Welcome back to campus for our returning students, faculty, and staff, and a very special welcome to those of you who are at SHU for your first semester!
Here are the answers to some commonly asked questions about the library. If you don’t see the answer to your question here or need more help, please reach out to us: Ask Us page and FAQs.
Need help seeing if the library has your textbook? Search our library catalog for the book (video tutorial on how to search), or check our Course Reserves to see if your professor left a copy for your class to use. For help with textbook purchases or rentals, visit the SHU Bookstore.
Stephen Bacchetta is the Records Manager and Digital Archivist at Seton Hall University. As the Records Manager for the university, he manages the storage and security of records from departments around campus that must be retained for operational, historical, and legal reasons. In his archival role, Stephen’s primary responsibility is with SHU-related collections. He helps support the departmental initiative of making our digital objects accessible to the public by working with Seton Hall’s collection management system and digital preservation software. Stephen is a graduate of the MI program at Rutgers University and earned a B.A. in English from Montclair State University.
1. How long have you been working at the library?
Two months.
2. What was the last book you read that you really enjoyed?
The Thursday Murder Club. I’m in a murder mystery book club and this was one of my favorites so far!
3. What is the best way to rest / decompress?
Get into bed early, put on some relaxing music, and do a crossword puzzle.
4. What superpower would you want?
The ability to fly so I won’t have to sit in traffic anymore.
5. Do you have a favorite sports team?
It’s a tie between the New York Giants and the New York Mets. Depends if it’s football or baseball season!
6. What person living or dead would you like to have dinner with?
Any of my favorite comedians! Steve Martin, Norm MacDonald, Jerry Seinfeld, Daniel Tosh, the list goes on and on…
Ryan Fino is the Library Technology Coordinator for the University Library. He handles the technical support, manages the tech projects and does some of the tech purchasing on behalf of the staff and faculty in the library. He graduated from Lehigh University with a degree in Computer Engineering and is nearing the completion of his MBA in IT Management from our very own Stillman School of Business! In his free time he enjoys video games with friends and golfing with his father.
How long have you been working at the library? I started in May 2017 so I will be starting my 5th year this May.
What was the last book you read that you really enjoyed?
Technically the last book was Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson but the whole Stormlight Archive series is a must read for any fantasy fan!
Print book or ebook? Audiobook! I consume most books on my way to and from work! However, without that option, print book.
What is your favorite spot on campus? Before it was removed, I really enjoyed going to The Cove and getting their Boland Pizza.
Do you have a favorite sports team?
The main sport that I follow is football and my team is the New Orleans Saints, fitting for our Catholic University, I would say! 😉
What person living or dead would you like to have dinner with?
Bruce Dickinson, the lead singer of Iron Maiden would have so many amazing stories to tell!
Attendees of the 2022 Art + Feminism Edit-a-thon at Walsh Gallery at Seton Hall University will learn how to edit and create Wikipedia pages for artists who are women, gender diverse, and/or people of color. Building on the work done since this program began in 2020, attendees will enrich and expand the presence of women in this widely read digital resource, which is also the foundation of many linked data projects. The goal of the workshop is to amplify the voices of artists and cultural workers who are often underrepresented in digital resources. Read more about the Art+Feminism non-profit. The Walsh Gallery and the Walsh Library will host Seton Hall’s third Art+Feminism Wikipedia edit-a-thon in partnership with Art House Productions, Hudson County Community College, Paul Robeson Galleries at Express Newark, Rutgers University – Newark, and The Feminist Art Project, a program of the Rutgers Center for Women in the Arts and Humanities.
Information for Attendees:
• The event will begin at 11am with an introduction to artists that consciously engage with gender issues in their work, then segue into instruction on editing Wikipedia at 12pm.
• Instruction will be interspersed with opportunities to get hands-on practice, making an immediate impact on the project of enriching description of women artists on Wikipedia.
• A Wikimedia affiliate will be present to guide and support successful editing work.
• Attendees will be encouraged to use their new skills to create or edit a Wikipedia page. We will provide a list of artists who do not have Wikipedia pages or whose pages need edits, and attendees are more than welcome to create or edit pages for artists not on the provided list.
• Attendees who have already edited Wikipedia are encouraged to attend and to work on editing artist pages, as well as support new editors.
• The workshop will conclude with the provision of resources and community support to continue this editing work.
The event will feature closed captions autogenerated by Zoom. To request ASL interpreters, please email info@arthouseproductions.org at least 72 hours before the event.
Presented by:
Walsh Gallery at Seton Hall’s University Libraries
Paul Robeson Galleries at Rutgers Newark
Art House Productions
The Feminist Art Project
Hudson County Community College Cultural Affairs
Did you know that all first-year students enrolled in University Life complete our app-based library scavenger hunt for course credit? See below to check out some highlights.
