Mission

Falvey Library supports research, teaching, and learning at Villanova University while advancing global scholarship and the common good in collaboration with our community and partners. In pursuit of this mission we:

  • Enable discovery of, access to, and stewardship of a vast array of scholarly resources
  • Cultivate and share a broad range of staff knowledge and expertise
  • Provide exceptional spaces for study, reflection, learning, knowledge creation, and academic collaboration
  • Generate engaging educational and cultural programming
  • Preserve the University’s history and intellectual contributions
  • Foster a welcoming and inclusive environment

Values

Openness

We believe that the broad sharing of information, ideas, knowledge, skills, and tools benefits society by enabling information equality, facilitating life-long learning, and driving innovation. We support and encourage open access publishing, open content, and open source software. We strive to make our resources accessible to all. We promote the open exchange of ideas and transparency in communication and decision-making.

Inclusion

We believe that exposure to diversity is essential for education and personal growth. We support and encourage exploration of different viewpoints through respectful discourse and in the composition of our collections. We strive to make the library a place where all feel welcome. We contribute to the creation of a caring community in the spirit of Villanova University’s Augustinian values.

Excellence

We believe that a community committed to shared values builds an outstanding organization. We support and encourage the growth of talent and expertise through professional development and collaboration. We strive to provide exceptional services for our community. We embrace change to create opportunities for transformational success.

Memberships & Consortia

Falvey Library is a member of the following organizations:

  • American Library Association
  • American Theological Library Association
  • Catholic Research Resources Alliance
  • Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts
  • Council on Library and Information Resources
  • Digital Library Federation
  • Eastern Academic Scholars Trust
  • Educopia
  • Lyrasis
  • Pennsylvania Academic Library Consortium
  • Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries
  • Portico
  • Qualitative Data Repository (QDR)
  • Society for Scholarly Publishing
  • Society of American Archivists
  • SPARC

Library Organization

Learn all about our library's organization and staff on the Library Organization page.

Strategic Plan

A PDF file of the library's current five-year strategic plan is available here: Falvey Library Strategic Plan 2021-2025.

Rev. Daniel Falvey

Rev. Daniel FalveyIn 1963, the Villanova University Library was named and rededicated in honor of the late Rev. Daniel P. Falvey, O.S.A., who had devoted nearly half his life to the library. Father Falvey was born in 1906 in Holyoke, Massachusetts. He entered the Augustinian Order in 1928 and received his A.B. from Villanova in 1931. He was ordained in Washington, D. C., in 1934, and did graduate work at George Washington University. In 1940, he received his master's degree in Library Science from Columbia University and in 1958 a Doctor of Library Science from St. Francis College, Loretto, Pa. 

In 1935, Father Falvey was appointed Assistant Librarian at Villanova. He served in this capacity for five years and then in 1940 became Librarian. When the new library was erected after the war, Father Falvey devoted himself to the project in order to make the building as modern and as functional as any library in the country. He organized the "Friends of Villanova Library" committee which was made up of friends and alumni of the University. The purpose of the committee was to raise funds for the new structure. Father Falvey, working with the committee, succeeded in raising nearly a million dollars. But Father Falvey did not concern himself solely with the physical aspects of financing, building and maintaining a library. He was also dedicated to creating a scholarly atmosphere for all members of the academic community. One of his contributions was his inauguration of the Catholic Publications which meets annually at the University.

In addition to his qualifications as organizer and innovator, his personal qualities of perseverance and dedication, humility, and generosity of spirit endeared him to all who knew him.

Until his death in 1962, Father Falvey was planning improvement for the Library and constantly adding new materials, to keep it as complete and up-to-date as possible.

The new addition to the library sustains the long-range planning that Father Falvey made a tradition at Villanova. It was fitting, therefore, that the library bears his name to commemorate his years of service.

 

(Falvey Memorial Library dedication program. Villanova, Pa.: Villanova University, November 16, 1968)