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Saint Josephs University

May 6, 2013
by Drexel Library
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The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood – It’s What We’re Reading

 
May  2013 A monthly offering from Drexel Library’s staff about the books we’ve read.

The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood
by James Gleick

In his latest work, The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood, James Gleick discusses the recognition and role of information, as well as its communication and storage, culminating with its seemingly endless and inescapable modern appearance. Gleick guides us through the long-developing chain of understanding and technological progress from the earliest writing, to the supercomputer, to the current devices we carry in our pockets. Gleick continues until arriving at our stage on the continuum of developments in the communication and accessibility of information, and what’s more, of the very idea and understanding of what “information” entails.

The Information tells of the human endeavor to transmit, compile, and store data on all matters deemed necessary and those which only later find importance and usefulness. Communication systems, beginning with written language, foster the means through which we transmit information across distances and ever-widening audiences. Each communication type in turn spawns peripheral developments to standardize, regulate, “fool-proof” (and sometimes encode), and increase efficiency.

The Information is highly recommended for anyone interested in seeing how dictionaries, logarithms, telegraphs, supercomputers, and smart phones share a common bond, compounding centuries of work and desires for progress in the field of information transmission, storage, accessibility, and the unending desire to do all things faster.

This book can be found in the First Floor Book Shelves in the South Wing on the first floor of the Library.

April 23, 2013
by Drexel Library
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May 2nd 11am-3pm De-stress with Dog Therapy

Finals Week Stress Relief
Paws for a Study Break
Thursday, May 2
11:00am – 3:00pm
Atrium, Post Learning Commons

The Francis A. Drexel Library and the Learning Resource Center are happy to welcome back dogs from Therapy Dogs International for a day of de-stressing!
Take a break and sit with one of these delightful dogs.

For more information take a look at the Therapy Dogs International Informational Video.

April 4, 2013
by Drexel Library
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Inside Scientology: The Story of America’s Most Secretive Religion – It’s What We’re Reading

 
April  2013

A monthly offering from Drexel Library’s staff about the books we’ve read.

A Buddha in the Attic Inside Scientology: The Story of America’s Most Secretive Religion
by Janet Reitman

Whether you view Scientology as a con, a cult, or a religion, its history is endlessly fascinating, as evidenced by the number of recent newspaper and magazine articles, books, and websites on the subject. Rumors of brainwashing, spying, kidnapping, stalking, and even torture have followed Scientology for years, but only in the last decade have details on the church’s core beliefs and recruitment tactics come to light in the mainstream media. Rollingstone contributing editor Janet Reitman has written Inside Scientology: The Story of America’s Most Secretive Religion, one of the latest in a series of recent books on L. Ron Hubbard’s mysterious movement.

Equally entertaining and frightening, Inside Scientology grew out of Reitman’s five years researching the subject, leading to a lengthy 2006 Rollingstone article and eventually this book. Reitman’s talent for interviewing current and former members and skill in accessing classified church documents gives an authenticity to information that would otherwise be considered so outlandish that it borders on comical. Although not quite as detailed as Lawrence Wright’s more recent Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief, Inside Scientology is an extensive accounting of the controversial religion’s first 60 years. It’s hard to put down.

April 2, 2013
by Drexel Library
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Happy Birthday Post Learning Commons!

Happy Birthday Post Learning Commons!

 

Isn’t it hard to believe it’s been a year since the John and Maryanne Hennings Post Learning Commons opened its doors?
The Post Learning Commons has become such an integral part of campus life that it seems like it’s been here all along.

The impact of the Post Learning Commons is astounding in just its first year –

  • student library usage is up by 70 percent,
  • we have exceeded 77,000 visitors in one month,
  • nearly one in four students visits four or more times a week,

And most importantly, our students have made this special place their own.

To celebrate this milestone for the University, please join us for Birthday Cake on Thursday, April 4, 2013 at 1 p.m. in the atrium of John R. Post ’60 Academic Center.

