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Northeastern Library, Partners Receive Grant to Deliver AI-Enabled Access to Digital Books

For over a year, the Northeastern University Library has been actively exploring how to use artificial intelligence in ways that advance learning and research, prototyping and implementing helpful connections to library collections and related tools.

A significant gap in this work has been the lack of book collections, so we are thrilled to announce that we are part of a major new grant that will provide students, faculty, and the public with robust, noncommercial forms of AI access to the 19 million books that have been digitized and stored in the nonprofit HathiTrust.

Here is the official announcement of this grant from HathiTrust:

Researchers, students, and the broader public will have new paths into the HathiTrust collection thanks to a Mellon Foundation award to develop responsible, equitable, and transparent services that leverage AI for the public good and scholarly discovery. Two respected partners will join HathiTrust in this effort: Northeastern University Library, which brings deep expertise in digital scholarship, and Authors Alliance, a nonprofit that supports authors who want their work to benefit the public. With a firm commitment to lawful, noncommercial, public-interest uses, this project will make HathiTrust’s 19 million digitized volumes more useful and accessible to the academic community and the public.

Transparent Books: AI Infrastructure for Discovery and the Public Interest responds to the growing need for shared, trusted, academy-led infrastructure enabling sophisticated discovery and research of digitized collections. The project aims to connect readers to relevant titles more efficiently, thereby enhancing their reach and impact, and will consider a range of interests, including publishers, authors, scholars, and members of the public.

Over the course of the $5 million, 5-year grant, HathiTrust and its two grant partners will:

  • Enhance Book Discovery: Apply AI tools to the HathiTrust corpus to improve descriptive metadata (e.g., subjects, languages, summaries) and text quality, and to develop interactive search to facilitate deeper understanding of books, both as individual items and in aggregate.
  • Provide Verified Resources: Offer lawful, legitimate, verified, and transparent sources of text and images from books at scale for academic and noncommercial use cases, for purposes such as text mining, computational analysis, and the creation of specialized language models.
  • Advance Shared Principles: Develop principles for legal frameworks, research integrity, accountability, and environmental impact to serve as a shared foundation for decision-making that centers academic values and the public good.
  • Create Sustainable Services: Develop financially sustainable services that support academic and noncommercial research.

Mike Furlough, HathiTrust’s Executive Director, said, “For decades, libraries have sustained their values in the face of rapid and powerful advances in technology. Libraries created HathiTrust to ensure that the results of mass digitization would address the unique needs of researchers and the academy. This project continues that longstanding effort to collaboratively make the scholarly record more accessible and usable for today and into the future.”

Transparent Books also builds on the 2024-2026 Public Interest Corpus project, led by Authors Alliance and Northeastern University, which examined how research libraries can make book data available for computational research in lawful ways that serve the public interest rather than reinforce commercial control of large-scale digital collections. Through Transparent Books, HathiTrust will use the framework identified in the Public Interest Corpus project to deliver its corpus for noncommercial AI research and development.

Authors Alliance Executive Director Dave Hansen shared, “Our role in Transparent Books is to help articulate principles for use of the corpus, convene the authors, researchers, and institutions the project depends on so their views can be meaningfully reflected in the projects’ designs. Ultimately, we want to lower barriers for noncommercial, academic researchers so they can build models and tools that actually research and benefit the public.  And we want to see this happen in a way that ensures authors’ works and ideas are discovered, attributed, and built upon.”

The project will collaborate closely with academic libraries and researchers to address the complexities of applying artificial intelligence tools to scholarly collections. Creating a path to lawful, legitimate access to in-copyright books data without corporate mediation demands a deep understanding of libraries’ current use of AI tools and their aspirations to offer meaningful engagement with their collections for academic and public communities.

Dan Cohen, Dean of the Library and Professor of History at Northeastern University, highlighted, “Students, faculty, and members of the public who treasure books as rich sources for teaching and learning will value the new kinds of access and use this initiative will provide. At the Northeastern University Library, we have been thoughtfully integrating collections with AI tools to help readers find materials of interest and to enable advanced forms of research, and the lack of digitized books has been a major gap we aim to fill.”

