Summer in the Library

It's been far too long since the last post! What has happened in the time since we've been quiet? Fiona left the library; she is currently on her way to teach English in South Korea. Yay for her, definitely a loss for the library.

Here in the library, we've been talking about what's going to happen while we are down one person, and no real decisions have been made yet, but as soon as they are, I'll post something about it. In the meantime, this may be old news, but have you seen the news release about the Codex Sinaiticus?

The Codex Sinaiticus lived at the Monastery of St. Catherine in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula until 1859, when it was divided up between its home, Britain, Germany, and Russia. Basically, the Codex is the surviving pieces of a 1,600 year old Christian Bible written in Greek. Scholars from all four of the countries have agreed to collaborate and make the text of the Codex available online.

In preparation for the summer...

Here at the Cardinal Stafford Library, we are already thinking about summer! Hard to believe, but with only two weeks left of classes and finals, the library is preparing to move into "summer mode." So, without further ado, the library's academic year hours will remain in place until Thursday, May 14th, which means it'll look like this:

Mon-Thu 8AM-10PM
Fri 8AM-6PM
Sat 10AM-4PM
Sun CLOSED

Beginning Friday, May 15th, the library will go to reduced summer hours, which you can see at the top of the blog, on the right-side column of the blog, on the library's website, or the library's Facebook page, or you can read it here:

Mon-Fri 10AM-6PM
Sat-Sun CLOSED

Enjoy your break, you've worked hard for it!

¡Viva Cristo Rey!

This year, the SJVTS seminarians (with the help of a few others, notably our own Fiona!) staged a production of ¡Viva Cristo Rey! written by Cathal Gallagher and Fred Martinez. According to the Quo Vadis Theater Company,

This play takes place in Mexico during the mid-1920's. It was the administration (1924-1928) of Plutarco Elias Calles, a ruthless anti-clerical and anti-religious individual who decided to put teeth into the anti-clerical laws that had been passed over a decade before. The era marked one of the most horrific chapters in Mexico's history. It was into this hellish environment that the fun-loving jokester and troubadour Fr. Miguel Augustin Pro was thrust. Fr. Miguel was the "secret agent" of Christ. While wearing different disguises (see right, as an auto mechanic when delivering a conference to a group of chauffeurs) he managed to bring the Sacraments, hope and Christ's loving mercy to many in Mexico City and other parts of Mexico.

Pope Pius XI (1922-1939) denounced Plutarco Calles and others in his 1926 encyclical, Iniquis Afflictisque (On the Persecution of the Church in Mexico) On September 25, 1988, Fr. Pro was elevated by Pope John Paul II to blessed.

Now because we're representing the library, there's a great bibliography of Fr. Pro on Fr. Raymond Bucko's website. You could also use the search terms "miguel" and "pro" in the Cardinal Stafford Library's catalog, to determine what we have locally, in addition to the links in this posting.

Learning a foreign language?

Are you interested in learning Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, French, or Russian? Online courses in these languages and many others are available to you to free! All you need is a library card. The Denver Public Library offers this service through a product called Mango Languages. Many other libraries offer similar services, ask your friendly librarian to show you how to determine if your home library offers this product.

For example, though, if you go to the homepage of the Denver Public Library, click on Reference Resources, then click on Databases A-Z, you can scroll down to Mango Languages, and learn away!

Holy Week, Easter, and Library Hours

As we spend time this week reflecting on the time we've had this Lenten season, we have the opportunity now to look ahead to Easter. This is Holy Week, next week is Easter week, and that'll bring some changes to the library's hours. So, for this week and next week, the Cardinal Stafford Library will be open:

Holy Week
8am-10pm Monday-Wednesday
8am-4pm Thursday
CLOSED GOOD FRIDAY
CLOSED HOLY SATURDAY
CLOSED EASTER SUNDAY

Easter Week
8am-6pm Monday-Friday
10am-4pm Saturday
CLOSED SUNDAY

Regular Academic Year Hours for the Library will resume Monday, April 20th, and you can find all of this information on the Library's website. Have a blessed Easter!

Keeping up with the Library

Have you ever wondered who the first Vatican Librarian was? Or why he was chosen? You (or someone you know) may have had a conversation with Fiona or myself on how to find books, either for purchase or to borrow from the library. There are many places you can look to find this information. Or lastly, if you aren't already using a feed reader to keep up with the news you like to follow, you can go to one place to find out how to do this. This month's library newsletter, Scriptoria, has the answer to those questions as well as many others.

Passing of an era

Somehow, all of February escaped us! I also noticed that it's been a while since I've last posted here. Well, the Rocky Mountain News has left us, just a few months shy of turning 150 years old. The library still subscribes to the Denver Post, but you may be left wondering where else you might turn for daily news.

