Library News

DRS Collection Profile: The Communications Photo Archive

by Sarah Sweeney
October 9, 2025October 9, 2025
Collections, Library News, Read, Listen, Watch

Several students walk around campus paths on a sunny day. A white building with a sign that says "LISSER HALL" is in the background — *A photograph of students on the Oakland campus,* *http://hdl.handle.net/2047/D20649629. Photo by Ruby Wallau/Northeastern University.*

If you’ve seen pictures of campus happenings, then you’ve seen the hard work of the Northeastern University photographers. This team is responsible for documenting the day-to-day activity that takes place on Northeastern’s campuses, capturing everything from sporting events to researcher portraits to candid photos of students going about their day.

Matthew Modoono, Alyssa Stone, and many other photographers in the Communications Office have used their cameras to document life at Northeastern for decades. They have been recognized by the University Photographers Association of America, the National Press Photographers Association, and the New England Newspaper & Press Association, and have received several awards, including Picture of the Year and Photographer of the Year, for their tremendous skill and vision in the field of photography.

Library staff are responsible for archiving the printed photographs captured through 2010 (digitized copies are also available in the Northeastern University photograph collection (A103). Since 2010, we also help facilitate access to their digital collection in the Digital Repository Service’s Communications Photo Archive (access to the photographs in this collection are limited to Northeastern faculty and staff).

The Communications Photo Archive has served as a record of recent activity since 2015, when the Digital Repository Service first launched. Since then, the photographs stored in the collection (more than 172,000 at the time of this writing) have been viewed and downloaded approximately 400,000 times. The photographs can be seen in many places around the university, including websites, printed brochures, magazines, social media, and in the daily articles published in Northeastern Global News.

Screenshot of an article on a web page titled NGN News. The headline is "Punk rock and tacos: How a drummer turned real estate agent found restaurant success." Under the headline is a photo of a man wearing a black baseball cap and t-shirt shaking a yellow cocktail tumbler behind a bar. — *A screenshot of an NGN article that features a photograph stored in the DRS, http://hdl.handle.net/2047/D20533071*

Photographs in the collection capture:

General shots of Northeastern community life, usually titled “campus feature” (including a wide variety from Snell Library!)
Events, like gallery openings and talks
Faculty and staff portraits
Sporting events, like the Beanpot and spring training exhibition games against the Red Sox
Commencement (of course!)

Graduates throw their caps in the air under a blue sky in Fenway Park. The Fenway Park sign is visible behind the caps — Students celebrate at the 2025 undergraduate commencement ceremony held at Fenway Park, https://hdl.handle.net/2047/D20740045. Photo by Adam Glanzman/Northeastern University.

Photographs of commencement make up a large portion of the collections, with about 20% of the 172,000 photos described using the terms “graduation” or “commencement.” In fact, some of the busiest days for uploading photographs to the DRS happen during the commencement season, with photographers regularly adding more than 1,000 photographs a day.

Although the photographs in this collection are only available to Northeastern faculty and staff, the collection regularly appears in the list of the top 10 most-used collections in the DRS — a testament to how important the photos are to the day-to-day work at the university.

Be sure to check the Communications Photo Archives regularly for the most recent photos of life at the university. You can sort search results by “Recently created” or “Recently updated” to view the most current shots. You may also click the “Recently added” button to sort the entire collection by the most recently uploaded images. The “Limit your search” button can be used to limit your results by the name of the photographer or the year the photograph was taken.

Contact me or my team for help using the DRS or finding photographs in the collection. Visit the Brand Center’s Photography page for information about the photographs and photographers, as well as how you can access the photographs and use them for university business.

And please enjoy some of my favorite photographs from the Communications Photo Archive: animals on the Boston campus!

A yellow/white dog wearings a graduation gown and cap. — *https://hdl.handle.net/2047/D20732128, Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University.*

A majestic hawk sits in a tree and looks to the left. — *http://hdl.handle.net/2047/D20236444, Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University.*

A yellow/white dog wearing a blue birthday hat bites at a bubble in a field. The Boston city skyline is visible in the background — *http://hdl.handle.net/2047/D20467241, Photo by Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University.*

A small brown rabbit sits on some sticks. — *http://hdl.handle.net/2047/D20452354, Photo by Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University.*

A bumble bee flies above a blue hydrangea — *http://hdl.handle.net/2047/D20444529, Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University.*

A white French bulldog wearing a blue harness swims in a pond next to some lily pads. The dog's eyes are closed and it looks very content — *http://hdl.handle.net/2047/D20411840, Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University.*

A gray squirrel sits on top of a pumpkin outside of a sliding door. — *http://hdl.handle.net/2047/D20325749, Photo by Ruby Wallau/Northeastern University.*

A white axolotl with red fins swims — *http://hdl.handle.net/2047/D20252465, Photo by Adam Glanzman.*

This post was written as part of a series celebrating 10 years of the DRS. Check out A Decade of the Digital Repository Service and What is the DRS and who is it for? to read more about the history of the DRS.