Preserving the Legacy of Elma Lewis: A Digital Preservation Update

This post is co-authored by Project Archivist Joy Zanghi and Head of Digital Production Services Sarah Sweeney.

The archival collections documenting the life and work on Elma Lewis — educator, arts advocate, and cultural leader — represent an extraordinary record of Boston’s cultural history. In May 2025, the library received nearly $460,000 from Boston’s Community Preservation Act (CPA) to improve access to these collections. Just over a year into the project, we’re celebrating a major milestone and kicking off two new areas of work.

Milestone: Digitalization Complete!

Black and white image of a Black man sitting on the far left. In the center is a large black canvas with lighter and gradient arcs and squares
Bill Hutson photographed by Carol Hobbs in 1977, shown with his work “The Black Painting.”

The project’s first phase was to digitize materials from all four Elma Lewis collections held in the Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections. The digitization work spanned audio, video, photographs, and textual materials across four archival collections:

We’re thrilled to announce that the digitization phase of the project is now complete. Vendor digitization of approximately 120,000 pages of text documents and photographs, 51 videos, and four audio recordings began in October 2025 and finished in March.

What’s Available Now in the Digital Repository

With digitization complete, we are now adding the files to the Digital Repository Service (DRS). All audio and video files, which originate from more delicate formats like film reels and were once in accessible to a reading room visitor, are now accessible. Text documents require additional post-digitization processing before they can be deposited, but they are being uploaded as that work is completed. Photographs have been deposited with minimal metadata and enhancements are forthcoming.

While most photographs and documents are available to everyone, not all of the other file types are publicly accessible. Some documents containing sensitive personal information and audio and video files with copyright restrictions are only accessible to the Northeastern community.

Screenshot of a video. A person is speaking with their hand up and the words "A STORY FOR ALL SEASONS" is is in the center.
Still from A Story for All Seasons, one of the digitized films from the collection that is available to the public.

Upcoming Work: Cataloging

The next phase of the project, item-level description, has just begun. Four part-time Digital Project Assistants are performing the cataloging work, which will continue through the end of the project. Text documents will be the focus of the cataloging work. Item-level metadata will improve access to the newly digitized materials by making the archival collections searchable in the DRS and beyond.

Upcoming Work: Community Engagement

An important aspect of this grant is engaging with members of the Boston community who knew Elma Lewis, including family, friends, artists, and alumni of the Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts, as well as members of the Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists community. The project team has a lot to learn about the digitized items being catalogued, so gathering community members’ knowledge of people, events, dates, and context will help us create more accurate and meaningful descriptions of the collection. The grant includes funds for these community consultations, which we hope will both give back to the community and enrich the archival record.

Get Involved

This project is ultimately about ensuring that the legacy of Elma Lewis and the communities she built remains accessible for generations to come. Everyone is welcome to contact archives@northeastern.edu to arrange a visit to view the photographs and documents in person.

Also, if you have a connection to Elma Lewis, the Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts, or the National Center of Afro-American Artists — or if you have information, memories, or context that could help us better describe these collections — please reach out. Your knowledge is an invaluable part of telling this story.

2026 Reading Challenge: July Recap and August Preview

Congratulations to everyone who read a book about American history in July to celebrate the semiquincentennial! Our reading challenge winner for the month is Poppy, who takes home a Northeastern travel mug. Remember, for your chance to win a prize, make sure to tell us what you read each month.

Below are some of the historical reads you enjoyed in July. (Reader comments may be edited for length or clarity.)

