Blueprints: Falvey Library

Contents: March 2000
 

• "What if the other side won?" Victor Brooks brings history to life

• Black business leaders featured at Falvey Library Distinguished Lecture in February

• "Ask and we shall retrieve": Falvey's Interlibrary Loan

• "FlasH Lights" -- Tax forms and other government documents are at your fingertips

• Also contributing to this issue...

by Barbara Bores

History came alive at the Falvey Memorial Library Faculty Book Talk on February 23. Dr. Victor Brooks, professor of education and human services, gave an enthusiastic presentation of his research, his writing process and the publishing process to an overflow crowd in the Library conference room.

Using no notes he guided the listeners through a lively hour of human interest facts he discovered about the American Revolution and the Civil War. His three most recent books are The Boston Campaign: April 1775-March 1776, How America Fought Its Wars: Military Strategy from the American Revolution to the Civil War andAfrican Americans in the Civil War.

The first two titles are written for the history buff interested in popular history while the latter title is written for young adults.

Stating "many history books lack drama," he peppered his entire talk with fascinating anecdotes of the American Revolution and the Civil War. Drawing from How America Fought Its Wars he related the role played by Lydia Darragh, a Quaker housewife. In 1777 General William Howe "utilized" her Philadelphia home to plan his surprise attack on Washington's camp at Whitemarsh. Mrs. Darragh secretly wrote down a detailed summary of the plan and then, using the excuse of needing flour for bread, walked to Whitemarsh and gave Howe's plan to Washington's army, averting the surprise attack.

He traced his love for history back to the 1950s when as a child he and many of his neighborhood friends were given World War II artifacts their fathers had acquired in the war. He and his peers were also raised on first hand accounts of the war, reflected in the disabilities of some of their fathers. A trip to Gettysburg reinforced his interest in history when he discovered that his great-grandfather was a veteran of the Civil War.

Dr. Brooks' focus in writing is "how were kids, women and minorities impacted by war?" He likes to entertain the alternative viewpoint and posit questions such as "What if the battle had been won quickly?" or "What if the other side had won?" This approach stems from his experience during the last two decades when he researched how British and American schools differ in their teaching of social studies. Finding a radically different version of the American Revolution in England he was intrigued about the other side of history.

Dr. Victor Brooks, with Dr. James Mullins, responds to a query from the audience at the recent Falvey Faculty Book Talk.

During his recent trip to England during spring break to research "a book on World War II" he visited various facilities including the Imperial War Museum and the National Army Museum, both in London. When asked where he finds time to write so many books, Brooks alluded to "spending many late nights writing" and even "writing on a vacation cruise." The initial draft is written longhand on legal pads. Asked if he has an agent he said "no one wanted him until he became successful" and now he does not need an agent.

He stated that Villanova University as a whole and the education and human services department in particular have been very supportive of his research and writing. He has published with Combined Publishing of Conshohocken and Chelsea House, a division of Main Line Book Co. His next book, Honor the Brave, will be published by Doubleday.

To promote his books he has appeared on CNN and FOXNews in New York City. He is also on the standby list for the "Today" show. A future goal is to appear on "Today" or "Good Morning America." With five more books coming out this year he seems to have a good chance of meeting this goal.

Barbara Bores is Acquisitions Librarian and the Library liaison to the education and human services department.

Derek T. Dingle (right) and Theodore Travis, director of marketing and communications at the United Bank of Philadelphia, greet several Villanova community members after the Falvey Library Distinguished Lecture on February 11.

Derek Dingle autographs the Falvey Library archive copy of his book for Bente Polites, Reference and Special Collections librarian.

Mr. Dingle discussed his book, Black Enterprise Titans of the B.E. 100s: Black CEOs Who Redefined and Conquered American Business (John Wiley & Sons, 1999), which includes the biographies of eleven black American business leaders.

Dr. Emma C. Chappell, president and CEO of the United Bank of Philadelphia, one of the "titans" featured in the book, was unable to participate. In her place, Mr. Travis spoke about her achievements and described the special traits that have helped her succeed. He stressed that her focus has always been community service.

by Merrill Stein

The Interlibrary Loan department at Falvey processes over 20,000 requests per year, sending and receiving articles to and from libraries as far away as Europe or Australia and as close as Rosemont College. The types of libraries we communicate with range from academic to historical societies to corporate, law and medical libraries. A dedicated staff of two full-time employees, three part-time employees, one head of Access Services, a helpful Reference department, and several industrious student assistants all contribute to the sharing of resources with local, national and worldwide libraries.

The ILL office relies on a variety of technologies to process the myriad of requests for books and photocopies of journal articles. One avenue to send and receive requests electronically is OCLC, a network that links 30,000 libraries in 65 countries. A more recent process used to transmit and receive articles over the Internet is Ariel, rapidly linking our staff to the largest of research libraries nationally as well as international centers such as the British Library and Canada's Institute for Scientific and Technical Information. Along with telephone and surface mail, fax is also used to transmit information between libraries to resolve delays or speed delivery of documents.