The app, created by members of our Library Instruction Committee (Brooke Duffy, Gerry Shea, Chelsea Barrett, Kaitlin Kehnemuyi, with consultation from Archivist Sheridan Sayles), was conceived in 2019 by Brooke Duffy, Coordinator of Instruction Librarian and Hezal Patel, Assistant Dean of the Center for Academic Success. Prior to 2019, first-year students took a librarian-led group tour of the library as part of University Life.
This self-guided, app-based scavenger hunt allows students to learn at their own pace about all of the many resources the library offers and to become comfortable in the space. Students are also asked to complete small tasks and answer questions to check their knowledge along the way. Last year we added a theme to the scavenger hunt loosely based on the Stranger Things television series on Netflix. This year we offer both an in-person version of the app and an entirely virtual version.
Here is the “trailer” for the Scavenger Hunt, introducing our team of instruction librarians!
Below are some screenshots from the scavenger hunt app, which is hosted by the ActionBound platform.
Happy Caribbean American Heritage Month! Chelsea Barrett, Business Librarian / Africana Studies Liaison, in partnership with Sarah Ponichtera, Assistant Dean for Special Collections & the Gallery, have compiled a list of information on Caribbean American culture, life, and history.
Resources A Proclamation on National Caribbean-American Heritage Month, 2021
President Joseph Biden’s statement on Caribbean Heritage Month where he speaks on the importance of Caribbean Americans, including Vice President Kamala Harris and honoring others that have contributed to the nation’s progression.
Caribbean American Heritage Month: Caribbean History and Culture
The U.S. Department of the Interior highlighted information on Caribbean History and Culture from a governmental perspective. See information on Caribbean-related legislation, Caribbean demographics, music, food and much more!
Archives and Special Collections The SHU Archives and Special Collections would like to highlight MSS 36, The Cause of Pierre Toussaint. This collection documents the activism of two individuals who sought to have Pierre Toussaint, the 18th century Haitian American former slave turned New York philanthropist buried at St. Patrick’s, canonized as a saint. The collection includes letters of these individuals to figures in the Catholic Church, including Archbishops and the Pope advocating for this cause, photographs of his former burial place and re-burial at St. Patrick’s, and poems written in support of the cause. The materials are mainly from the 1990s.
Walsh Library is pleased to partner with various departments and committees across campus in support of AAPI Heritage Month! Learn more about AAPI Heritage with the following Library Resources.
Read AAPI Heritage Month Virtual Book Display We selected fiction and non-fiction books from authors of a wide variety of AAPI backgrounds and experiences, including All Over Creation by Ruth Ozeki, All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung, and The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri.
Drs. Xue-Ming Bao and Alan Delozier of the University Libraries compiled the following bibliographies of resources:
Art & Visual Culture The Walsh Gallery at Seton Hall has a long history of exhibiting and collecting art by AAPI artists. Take a glance through some of these materials pulled together by Gallery Director Jeanne Brasile.
Guest blog post by Thanelie Bien-Aime, a senior biology major and president of the Black Student Union (BSU)
I didn’t grow up celebrating Kwanzaa and my first real experience with it was through BSU. Coming into college, I experienced a new sense of Black pride. Through Africana classes and organizations like the Black Student Union, I embraced the connectedness of Pan-Africanism and learned more about black culture, social justice, activism, and community service. Each year, the BSU would host a program to teach and celebrate Kwanzaa, and there would always be community members who had personal stories of the Holiday to share. For example Ghana Hylton, who works within Student Services at SHU, has assisted BSU for the past 2 years to facilitate engaging and informative content. Our main goal is not only to teach the history of the holiday but for people, especially those of African descent, to understand why it is relevant to them.
Kwanzaa’s 7 principles are Umoja (Unity), Kujichagulia (Self-Determination), Ujima (Collective Work), Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics), Nia (Purpose), Kuumba (Creativity), and Imani (Faith). All of these principles are significant to my various roles; health advocate, performing artist, student leader, community member, and the list goes on. Kwanzaa empowers my identity and emphasizes my connection to the world. You might not celebrate Kwanzaa with all of the traditional customs or symbols but celebrating can be as simple as allowing the principles to positively change you, your relationships, and your work. Like many holidays, it’s a time that emphasizes reflection, giving, family, community, and culture.
I would suggest taking a look at BSU’s Instagram page @setonhallbsu. We have uploaded Ghana’s Kwanzaa 101 video and our saved IG Live program from earlier this month. We’ll also continue sharing some more Kwanzaa content.
Kwanzaa will begin on Saturday, December 26, 2020 and end on Friday, January 1, 2021.
Portrait of Monsignor Fahy by John Canfield, untitled publication by the Seton Hall Office of Public Relations, 1976, held the Priest Vertical Files of the Archdiocese of Newark, Box 24
I learned about Monsignor Fahy in the spring semester of 2018. It was at an intergenerational panel discussion at the Walsh Library of former Seton Hall student-activist leaders. The event was organized by the Concerned 44, an activated student group. The panel discussion was a teach-in about the history of protest on Seton Hall’s campus and discussion about the progress of the then student movement. You can follow the Concerned 44 on Instagram. If it weren’t for this panel discussion I would not have learned about President Fahy and I’d still be pronouncing Fahy Hall wrong. As an alumna, I can’t help but be angry that it took this long. I became more interested and invited colleagues into the journey of getting to know Fahy.
