Library News

Husky ID Swipe Survey Starting April 11th

Many of you may remember the first issue of the card swipe machines that were put out early this year. Well, we found that many Husky ID cards were either damaged or inactive, causing some back up at the front door. To help eliminate this problem for students, faculty, staff and alumni of Northeastern, the Husky ID office is setting up a survey in Snell Library to identify and fix the number of cards that are running into these issues. We will be assisting the office with their survey starting on Monday, April 11th by placing four card swipe machines at the library entrance and testing each person’s card as they enter the building. With a quick swipe, the Husky ID staff will be able to tell if your card needs to be replaced or adjusted, however, no matter the result, you will still be allowed entry into the building. If your card swipe results in an error, you may be contacted in the future about replacing your card with a new Husky ID. If you do not have your Husky ID you will still be asked to show some form of identification, such as driver’s license, and sign in. If you have any questions please contact Lesley Milner at l.milner@neu.edu.

DMDS Media Showcase

Wednesday, April 6th, 2011 12-1 pm, 90 Snell Library Celebrate the talent of NU students  in our showcase of video, audio, photography, and graphic images. DMDS MEDIA SHOWCASE Refreshments will be served For more information contact Thomas Bary at t.bary@neu.edu/617.373.3399 For more information visit the DMDS website or take a look at our media showcase flyer

Meet the Film Critic: Gerald Peary

Sadly, tomorrow marks our last Meet the Author talk of the Spring Semester, but we are thrilled to be hosting such a fantastic event. Tomorrow’s talk will feature Gerald Peary, a well known film critic, and screen his documentary, For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism. Peary, who currently heads the film department at Suffolk University, will discuss his studies and knowledge of the American movie reviewing profession. Popcorn and refreshments will be served! We hope to see you all for our final event tomorrow at 3pm in 90 Snell Library, and stay tuned for future events coming in the Fall Semester!

This Day in History: Disney and Miramax Split

On March 29, 2005, after  a yearlong negotiation, the Walt Disney Company ended its relationship with Harvey and Bob Weinstein of Miramax Films. Miramax was founded by the Weinstein brothers in 1979, and was soon established as an up and coming distributor and producer through movies such as Pelle the Conqueror (1989), sex, lies and videotape (1989), and The Crying Game (1992). In 1993, the Weinsteins sold Miramax to Disney for $80 million in order to gain greater financial stability. It seemed to be an odd pairing due to Miramax’s history with edgy, adult-oriented content and Disney’s family-friendly reputation. However, it began well with the $108 million grossing Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction (1994). Movies like Good Will Hunting and Shakespeare in Love followed as Disney and Miramax continued to work together. However, discord began to brew after a few unsuccessful films and when the Talk magazine project tanked the New York Times published an article announcing the split between the two companies. According to the NYT article, the split was decided when Disney refused to distribute Michael Moore’s politically charged Fahrenheit 9/11, financed by Miramax. The controversy developed in the middle of contract negotiations, which ended with Disney as the retainer of the Miramax name and the Weinstein’s with Dimension Films, which produced hits such as Scream and Scary Movie as well as $130 million to start a new film production company. Interested in further research on Disney, Miramax, or animation in general? Check out some of Snell’s resources on the subjects: Walt Disney: Conversations edited by Kathy Merlock Jackson Dimension Films and the Exploitation Tradition in Contemporary Hollywood by Bradley Schauer (information for this blogpost was referenced from history.com)

Freedom House Collections featured in The Scout Report

Established in 1949 by two African American social workers, Muriel S. and Otto P. Snowden, Freedom House was created to centralize community activism in Roxbury, MA, a middle-class, racially mixed neighborhood. The hope of its founders was to link community members to existing services and to create new services in areas that were lacking by focusing on neighborhood improvement, good schools, and harmony among racial, ethnic, and religious groups. Eventually, archives from the Freedom House came to Northeastern University and were digitized creating the Northeastern University Libraries’ Freedom House Collection consisting of 2,265 photographs, negatives, and slides. These images document a variety of topics including the organization’s early activities to create an integrated Roxbury, to initiate citizen participation in the urban renewal of Roxbury, and the early oversight of Boston Public Schools desegregation.  The images also include representations of well-known figures like Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Senator John F. Kennedy. More recently, on March 18, 2011, the The Scout Report listed NU Libraries’ Freedom House Collection as a featured research and education source. The article can be found here. The The Scout Report is a weekly publication that provides information on new or newly discovered online resources of interest to researchers and educators. To sign up to receive the The Scout Report in text or HTML format go to: http://scout.wisc.edu/About/subscribe.php To find out more about Northeastern University’s Digital Collections go to http://www.lib.neu.edu/archives/digital_collections/