Welcome to the Fall 2010 edition of the CUA Libraries Newsletter. We are pleased to share with you recent news about the University Libraries and staff.
As always, we welcome comments, questions, and suggestions at our online comment form.
We hope you enjoy this issue of our Newsletter. You can continue to follow the latest Library news as they are posted at University Libraries News & Events. Please comment on our stories and subscribe to the RSS feeds.
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Editor: Anne Marie Hules, Reference Librarian for Library and Information Science
As many have already discovered, the Main Reading Room has re-opened with new carpeting, new paint, sixty new electric outlets, and more study space. Our new popular reading collection has arrived and has just been placed in the room.
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We have renamed the Corner Reading Room to the First Year Experience Reading Room so students in the FYE program will know where to find help from their fellow students. Under the auspices of the Center for Academic Success, undergraduate fellows are available to work with FYE students afternoons and evenings most days of the week.
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Catholic University of America Libraries currently has lockers available for CUA graduate students on the 2nd floor of Mullen Library. Due to the limited number, lockers are available to all graduate students only. Inquiries please call ext.5060 or come to the Circulation Desk.
The Libraries launched a Popular Reading Program in September. The program was initiated by the subject librarians after receiving numerous requests from students and faculty looking for some ‘light reading.’ The genres include popular fiction, historical fiction, mystery and suspense, science fiction, biography, autobiography, history, politics, inspiration, and popular culture. The collection is found in the main reading room on the 2nd floor of Mullen Library and the books can be checked out only by CUA students, faculty and staff. The books are leased from Baker and Taylor which sends the books shelf ready (labeled and cataloged). After a few months on the shelves, the books are returned with the library keeping one in five titles for the collection. The titles kept will be determined by circulation statistics and enduring scholarly value. The two year project is being funded by an endowed grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. 134 titles have been received this semester with more arriving on a monthly basis. For suggestions on future titles, please contact Kevin Gunn at gunn@cua.edu or 202-319-5088. The program was covered in the October 6th issue of the CUA Tower.
Kevin Gunn
Coordinator of Religious Studies and Humanities Services
The University Libraries are pleased to announce the acquisition of several databases that should be crucial to the University Community across a number of disciplines. These new databases are ARTstor, Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO), and Literature Resource Center.
are a number of software tools available to the researcher for creating, presenting and managing image collections.To use these resources as well as our other databases you can go here. If you are off campus you will have to log in to your myAladin account.
Engineering/Architecture Library
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The Engineering/Architecture library is busy! Engineering student groups meet here and we overhear a lot about engineering circuits! The Architecture graduate students find the Engineering & Architecture Library a good place to scan, research and study between classes. We are collaborating with Architecture faculty about the resources available on the new database ARTStor. Many of the Master of Science in Sustainable Design (1-year program) students will be continuing their research and beginning theses. They are using new eBooks titles:
 Heat Islands : Understanding and Mitigating Heat in Urban Areas by Lisa Gartland; |
 Materials and the Environment : Eco-Informed Material Choice by Michale F. Ashby; and |
 Nanomaterials, Nanotechnologies and Design : an Introduction for Engineers and Architects by Michael F. Ashby, Paulo J. Ferreira, and Daniel L. Schodek. |
Physics Library
The Physics graduate students needed space for group study, so what better place than the 
Physics Library this Fall? New expanded hours (Monday through Thursday 10AM – 4PM, see posted hours for Fridays) and expanded access for graduate students in the Physics Library are meeting the needs for resources and study space. New resources in nanotechnology and electromagnetism are on the shelves and in the hands of the Physics faculty and students. New Physics books include Condensed Matter in a Nutshell by Gerald D. Mahan; Game Physics (2nd Ed.) by David H. Eberly; as well as popular science reading titles We Need to Talk about Kelvin : What Everyday Things Tell us about the Universe by Marcus Chown and Everyday Practice of Science : Where Intuition and Passion Meet Objectivity and Logic by Frederick Grinnell.
