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Author: Gerard Shea
“Pirates” – The Unveiling and Embrace of the Iconic Seton Hall Nickname
Introduction
By Alan Delozier, Humanities Librarian
Beyond an educated choice of academic specializations, the selection of a nickname, mascot, school colors, special cheers, and other unique campus traditions have long been one of the most important legacies that any college or university can make to universally celebrate their respective athletic teams in particular while honoring their student, alumni, and fan base by extension. On a competitive level sports-wise, there have been an abundance of Tigers, Bulldogs, Lions, Bears, and other wildlife for example in order to show team pride and hopefully inspire fear in opponents. However, other appellations have a logical link to history including such local models as the “Queensmen” of Rutgers College (founded in 1766 as Queen’s College) and the “Vikings” of Upsala (established in 1893 by Swedish educators who noted the nickname was synonymous with Scandinavian lore). Beyond what their opponents were formulating when it came to their own respective mascot preferences, Seton Hall had its own road to image-based immortality.
Throughout its storied history, the hues of “White and Blue” have always been synonymous with Seton Hall. These colors were adopted during the nineteenth century and likely inspired by Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley whose family crest features a series of white stars affixed to a cobalt field. Additionally, Blue is associated with the Blessed Virgin Mary, one of the early patronesses of the school and associated with finding truth while White is the symbol of purity, light, and saints who were not martyred (although Elizabeth Ann Seton was not canonized until 1975, she did not achieve martyrdom). Link to full story here.
Podcast on American Catholicism Drops
We are happy to announce the latest installment of the University Libraries podcast series entitled: Zet Forward. This podcast entitled: “American Catholicism” features an interview by University Archivist, Alan Delozier, D.Litt. with Dr. Margaret McGuinness and Dr. Tom Rzeznik who collaborated on the edited work: The Cambridge Companion of American Catholicism (Cambridge University, 2021). Margaret M. McGuinness, Ph.D. is Professor of Religion at La Salle University. Thomas F. Rzeznik, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of History at Seton Hall University and coeditor of the quarterly journal, American Catholic Studies. He is author of Church and Estate: Religion and Wealth in Industrial-Era Philadelphia (2013). This podcast covered a number of topics within the American Catholic experience in both a historical and contemporary context.
You can find this podcast at Podcast @ Seton Hall University. Please check it out along with our other sessions conducted by Professor Chelsea Barrett and Professor Gerry Shea.
Zet Forward is a podcast to celebrate authors and other individuals who are involved with projects for the benefit of Seton Hall University and the wider world. The series began in February of 2022.
Dr. Chistopher Tienken Joins Zet Forward Podcast
We are happy to announce the second episode of the libraries’ new podcast series, Zet Forward, dropped in March. In the episode, Gerry Shea, Communication Librarian at Walsh Library, talks with Dr. Christopher Tienken from the College of Education & Human Services about his book The School Reform Landscape Reloaded: More Fraud, Myths, and Lies.
Dr. Tienken is an associate professor of Education Leadership, Management, and Policy at Seton Hall University in the College of Education and Human Services. He is the former editor of the American Association of School Administrators Journal of Scholarship and Practice and the current editor of the Kappa Delta Pi Record. His research interests include school reform issues such as standardization, the influence of curriculum quality on student outcomes, and the construct validity of high-stakes standardized tests as decision-making tools. He has authored over 85 publications. His new book, with Carol Mullen, is The Risky Business of Education Policy.
You can find Dr. Tienken on Twitter @ChrisTienken and also at his website.
You can find the podcast at Podcast @ Seton Hall University. Please check it out when you have time.
