Books as Historical Artifacts: An Examination of the Book Beyond the Text

Exhibition on View April 24 – May 14, 2013

St. Augustine Hall, 3rd Floor

Physical books are both texts and artifacts; objects that indicate distinct histories of design, production and use.  Printed works reflect the technologies of paper and parchment making, type casting and printing, and binding – each recording historical developments in book production. They also give clues to past ownership and readership through book plates, inscriptions, marginalia and the occasional ephemera tucked inside their pages (clippings, letters, pressed flowers, etc.). It may well be that the future of the physical book is in peril, replaced by electronic and digitized versions. But books as artifacts of the past will continue to impart other meanings beyond the textual content. 

The twelve books on exhibition – dating from the sixteenth to the early twentieth centuries – were examined and described by graduate students in the Library and Information Science and Public History programs at St. John’s University. The class on special collections librarianship and the history of books and printing was taught by archivist and special collections librarian, Dr. Blythe Roveland-Brenton. The co-curators are: Audrey Belanger, Katie Daniels, Nicole Husbands, Egita Johnson, David McMahon, Janay Meertens-Deans, Kendra Meyer, Christina Orozco, Melissa Perlzweig, Laura Smith, Matthew Weidemann, and Porscha Williams.

Interested in these or other rare books from the University Libraries Special Collections department? Contact us at archives@stjohns.edu to make an appointment.

 

Spotlight Exhibits in the Library

The St. John’s Libraries Spotlight Exhibits are monthly exhibits produced by the Circulation Department focused on a particular topic or theme. These exhibits seek to call attention to the resources the Libraries have to offer the St. John’s community and educate the St. John’s community on particular topics and themes. Remember that the books used in the spotlight exhibits can be checked out of the library at any time. Each exhibit has a corresponding page on the “St John’s Libraries Spotlight Exhibits” Campus Guide. The corresponding campus guide pages list the works used in the exhibit, with their call numbers, and provide additional electronic resources related to the topic. The goal of the corresponding campus guide pages then is to preserve, and add to, the resource and topical awareness promoted by the exhibits.

Previous Exhibits:

March 2013 Exhibit – Women’s History Month. This exhibit displays a collection of works on women’s culture and history in celebration of Women’s History Month.

From the African American History Month Exhibit

February 2013 Exhibit – African American History Month. This exhibit displayed a collection of works on African-Americans and peoples of African descent in celebration of African American History Month.

January 2013 Exhibit – Creative Media. This exhibit displayed a collection of works on forms of creative media in celebration of International Creativity Month.

December 2012 Exhibit – Holiday & Vacation Reading. This exhibit displayed suggested holiday and vacation reading from the libraries’ McNaughton Collection.

November 2012 Exhibit – Native American History and Culture. This exhibit displayed a collection of works related to Native American History and Culture in celebration of Native American Heritage Month.

From the Half the Sky Exhibit

October 2012 Exhibit – Half the Sky. This exhibit displayed a collection of works related to prominent themes in Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s Half the Sky, a powerful work on the abuses third-world women face that was selected as the 2012-2013 St. John’s Freshman Read book.

September 2012 Exhibit – Comics & Graphic Novels. This exhibit displayed a collection of the libraries’ resources on comics and graphic novels.

 

Slavery and the Road to Freedom: Featured Documents and Books from the St. John’s University Special Collections

Celebrating the 150^th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation

Manumission letter written by Joshua Pigman and James Argent of Frederick County State Maryland freeing two slaves, James and Frances, once they turn 21 years old. May 22, 1784.

St. Augustine Hall, 3rd Floor

February 15 – March 15, 2013

Co-curated by Megan Margino and Sharell Walker

The St. John’s University Special Collections presents an exhibition commemorating the 150^th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. Within Special Collections are a variety of primary and secondary documents related to slavery, the Civil War, and the Emancipation Proclamation. Included in this display are reproductions of original documents in Special Collections such as hand-written letters and documents from people such as Vice President Hannibal Hamlin and other notable figures of the era. There are also rare and first edition books that contain unique perspectives on the historical events leading up to the Emancipation Proclamation.

These documents are available for research by appointment in the University Archives and Special Collections. To make an appointment, please call (718) 990-1465 or email archives@stjohns.edu.

 

Mary Garden at St. John’s

Exhibition on View August 30^th – October 12^th 2012

4^th Floor University Library

The Mary Garden at St. John’s is located behind Donovan Hall and lies adjacent to the Organic Community Garden. Conceived and designed by Professor Andrea Oliva Florendo, M.A., DDA and her Mariology students as cross-curricular gardeners, the Mary Garden provides students with an opportunity for community service.  In this service learning project, art, stewardship and gardening offer the vehicles and language for theological reflections, and devotional and spiritual inculturation.