What You Read in July

Cover of The British Are ComingThe British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777, Rick Atkinson
Read the e-book

“I found The British Are Coming to be an engaging and well-researched account of the early years of the American Revolution, with vivid storytelling that made the historical events feel exciting and accessible. The book’s detailed portrayal of both famous leaders and lesser-known figures gave me a deeper appreciation for the complexity, sacrifices, and uncertainty of America’s fight for independence.” — Sandy

Cover of We the PeopleWe the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution, Jill Lepore
Listen to the audiobook | Find it at the School of Law Library

“Jill Lepore’s We the People uses Article V to argue that the ‘philosophy of amendment’ is foundational to American constitutionalism. Lepore wanders through American history using the fifth amendment to argue that ‘amendment is so essential to the American constitutional tradition, so methodical, and so entire a conception of endurance through adaptation, that it can be best described as a philosophy.’ Lepore concludes by addressing the decline of the U.S. constitution, and the lack of amendment despite religious, environmental, geopolitical, and technological upheaval that dominates contemporary society.” — Poppy

Cover of The Secret SentryThe Secret Sentry: The Untold History of the National Security Agency, Matthew Aid
Find it at the School of Law Library

“As I read, it was interesting to reflect on how history is recorded based on who is telling it. For example, on one page the death of two marines is described as ‘tragic,’ while on the next page, 18 civilians who were killed from an air strike are described as ‘unfortunate’ restaurant customers. It was also interesting to think about the perspectives of the intelligence professionals interviewed regarding different surveillance programs and what they think is right based on whether someone is an American citizen. The book is definitely a bit dated as it ends in 2008 but that makes it somewhat frightening to consider what is possible today given that all that was public information then.” — MB

Cover of The ChildrenThe Children, David Halberstam
Buy it from Bookshop.org

“This book covers the civil rights movement of the 1960s from the perspective of the students from Black colleges in Nashville who spearheaded the lunch counter sit-ins and Freedom Rides. While much is known about Martin Luther King Jr.’s work, less is known about the dedication, creativity, and bravery of these students and the preachers who led them, often with little or no support from the leaders of more powerful organizations. It’s a fascinating inside perspective of some of the lesser-known figures of the movement, made especially more impressive because of their youth. Sadly, it’s also a story that seems to be becoming more resonant in recent years.” — Kerri

What to Read in August

This month, we’re urging you to think local: read a book by an author who is local to your Northeastern campus. Not sure what to read? We have suggestions below, and you can browse the full list of suggested e-books and audiobooks. Be sure to tell us what you read to enter the August prize drawing.

If you’re at the Arlington campus…

Cover of Pride and ProtestPride and Protest, Nikki Payne
Find it at Snell Library | Read the e-book

Liza wants to take her neighborhood back from the soulless property developer dropping unaffordable condos on every street corner in D.C. But her planned protest at a corporate event takes a turn after she mistakes the smoldering-hot CEO for the waitstaff. When they go toe-to-toe, the sparks fly — but her impossible-to-ignore family thwarts her every move. Liza wants Dorsey Fitzgerald out of her hood, but she’ll settle for getting him out of her head. But when Liza’s protest results in a viral meme, their lives are turned upside down, and Dorsey comes to realize this irresistable revolutionary is the most real woman he’s ever met.

If you’re at the Boston campus…

Cover of Mercy StreetMercy Street: A Novel, Jennifer Haigh
Read the e-book | Listen to the audiobook

For almost a decade, Claudia has counseled patients at Mercy Street, a clinic in the heart of the city. For its patients, Mercy Street offers more than health care; for many, it is a second chance. But outside the clinic, the reality is different. As the protests intensify, fear creeps into Claudia’s days, a humming anxiety as she manages with frequent visits to Timmy, an affable pot dealer. At Timmy’s, she encounters a random assortment of customers, including Anthony, a lost soul who spends most of his life online, chatting with the mysterious Excelsior11 — the screenname of an anti-abortion crusader who has set his sights on Mercy Street and is ready to risk it all to protect the unborn.