University Libraries Announces New Podcast Series
We are happy to announce the first episode of the libraries’ new podcast series, Zet Forward, dropped at the beginning of February. Zet Forward is a podcast to celebrate authors and other individuals who are involved with projects for the benefit of Seton Hall University and the wider world. In the first episode, Chelsea Barrett, Business Librarian at Walsh Library, interviews Dr. Jay Liebowitz. Dr. Liebowitz is a visiting professor in the Department of Computing and Decision Sciences at Seton Hall University. He was awarded a U.S. Navy Summer Faculty Research Fellowship at the Naval Surface Warfare Center-Carderock Division (NSWC-CD) for Summers 2020 and 2021. Professor Liebowitz, who teaches in the Stillman School of Business’ M.B.A. and online M.S. in Business Analytics programs, focused his research on developing an enterprise-wide knowledge management strategy at NSWC-CD and metrics to measure the scientific and technical health of the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC-CD). The interview covered, among other topics, Dr. Liebowitz’s newest book: A Research Agenda for Knowledge Management and Analytics.
You can find the podcast at Podcast @ Seton Hall University. Please check it out when you have time.
Special Collections Receives $19,872 Grant from New Jersey Historical Commission
The Monsignor William Noe Field Archives and Special Collections has received a grant from the New Jersey Historical Commission to process its collections documenting Irish immigrant history. The project, titled “Irish Immigrant Solidarity in New Jersey, 1870-Present,” will organize and preserve an enormous collection of papers donated to the archives by John Concannon, the historian of the Ancient Order of the Hibernians, as well as three smaller collections: records of the Montclair chapter of the Knights of Columbus, the papers of James McFarland which document the activities of the Trenton branch of the Ancient Order of the Hibernians, and the records of the Ancient Order of the Hibernians from Bergen County and Rahway. These records build on Seton Hall’s long history of engagement with Irish American culture to illustrate the communal bonds that supported these immigrants as they built new lives in America. Immigrant history is a particular strength of Seton Hall’s Special Collections, and this grant will assist the archives in the preservation of this history for future generations, as well as sharing it with students and faculty today.
Mabel Wong Honored for 30 Years of Exceptional Service
Mabel A. Wong’s friendly and familiar face has been seen at Walsh Library since it opened in 1994. Mabel, the Walsh Library Circulation Supervisor, received her 30-year Seton Hall service award in March. The original ceremony was postponed last year due to the pandemic and held on Teams this year. Associate Vice President for Human Resources, Michael Silvestro, presented the service award to Mabel. University President, Dr. Joseph Nyre, also spoke at the event. Mabel was presented with a certificate and a pin to commemorate her 30 years of service to the University. Mabel has “a whole collection of pins” for each milestone year she has served at Seton Hall. Mabel was also awarded the McQuaid Medal for Distinguished Service in 2010.
Mabel, the longest tenured employee at Walsh Library, started as a circulation clerk at McLaughlin Library in April of 1989. McLaughlin Library preceded the Walsh Library on the South Orange Campus. Mabel said, “I think back to when I started and it’s a world of difference.” There was no automated circulation system and the circulation staff used punch cards to check books out. Mabel also typed out overdue notices that were sent out by mail. The circulation desk was busier because reserves were available only in print and the ten microfilm machines always had people waiting to use them. Mabel thinks things are better now because the library provides easier access to more information. The best part of the job for Mabel is talking to the students. She is still in touch through Facebook with students she knew from McLaughlin Library. Thank you to Mabel for her exceptional and dedicated service. We hope to see her friendly face at the Walsh Library circulation desk for years to come!
Come Celebrate Shakespeare at the University Libraries
To mark the 457th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth, University Libraries highlights resources focused on one of the world’s greatest playwrights.
If you would like to watch productions of Shakespeare’s most famous plays, please check out the BBC Shakespeare Plays. This collection features 37 plays produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
The New Oxford Shakespeare presents an entirely new consideration of all of Shakespeare’s works, edited from first principles from the original texts themselves, and drawing on the latest textual and theatrical scholarship. The Oxford Scholarly Editions Online brings the content of all three print volumes together as one powerful resource.