A Mary Garden is an essential, but little examined feature of garden history that can be traced from the small monastic gardens of medieval times. The name has its recorded origins in Renaissance religious art in which paintings of Mary or the Virgin and Child are depicted in an enclosed garden (Hortus Conclusus) surrounded by symbolic flowers.  Whereas a Mary Garden of the 13^th century was created to spread the Gospel and Christian symbolism, the modern-day Mary Garden may also be seen as a conservation tool instrumental in encouraging the preservation of biodiversity.

Outside of the classroom, students have a greenhouse, a herbarium at St. Albert Hall and the garden itself at their disposal. Hands-on activities such as pressed-flower art, nature printing, watercolor painting, and gardening allow for the students’ own discovery and spirituality.  The results of some of these students’ activities are on display on the 4^th floor of St. Augustine Hall.  Also featured in the exhibition are books from St. John’s University Libraries and Special Collections. These books, and many more, are available for further research, by visiting the main library on the Queens Campus or making an appointment with the University Archives and Special Collections Department at archives@stjohns.edu.

For more information about the Mary Garden at St. John’s, please contact Andrea Oliva Florendo at florenda@stjohns.edu.

 

Perfecting APA bibliographies generated by Bibliographic Managers

APA tutorial: screenshot features Journal citations.

Even if you use a bibliographic manager to generate citations and/or bibliographies, it is always a good idea  to check the final version of your citations and bibliography against an authoritative Citation guide. The Citation Styles Libguide has links to some of the more commonly used citation styles, including APA, MLA, Turabian; additionally, you might check with the Reference desk or the Writing Center for a guide in book form.  One of our “frequently asked questions” is about the inclusion (or not) of URLs in APA journal citations:  the Citation Styles hosts a link to  the Basics of APA style, which may help you with the finer points of spacing, placement of URLS, etc.

Here also a link to a short  video that focuses on the “journal article”  slide of the APA tutorial, so that you can see several versions of what a Journal Article might look like in an APA bibliography and see what adjustments you may need to make if you are using Refworks or Zotero to auto-generate bibliographic information.

 

Women and Social Movements: New Databases for Historical Research

“Transnationalism” has become a buzzword in scholarship over the past decade. As residents in an increasingly global society, scholars and students have been drawn to learn more about people from different parts of the world in both the present and the past.

Accessing historical archives in different nations can be a challenge, however. Few of us have the time or the resources to travel abroad to conduct research. Projects to digitize primary sources materials hold a great deal of promise for those of us who would like to learn more about historical developments in other nations and about international organizations.

Women and Social Movements, International, 1840- Present, a new database now available through the Saint John’s University Libraries, demonstrates the promise of on-line resources for conducting transnational research in history, women’s studies, political science, and global studies. Edited by Kathryn Kish Sklar and Thomas Dublin, two leading scholars of United States women’s history, the database offers evidence and interpretation of women’s activism around the world from the 1840s through the present.

The database, which is still being expanded, includes 3,900 hundred primary sources.  These documents include diaries, letters, proceedings of international conferences and publications of women’s organizations.  Lest this scope of material seem overwhelming, the editors have created numerous ways to search for information, from keywords and organizational names, to thematic groupings such as “Political and Human Rights” and “Women and Development.”  This summer, a group of twenty-five scholarly essays will be added to the site, including my discussion of the International Federation of Working Women, 1919-1924.

Faculty and students seeking to better understand the global reach of women’s activism will find Women and Social Movements, International a welcome addition to their research, whether they are starting projects or searching for new, international examples of phenomena they have observed in a single national setting.

For similar content related to the United States, use Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000. This database contains 53,000 pages of full-text documents, written by over 2,200 authors.

Lara Vapnek

Associate Professor

Department of History

St. John’s University

 

Readings and Conversation with Caribbean Writers

St. John’s University is hosting two contemporary Caribbean authors, Diana McCaulay and Yolaine M. St. Fort, for an afternoon of readings, conversation, and book signing. Please join us for this special event on the Queens Thursday, April 19.

Diana and Yolaine will be on the Queens campus at the Belson/Finley Hall Law School Atrium, 4^th Floor from 1:45 PM –3:00 PM during the Common Hour for readings, discussion, and book signings of their works.

Lunch is included. Click here to RSVP.  Students can earn 4 MVP points for attendance at this event — remember to bring your STORMcards!

For further information about the event on the Queens campus, contact Mary Siconolfi at 718.990.1869 or email siconolm@stjohns.edu.