Science Libraries staff are providing reference for projects, taking suggestions for new books, updating the Engineering, Architecture & Planning, and Physics LibGuides and providing faster Consortium Loan Service through direct scanning to “pdf” format of article requests.
Visit one of your CUA Science Libraries – Engineering & Architecture Library, 200 Pangborn; Physics Library, 101 Hannan ; Nursing/Biology Library, 212 Gowan - and ask us a question.
Kim Hoffman, Coordinator of Science Libraries
Nursing/Biology Library
The Nursing/Biology Library supports the research, teaching and learning missions of the School of Nursing and the Department of Biology. The collection includes Nursing and Biology print and electronic resources (databases and e-journals). Two special collections within the library are the Nursing/Biology Historical Collection (a collection of textbooks and more dating back to the 19th century), and the Mary Walsh Room Historical Collection (a collection related to the history of nursing) housed in a unique reading room on the second floor of the library.
There are several changes happening within the library currently including relocation of the Nursing/Biology Historical Collection to WRLC, and planned physical space changes on the first floor to increase accessibility to the collection and service for patrons. Floor plans are being made, a Circulation/Reference Desk will be on order soon, and shifting of books is planned to open up the front area of the first floor.
Several new titles added to the collection recently include:
 Pathophysiology Made Incredibly Easy!Call Number: RB113 .P3636 2009 |
 Haunted by Combat: Understanding PTSD in War VeteransPaulson, Daryl S., and Krippner, Stanley Call Number: RC552.P67 P38 2010 |
 Manual of industrial microbiology and biotechnology
Baltz, Richard H., ed. (et al) |
 Calculations for Molecular Biology and BiotechnologyStephenson, Frank H. Call Number: QH506 .S74 2010 |
In June the American Library Association held their national conference in the Washington, DC Convention Center. This gave some of our Graduate Library Pre-professional Program (GLP’s) the opportunity to attend the event. Below is a recap of the ALA experience from the GLPs perspective!
ALA was a blast! It was fun and new to all of us. The conference, which was held in the Washington, DC Convention Center, was big with lots to do and see (and buy!!!) The first floor was dedicated primarily to people registering and meeting up with each other over coffee and tea. In fact, there was an Internet Café where you could work online.
The most amazing part of ALA was on the lower floor. A look over the staircase onto the floor where all of the vendors were set up was completely breathtaking! It was immense and colorful, and exciting. Computers and gadgets and trinkets were everywhere! People were smiling; they were engaged with one another, they were networking, and they were exchanging ideas.
We collected lots of buttons, pens and pencils and other paraphernalia to remember the event.
Below are some of the most memorable parts each GLP has taken away from the conference:
Gena Chattin, GLP in Electronic Services, favorite session: Reference Work from Idea to Reality. Having worked previously for a university press, it was interesting to see how her experience in scholarly publishing meshed with what she’s learning about information science. It was a bit daunting to hear reference work editors talk about shepherding as many as 700 writers all over the world to complete a finished work. All in all, the session provided solid advice on project management that could help on any level and also a little inspiration for potential future writing projects.
Michelle’s Bolger, GLP in Reference and Instructional Services, favorite session: “The Poor and the Homeless.” In this session, outreach was discussed and the fact that, for poor children, a book is a luxury. The presenter referred to the idea of clustering, or going out into community to reach poor children, as this helps form relationships between community and library. A book is also a luxury for those who are serving time in prisons, and homeless persons. Homeless people that come to the library need information about jobs and housing and such things. It was discussed that librarians who help the poor and homeless have an opportunity to do some humanitarian work in their community and should try to visit the shelters and neighborhoods and perform outreach there.