Additionally, University Libraries subscribes to some of the top Shakespeare studies journals including: Shakespeare, Shakespeare Quarterly and Shakespeare Studies. Shakespeare is a peer-reviewed journal devoted to the study of Shakespeare. It publishes articles on criticism, performance, and the history of Shakespeare and his works. Shakespeare Quarterly is peer-reviewed journal published for the Folger Shakespeare Library by the Oxford University Press. The journal publishes original works related to all aspects of Shakespeare studies. Shakespeare Studies is a peer-reviewed volume published annually with a focus on Shakespeare studies and theatre. The journal features the work of performance scholars, literary critics, and cultural historians.
Lastly, the Library provides access to subscription-based or open-access scholarly resources such as Folgerpedia, Open-Source Shakespeare, JSTOR Understanding Shakespeare, and Shakespeare in the Digital Age from the University of Notre Dame.
Ophelia Master’s Thesis Gets 2000 Hits: Mystery Solved?
The master’s thesis: Ophelia’s Mistreatment and Ignored Monastic Opportunities by Seton Hall graduate Danielle Tovsen has been downloaded nearly 2000 times since the end of 2017. Tovsen graduated from Seton Hall in 2010 with an MA in English. She argues in her thesis “that Ophelia could have saved her own life if she had left home and fled to a nunnery; the treatment she received from Laertes and Polonius was worse than Hamlet’s treatment of her throughout the play.”
Dr. Marta Deyrup, Outreach and Humanities Librarian at University Libraries, discovered the thesis while doing research on Shakespeare in the Seton Hall eRepository. The high number of downloads impressed Dr. Deyrup, which led her to contact Dr. Chrysanthy Grieco, the advisor on the thesis and both a former dean of University Libraries and chair of the English Department. Dr. Grieco could not answer why it has had close to 2000 hits, but she did say “that’s an astounding number for an MA paper.” She also guessed “that those interested in feminist texts—though I doubt this is one—found some yeast for their bread” in Tovsen’s work.
Another interesting aspect of the mystery is the location of the downloads. A good number of the downloads were from educational institutions such as the Michigan Statewide Educational Network and Orange County Department of Education. Dr. Deyrup thinks this might indicate the thesis is being used to support the research of middle and high school students.
Seton Hall University Libraries Celebrate Open Education Week 2021
Open Education Week will take place this year from Monday, March 1st — Friday, March 5th. Started in 2012, Open Education Week is an opportunity to share and learn about the latest achievements in open education. Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning or research materials that are in the public domain or released with intellectual property licenses that facilitate the free use, adaptation and distribution of resources” (UNESCO, 2019).
To coincide with Open Education Week, University Libraries is sponsoring several events:
1. Wednesday, March 3rd from 12:30pm – 1:30pm the Center for Faculty Development is presenting an online workshop — Reducing Book Costs for Students with Open Educational Resources — co-sponsored with Seton Hall University Libraries. At this workshop, Seton Hall librarians will explain the benefits of OER, demonstrate how library resources can help bring down the cost of textbooks, and provide faculty with practical tools and resources for using open textbooks in their courses. To join the workshop click here.
2. Thursday, March 4th from 3:00pm – 4:00pm join us for a roundtable discussion on the benefits and challenges of integrating open educational resources, open textbooks and/or library e-resources in your courses. If you have had experience with open materials or are interested in learning more about them, we would love to hear from you. This event is open to faculty, administrators and students – come and be heard! To join the discussion on Teams click here.
3. Friday, March 5th @ 10:30 TLTC is hostinga virtual session Leveraging Open Educational Resources. Explore the wide range of Open Educational Resources (OER) that reside in the public domain and are free to use for teaching and learning. Register here.
4. Friday, March 5th from 10:00am-12pm, then 1:00pm-3:00pm Seton Hall Librarians will provide virtual office hours for anyone who has questions about OER. Feel free to meet with:
Prof. Gerry Shea (Communication Librarian)
10:00am-12pm Join on Teams
Prof. Kyle Downey (Nursing/Heath Science Librarian)
1:00pm-3:00pm Join on Teams
Prof. Lisa Rose-Wiles (Science Librarian)
10:00am-12pm Join on Teams
1:00pm-3:00pm Join on Teams
Want to learn more about OER?
Reach out to Prof. Gerry Shea | Explore our OER Research Guide here