/achrcua/howmuch/osv.pdf

During intersession Saturday, May 10 to Sunday, May 17 the Mullen Library business hours are as follows:

Please see campus library hours or Mullen Library hours for more information.

During interessesion Saturday, May 10 to Sunday, May 17 the campus library and archives business hours will be as follows:

Please see campus library hours or Mullen Library hours for more information.

The Governor General’s Medals for excellence in architecture is a Canadian architecture prize given this year to  Patkau Architects and Hotson Bakker Boniface Haden Architects, both Vancouver-based, as well as Toronto’s Teeple Architects Inc. 

We have several books about Patkau Architects here in the EAM Library.  They are a well known Canadian firm designing many buildings throughout the world.  There are a great number of well-known firms mentioned in this little news piece from the Globe and Mail. 

You may have noticed a small difference on individual posts lately. If you look at the bottom you will either see a comment link or a comment form. Please, let us know what you think about the stories we post, and the library in general. We love feedback and will respond to any questions you might have.

While the comment form requires an email address, we will not make it public. This is just one way to combat spam. We will also review comments before they appear on the site to make sure nothing inappropriate gets posted.

Please communicate with us! We want to know what you think. Other ways to converse include our Facebook page, group and the suggestion box in the Mullen lobby. There are also a number of ways to contact a librarian directly.

We look forward to hearing from you!

We have finally gotten our site on the 1919 Bishops’ Program of Social Reconstruction site up.  The site has dozens of documents and photos, background information on the topic, readings lists, document-based questions, and suggestions for exercises.  For history teachers, there is a section on fitting the site into the curriculum in ways that fit with national history standards.  A complementary site on the Bishops’ Program is this one out of the Office of Social Justice in St. Paul Minneapolis:

http://www.osjspm.org/majordoc_us_bishops_statements_program_of_social_reconstruction.aspx

This Social Justice site offers great teaching resources that can be used in tandem with the primary document .pdfs and images on our own.

Clearly, getting the site up this late in the school year isn’t ideal for attracting educators and their students to use it, but this particular site will also be useful for researchers, since so many of the documents are unavailable elsewhere on the Web.  I’ll direct you to a real gem: here is a scrapbook depicting the National Catholic Welfare Conference’s founding years, (when it was still called the National Catholic War Council).  The album is a chronicle of the earliest organized activities of the War Council and offers a window on organized American Catholic life ca. 1919.  Sorry there are no captions, we know little about the activities depicted in most of the images. 

http://libraries.cua.edu/achrcua/bishops/slideshow.html

Your comments on the images, the new site, how it might be used in the classroom or conducting research, as well as on any of our American Catholic History Classroom sites are welcome! 

The first floor of Mullen Library will remain open until 2:00 am from Saturday, May 3rd to Thursday, May 8th.

Mullen Library hours May 3 - 10

The year is quickly coming to a close and we at the Libraries are happy to have been a part of your successes. Here are a few reminders:

• Please be sure you’ve returned all your library materials before the end of the semester. You can check “My ALADIN” to see what’s on your record. If you have any outstanding library fines or fees, pay them before you go, too. Payments for library fees cannot be accepted through Cardinal Station.
• Graduating? Congratulations! Please make sure you have taken care of your library obligations. Outstanding library fines and fees must be paid at the Library (cash, check, or cardinal cash) by 5:00pm on Thursday, May 15, 2008. If you don’t, you will not be able to get your diploma or transcripts.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact the Circulation Desk at Mullen Library at 202-319-5060 or circ@mail.lib.cua.edu.

Good luck on your finals!

An interesting bibliographical essay on science and the humanities written by Gail Shivel of the University of Miami for Choice magazine. An overview:

“The literature on science and the humanities is vast and diffuse, and a treatment such as this can only touch on the high points and suggest further directions of study. This essay treats the literature on science and the humanities first chronologically and then topically. The cite list is divided into two parts: relatively recent work, primarily secondary, and then the classics. Some of the latter include specific recommended editions; others are given without bibliographic details.”