If you’re at the New York campus…

Cover of Notes of a Native SonNotes of a Native Son, James Baldwin
Find it at F.W. Olin Library | Listen to the audiobook

Written during the 1940s and early 1950s, when Baldwin was only in his 20s, the essays collected in Notes of a Native Son capture a view of black life and black thought at the dawn of the civil rights movement. Writing as an artist, activist, and social critic, Baldwin probes the complex condition of being black in America. With a keen eye, he examines everything from the significance of the protest novel to the motives and circumstances of the many black expatriates of the time, from his home in “The Harlem Ghetto” to a sobering “Journey to Atlanta.” Notes of a Native Son inaugurated Baldwin as one of the leading interpreters of the dramatic social changes erupting in the United States in the 20th century, and many of his observations have proven almost prophetic.

If you’re at the Oakland campus…

Cover of How to Do NothingHow to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy, Jenny Odell
Find it at Snell Library | Find it at F.W. Olin Library | Read the e-book | Listen to the audiobook

In a world where addictive technology is designed to buy and sell our attention, and our value is determined by our 24/7 data productivity, it can seem impossible to escape. But artist and critic Jenny Odell sees our attention as the most precious — and overdrawn — resource we have. And we must actively and continuously choose how we use it. Once we can start paying a new kind of attention, she writes, we can undertake bolder forms of political action, reimagine humankind’s role in the environment, and arrive at more meaningful understandings of happiness and progress.

If you’re at the Seattle campus…

Cover of DuneDune, Frank Herbert
Find it at Snell Library | Read the e-book

Set on the desert planet of Arrakis, Dune is the story of Paul Atreides — who would become known as Muad’Dib — and of a great family’s ambition to bring to fruition mankind’s most ancient and unattainable dream. A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics, Dune won the first Nebula Award, shared the Hugo Award, and formed the basis of what is undoubtedly the grandest epic in science fiction.

If you’re at the Toronto campus…

Cover of The Handmaid's TaleThe Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood
Find it at Snell Library | Find it at F.W. Olin Library | Read the e-book | Listen to the audiobook

The Handmaid’s Tale is a novel of such power that the reader will be unable to forget its images and its forecast. Set in the near future, it describes life in what was once the United States and is now called the Republic of Gilead, a monotheocracy that has reacted to social unrest and a sharply declining birthrate by reverting to the repressive intolerance of the original Puritans. In condensed but elegant prose, the handmaid Offred reveals to us the dark corners behind the establishment’s calm facade, as certain tendencies now in existence are carried to their logical conclusions.

If you’re at the Vancouver campus…

Cover of Highway of TearsHighway of Tears: A True Story of Racism, Indifference, and the Pursuit of Justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, Jessica McDiarmid
Read the e-book

For decades, Indigenous women and girls have gone missing or have been found murdered along an isolated stretch of highway in northwestern British Columbia. The corridor is known as the Highway of Tears, and it has come to symbolize a national crisis. Journalist Jessica McDiarmid meticulously investigates the devastation effects these tragedies have had on the families of the victims and their communities, and how systematic racism and indifference have created a climate in which Indigenous women and girls are overpoliced yet underprotected. Examining the historically fraught social and cultural tensions between settlers and Indigenous peoples in the region, McDiarmid links these cases to others across Canada, contextualizing them within a broader examination of the undervaluing of Indigenous lives.

Remember: whatever you read, make sure to tell us about it to enter the prize drawing!

2026 Reading Challenge: June Recap and July Preview

Hello, Huskies! I hope everyone is staying cool in the summer heat. Our June Reading Challenge winner is Ashlyn, who takes home a Northeastern tote bag. Congratulations to everyone who read a book about activism this June! Below are some of the books you enjoyed. (Comments may have been edited for length and clarity.)

