Policy from 8AM Sunday, November 22 through 11PM December 22, 2015:
We have had many complaints from students about Group Study Rooms being monopolized during Finals for 24, 36, or even 48 hours straight. So we created this policy to set time limits on the use of Group Study Rooms during Finals, with fines in place for going over time. This new policy, successfully piloted in Spring 2015, ensures a turnover of the rooms so that more students have access to them.
How it works:
2 Students present both their ID’s to get a room key.
Both students must return the key after 8 hours.
The late fee is $3.00 every 15 minutes ($12.00 per hour) for each student.
There is a 10-minute grace period for returning the key.
If Rooms are all Taken:
If all rooms are busy, sign up on the wait list with ID.
Both those students must be present to later claim the room.
Leave 2 phone numbers.
Staff will text when the room is free.
Student will have 15 minutes to claim the room.
Please note that our goal isnotto collect more fine monies. The goal is to distribute the rooms more widely for more students to use them during finals.
The library has made a significant investment in new resources in in the area of Judaeo-Christian studies. These databases and encyclopedias were acquired to support of the Institute of Judaeo-Christian Studies’ Master of Arts in Jewish-Christian Studies program, as well as the University’s broad religious studies mission and tradition, including Catholic Studies, Religious Studies and Theology.
The Library is grateful for the support of both the Institute of Judaeo-Christian Studies, and the Foundation for Judaeo-Christian Studies that supervises the gift of Ms. H. Suzanne Jobert. The Sharp-Jobert fund for books remembers Father James Sharp, an SHU reference librarian, and Ms. Jobert.
Excellent resource for all those interested in understanding and exploring the history of Jewish communities in America from their first arrival in New York in 1654 to the integral part that they play today.
The religion area of OHO provides new essays on critical topics and emerging issues in the study of religion, complementing hundreds of essays on Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism and cross-cultural thematic studies that are part of the rich trove of Oxford Handbooks in religion.
Oxford Islamic Studies Online features reference content and commentary by renowned scholars in areas such as global Islamic history, concepts, people, practices, politics, and culture.
More detail regarding the Walsh Library’s resources in these areas can be found in the Judaeo-Christian Studies research guide.
Supercharge your research skills at the United Nation’s World Statistics Day. We are having an interactive program at Walsh Library’s 2nd Floor on Tuesday, October 20th, from 4:30-6:30 p.m. See data visualization demonstrations from SHU Faculty across disciplines. The program will feature informal discussions with the School of Diplomacy and International Relations, the Department of Mathematics, the Department of Psychology and the Department of Political Science and Public Affairs. Hope you can join us!
Learn advanced research skills with Professor Lisa DeLuca in the new Graduate Student Lounge! Master Google Scholar and our newest research tool, Browzine. This Tuesday, September 22nd from 4:30-5:30pm.
By Allison Stevens, Collections Manager | 9/8/2015
Since 1968, the lobby of Fahy Hall had been the home of the Jennings Petroglyph on the campus of Seton Hall University. On August 19, 2015, it moved to its new home on the main floor of the Walsh Library, just outside the Dean’s suite.
The Jennings Petroglyph in the Lobby of Fahy Hall, where it had been since 1968.
The petroglyph, a Native American artifact probably carved between 1,000 and 5,000 years ago, was discovered across from Dingmans Ferry in Pike County on the New Jersey side of the Delaware River in 1965. Plans to build the Tocks Island Dam, which never came to fruition, would have covered the petroglyph with a lake formed behind the dam. In order to preserve it, the petroglyph was transported to Seton Hall in 1968. The site where this petroglyph was found holds the unique distinction of being the only one ever discovered along the Delaware River.
The Fahy Hall display had to be deconstructed in order to lift the petroglyph. Here, the surrounding chicken wire and plaster are being removed.
The word petroglyph means “rock carving,” from petro, meaning “rock” and glyph, meaning “symbol.” Similar to Egyptian hieroglyphs, the symbols are used to convey meaning. Because creating petroglyphs was a difficult and time consuming process, requiring specialized tools for Native Americans to carve into the rocks, we know that their meaning is important. The meaning of the Jennings Petroglyph has been obscured over time, but it is most likely sacred. Anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures and cupules (dots and circles) are distinctive elements of this petroglyph. Herbert Kraft (1927 – 2000), Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Seton Hall University, described the glyphs as lizard-like figures or men with sexual appendages.
After some clean up, the petroglyph is strapped, lifted, and ready to be wheeled across campus.
