Monthly Archives

December 2018

Outline of a person standing in the Great Room of the O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library among students studying

Students wanted for photo shoot in O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library January 7th

We will be conducting a photo shoot all over O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library next Monday, January 7th and are looking to recruit students to fill the library as extras!

All students are invited and may bring their bags, books, laptops, phones, homework, group projects, and friends to study and hang out as St. Thomas photographers make their rounds. Laptops open, papers to spread out, ideas drawn on the white boards, books to fall asleep with—we want the scenes to be real and show library life! Appropriate dress: casual is fine, but no PJs or clothing that wouldn’t be appropriate for university photos.

Starting at 1pm students may come to the library and check-in at Stacks Café (coffee shop on the first floor)
Stacks Café will be open until 3pm and additional food and refreshments will be catered throughout the shoot (just like the pros!)
We’ll take volunteers for video shots starting at 1pm
Photographs will take place around the library between 2 and 5pm
Look for an appearance by Tommie!

Students don’t need to sign up ahead of time, but it is preferred so we have an accurate head count for catering.

If you have contact with any students and/or clubs please pass this information along. We have been posting this announcement on social media so feel free to copy the images or repost on your own timelines:

Be sure to pass the word! We want as many faces around the library as possible!

(This post was updated January 3, 2019 to reflect additional information regarding the schedule)

December 19, 2018 by Chad Kluck

News & Events

O’Shaughnessy Frey Library adds new stained glass window medallion

For only the second time since the original library was completed in 1959, we have added a new stained glass “medallion” window. This year, on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the UST English department and UST Libraries collaborated on the design and production of a window celebrating the classic novel. (The first new window, added in 2009, was dedicated to Zora Neale Hurston, author of “Their Eyes Were Watching God.”) Both windows were designed and created by the Conrad Pickel studio in Vero Beach, FL, the same glassmakers who created the original windows (all of which can be seen here.)

A Go Fund Me campaign raised the money needed to produce the Frankenstein window, and a celebration was held on December 4th, 2018, at which students, faculty and staff met to read portions of the novel. The newest medallions (hanging in windows on the first floor, west side of the O’Shaughnessy Frey Library, overlooking the quad) are intended to honor authors of color and women – more windows will be forthcoming.

December 19, 2018 by

Libraries, News & Events, O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library, Special Collections and Archives

Tales from the Archives — The Cigar Bowl

Did you know that a St. Thomas football team once played in a New Year’s Day bowl game? With Frank Deig as their coach, the 1948 football team finished their season with a 7-1-1 record, winning the MIAC championship. The team’s stellar record led to their selection to compete against Missouri Valley Teacher’s College in the Cigar Bowl in Tampa, Florida on New Years Day, 1949.

Aquin, December 17, 1948

The team boarded a train for Florida at St. Paul’s Union Depot the day after Christmas. Hundreds of Tommie supporters followed the team to Tampa, most making the 35 hour, 1600 mile trip by car or train. But a group of 21 students who were members of the Air National Guard took a special military flight Florida and were housed at the McDill Army Air Force base before the game.

Missouri Valley was a heavy favorite to win the contest having lost only one game in their previous 42 games. That prediction seemed to be coming true with the Tommies heading to the halftime locker room trailing 13 – 0. But, the team rallied in the second half to end the game in in 13 – 13 tie. You can view film clips of the game and hear stories from some of the players in this video.

Frank Deig and Jack Salscheider with the Cigar Bowl trophy, 1949.

Several players from the Cigar Bowl team went on to play professional football in the NFL. Jack Salscheider played for the New York Giants; Jim “Popcorn” Brandt played with the Pittsburgh Steelers; quarterback Ed Krowka signed with the Detroit Lions; Don Simonson played for the Los Angeles Rams. Jim White turned down an offer from the New York Giants to attend medical school.

To read more about the 1948 football team and their trip to the Cigar Bowl, search the Historic University Publications database.

December 12, 2018 by Ann Kenne

An outward facing hand with words Racism Stops with Me along with four featured books from the library

Libraries

Library resources support the Action Plan to Combat Racism

The University of St. Thomas Libraries are deeply supportive of the Action Plan to Combat Racism and make the campus welcoming to all. As we ponder ways that we can support and enhance campuswide efforts, we first think of insuring that the libraries themselves are safe and welcoming places. We also work from one of our strengths: our collections, which represent the voices and perspectives of all, including those who have been silenced in the past.

If you were present at the all campus meeting one month ago, and heard Dean Vischer’s comments illustrating the many facets of structural racism in the United States and Minnesota, you might have noted that he was citing extensively data from Michelle Alexander’s book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (Revised edition with a new foreword by Cornel West, New Press, 2012.) The University Libraries own several print copies of the book, as well as an electronic edition (usable by three readers at the same time.) Alexander recently wrote an article for the New York Times (where she is a regular columnist) in which she describes the implications of certain sentencing reforms which may be worse than the systems they intend to reform.(“The Newest Jim Crow”, New York times, 11/8/18.)

Other titles that support research in this area include:

The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America. (Richard Rothstein.)
OSF Library: E185.61 .R8185 2017
Author presentation (video)

The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery & the Making of American Capitalism (ebook.) (Edward E. Baptist.)
Available online through St. Thomas Libraries
Author presentation (video)

White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide. (Carol Anderson.)
OSF Library: E185.61 .A5438 2016
Author presentation (video)

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America. (Ibram X. Kendi.)
OSF Library: E185.61 .K358 2016
Author presentation (video)

White by Law: The Legal Construction of Race, 10^th Anniversary Edition (ebook.) (Ian Haney Lopez.)
Available online through St. Thomas Libraries
Law Library: KF4755 .H36 2006

Call for Change: The Medicine Way of American Indian History, Ethos, and Reality (ebook.) (Donald L. Fixico.)
Available online through St. Thomas Libraries
Author presentation (video)

The Libraries will be providing suggestions for readings that connect with the subjects covered by Tuesday Teach-Ins (sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences)

December 5, 2018 by