As Villanova has continued its rise as a nationally recognized research institution, the Library’s role as an engine for research and scholarly activity at the University has accelerated too. Under the leadership of University Librarian Millicent Gaskell, MS, who took the helm as director of Villanova’s Falvey Memorial Library in 2015, the Library continues to advance the University's research and scholarly goals as well as supports the changing needs of students and faculty.

“Creating dynamic opportunities for research and scholarship is an integral goal of the University’s new Strategic Plan Rooted. Restless.—and the Library plays a more important role than ever in supporting intellectual inquiry and knowledge creation among our students and faculty,” says Villanova Provost Patrick G. Maggitti, PhD. “Falvey is the centerpiece of academic life on campus.”

As stewards of Villanova’s vast collection of 1.68 million titles, Falvey’s 47-person staff puts as much heart as intellect into their work. Their keen focus on providing strategic, data-informed, evidence-based services to support Villanova research and scholarship is matched only by their passion for facilitating personal connections, building a collaborative and inclusive community of global scholars, and providing more equitable access to knowledge.

“The library is often thought of as the heart of a campus,” Gaskell says. “With each partnership and project we embark upon at Falvey, our goal is to continue building a hub for learning and discovery where students, faculty, staff and the global community of scholars can access, create, and share knowledge.”

Historically, an academic library conjures up images of stacks upon stacks of books and a team of librarians who help students navigate them. “Back in the days when Falvey was built, you worked independently with your pile of books,” Gaskell says. “Now scholars’ work has expanded, and the library has transformed its services and resources to meet those needs.”

Villanova’s expert librarians and staff still connect students with the knowledge and resources they need to excel academically, but the wealth of information and impact of the Library’s services extend far beyond Falvey’s four walls and even Villanova’s campus community.

“In the changing landscape of information technology, it’s become part and parcel of a library’s mission to be on the cutting edge of delivering access to information,” Gaskell says. “We’re fortunate to have a team of skilled professional staff who facilitate that access and cultivate and share a broad range of expertise with patrons, virtually and in person.”

Let’s take a closer look at how Falvey’s expert services and academic resources support the needs of the 21st-century scholar at Villanova and beyond:

“Our goal is to continue building a hub for learning and discovery where students, faculty, staff and the global community of scholars can access, create, and share knowledge.”

University Librarian Millicent Gaskell, MS

Students in the Falvey Library's Dugan Polk Family Reading Room sit at tables studying

THIS PHOTO IS TAKEN PRIOR TO COVID-19

PHOTO: VILLANOVA UNIVERSITY/JOHN SHETRON.

Must-See Spot: The Reading Room

In addition to comfortable private seating for quiet study space and plenty of outlets and plugs for electronic devices, the Dugan Polk Family Reading Room provides a front-row seat to view Italian artist Pietro da Cortona’s magnificently restored painting The Triumph of David.

Donated to the University by the late Princess Eugenia Ruspoli in the early 1950s, the 17th-century oil on canvas spent most of its life within the walls of Castle Nemi outside of Rome.

“The renovation of this picturesque study space has had a profound impact on the Villanova community and helps to address an area of great student need,” says Gaskell. “It is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week so students can study whenever they need to, and it has also created a much-needed connection between the main Library building and Falvey Hall.”

National Black Sisters’ Conference outside the conference headquarters in the early 1970s

Connecting the Dots

How Villanova’s Library Technology team changed the way libraries search worldwide

If you’ve ever used the search bar on Falvey’s website, you’re among millions of people worldwide who have utilized state-of-the-art software developed at Villanova: VuFind. With a presence on six continents, VuFind has been adopted by high-profile libraries like Yale University, the Free Library of Philadelphia and the National Library of Ireland.

Released in 2010 and designed by Villanova’s Library Technology team, VuFind allows users to search and browse beyond the resources of a traditional online public access catalog. “We created a tool specifically tailored to the needs of libraries,” says Demian Katz, director of Library Technology at Falvey Memorial Library.

Just as Google provides one place to find content from different websites, VuFind provides users with a more convenient way to search and discover library resources in their own libraries’ collections.

Because Villanova’s Library released the innovative library search engine as open-source software, more than 200 institutions worldwide have been able to implement and customize VuFind to meet their own needs at no cost. 

“It is very compatible with our philosophy of making information open and accessible and sharing and spreading knowledge,” Katz says. “It’s one of our unique contributions to the global accessibility of knowledge.”

 

Knowledge Shared Across the Globe

Falvey’s extensive Digital Library has an enormous scholarly reach

Since launching its Digital Library in 2006, Falvey Memorial Library has enabled researchers, scholars and bibliophiles worldwide to access more than 38,000 unique materials.