As Collections Manager, part of my job is to document any major relocation and installation of art and artifacts on campus. Record-keeping is one of the most important aspects of museum collections work; it ensures that future generations will understand the “who, what, when, where, why, and how” something was done with the collection, as well as allow us to track the condition of objects through time. The photographs included show the various stages of the move, and the finished casework in the Walsh Library.
Moving the petroglyph was done for several reasons: to make it more accessible by putting it in a space shared by all students, the Walsh Library; to update the display which had been in place for 47 years; to free up space in Fahy Hall’s lobby; and to unite the petroglyph with the rest of the Seton Hall University Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology (SHUMAA) collection, which will be moving to a newly renovated storage area in the library. Relocating the petroglyph is the first step in this multi-year process to document, catalog, photograph, and properly store the some 26,000 objects in the SHUMAA collection, mostly Native American artifacts, to meet museum standards and to make research easier and more transparent for faculty, students, and scholars alike.
The petroglyph en route to its new home in the Walsh Library.
The cataloging of the SHUMAA collection will expand upon work spearheaded by Professor Rhonda Quinn, Assistant Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work at Seton Hall. Through diligent work over the past few years, Dr. Quinn and her students were able to digitize a few thousand of the original paper records created by Herbert Kraft on the artifacts into a museum collections database. Taking over these tasks as Collections Manager, I will continue the process of rediscovery of the significant and culturally invaluable artifacts in the SHUMAA collection. In addition to the petroglyph, the collection is comprised of several thousand lithic materials (stone tools and chipped stone artifacts), pottery sherds, moccasins, a headdress, textiles, clothing, woven baskets, clay pots, jewelry, and many other artifacts.
The move of the petroglyph itself required a team of art handlers, specialized equipment, and a few months of planning between several departments on campus. Walsh Library and Gallery staff met with art handlers to plan the move, Facilities Engineering to make sure that the proposed space in the library met ADA requirements for accessibility, and a structural engineer to ensure that the building could bear the weight of a one ton rock. In addition, the South Orange Fire Marshall had to inspect the space to make sure it met fire code regulations. It also meant coordinating with the Dean of Arts and Sciences, Dr. Chrysanthy Grieco, and her staff to confirm that the schedule worked with both Fahy Hall and the Walsh Library.
The petroglyph in its new display, outside the Dean’s Suite in Walsh Library.
Now that the Jennings Petroglyph is in its new home, we welcome you to come visit and form your own ideas about the meaning behind these enigmatic, sacred carvings.
The Curriculum Resource Center will become the Graduate Student Lounge space Monday – Thursday, 4:30PM-7:30PM for the first 11 weeks of the semester. Aside from 2 hard-wired Mac computers, a digital projector and monitor, whiteboard and flexible group seating, the room will be staffed by trained graduate students who can provide basic information regarding resources on campus such as the ID process, course registration, parking, career services, PirateNet, IRB documents, and classroom locations. In addition, ‘guest’ presenters from various areas, such as financial aid and library services, may participate at key points in the semester when those services are most needed. And of course the Library is always staffed with Reference librarians, technology help, and specialized information consultation services which can be scheduled. This space provides support for the range of needs and issues that graduate students face: quiet space, group study space, research support, IT support, presentation practice/equipment, and an opportunity to connect with other graduate students.
Curriculum Resource Center / Graduate Student Lounge
Enhance your research this semester with the following new databases:
Early American Newspapers, Series I (1690-1876)
First World War: Personal Experiences
IOP Science
Jewish Life in America, c1654-1954
JSTOR / Religion & Theology
Medieval and Early Modern Sources Online (MEMSO)
Scopus
Statistical Abstracts
Check out a new feature of the library’s SHUsearch. “Research Starters” give a brief overview of many broad topics. This can be very useful for student research papers. Try typing Global Warming in the search box on the library home page.
The Library’s interlibrary loans services, which consist of ILLiad, RapidILL, and EZ-Borrow, will be unavailable between December 23, 2014 – January 5, 2015.
Please note that the Library will be closed from December 24 until January 5.
On Saturday January 3, 2015, the Library will be undergoing a scheduled technology upgrade. During this upgrade, certain online search features will not be available for approximately 15 hours.
The following search features will be available to users on that day:
Check out the The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Digital Library.
ACM publishes, distributes, and archives original research and firsthand perspectives from the world’s leading thinkers in computing and information technologies. ACM offers over two dozen publications that help computing professionals negotiate the strategic challenges and operating problems of the day.
