Each year, for the past four years, the University Libraries at Saint Louis University, has published a Holiday Book list. Recommendations are sought from SLU faculty, staff, and administrators. If you have a good read to recommend as a holiday gift, please complete the online form at:  http://libraries.slu.edu/holidaybook.html no later than Tuesday, November 24, 2009.

Before you complete the form below, please remember the following:

• Books can be fiction or non-fiction.
• No “how-to” books or textbooks.
• Books for an adult audience only (no children’s or young adult books).
• Books must be published since 2005.
• You must have personally read the book from cover-to-cover.
• Books must be written in English (translations are ok).

Inside this Issue

• von Schuschnigg Collection Available
• Library Game Night
• Self Serve e-Reserve
• 3 Purchase Selections
• Locker Rentals
• EBM Medical Course
• New Electronic Resources & EndNote for the Mac
• Upcoming Events in Pius

Saint Louis University Libraries Receive Leaf from Gutenberg Bible: Gift of Thomas and Virginia Cahill to be used for Teaching and Research

On 28 September 2009 Thomas and Virginia (A&S ’64) Cahill donated to the Saint Louis University Libraries their leaf from the Gutenberg Bible. Published in Mainz ca. 1454–1455, the 42-line Bible produced by Johann Gutenberg is the first book to be printed in Western Europe from moveable type—an entirely transformative technology that has shaped our lives for more than 500 years.

The Gutenberg Leaf was a gift by Ginny Cahill to her husband Tom in 1985 as a 20th wedding anniversary present. Tom Cahill was one of a team of scholars at the University of California, Davis, working at the Crocker Nuclear Laboratory who throughout the 1980s conducted a series of experiments on the ink and paper of multiple copies of the Gutenberg Bible using what they called “milliprobe” analysis. By training a beam of accelerated protons on their targets they were able for the first time to determine the chemical composition of the ink and paper used by Gutenberg. Their research astonished the scholarly world. This team, under the rubric of the Crocker Historical and Archeological Project, also went on to perform similar analysis to determine the authenticity of other important documents, such as the Vinland Map—a fifteenth-century document believed to demonstrate that Vikings in the eleventh century were the first Western Europeans to discover North America rather than Columbus—and the Freeman’s Oath—the first document to be printed in British North America in 1639, of which no copy survives today, but was the cause of much excitement in the 1980s when what was proved to be a forged copy appeared. Not only are the University Libraries receiving the Cahill’s Gutenberg leaf, they are also receiving the research archive generated by Tom and the Crocker Historical and Archeological Project, some of the most innovative and significant research produced in the history of the book in the twentieth century. This is a gift of remarkable cultural, educational, and research value—one which we are very proud that Tom and Ginny have decided to entrust to Saint Louis University.

“It is our mission in Special Collections to educate students and faculty using rare and unique books and manuscripts to demonstrate how the texts and ideas they contain have been created, circulated, and passed down to us today,” said Gregory Pass, Ph.D., Assistant University Librarian for Special Collections and Archives. “In Tom and Virginia Cahill’s generous gift we have been given an incomparable tool to achieve this.” “We are very grateful to the Cahills,” said Gail Staines, Ph.D., Assistant Provost for University Libraries. “Their gift is the highlight of our 50th anniversary celebrations for Pius XII Memorial Library. Most importantly, it affirms the role of the library in teaching, research, and scholarship at Saint Louis University.”

Thomas Cahill is Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of California, Davis. He was formerly director of the Crocker Nuclear Lab at UC Davis (1980–1989) and is founder and director of the Delta Group for the Detection and Evaluation of the Long-Range Transport of Aerosols at UC Davis, a group that engages in atmospheric testing for the refinement of global climate models. Among other distinctions he has previously been Director of the Institute of Ecology at UC Davis (1972–1975), Founder and Head of the Air Quality Group at the Crocker Nuclear Lab (1970–1997), and designer and principal investigator of US EPA air quality testing for the National Parks and Monuments (1977–1997).

Virginia Cahill is a native of St. Louis and a graduate of Saint Louis University. She was Deputy Attorney General for the State of California (2001–2009) and has been a lecturer on water and environmental law at UC Davis since 1993. She has been active in water conservation and environmental issues since 1983. She has been a practicing attorney since 1983 and continues to be much in demand for environmental issues. A notable victory in her career was the preservation of water flows out of Mono Lake in California and the restoration of fish populations in its streams. Early in her career she served as assistant editor for a multi-volume inventory of Denis Diderot’s Encyclopédie.

Kevin Lowder/SLU Marketing and Communications

The Gutenberg Bible leaf will be on display in Special Collections, St. Louis Room, Pius XII Memorial Library, in conjunction with the exhibit, “A Celebration of Early Printing at Pius Library,” mounted in honor of the donation of the leaf. The exhibit features twenty books from the first century of printing, including eleven books printed before 1501, known as incunabula. Highlights include Pius Library’s earliest printed book, which is an Italian manual of diet, health, and hygiene printed in Bologna in 1474, and the collection’s earliest English book, a 1529 edition of Thomas More’sSupplication of Souls. Also on display are three of the earliest known depictions of a printing workshop, including one showing a female compositor at work. The exhibit is curated by Rare Books Librarian Jennifer Lowe and will be on display through 29 January 2010.

The Vatican Film Library invites you to view our new October Exhibition, Voyages and Visions, opening October 1 and running through October 31. Staged in the foyer of Pius XII Memorial Library, this exhibition of medieval and Renaissance manuscript facsimiles explores journeys on land, in mystical space, and within the farthest reaches of the human mind. The individuals who make these journeys do so physically—by transporting themselves to far-off lands on foot, on horseback, by ship or raft—and by means of the imagination, through literary musings, spiritual revelations, or perhaps—transitory flights of madness. Come and meet old friends (Dante Alighieri, Hildegard of Bingen, Chaucer), and make new acquaintances (Opicinus de Canistris, Peter of Eboli, Sebastian Münster). This exhibition is free and open to students, faculty, and visitors.

Inside This Issue

• A Conversation withSalman Rushdie
• Gift of a Gutenberg Leaf
• Pius Library Birthday Bash!
• Pius Library Goes 24/5
• Pius Library Upcoming Events

This is the 4th semiannual game night
Knights room Pius Library from 4:00pm-8:00pm

Wii, xbox360, ps3 – Mario Kart, Halo, guitar hero, rockband and many more!

Everyone invited! Free snacks!