The Digital Library is a curated collection that consists of three types of materials: items digitized from Falvey’s own special collection and archives; items digitized through partnerships with historical societies and religious orders, among others; and items created digitally that have been added, including faculty publications and student theses and dissertations. These items have been cited or referenced more than 550 times in outlets ranging from scholarly books to Salon articles to PBS documentaries.

“Our Digital Library includes unique items like the first book of meeting minutes of the Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick, signed by Commodore John Barry and George Washington, and the heavily annotated copy of William Wordsworth’s poetry that Herman Melville took with him on his own whaling voyage,” says Michael Foight, director of Distinctive Collections and Digital Engagement. “These resources can be used by students and scholars at Villanova and around the globe.”

Falvey’s Distinctive Collections and Digital Engagement team work with the Library Technologies team to make that possible. Because of their efforts, a wealth of rich scholarly and historical material is widely available for the first time.

Did You Know?

Almost 40,000 online visitors hailing from 175+ countries visited Falvey's Digital Library over the past year.

In a typical year...

2,300

 

research questions answered

500,000

 

visitors

1,100

 

academic and social events hosted

550,000

 

e-book and e-journal usages

Illustration of a woman standing over a laptop, holding a giant red funnel filled with news headlines

Archiving History As It Happens

In 1918 and present day, Villanova’s librarians were there to preserve life during a pandemic.

“October 1918, came not with joy, but with sorrow, that will not be forgotten for many a long day. Philadelphia our beloved city was stricken with the terrible plague of Influenza.” 

Amid the last global pandemic Villanova’s campus experienced, Rev. Francis E. Tourscher, OSA, received this handwritten journal entry from Sister M. Theresa Joseph, IHM, one of many nuns in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia who volunteered from 1918-1919 in private homes and emergency hospitals caring for the city’s sick and dying. 

Father Tourscher, who served as the University Librarian from 1923-1939, solicited and collected dozens of firsthand accounts and records from these women religious to “assemble facts while they are still a living memory.” More than a century later, Villanova senior and History major Elizabeth Lyons was eager to read these newly digitized accounts. 

“These papers were a crucial part of my research into volunteering efforts during the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic in Philadelphia,” Elizabeth says. “There weren’t a lot of personal accounts of what it was like to live through this period of time, so these offered a really unique perspective.”

Now that Falvey has been able to digitize and transcribe some of these resources, researchers are able to investigate and compare and contrast responses to the pandemic in 1918 vs. the current day.

 

“I think people have an understanding already of the importance of this moment, and why these experiences should be preserved.”

“A hundred years from now, we want the next members of the Villanova community to see what life was like during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Gaskell says. That’s why Falvey Memorial Library launched the “Documenting COVID-19” collection effort, in partnership with Villanova’s Albert Lepage Center for History in the Public Interest. Since the initiative began in May 2020, Villanova faculty, staff, students and alumni have already contributed journal entries, artwork, poems and photographs. 

“We have a very diverse collection to tell the story of what's happening today,” says Beaudry Rae Allen ’13 MA, Falvey’s preservation and digital archivist. “The most profound thing is how much people are willing to share about the experience. I think people have an understanding already of the importance of this moment, and why these experiences should be preserved.” 

 

4

Finds in Distinctive Collections That May Surprise You

 

The Rare Book Room of Distinctive Collections and Digital Engagement exhibits thousands of historically valuable and culturally important materials – and almost all are available to view upon appointment.

“The experience of touching an item that is hundreds if not thousands of years old can change a person’s life,” says Michael Foight, director of Distinctive Collections and Digital Engagement.

 

Here are a few that just might change yours:

 

1A 15th-century manuscript of Saint Augustine’s The Confessions.

 

2A Sumerian clay cuneiform tablet, est. 2000 BCE, detailing the taxes paid on a cow.

 

3A tile from the Space Shuttle Columbia, donated by Andrew Allen '77 COE.

 

4The John F. Smith III and Susan B. Smith Antique Map Collection, including more than 200 maps, with the oldest dating back to 1493.

A 15th-century manuscript of Saint Augustine’s The Confessions.

3Ways Villanova’s Librarians Support Intellectual Inquiry

 

 

 

Always happy to help and eager to partner with student and faculty researchers across the University, the librarians in Falvey’s Research Services and Scholarly Engagement department also possess a formidable amount of expertise and knowledge. 

Each of the 13 subject librarians covers an academic specialization area so they can provide dedicated support to Villanova faculty and students within a particular discipline. 

Here are just a few of the ways they help make learning and research happen at Villanova: 

 

1. One-on-One Consultations

“We do individual consultations for anyone who has a question about how to find resources or approach a project,” says RSSE Director Jutta Seibert, MA, MLS, ’16 MA. “We can be reached in many ways—we answer email questions, we have a chat function through the Library’s website, and we meet with people for individual appointments remotely and in person.” 