Alan Delozier, University Archivist, did the work to uncover the Fahy Inaugural address which is as relevant today as it was 50 years ago. The CORE has integrated the speech as a required reading for the Journey of Transformations course. And this article intends to showcase a digital
Monsignor Fahy with the leadership of the Black Studies Program, Newark Star Ledger, April 21, 1975
communal reading of the text as an activist performance practice. The point of the project is to position the text and its ethos as a cultural imprint on our collective memory. To me, Fahy is a white anti-racist abolitionist ancestor who risked and used his power to benefit others. Social justice is a term we’re hearing a lot. What is it? How do you define it? What does it look like? Everyone will have a different answer. I define it as: righting a wrong. If it doesn’t right a wrong, it is not justice. Not only did Fahy leverage his power to right a wrong with some of the most impactful undertakings of Seton Hall’s history but he acknowledged the problem. Often, we rush to solutions without first doing the self interrogation to name the problem. He used this moment, his inaugural address, when everyone was listening and we’re still listening 50 years later.
The video, this collective recitation, brings many voices together for one message. Faculty and students, separate, but together. It carves a lineage. There are protests now as there were 50 years ago. In the streets and on our campus.
Greg Iannarella offers insight into what moved him to gravitate toward one of the most unwavering parts of Fahy’s speech, “This section always felt really powerful to me. The description, the intentional language, invoking real scenes and real communities, conjuring the people! It’s a moment where he turns the gaze outward and challenges the audience to see what is relevant.”
Participants were encouraged to think about their location as a backdrop. These choices offer additional meaning and subtext. Virtual performance lets us become our own set designers. Brooke Duffy presented her portion outside of a new school. “It is a public elementary school in Teaneck that was recently renamed for Theodora Smiley Lacey, a civil rights activist, ‘living legend.’ The NorthJersey.com website describes, ‘it was because of her efforts that Teaneck became the first city in the United States to voluntarily integrate its public schools.’”
Program of Monsignor Fahy’s Inaugural Address, October 14, 1970, from the Priest Vertical Files held by the Archdiocese of Newark, Box 24.
This isn’t the last we’ll hear of Fahy’s address. Jon Radwan describes a new participatory oral history project designed to ensure access, inclusion, and equity in its research process to document and preserve the entirety of this part of the University’s history. “We are confident that the Inaugural Address is only the beginning of learning about Msgr. Fahy’s social justice leadership. Our recent proposal to the New Jersey Council for the Humanities seeks funding for a large scale oral history project. We plan to contact alumni, faculty, and administrators who worked closely with Fahy to record their stories about SHU’s collaboration with Newark activists to launch the Black Studies Center.” To support this project please contact Angela Kariotis and Jon Radwan.
Centering historical figures creates their own mythology. Retrospectives are not without their limitations. But there are so few white allies to look up to for this work. Allies must dig deep, activating themselves, stepping into their consciousness. We can extend the Fahy legacy and course correct. Like 50 years ago, it is a transformative yet fragile time. We must have the will to meet it.
Jacquelyn Deppe is a Special Collections Assistant here at Walsh Library. She works in the Msgr. William Noé Field Archives and Special Collections Center and is a jack of all trades. She works on numerous projects including helping people with their genealogy research, copy-cataloging rare books and publications, processing collections, and does the bulk of the library’s design and social media work, in addition to anything else that comes up!
How long have you been working at the library?
As a full-time employee, I’ve been working in the Archives and Special Collections Center since 2018 (2 years) but technically, I’ve been here since 2014 (6 years) when I started out as a Student Worker.
What was the last book you read that you really enjoyed?
I don’t remember and to be honest, I haven’t picked up a book to read leisurely since I started my Masters of Information program at Rutgers University. Hopefully, that’ll change once I’m finished in January 2021 (fingers crossed and knock on wood) but we’ll see, I have plans to pursue a second Masters from Seton Hall University.
What is the best way to rest / decompress?
Either trail running or going for long difficult hikes up mountains and/or through the woods next to streams, brooks, rivers and/or lakes and ponds that are rather lightly travelled. I have not seen a bear yet even though I have apparently walked right by them. However, I can spot other critters including little bitty lizards munching on crickets!
What is something most people don’t know about you?
I work downstairs.
Are you a morning person or a night owl?
Both! I can wake up a 4am and/or stay up to and well past midnight.
What’s one ingredient you put in everything?
I have a very limited diet due to various food sensitivities (gluten, soy, etc.) but one ingredient I put on almost everything is cheese (even though I’m lactose intolerant)!
