Read, Listen, Watch

Staff Picks and Suggestions

American History in Video Trial

Faculty, Staff and Students: NU Libraries has launched a trial of the video streaming collection, American History in Video until March 25th, 2010. The URL for the trial is: http://ahiv.alexanderstreet.com Visit this product’s help page for search tips and more informaton. American History in Video collection includes 2,000 hours of video and more than 5,000 titles. “The collection allows students and researchers to analyze historical events, and their presentation over time, through commercial and governmental newsreels, archival footage, public affairs footage, and important documentaries. This release provides videos from new partners Newsreel Films and Documentary Educational Resources, additional PBS and The History Channel titles, archival footage from NASA and NARA, additional Universal Newsreel, and much more.” Feel free to send your feedback to Debra Mandel at d.mandel@neu.edu or call her at 617-373-4902.

Carmen Pola records now available for research

The Carmen A. Pola papers are open for research in the Archives and Special Collections Department, 92 Snell Library.  A guide to the collection is available online.  Carmen Pola is a community activist who settled in Mission Hill, Boston, in 1972. The materials date from 1970-2006 and document Pola’s work with the Puerto Rican Festival, the Boston Public Schools, the Project to Monitor the Code of Discipline, Mayor Raymond Flynn’s Administration, and Roxbury Unites for Families and Children. The collection includes photographs, correspondence, grant proposals and reports, surveys, charts, organizational records, legal materials, political campaign literature, catalogs, booklets, and meeting minutes. Read the full press release here. If you’re interested in this topic, in addtion to perusing the records in Archives, you might be interested in checking out Latina Politics, Latino Politics: Gender, Culture, and Political Participation in Boston by Carol Hardy-Fanta. Below is a picture of Carmen Pola and Mayor Ray Flynn viewing a report in the Mayor’s office, ca. 1986.

Carmen Pola and Mayor Ray Flynn view a report in the Mayor's office, ca. 1986

Meet Author Elizabeth Nunez Feb. 5

This Friday, February 5, at noon, author Elizabeth Nunez will be speaking about about her novel Anna in Between in 421 Snell Library. The novel centers around Anna, a New York City-based editor who returns to her home in the Caribbean only to find out about her mother’s cancer diagnosis.  Refreshments will be served. Download the event flyer. One of Nunez’s earlier novels, Prospero’s Daughter, is a post-colonial re-telling of The Tempest, in the tradition of Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea. You can check out all three books, (along with Anna in Between) at Snell Library. (Follow the links above, to the books’ call numbers in NUCAT.)

Meet communications scholar Bob McChesney and award-winning journalist John Nichols, authors of The Death and Life of American Journalism

On Tuesday, February 2, 2010, communications specialist Bob McChesney and journalist John Nichols will be at Northeastern University as part of our Meet the Author series. They will be discussing the commercialism and special interests that impact reporting today.  They claim that the art has strayed from its fundamental purpose as a tool for public service and to spread knowledge.  In their book they discuss new methods that can help journalism succeed in today’s society. The book is available at Snell Library. The authors will be speaking at 90 Snell Library at noon. Refreshments will be served. Download the event flyer here.

Meet journalist Christina Asquith, author of Sisters in War: A Story of Love, Family, and Survival in the New Iraq

On Thursday, journalist Christina Asquith is giving a talk and book signing on her accounts, Sisters in War: A Story of Love, Family, and Survival in the New Iraq. Her book is available at Snell Library.  Visiting her website,  I was interested to see her experience as education reporter who spent a year teaching in Philadelphia’s worst performing school, and then wrote a book about her experience. Her talk will be held this Thursday, January 28 @ 2:30 pm, in the Alumni Center, 716 Columbus Avenue. To download an event flyer, click here.