What You Read in June

Cover of Unmasking AI


Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What is Human in a World of Machines, Joy Buolamwini
Find it at Snell Library | Read the e-book | Listen to the audiobook

“Eye-opening read that shows how bias can be built into AI systems and why accountability in technology matters. It made me think more critically about how ‘neutral’ algorithms actually reflect human choices.” — Sandy

Cover of Bewilderment
Bewilderment, Richard Powers
Buy it from Bookshop.org

“Many complain that the book was too ‘doomer,’ and while I agree, I appreciated that Richard Powers wrote that way. I think it is a realistic look into the future of mankind. It blended major world issues and how they’re just as significant as people’s personal issues. I loved the sci-fi aspect, as well as the call to action. I was convinced to protect the environment.” — Ashlyn

Cover of Marsha
Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson, Tourmaline
Find it at F.W. Olin Library | Listen to the audiobook

“I listened to this as an audiobook. Written by a Black, queer, transgender activist about a Black, queer, transgender activist was a powerful experience, especially during Pride month!” — Alyn

Cover of Sunburn
Sunburn: A Novel, Chloe Michelle Howarth
Buy it from Bookshop.org

“Happy Pride Month 🙂 What an introspective and moving book this is.” — Susan


Cover of Murderland
Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of the Serial Killers, Caroline Fraser
Listen to the audiobook

“What do many (if not most) murderers of the 1970s and 1980s — the ‘golden age’ of serial killers — have in common? High levels of exposure to lead, arsenic, and cadmium. Ted Bundy, Dennis Rader, Richard Ramirez, John Wayne Gacy, Charles Manson, Edmund Kemper, Gary Ridgway, Kenneth Bianchi, Angelo Buono Jr., and dozens of other notorious names grew up in the shadows of smelters, copper mines, gasoline plants, and industrial smokestacks. They lived in houses decorated with lead paint, filled their cars with leaded gasoline, and breathed smog tainted by industrial neurotoxins. This is a true crime book, but the crime underpinning all the rest is a fatal economic and industrial decision to protect profits at all costs, even if it means poisoning the bodies and brains of a generation. Ultimately, Murderland is a call to environmental action.” — Brooke

What to Read in July

This month, America celebrates its semiquincentennial. In honor of 250 years, we’re challenging you to read a book about American history. For some reading inspiration, check out the suggestions below, or browse the full list of e-books and audiobooks.

Cover of The Rediscovery of AmericaThe Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History, Ned Blackhawk
Find it at Snell Library | Read the e-book | Listen to the audiobook

Ned Blackhawk interweaves five centuries of Native and non-Native histories, from Spanish colonial exploration to the rise of Native American self-determination in the late 20th century. Blackhawk’s retelling of U.S. history acknowledges the enduring power, agency, and survival of Indigenous peoples, yielding a truer account of the United States and revealing anew the varied meanings of America.

Cover of We've Been Here BeforeWe’ve Been Here Before: How Rebellion and Activism Have Always Sustained America, Michael I. Days and Angela P. Dodson
Read the e-book

America’s founding was a contradictory one. When the Declaration of Independence was signed 250 years ago, it painted a beautiful vision of freedom and equality. But for the majority of our nation’s history, America hasn’t lived up to its founding vision of freedom. In our current era, many of us are left wondering if America will ever live up to the promises of her founding. Yet, a deeper look at our history reveals key revolutionary moments in which the promise of America has been fully realized. At this important historical milestone, let us look back to celebrate those moments and let them guide our future.

Cover of This Land is Your LandThis Land is Your Land: A Road Trip Through U.S. History, Beverly Gage
Listen to the audiobook

Ride along with Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Beverly Gage as she travels the country to see the museums, historic sites, roadside attractions, reenactments, and souvenir shops where Americans learn — and fight — about our history. From the birth of the nation in Philadelphia to Disneyland and the California dream, This Land is Your Land offers a guided tour of 13 places and 13 key moments that define America’s greatest successes and challenges.

Cover of Killers of the Flower MoonKillers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, David Grann
Find it at the School of Law Library | Listen to the audiobook

In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe. Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. More and more Osage were dying under mysterious circumstances, and many of those who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered. As the death toll rose, the newly created FBI took up the case, and the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to try to unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including a Native American agent who infiltrated the region, and together with the Osage, began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.