Well, if you're reading this blog, you might be reading others as well. You may also have been referring to the Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News online. There are many of these websites that use RSS feeds to publish their pages. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and is really just a tool that allows the creators of these pages to make available their frequently updated information. If a website, blog, or YouTube page updates frequently, they probably use an RSS feed to publish their information.

So what, you might be asking? How does this affect me? If you are already looking in various locations for news, you have the ability to condense all that into one location. A feed aggregator brings all this published information into one conveniently packaged place. The aggregator that I use (and Fiona too) is Bloglines. No more remembering to look at 20, 30, even 40 news sources daily, a service like Bloglines brings it all together for you.

Stop by the library anytime, and Fiona or I can show you how this technology works. This is a way of having information come to you, rather than remembering to go out and find it. For example, you could subscribe to "Saint of the Day" via Catholic.org, the Vatican's YouTube feed, the Catholic News Agency news reports, the Zenit News Agency, and even this blog. This is one stop shopping at its finest!

CPSIA and books

In case you haven't been following the news lately, there is a new law going into effect on February 10th that was passed in reaction to the lead in children's toys scare. Basically this law requires anyone selling or distributing items intending for children under 12 to have them certified to be lead free. Sounds good on the surface until those of us in the book and library world found out that this legislation has been determined to include books. The testing must be done by only select laboratories and even though books do not have lead in them, the publishers have been unable to get an exemption from this law. The American Library Association has also been unable to get a determination if libraries are exempt from the law either and if it goes into effect as written, will instruct libraries to either remove all childrens books or make libraries off-limits to children.

To read more about how this might affect you I recommend reading the blog, Musings from a Catholic Bookstore.

The law goes into effect on February 10th and if you have any kid’s products that haven’t been certified, you are required to destroy them. We have created this site to keep track of Catholic and other Christian vendor certifications so that you don’t have to contact everyone yourselves. If you do contact a vendor, please send us the information so we can update this site and save the vendors from having to answer the same question hundreds of times.

I could go on and on (and I do on my personal blog) but I thought it might be a good idea to give our faithful readers a heads up here too

End of the Semester Blues

I know everyone around here is anxious to get final exams over with and go home for the holidays but this is just a reminder than all library items need to be returned this week. If you need materials for next semester please be sure and renew them starting on Tuesday.

If you need to listen to something inspirational, try one of my favorite radio shows, Speaking of Faith. This week Krista Tippett has a conversation with Parker Palmer in which they explore human and spiritual aspects of economic downturn.

You might want to check out Krista's book from the library also.

Cheers and Merry Christmas to all of our wonderful patrons

fiona

Free Online Courses

Sometimes I just can't get enough of the WEB 2.0 stuff that goes on around here. I've been twittering lately and today I got a twitter feed from another librarian providing a link to free open-source non-credit classes at Yale University - I'm ready to take Game Theory but followers of this blog might be interested in Introduction to the Old Testament or the Philosophy Department class on Death - for more free open source courses from the best US universities try Dan Colman's list at Openculture

Avast me hearties!

Thar be pirates everywhere today - some just be looking for the pillaged treats and others be looking fer treasure

if ye be hunting using our treasure map, be sure it be back here by 6 bells (3o'clock) as fine booty awaits!

Labor Day Weekend

Just as you were getting settled in, it is time to close the library for the Labor Day weekend. We will close at 6pm on Friday and re-open at 8am on Tuesday. Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy the beautiful weather.

Facebook

Are we Library 2.0 or what? The Library now has it's own Facebook page and we encourage all of our friends to become fans. Here you will find some applications, library news, and a calendar of upcoming events. It's just another way to stay in touch with the library and connect with other friends.

The Scottish Play...

The Catholic Book Club of Denver had their monthly meeting at the Cardinal Stafford Library. The format this month varied a little from the usual style. Sarah Crockarell, assistant director of Macbeth in this year's Colorado Shakespeare Festival, moderated the discussion. Topics covered were the Gunpowder Plot and its connection to the play, religious themes of the time, and analysis of the characters in the play.

As you can see from the picture, this month was a pretty good draw. More than 30 people were in attendance to participate in the conversation! So, while we are still in the middle of the hottest part of the summer, we can still enjoy fellowship and dialogue! What the picture doesn't show is all of the food and drinks that were prepared and presented. It was very nearly a feast!

Next month, the book is John by Niall Williams. Check for it at your local library; you don't have to find it at Amazon, but do come join us for the conversation.

ATLA Conference

Not too long ago, Fiona mentioned in a blog post about all of the meetings that the library was hosting where librarians would be present. I have been lucky enough this week to attend the annual American Theological Library Association conference. Conference info is here, if you’re interested.