My Journey as the First Library Ambassador at Northeastern Seattle

by Jason Wu
October 1, 2025October 2, 2025
Library News

Hi everyone! My name is Jason Wu, and I’m honored to serve as the Library Ambassador at Northeastern University’s Seattle campus. This experience has been one of the most memorable parts of my Northeastern journey. I’d love to share a bit about my experience with you.

A blurry person walks by a curved white wall with "Northeastern Seattle" written on it. — *Northeastern University’s Seattle campus. Photo by Adam Glanzman/Northeastern University*

A nervous but exciting start

Before the semester began, I was both excited and a little nervous — I had never been a Library Ambassador before, and everything felt so new. Luckily, under the guidance of my amazing supervisor Anaya Jones (Accessibility and Online Learning Librarian), I was able to ease into the role. I started by thoroughly exploring the library website and getting familiar with the wide range of resources and services available.

At the same time, I worked closely with Anaya to develop a detailed work plan for the semester, and we made sure everything was ready for our first big event: setting up the library’s booth at the Campus Spring Fest.

A special Spring Fest

When the new semester kicked off, I was thrilled that both Anaya and Lawrence Evalyn (Text Mining Specialist) flew in from Boston to join us for the Campus Spring Fest. It was a wonderful opportunity to meet librarians face-to-face and learn more about the vision and mission behind our library services.

Two smiling people sit at a table covered with library handouts, candy, and computers with library content on the screens. — *Jason Wu and Lawrence Evalyn host a library table at the Campus Spring Fest on the Seattle campus. Photo courtesy of Jason Wu.*

Leading up to the event, I had also prepared a lot of trivia questions about the library to make our booth more engaging. I honestly didn’t expect so many students to be so interested in library resources! Thanks to all the preparation I had done, I was able to confidently answer their questions and help them learn more about what the library offers.

That experience really helped me better understand the significance of this role — and made me even more excited to share these resources with my fellow students.

A flyer pinned on a bulletin board with the headline "Meet Your Librarian!"

Designing and promoting library events

One of my favorite parts of being a Library Ambassador was designing posters for events like the Reading Challenge and various library workshops. Behind each poster was a lot of effort — I spent hours fine-tuning the layouts, adjusting the masks and decorative elements, experimenting with color schemes, and carefully crafting the wording, all to make sure the posters would look as polished and eye-catching as possible when displayed on campus bulletin boards and shared online.

Seeing the posters I designed spread across the campus — and knowing they helped more students learn about library resources — made me feel incredibly proud and fulfilled.

Weekly drop-in hours: Connecting with students

Three students sit around a small table. The one on the left (Jason Wu) is pointing to a laptop. The laptop is facing the other side of the table, where two students listen. — *Jason hosts information drop-in hours to teach students about library resources. Photo courtesy of Jason Wu.*

Every week, I hosted a drop-in hour on campus where students could stop by and ask questions about the library’s online and physical resources. Some students asked how to properly do citations for their assignments, while others were curious about what my role as Library Ambassador involved. There were even students who wanted to know how they could earn prizes from the Reading Challenge!

Getting to meet students face-to-face, listen to their questions, and better understand their needs was truly one of the best parts of this role. I also handed out library stickers and other small goodies, making each interaction both fun and memorable — and helping more students discover how the library could support their academic journeys.

A field trip to the Seattle Public Library

Another highlight of the semester was organizing a group visit to the Seattle Public Library in collaboration with the One More Chapter Club. Over 10 students joined the tour, where we explored the library’s stunning architecture, learned about its history, and discovered the different functional areas inside. Many students even signed up for their own library cards on the spot. Seeing their excitement for reading and learning grow was truly one of the most heartwarming moments of the semester

A glass-walled building with an unusual shape — *The Seattle Public Library*

What struck me most was the library’s unique design. The Seattle Central Library, opened in 2004, is an 11-story glass and steel structure designed by Ram Koolhaas and Joshua Price-Ramus. Its distinctive, angular form and innovative “Books Spiral” layout make it a landmark of modern architecture.

As I walked through its expansive spaces, I couldn’t help but notice how the library’s structure reminded me of the public library in my hometown of Shenzhen, China. Coincidentally, both buildings were completed around 2005, perhaps reflecting the architectural trends of that era. This parallel made the visit even more special, bridging my past experiences with my current journey at Northeastern.