Elizabeth Dodson, GLP in the Engineering/Architecture Library, favorite session: Sharing Our Strengths: An Interagency Approach to Library Services to Detained and Incarcerated Populations. The speakers for this session currently work in New York City and represent two different public library and school systems. The speakers divulged personal experiences that occurred while working with incarcerated populations, specifically those under the age of 18. They also emphasized the difficulties regarding budgetary restrictions, working with difficult administrations, and thin-to-no staff assistance. The topics focused on information access to incarcerate people, the increased rate of detained populations, and library services available to these individuals.
Samantha Saporitio, GLP in the Religion and Philosophy Library, favorite session: Connecting with the Feds: Social Media, Collaboration, and Transparency . The event was held in the Pryzbyla center on the CUA campus. The presentations covered such topics as the use of technology and social media in different parts of the government in terms of collaboration and transparency. A webcast of the event and the presentations are available on the SLIS website. (http://slis.cua.edu/events/connecting.cfm). Dr. Ingrid Hsieh-Yee, Interim Dean and Professor, Of the Catholic University of America School of Library and Information Science, opened the event.
Angela Bolger, GLP in Reference and Instructional Services
The Office of Human Resources announced the winners for their challenge “Stepping Into Spring”. The team with the most steps was Mullen Library with an average of 172,242 steps per team member. In total Mullen Library team members walked 1,722,421 steps throughout the two week challenge. We would like to congratulate Team Mullen” Gena Chattin, Samantha Saporito, Meghan Gates, Dustin Booher, Kitty Tynan, Lynn Weinstein, Miranda Rodriguez, Shanyun Zhang, Ramona Sampsell, and Michelle Bolger.
The top three individual steppers were Samantha Saporito from Mullen Library with 466,366 steps, Laura Cocoltchos from University Development with 272,380 steps, and Lourdes Alvarez from Byzantine Studies with 256,422 steps. Congratulations to all!
(from left to righ)t, front row: Kitty Tynan, Megan Gates, Samantha Saporito, Dustin Booher
back row: Gena Chattin, Shanyun Zhang, Romona Sampsell, Lynn Weinstein (not pictured are Michelle Bolger and Miranda Rodriguez)
Honore, Carl. /In Praise of Slowness: How a Worldwide Movement is Challenging the Cult of Speed/. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, c2004.
(Available through Consortium: BJ 1498 .H66 2004)*
The point of In Praise of Slowness is to give the reader an appreciation for conducting their life in a more leisurely manner. Honore breaks down his book into various chapters that divide life into sections such as work, food, sex, etc. In each chapter, Honore shows how each facet of life can be conducted more slowly. He backs up his narrative with personal experience, scientific studies, and interviews with other followers of the slow lifestyle.
This set-up is remarkably tempting. Honore makes his readers want to slow down their lives, even if it is just a little bit. The text has a remarkably calming affect on the reader – you want to read more slowly and taking pleasure in your surrounding as you do so. At the same time, Honore’s text can make the reader feel guilty. Many readers can’t follow all of his suggestions. Honore also he neglects the financial and community costs of the slow lifestyle.
Honore’s book is full of good ideas, but it comes across more as wishful thinking more than practical. In the end, Honore is advocating for a better balance in life. He asserts that although we do things quickly, we should be aware of our speed and attempt to slow down more often.
Megan Gates, Stacks Supervisor
*Brooks, Max. /World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie Wars/. New York: Three 
Rivers Press, c2006.
(Available through Consortium: PS 3602 .R6445 W67 2006)*
This book is a terrifyingly entertaining romp that has the reader alternatively laughing, cringing, and hoping they don’t have nightmares. In a word, this book is spectacular. Brooks takes your typical zombie apocalypse concept and creates an unexpectedly great work of literature and social commentary.
World War Z mimics the author Studs Terkel. Brooks creates a series of oral history interviews; every word of this book, aside from the introduction, is a verbal account of how various people survived the plague of undead. This layout gives an all-encompassing view of the zombie war. Brooks is able to craft a myriad of individual stories that feel eerily real. The way Brooks writes makes each character seem alive. The oral history form also means that Brooks explores all areas of the zombies’ effect on the world. He covers everything from doctors to politicians to soldiers to refugees. Furthermore, this allows Brooks to cover the affect the zombie attack had on air, water, and land. Brooks has written a “what if” of the entire world.