Cover of The RideThe Ride: Paul Revere and the Night That Saved America, Kostya Kennedy
Listen to the audiobook

On April 18, 1775, a Boston-based silversmith, engraver, and anti-British political operative named Paul Revere set out on a borrowed horse to fulfill a dangerous but crucial mission: to alert American colonists of advancing British troops, which would seek to crush their nascent revolt. But this ride was like no other, and its consequences in the months and years to come became one of our founding legends. The Ride presents a dramatic new narrative of the events of April 18 and 19, 1775. While Revere was central to the ride and its plotting, Kostya Kennedy reveals the other men (and, perhaps, a woman with information about the movement of British forces) who helped to set in motion the events that would lead to America’s independence.

By Hands Now KnownBy Hands Now Known: Jim Crow’s Legal Executioners, Margaret A. Burnham
Find it at Snell Library | Find it at the School of Law Library | Listen to the audiobook

A paradigm-shifting investigation of Jim Crow-era violence, the legal apparatus that sustained it, and its enduring legacy. If the law cannot protect a person from a lynching, then isn’t lynching the law? Margaret A. Burnham, director of Northeastern University’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project, challenges our understanding of the Jim Crow era by exploring the relationship between formal law and background legal norms in a series of harrowing cases from 1920 to 1960. Burnham maps the criminal legal system in the mid-20th-century South, and traces the unremitting line from slavery to the legal structures of this period — and through to today. She reveals the true legal system of Jim Crow, and captures the memories of those whose stories have not yet been heard.

Remember, whatever you read, make sure to tell us about it to enter the prize drawing!

Ready to Research: Nancy F. Walker Papers

Nancy Walker rests her head on a stone birdbath. Behind her is a house and car.
Nancy Walker, circa 1950s. Nancy F. Walker papers, M229. Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections.

The papers of writer and gay rights advocate Nancy Fried Walker (1935-1996) have been fully processed and are ready for research at Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections. The collection documents Walker’s public and private writing, her relationships, her gay rights advocacy, and the gay liberation movement more broadly.

Walker grew up on Long Island and earned her undergraduate degree from Hofstra College. In the early 1970s, while living in Toronto, she was involved with the Community Homophile Association of Toronto (CHAT). Internal workings of the organization are documented through notes, meeting minutes, flyers and brochures, and more.

After moving to Boston in 1975, Walker wrote for Gay Community News (GCN) and served as its classifieds manager. Her “Odyssey of a Unicorn” column and short love poems to her partner resonated with many GCN readers around the country, including those who welcomed her politically moderate perspective in predominantly leftist gay rights spaces.

A yellow feedback form that reads: "I wanted more of Nancy Walker!! Burnt out on political activism + details just increase my guilt. The struggle gets depressing too often."
A GCN subscriber wanted more of Nancy Walker!! circa 1980s. Nancy F. Walker papers, M229. Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections.

 

Additional materials in the collection include correspondence, college papers, and photographs, as well as queer and feminist ephemera, memorabilia and serials that document a diversity of queer points of view throughout her lifetime.

A collage of three items in the collection: A pamphlet titled "National March on Washington for Lesbian & Gay Rights"; a magazine cover reading "motive lesbian/feminist issue"; and a pamphlet with a Hebrew heading and a subhead reading "Information about Boston's Community of Lesbian and Gay Jews."
Examples of queer serials and ephemera in the collection, circa 1970s. Nancy F. Walker papers, M229. Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections.

 

Walker’s frankness, warmth, humor, and thoughtfulness radiate throughout her papers, from her punchy letters to friends and personal life stories she shared in her columns to the practical advice she offered. She was unabashedly out of the closet, and wrote the following to one advice seeker in 1977:

“The one thing I would tell you by way of advice is that you must consider yourself a worthy individual and truly accept your lesbianism. Otherwise you will never be happy and no relationship will succeed.”

To learn more about the Nancy F. Walker papers, explore the finding aid, or email archives@northeastern.edu. For more information about the collection, read Samuel Edwards’ previous blog post Box by Box: Inventorying the Nancy Walker Papers.