A memorable chapter of my Northeastern experience

Throughout this journey, I received constant support and guidance from Anaya, and also had the chance to exchange ideas and experiences with Library Ambassadors from different campuses.

As the very first Library Ambassador for the Seattle campus, I’m incredibly proud to have helped more students discover and connect with the library’s amazing resources.

Building on that experience, in my second year as Library Ambassador I’ve been sharing updates about online library activities and Reading Challenges on Viva Engage. Exciting events such as the Public Library Tour and Love Data Week are also on the horizon. You can also catch me at Fall Fest, Spring Fest, orientation sessions, or my weekly drop-in hours — don’t forget to stop by, ask questions, and pick up some library stickers!

This experience has been a truly unforgettable chapter in my Northeastern story — and I’m so grateful I had the chance to be a part of it.

Reading Challenge Update: September Winner and October Preview

In September, we challenged you to read a book about a place you’d like to travel. Our September winner is Sonia Harney, who wins a Northeastern travel mug to accompany her on all her adventures. To be eligible for the prize drawing, make sure to read a book that fits the month’s theme and then tell us about it.

Congratulations to everyone who participated in the Reading Challenge this month. Here are a few of the books you read. (Comments may have been edited for length or clarity.)

What You Read in September

Cover of The Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping

A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping, Sangu Mandanna
Read the e-book

“I loved this book! It was cozy, set in a magical alternative English countryside and Edinburgh. It dealt with themes of loving yourself after loss or change. And it had a lovely kooky cast of characters. Perfect for a little escape, a little self-forgiveness, a little family relationship advice.” — Alaina

The Life Impossible, Matt Haig
Find it at Snell Library | Listen to the audiobook

“This book is incredible and by my favorite author. I listened to the audiobook in English and then read the hardcover copy in Spanish to increase my fluency and immerse myself in a new language. I love how the story is set in Ibiza, Spain, and the vivid descriptions make me want to visit it!” — Sonia

People Who Eat Darkness: The True Story of a Young Woman Who Vanished From the Streets of Tokyo—and the Evil That Swallowed Her Up, Richard Lloyd Parry
Find it at Snell Library

“People Who Eat Darkness was haunting and hard to put down. It pulled me deep into Tokyo’s nightlife and left me thinking about how fragile life can be in a city that never slows down.” — Matthew

Cover of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
Find it at Snell Library | Find it at F.W. Olin Library | Read the e-book | Listen to the audiobook

“I always wanted to travel to the Galaxy. If you want to do so, then this insane novel is just for you! The novel is full of meaningful and meaningless stories, satires, and a fantastic universe. If you are smarter than the rats, you are ready to enjoy this exciting novel and plan to be a hitchhiker!” — Yeeun

What’s in a Name? Improving Research Accessibility While Honoring Victims of Racial Violence

by Annie Ross
September 25, 2025
Archives and Special Collections, Library News

When I first began my role as an archives assistant for the Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive (BNDA), I was struck by the scale of the work before me. Around 2,000 victims of racial violence were represented in the data. My job was to catalog and contextualize the archival materials detailing their stories to ensure documents were easily discoverable within the archive. From the outset, I realized that names—how they are recorded, preserved, and made searchable—would be integral to this work.

As the archives assistant, cataloging meant creating detailed item-level records using the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice (CRRJ) Project’s data management system, Airtable, a platform built on data meticulously gathered by CRRJ staff. To verify and recover victims’ names, researchers cross-referenced varying documents—death certificates, draft cards, court records, newspaper articles, correspondence, and advocacy group materials—and developed a clear methodology, described in this narrative on the BNDA website, to address conflicting information across sources.

Newspaper clipping with the headline "Murder Unpunished." The first line reads "Three weeks ago, Mr. and Mrs. Roger Malcolm, Mr. and Mrs. George Dorsey were forcibly removed from a car early in the evening of August 1, 1946 and shot down in cold blood by an unmasked mob just outside of Monroe, Georgia." — *News article from the* New York Amsterdam News highlighting the writing convention of naming women only in relation to their husbands. The file can be access in the Digital Repository Service.

To reflect the complexity that accompanied names, each case record includes an authoritative name (the verified full name established by researchers), along with fields for given name, family name, and alternate names. On the public-facing archive, this structure allows users to locate victims not only by their correct name, but also by common misspellings, nicknames, or other recorded versions. In this way, the system both acknowledges historical inconsistencies and restores the victim’s true identity.

Creating cataloging records that fed into this framework, I strove to ensure that materials remained discoverable while centering the dignity of each individual. However, much of the material I worked with—primarily newspaper articles—posed significant challenges. Victims were often not named at all, but instead referred to by racial epithets, such as “The Negro.” Even when names were used, they were frequently misspelled or misreported. Women were commonly identified only in relation to their husbands, while derogatory nicknames could replace real names entirely.