 

March 15, 2013
by Drexel Library
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Ex libris: The Rare Book Collection of Jean Heck, Ph.D., Haub School of Business

Ex libris: The Rare Book Collection of Jean HeckEx libris: The Rare Book Collection of Jean Heck, Ph.D., Haub School of Business

Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J., Special Collection Rooms (3rd Floor)
John and Maryanne Hennings Post Learning Commons

Jean Heck, Ph.D., the Brian Duperreault ’69 Chair for Risk Management and Insurance in the Haub School of Business, is an avid bibliophile and collector of rare books. This exhibit features a number of books from Dr. Heck’s collection. While most of these books are from the early modern period (1500 until the French Revolution [1789]), some are from earlier or later periods. In the former category is an incunabulum of  St. Jerome’s commentary on St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians (Venice, 1498) and in the latter, a handsome Jesuit atlas of 1900.

The books in this exhibition are divided into four thematic sections. First, there are the sacred texts of Judaism and Islam: a Torah scroll on sheepskin of c. 1500, and the first English translation of the Koran directly from Arabic (1734). Next, are several Christian Bibles:

· the 1579 Louvain edition of the Vulgate (the late 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible prepared by St. Jerome [c. 342-420])

· the 1639 edition of the King James Bible—a seminal work that influenced innumerable writers and thinkers, including Lincoln, Melville, Faulkner, Hemingway, and Martin Luther King, Jr., among many others

· Richard Challoner’s version of the Douay-Rheims Catholic Bible, which took as its base text the King James Bible.

The third thematic grouping focuses on key texts of the early modern Catholic renewal and Protestant Reformation. Here is seen a volume of Martin Luther’s complete works (Wittenberg, 1561), the decrees of the Council of Trent (1545-63) and the post-Tridentine edition of the Code of Canon Law, and the 1540 version of the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus and the briefer Rules of the Society of Jesus.

The final section is devoted to the history and ministry of the Jesuits:

· its missionary activity (a 16th-century stone glyph from a Jesuit reduction in Peru, a Jesuit atlas that documents—with polychrome maps—Jesuit provinces and missions worldwide, and a volume of late 18th-century letters from Jesuit missionaries in India)

· examples of the primacy Jesuits gave to the “word,” be it written, spoken, or printed (notably, an extremely rare copy of the Italian translation of Pedro de Ribadeneira’s biography of St. Ignatius of Loyola (Venice, 1587), illustrated with an elegantly engraved portrait of the saint, and an edition of St. Robert Bellarmine’s The Eternal Happiness of the Saints (Lyon, 1618) published during the author’s lifetime [1542-1621])

· two examples of anti-Jesuit literature of the kind that eventually led to the Society’s suppression in 1773

Through this exhibition, Dr. Heck wants to share the joy that rare books have given him with his colleagues and the students of Saint Joseph’s University. This exhibit complements the university’s own Jesuitica Collection, maintained in the Special Collections Room and available for study by users of the university library.

An 8-page printed guide is available at the exhibit venue that provides a narrative context for understanding the books exhibited.

The exhibit will be on display through May .

For more information, please contact:

Rev. Joseph F. Chorpenning, O.S.F.S., S.T.L., Ph.D.
Editorial Director
Saint Joseph’s University Press
5600 City Avenue
Philadelphia, PA  19131-1395
U.S.A.

E-mail: jchorpen@sju.edu
Tel. 610/660-1214

March 12, 2013
by Drexel Library
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Chew on this…Books & Lunch 3/22/13: April Lindner


 

 

 

Friday March 22, 2013
Noon – 1:30pm
Wachterhauser Seminar Room
2nd floor, Post Learning Commons

Take a break and join us for lunch!

lindner
April Lindner, Ph.D.
Professor of English

 

 

 

CatherineApril Lindner will read selections from her new book, Catherine.

This will be followed by a brief question and answer session.

A light lunch will be served. Hope to see you there!