Brooks turns a book about zombies into an enlightened view of human reactions to famine, disease, and war. And, the whole work is compulsively readable.
Megan Gates, Stacks Supervisor
Baker, Kimball. Go to the Worker: America’s Labor Apostles. Marquette University Press, 2010.
HD6338.2.U5 B35 2010
There is a middle path between extreme capitalism and totalitarianism and ten American labor ‘apostles’ of the Roman Catholic Church showed the way. Author Kim Baker draws on a variety of sources, particularly his own interviews with the subjects, to tell the story of the priests and laymen who, using papal encyclicals as their guides, promoted the rights of working people from the 1920s and later, against the twin challenges of extreme capitalism on one hand and the dangers of fascist and communist dictatorships on the other. These ten include seven priests: George G. Higgins, Charles O. Rice, John Hayes, Philip Carey, Karl Hubble, Thomas Darby, and Joseph Buckley; and three laymen: John Cort, Bert Donlin, and Ed Marciniak. They also represent the working class of four major industrial cities (New York with Cort, Carey, Buckley and Darby; Chicago with Hayes, Higgins, and Marciniak; Detriot with Donlin and Hubble; and Pittsburgh with Rice). He also provides interesting vignettes on some other individuals and places such as Dennis Comey in Philadelphia, Jerome Drolet in New Orleans, Mort Gaven and Edward Boyle in Boston, and Linna Bresette, Field Secretary of the NCWC’s Social Action Department who crisscrossed the country from 1921 to 1951 organizing labor-management-government conferences promoting worker justice. If the aforementioned men are labor’s ‘apostles,’ no less so is Bresette, perhaps the Mary Magdalene of the American labor movement, whose tireless efforts are now largely forgotten (except by Baker of course). Throughout his text Baker shows how these ten, in addition to having the papal encyclicals as guides, were also influenced by thinkers and activists of their time: Dorothy Day, John A. Ryan, Francis Haas, and others. Baker is also somewhat critical of Fr. John F. Cronin, who, like Higgins, Hayes, and Bresette, worked for the NCWC Social Action Department, but also had close ties to the FBI in the struggle against Communism, for which Baker argues Cronin lost his way. On the issue of the controversial role of communists in the American labor movement, Baker is to be commended for his fair and balanced account, being neither a red baiter, as many on the right are, nor a red apologist, as are many academics. This book is a worthy tribute to these ‘apostles’ of labor.
William J. Shepherd, Associate Archivist
Leonard, Elmore. Djibouti. New York: William Morrow, c2010. (Mullen Library, Popular Reading: 
PS3562 .E55 D55 2010)
It must have been an irresistible idea for one of America’s preeminent crime writers to tackle Somali piracy. In practice, however, it seems like Elmore Leonard struggled over what to make of his story as much as his protagonist documentary makers struggled over what to make of the film within the story. Should they frame the pirates as oppressed people? As criminals? As money hustlers? The work, like the fictional documentary within, holds the viewpoint of outsiders attempting to look in but finding no window through which they can really see. The plot eventually veers away from the Somalis to focus almost entirely on American visitors and expats trying to get in on the action. Even the villain is an American ex-con turned al Queda who is never entirely accepted by his peers. The Somalis are as foreign by the end of the book as they were at the start, and our filmmakers (and possibly the author) seem no closer to an understanding that they can share.
Gena Chattin, Electronic Services GLP
Thad Garrett is a native of Moorefield, WV. He received his Bachelors in Music Education from Shepherd University in 2009, where he played the saxophone in the wind symphony, jazz band, and marching band. He is a fan of musical theater, having starred in amateur productions of Beauty and the Beast and Godspell. This past summer, he directed “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.” Aside from his work in in music, he enjoys cooking, traveling, and classic films.