 

2. Collection Building and Curation 

“We contribute to the infrastructure of the Library, making sure that we have the knowledge resources in place for faculty and students to do the research that they need to do,” says Business Librarian Linda Hauck, MBA, MLS. “We help identify useful resources, including books, e-books, journals, databases and subscriptions, and make recommenda

tions about what to buy.”

 

3. Research Instruction

“Faculty reach out to us to provide instruction to their classes, and we prepare customized interactive workshops where they learn research methods, usually tailored to a project deliverable students will submit,” says Seiber, who also serves as the subject librarian for History, Art History, and Global Interdisciplinary Studies. “We also offer a variety of workshops that anyone in the community can sign up for on topics such as deciding where to publish, creative commons licensing and digital research methods and tools.” 

 

 

Did you know?

 

Most of Villanova’s subject librarians have advanced degrees in their subject areas as well as in library science, which gives them the vocabulary and firsthand experience to better understand the discipline and the needs of the students and faculty they support.

How Falvey Supports Research, Teaching and Learning

 

 

ENABLES discovery of, access to, and stewardship of a vast array of scholarly resources

 

CULTIVATES and shares a broad range of staff knowledge and expertise

 

PROVIDES exceptional spaces for study, reflection, learning, knowledge creation, and academic collaboration

 

GENERATES engaging educational and cultural programming

 

PRESERVES the University’s history and intellectual contributions

 

FOSTERS a welcoming and inclusive environment

Knowledge Is Essential

How Falvey adapted to keep patrons safe while providing the academic support they need. 

When Pennsylvania went into a statewide lockdown on March 16, 2020, staff from all seven departments at Falvey immediately sprung into action, devising agile and creative solutions to keep the campus community connected with the resources and information they need while also taking every precaution to keep them safe. 

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, they’ve continuously adapted their services, access and procedures to meet the changing circumstances—from entirely remote operations to a return to campus, with rigorous safety measures and restrictions in place.

“The staff is tremendous,” Gaskell says. “They really pulled out all the stops to pivot and make sure we’re still providing essential services to the community and students are getting the support they need.” 

Access Services devised a system for contactless pickup, getting 2,466 items safely into the hands of nearly 2,400 patrons from August to February. In addition, they offered live assistance to in-person students via a virtual service desk, connected through Zoom technology.  

Research Services and Scholarly Engagement delivered research-related workshops via video conferencing and conducted 3,887 one-on-one reference consultations—almost entirely virtual—from mid-March to mid-February. 

66%

increase in reference questions during the pandemic 

 

Distinctive Collections and Digital Engagement digitized 1,477 items in 2020 and scanned more than 750 documents for patrons. Library Technology and the Library’s Communications and Marketing team dynamically redesigned the Library's website to communicate updates to services and access.

Resource Management and Description worked with academic publishers to temporarily provide free access to materials that would normally require a costly subscription. Working closely with frontline staff in Access Services, Resource Management and Description also tracked down e-copies of course materials from various vendor platforms and actively purchased essential course materials to support the University’s teaching and learning during the pandemic. Finance and Administration worked to ensure the Library fulfilled the Caritas Commitment through social distancing, cleaning and protective equipment for faculty, staff and students in the Library. 

“The Library staff were extremely dedicated and innovative during these challenging times,” Gaskell says.

Making the Most of Data 

 

“This unexpected free trial of academic subscription services during the pandemic gave us a spur-of-the-moment opportunity to enhance our services,” says Associate University Librarian Jeehyun “Jee” Davis. “There were certain resources we didn’t subscribe to before, but now we have hard data based on the usage of our faculty and students to show that our Villanova community needs this resource.”

 

A Look Ahead

with the Director

 

NAME: 

Millicent Gaskell 

 

ROLE: 

University Librarian

The Library is committed to developing new services that enhance the academic experience. Highlights of these innovative efforts include:

 

Affordable Materials Project

 

This University-wide collaboration addresses one of the most pressing issues students face today: the high cost of course materials. The project provides faculty with resources and options for selecting high-quality, affordable course materials and creating student awareness of affordable options for obtaining course materials. 

 

Digital Scholarship Services

 

This program supports  faculty, students and staff interested in applying digital methods and tools to their research and teaching by hosting lectures on digital scholarship topics, partnering on digital research projects, and providing a collaborative space for consultations and training.

 

Scholarship Open Access Reserve Fund

 

The fund provides financial support to members of the Villanova community who are interested in publishing high-quality open access publications. 

 

Copyright Services

 

Through consultations, workshops, and other services, Falvey is helping the Villanova community better understand copyright concerns in academia, how to reuse content responsibly, and how to make more informed decisions about their own work.