Basically, the association exists to be a source of networking and professional development for librarians. They have a conference each year (in a different location), and hundreds of librarians descend on the city lucky enough to host us. Last year, the conference was held in Philadelphia, next year the conference will be in St. Louis, but this year the conference is June 26, 27, 28 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Some of the topics have included Facebook and Second Life in theological libraries, open access to journals for students at the theological institutions, and on like that. It’s really a great opportunity to meet other people, get new ideas, and share what we’re doing at our own libraries. Many libraries are represented: the Library of Congress, Duke University, Harvard School of Divinity, and St. Charles Borromeo are just a few examples.

While this is work, it’s also fun too. I got to tour the Parliament building in Ottawa (which is just a short walk from the conference hotel).

Summertime and the livin' is easy.......

Things are a little quieter around the library right now. Most of the Seminarians are gone for the Summer but we do have several here working on their theses.
Please be respectful of those spaces carved out by these hard working guys.

Last week we hosted a meeting of Special Librarians who are affiliated with the Colorado Association of Libraries (CAL) and were please with such a fine turnout for the day-long program "The Plight of the Special Librarian: Working With Limited Resources". Stephen Sweeney, our Reference Librarian, is Pesident-Elect of this group.
This week we will sponsor a meeting for area Theological Librarians in anticipation of the annual ATLA meeting. At least 17 librarians will be joining us for lunch on Thursday and a lively discussion about issues facing Theological Libraries. And last, but not least, on Friday we host the Intellectual Freedom Committee for CAL an their monthly meeting.
Who knew so many librarians could meet at one place in a week?

Summer Hours and other trivia

This is finals week for St. John Vianney Seminary and the stress levels are a little high. Ordinations take place on Saturday and then the library has a little respite until the summer session begins. After Memorial Day the library will only be open Monday through Friday from 8am until 6pm. These hours will remain in effect until students return during the last week of August. To celebrate the end of the year, the library staff will be participating in the fundraiser for the Capuchin Friars by collaborating as a Trivia Team, aka the Gutenbergers. Come out on May 19th for the Trivia Contest at the Cheeky Monk Belgian Beer cafe!

Edible Books

Every year, as a close as possible to April Fool's Day, the International Edible Book Festival is celebrated by bibliophiles worldwide. This year, the Cardinal Stafford Library entered the Boulder Festival with our edible scroll which had a passage from Ezekial, Chapter 3:

1 He said to me: Son of man, eat what is before you; eat this scroll, then go, speak to the house of Israel.
2 So I opened my mouth and he gave me the scroll to eat.
3 Son of man, he then said to me, feed your belly and fill your stomach with this scroll I am giving you. I ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth. He said:
4 Son of man, go now to the house of Israel, and speak my words to them.

Our first attempt at making the scroll out of unbaked phyllo dough and food coloing, shriveled and cracked and quite frankly was not so very edible (uncooked phyllo dough taste like wallpaper paste)




Our second attempt took several layers of the dough that were stuck together with a honey and butter paste, painted with the food colors and then baked at 350 for about 15 minutes - the quote had to be abbreviated but captured the essence of the passage - the proof was in the pudding as they say, because the final scroll was actually quite tasty - at the book festival I watched as one young man literally tore the scroll in half and devoured it before my eyes





the most extraordinary entry at the festival was the chocolate typewriter/pasta machine/book that was sold by the slice - quite incredible and extremely yummy

link to the Boulder Camera video about the show

It's March..and nobody's blogged

Wow - I can't believe that nobody has blogged since the Zusy dedication - ok, here is my rant .... we weren't even NOMINATED for the 2008 Catholic Blog Awards - on the other hand you might find some interesting links there


ok - I feel better now - here is what's happening at the Library this Week - not much as the Seminarians are off for Spring Break - Dr. Woodward is in Hawaii - Lyn doesn't work on Mondays - very quiet around here - almost spooky


the fire alarm went off this morning and firemen actually came - I thought it was just a test so I stayed in the library - silly me - apparently it was accidentally tripped by the maintenance guys doing some work in another part of the building




If you haven't made it to see the Icons yet, they are still here through May 12th - quite stunning

Fr. Zusy, O.P. Philosophy Library

Today the Fr. Zusy Philosophy Library will be dedicated as the newest addition to the Cardinal Stafford Library.

Fr. Zusy, who died in 2000, was the first Philosophy professor at Saint John Vianney Seminary. Because of his love for the Seminary, Fr. Zusy asked that his books be kept for everyone to use and a small Philosophy Department library was created.

With the prompting of Sister Prudence Allen, the collection has been moved to the Cardinal Stafford Library and will be formally dedicated at 3pm today. Members of the local Dominican community, of which Fr. Zusy was a member, will be in attendance, including their Vicar Provincial for Ministry, Br. Edward Van Merrienboer, O.P.

Please come and join us if you can, or feel free to visit the collection which is located on the lower level of the stacks.