Founder's Day Displays

This year, Founder's Day at USF is on September 15. To find out more about the celebration please see my previous post or the USF website.

For my part this year I've created three displays of materials from the USF Library Archives showing the history of the school and celebrating the Sisters who worked so hard to make the school what it is today.

Please take some time to visit the displays around campus. Be sure to look for familiar faces and places as you "Walk the Gospel Road" through history:

The Motherhouse - located in the display cabinets across from the Solutions Office on the 3rd floor down the hall from San Damiano Hall. This display focuses on the Sisters and the early years of their time at USF.

The Library - located in the display case just inside the main doors, across from the Circulation Desk. This display focuses on Sisters and faculty with an emphasis on more recent years.
Tower Hall: Moser Performing Arts Center Gallery - located in the portion of the Moser Gallery on either side of the ramp leading from Tower to the Music Department. This display is a timeline starting in 1925 and ending in 2009.

Coming Soon - Founder's Day

Founder's Day at USF is Tuesday, September 15th. This is the time when we celebrate our founding congregation, the Sisters of St. Francis of Mary Immaculate. They gave so much of their lives to making the school what it is today.

This year's theme is Walking the Gospel Road in Faith and the activities include:
10:30 am - Blessing of the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes in the Quad.
11:00 am - Mass in St. Joseph Chapel, Motherhouse.
Noon - Lunch in San Damiano Hall.

That evening at 7:00 pm in San Damiano Hall Sister Margaret Eletta Guider, OSF will be speaking at the Fifth Annual Bishop Imesch Women in the Church Lecture Series. Her talk is titled The Wonders and Woes of Mother Moes: Life Lessons from the Foundress on Being a Woman in the Church and the World.

Mother Alfred Moes

The USF Library Archives will be displaying materials from the Archives that celebrate the Sisters and others who have been important in the history of USF. Please take some time to look at the display when they go up next week in the Library, the Motherhouse and the Moser Performing Arts Gallery.

What's New in the Archives

As the new school year starts, I thought I would share some of the changes that took place over the summer in the USF Library Archives.

1) New Student Workers - Along with Sarah and James returning from last year, the Archives is happy to welcome Samantha. We have many projects and plans for this coming year and look forward to all the wonderful work that the students do.

2) New Online Collection - The LSTA grant project is done and the new collection is now online. Sharing Our Past - A Visual History includes images and materials from 1920 to the present covering faculty, staff, students, classes, buildings, activities, athletics and much more. Be sure to visit the collection here.

3) New Comfy Chairs - We now have three comfy recliner chairs in the Archives Reading Room. As you know, the materials in the Archives have more restricted use than the general collection. In order to provide a more comfortable and inviting area for using the materials and reading the books, we have added these chairs to the room.

New things are always happening in the Archives so check back for more updates. We're excited about what this school year will bring and hope to see many of you in the Library and the Archives.

Sharing Our Past: A Visual History

In a previous post, I explained that the USF Library Archives had won a grant from the Illinois State Library under the Institute of Museum and Library Services' Library Services Technology Act. This grant has allowed us to digitize approximately 3,000 items from our Archives' collections and create an online collection to showcase them.
This online collection called Sharing Our Past, A Visual History is now complete and open for use. It includes materials from 1925 to the present, covering Sisters, Faculty, Staff, Students, Buildings, Activities, Athletics and much more. The Sisters of St. Francis and the University of St. Francis are deeply rooted in the City of Joliet and in Will County. The history of the school provides insight into the daily and scholastic life of college students in the area, showing the changes over time in educational and social norms. This online collection is a visual representation of that history.
Please visit the collection at http://collections.carli.illinois.edu/cdm4/index_usf_share.php?CISOROOT=/usf_share or by visiting the Archives home page at http://www.stfrancis.edu/content/lib/archives.html.
**If you have additional information about any photographs or items that you see in the collection please contact the Archives at libraryarchives@stfrancis.edu. We welcome your help and support in adding to our University's memory.

Student Artwork Display

The USF Library Archives has been fortunate to receive donations of artwork from current USF students. A selection of art projects from the Spring 2008 semester are now on display in the Library. To view these pieces please visit the Student Artwork Display area on the 2nd floor of the Library. This area is outside the Center for Instructional Delivery (CID) offices, adjacent to the classrooms.


Art in this display by: Jackie Marroquin, Robbyn Yuen, Ron O'neal, Ashley Kekelik, Tricia Whybark, Brad Bourg, Jackie Oliver, Matthew Mazurowski, and Kathy High.

Online Resources

The USF Library Archives is working to create a large online collection of items from the Archives' materials called Sharing Our Past, A Visual History. (to see more about the project view this previous post). Before we share the new digital collection, I wanted to share some other worthy sites for viewing online images and information.

National Archives and Records Administration - the Nation's repository for government records. The website is full of information about the holdings and links to databases for searching through electronic records.

Library of Congress on Youtube - the Library of Congress video collection includes films dating from the earliest Edison film to the present.

Library and Archival Exhibitions on the Web - a one-stop shop database for finding online exhibits created by libraries, archives and historical societies. Updated by the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, it contains over 3,000 links.

CARLI Digital Collections - The Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries of Illinois hosts online collections from their member libraries. USF has 3 collections currently online with more to come. Please check out the Encounter Student Newspaper, the USF Library History, and the USF Catalog Covers.

The Works of the Right Reverend George Bull

George Bull was a theologian and a defender of the doctrine of the Trinity who lived from 1634 to 1710. He was born in Wells, Somerset, UK and educated at Blundell's School in Tiverton, Devon and then at Oxford University. He was ordained in 1655 and rose successfully to become the Bishop of St. David's in 1705.

After his death, his writings were published in the book The Works of the Right Reverend George Bull, D.D., Late Bishop of St. David's: translated into English by F. Holland, M.A. It was a multi-volume work published in London in 1730. The USF Library Archives has a copy of Volume II on display in our Rare Books Collection.

If you would like to view the Rare Book Displays or other historical materials in the USF Library Archives, please visit us on the 2nd floor of the USF Library.