A single victim may appear in the historical record under multiple conflicting names. For example, Levi George, a victim most frequently called “Texas Red” in newspapers, was also referred to as Levi Joy or Red Williams. Including all three of these alternate names as metadata allows researchers to locate Levi’s case using names they are more likely to come across, while also reclaiming his full identity, by emphasizing his true name—Levi George—in the record.

Levi George’s record lists all four names by which he is referred. Profile available in the BNDA.

These situations required both flexibility and creativity. When a news article about a violent incident omitted a victim’s name entirely but mentioned the date and location, I could often identify the individual by filtering Airtable using those data points. From there, I would catalog the resource appropriately, connecting it to the victim’s record so that future researchers could access it even if the name never explicitly appeared in the text itself.

Newspaper clipping headlined "He's 'Texas Red.'" It features mug shots from the front and side of a Black man holding a prison number. The caption identifies him as both Levi George and "Texas Red." — Levi George, a victim of racial violence, is identified by two names in this photo caption. Further dehumanizing the victim is the use of an old mugshot to announce his murder. Record available in the DRS.

Names also shaped the way resources were titled and summarized. For newspaper articles, the notes field often followed a formula: [Resource type] + [brief description of incident] + [victim name]. This is how, for instance, the abstract “News article from the Atlanta Daily World about the shooting of Levi George” was generated. Titles for advocacy records, lacking the same copyright restrictions as newspaper articles, followed a somewhat similar format: [Resource type] + [organization name] : [victim name]. This is how another resource became titled, “Legal files from the NAACP : Levi George.” Choosing to prioritize the victim’s name, rather than the perpetrator’s, when titling and describing resources was a conscious decision—a subtle yet meaningful reversal of the dehumanizing tendencies found in many historical documents.

Over time, I came to see cataloging records and naming as both technical functions and ethical responsibilities. Each name recovered or connected to a resource served a dual purpose: improving research and digital access, while also restoring the humanity to someone who had once been denied it. I am grateful to have contributed to this work and proud to be part of a project that sees names not simply as data points, but as acts of remembrance and justice.

You can read more about the Version 2 Update of the BNDA in Gathering the Red Record: A Two-Day Convening on Linking Racial Violence Archives.

Annie Ross (she/her/hers) served as an archives assistant for the Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive. She completed her Master of Library and Information Science degree with a concentration in Archives Management from Simmons University in 2022 and has worked on a range of archival and metadata projects in academic and cultural heritage settings.

Adding Archival Materials to the Digital Repository

by Grace Millet
September 16, 2025
Archives and Special Collections, Library News, Open Access

During the 2024-25 academic year, the Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections (NUASC) scanned 24,608 pages of archival materials for both in-person and remote researchers. This output has allowed NUASC to serve more researchers and broaden access to these primary sources by uploading them into the Digital Repository Service (DRS).

Black and white image of a woman wearing a dress and with her hair in a bun watching three dancers in a dance room. The dancers are visible behind her in a mirror — *A photo from the National Center of Afro-American Artists records*

Work to put these reference scans into the DRS began in 2023 with a backlog of scans from NUASC’s remote reference program. Archives staff understood the research value of readily available scans and wanted to make them more accessible to anyone, regardless of institutional affiliation or research goals. Uploading these files into the DRS was a collaborative effort between Metadata and Digital Projects Supervisor Drew Facklam, Reference and Outreach Archivist Molly Brown, and Reference and Reproductions Archivist Grace Millet.

Once a workflow was developed to clean up and provide information about the files, collections were identified based on community and researcher needs, as well as the quantity of scans. As of June 2025, 14,226 pages of digitized materials have been ingested into the DRS. Reference scans have come from the:

Reference scans are completed at a lower resolution than scans used for publication, though they are still entirely legible and usable for research purposes. Another important difference between reference scans and other digitized materials in the DRS is the format of reference scans’ titles, which allow users a glimpse into the inner workings of archival organization.

The titles of these files contain the collection number, box number, folder number, and folder title.

File name of "M042_B019_F001_ElmaLewis2" Red arrows point to each section. "M042" is labeled "Collection #"; "B019" is labeled "Box #"; "F001" is labeled "Folder #"; and "ElmaLewis1" is labeled "Folder Title"

With this knowledge, anyone viewing these files can discern where they are located within NUASC’s collections. This allows for easy reference if a researcher might need to request a higher-quality scan of a specific item.

To learn more about what is available in the Digital Repository Service from NUASC, you can search our digitized collections or reach out to us at archives@northeastern.edu. The public services team is looking forward to continuing this expansion of access to collections stewarded by NUASC!