To complement this event, a special exhibition of “Notable Caribbean Authors” will open on Friday March 30^th on the fourth floor of the Queens Campus Library.  It features highlights of the life and works of Diana McCaulay and Yolaine M. St. Fort, along with the writings and edited works of other Caribbean writers, such as Jamaica Kincaid, Michelle Cliff, Merle Hodge and Erroll Hill.

Macaulay’s and St. Fort’s works are available now via reserve for loan at the Service Desk in the Library (St. Augustine Hall).

For more information about the authors or the event, please click HERE.

______________________________________________________________________________

This event is sponsored by sponsored by The President’s Multicultural Advisory Committee; The Office of the Provost; Division of Student Affairs; Committee for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS); University Libraries; Academic Affairs Committee (SGI); Haraya, the Pan-African Students Coalition; Caribbean Students Association.

In partnership with: Caribbean Cultural Theatre

 

Food for Fines – Spring, 2012

Monday, March 26 – Friday, May 11, 2012

Students who return their overdue books to either the Queens or Staten Island Circulation Desks between March 26 and May 11, 2012 with donations of non-perishable food items will have their fines waived (see Suggested Food Items below).

One food item will erase one overdue fine regardless of the fine amount (multiple fines will be waived from lowest to highest amount).

Pre-existing overdue fines are also eligible.

Fines and fees resulting from lost or damaged library materials are NOT eligible for the Food for Fines program.

All food collected will go to Our Saviour Lutheran Food Pantry (Queens) and Project Hospitality (Staten Island)

Suggested Food Items:

Cereals, canned soup, instant potatoes, Jell-O, canned juice, canned vegetables, evaporated milk, canned fruit, peanut butter, canned meat, canned fish, rice, pasta, canned spaghetti sauce, stuffing mix, etc.

Pet food and baby food will also be accepted. 

No item past the expiration date or dented cans will be accepted.

 

Chinese Paper Cutting Demonstration

Date: March 16, 2012

Time: 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM

Location: Chin Ying Asian Library

At Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall

Chinese Paper Cutting, also known as Jianzhi (剪纸) in Chinese, is a unique folk art form and has a long history since the Han Dynasty (206 B.C. – 220 A.D.). Originally, it was only popular among the nobility since paper was highly precious at that time. Later, the art spread among the ordinary people and became a part of everyday life of Chinese.

Usually, paper cuttings are used in Chinese Spring Festivals. People like to put them at the entrance gates in the hope of bringing good luck for the family, or stick them to windows as decorations.

Chinese New Year began on January 19th, and it is the year of the Dragon. We have invited Mrs. Esther Cheng (鄭繼芳), one of the local paper cutting artists, and several other artists – Tang Hua, Qi Hong, Hsin Ping, Judy Lin, Mary Lin, and Joyce Wells –to come to the library for a demonstration of the art.

Mrs. Cheng began practicing paper cutting while she was a college student in Taiwan more than 20 years ago. She was a teacher for the paper cutting classes organized by Yeh Ying Chi International Benevolent Foundation (葉穎基國際慈善基金會) in Flushing in recent years. At this demonstration, you will learn some basic and advanced paper cutting skills and have the opportunity to practice these skills as well.

Please bring your own scissors if you can.

Everyone is welcome!  If you would like to attend the workshop, please contact: Tian Zhang via  phone (718) 990-5082  or email: zhangt@stjohns.edu

 

EBSCOhost Launches New App for Android, iPhone

EBSCOhost recently launched a mobile app for Android and iPhone, making it much easier to find and read articles on those devices. The app is fairly intuitive, and reproduces many of the features of the regular version, including saving and e-mailing articles, and limiting to a specific journal or date range. By default, the app searches all of EBSCOhost’s databases simultaneously, so users who are looking for information from a specific discipline may want to limit their search to a specific database, a list of which may be found by clicking on settings, at the bottom of the page.

Users should be aware that the EBSCOhost app does not use natural language, meaning you will not retrieve useful search results if you simply enter a string of search terms. For example,

mitt romney south carolina retrieved only 42 articles

mitt romney and south Carolina retrieved 711 articles

There are a couple of minor flaws in this app – the autocomplete feature under settings does not seem to work, for example. Neither does the button for re-sorting search results by publication date.

Nonetheless, the EBSCOhost app is a welcome development, and is far preferable to using the regular version of EBSCO on your smart phone.

To install the EBSCOhost app on your Android or iPhone, go to any EBSCO database through the SJ Libraries home page, such as

Academic Search Premier

Then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click New! EBSCOhost iPhone and Android Applications. This will prompt you for your e-mail address, to which EBSCO will send a key and instructions for downloading the EBSCOhost app.