Falvey Library is a member of the Pennsylvania Academic Library Consortium, Inc., a federation of 35 academic libraries, including the University of Pennsylvania, and participates in the statewide Interlibrary Delivery Service. Falvey also utilizes UnCover, the online periodical article delivery service in Colorado.

Left to right: Anne Ford, Al Rice, Phylis Wright, Ann Stango and Susan Facciolli.

Phylis Wright, Susan Facciolli and Anne Ford are largely responsible for the daily processing of faculty, student and staff requests received in person and via electronic forms available from the Library's homepage. The daily activities often include sorting and packaging a continuous flow of books and articles received through assorted technologies and UPS, updating records in the Interlibrary Loan records database (CLIO), notifying patrons by email and phone about the status of their requests, and preparing borrowed items for return.

CLIO is a database used by hundreds of large and small academic libraries to provide management data such as copyright compliance reports.

Ann Stango, with the help of Alfred Rice, processes requests from local, national and international libraries to borrow books and articles in our collection. Ann's standard, 24-hour turn-around service to our colleagues not only makes us popular with other libraries but allows us to ask other institutions to reciprocate the excellent service when that unplanned request from a harried student or a faculty member under a research deadline comes our way.

Though members of the Interlibrary Loan team have previous library experience and good organizational skills, we still rely on a experienced Reference department for support in verifying those difficult requests or locating one last library we haven't tried. Other Library personnel assisting with Interlibrary Loan include the Circulation department staff, who sign out the borrowed materials. Kevin Maguire, evening circulation supervisor, helps with some preliminary work on requests and Laura Hutelmyer, periodicals supervisor, occasionally assists with lending and borrowing requests during the busiest times.

As the historical anecdote suggests, we've come a long way since Ben Franklin took the first Interlibrary Loan item from the Library Company up to Boston on horseback.

For more information refer to the Falvey Library homepage, Services & Departments: Interlibrary Loan, or call (610)519-4274. An electronic interlibrary loan form is available on the Falvey homepage under "Request Forms" and also via selected databases on the homepage.

Merrill Stein is head of Access Services. This article continues the series highlighting the departments in Falvey Memorial Library.

Tax forms and other government documents are at your fingertips

by Jacqueline Mirabile

It's 2 a.m. on April 13 and you are struggling with your taxes. Are you feeling frustrated because you don't have a particular tax form? Falvey Library has links to federal and Pennsylvania sites from which you can download tax forms. On the Library's homepage (http://www.villanova.edu/library) click on For Your Information. Scroll down and click on Tax Forms.

Falvey Library's Reference department also has a paper set of two volumes of reproducible federal tax forms as well as some free copies of such popular titles as the 1040 series, "Child and Dependent Care Expenses" and "Credit for the Elderly or the Disabled," and the guide Tax Benefits for Higher Education.

You may not be aware that your tax money provides many government publications for your use on campus. The Villanova Law School Library is a federal depository and through the Law School Falvey receives many government publications from departments and agencies such as the Census Bureau, Departments of Commerce, Education, Health and Human Services, and Labor. Are you or a family member considering changing careers? The Department of Labor's Occupational Outlook Handbook provides descriptions, working conditions, qualifications, salary ranges and job prospects.

Do you need statistics on crime, health, education or employment? The Library has volumes of  Uniform Crime Reports, Health United States, Digest of Educational Statistics, and Employment and Earnings (check VUCat for call numbers and locations).

And the Statistical Abstract of the United States covers a multitude of topics and is available in paper, CD-ROM and through the Web. Although many publications are available in paper or microfiche, more are being issued electronically either as a CD-ROM product or via the Web. Explore the wealth of information provided by government agencies through the links on Falvey Library's homepage. Select E-Resources by Subject / Government Information and Statistics / Selected Websites / Federal.

In this way, you can access many full text publications, including the Code of Federal Regulations, Commerce Business Daily, Congressional Record, the Constitution of the United States, public laws, and the World Factbook for information on individual countries.

With your tax refund are you planning to travel? By clicking on Travelers' Health, the National Center for Infectious Diseases Website, you may find information on needed vaccinations, disease outbreaks in particular countries, and even the last date and score of the federal inspection of individual cruise ships. Happy traveling!

Harry Coxe, government documents technician, points out a link on the Federal Depository Library Program homepage to Jacqueline Mirabile. The FDLP was established by Congress to ensure that the American public has access to its government's information. This program involves the acquisition, format conversion, and distribution of depository materials and the coordination of federal depository libraries in the 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories.

Jacqueline Mirabile is the Government Documents / Reference librarian.

Also contributing to this issue were James Mullins, Judith Olsen, Sue Ottignon and Jacqueline Smith. Photographs were provided by Bernadette Dierkes, Steven Dixon and the IMS staff.

Please send your suggestions and comments to the Falvey Blueprints editor.