Library News

Cambridge Eviction Free Zone records available for historical research

We are pleased to announce that the historical records of the Cambridge Eviction Free Zone are now available in the NU Archives, located on the lower level of the Snell Library. This collection is part of the local history collections in the NU Libraries Archives and Special Collections. Many people do not realize that, in addition to collecting historical records of Northeastern, we also collect local history records and documents, focusing especially on Boston-area social justice organizations that serve under-represented communities. Founded in 1988, the Cambridge Eviction Free Zone (EFZ) was an independent, tenant-run community organization that worked for social and economic justice in the areas of housing and tenants’ rights, rent control, and immigrant voting rights. The collection includes meeting minutes, reports, newsletters, newspaper clippings, promotional materials such as flyers, photographs, signs, and memorabilia. View a guide to the collection and read a complete press release about the collection.

Some practical joke

Recently, we’ve been seeing signs posted around the library, possibly on every floor, that read: Club Snell Announces: 24/7 PARTY. Starting July 5th, 2010. All floors will be open as dance space to Students, Faculty and Staff with current Husky ID. Sorry, no BU students. Okay so…we can take the high road and admit that this is kind of funny. The signs are versions of the template that Krissy created in June to announce the 24/7 library service. It is not clear how somebody got a hold of the template for this sign and was able to print it. Judging from the fact that it’s in black and white, though, it must have been printed in the info commons. Still, if you see one of these signs, you can take it down and junk it. More detective work to follow, perhaps.

Listen to Online Science Lectures by Experts

The Libraries have a great new resource available for students and faculty: the Henry Stewart Talks, also called The Biomedical & Life Sciences Collection. Here’s a way to browse and view or listen to lectures by experts in the sciences, including Nobel Laureates. There are over one thousand seminar talks to choose from, on topics ranging from Antibiotic Resistance and The Blood-Brain Barrier to Health Economics and Using Bioinformatics in the Exploration of Genetic Diversity. Some are overviews, while others cover recent developments. Note the wide range of lectures on Cognitive Neuroscience. While the focus is on biomedicine, the seminars also are useful for those who focus on the social and administrative science aspects of medicine and life sciences. When this was a trial resource, we received many enthusiastic comments from the NU community, which helped to make this purchase possible. Remember that your comments on trial resources are always valuable to the staff and are considered when we make our collection decisions.

Papers of African American Architects Now at Northeastern

If you are like me and think the Southwest Corridor Park is one of the great hidden treasures of Boston, then you should read this article from the Globe about Donald Stull and David Lee, two great African American architects from the 1960’s whose achievements include the design of the Southwest Corridor, along with numerous other buildings in the Roxbury neighborhood. Snell Library’s Archives and Special Collections department has acquired the designs, drawings, and sketches of both men, now in their 60’s and 70’s. The Archives is in the process of applying for a grant that will allow them to hire new staff to sort through the 1,400 tubes and boxes containing Lee and Stull’s documents. Stull and Lee have connections with Northeastern dating back to 1966. Chuck Turner, who was a Northeastern administrator at that time, turned to both men to create the Southwest Corridor and re-vamp the surrounding neighborhood in order to make a better space for the mostly poor residents who lived nearby. The plan to build the park included the renovation of nine Orange Line stops that we all find so convenient today. It came as a welcome alternative to a proposed highway extension that was to be built in the same spot. Both architects empathized with the ideas behind the project because they had grown up poor, though they managed to graduate from the Harvard School of Design. In the Globe article, Stull said, “We were very much active in social change. We wanted people to have the opportunity to create their own destiny.” Today, the Southwest Corridor officially stretches from Dartmouth Street to Forest Hills, though the bulk of it runs through Roxbury. Today, Northeastern is no longer the mostly white commuter school it was in the 60’s, but a racially diverse boarding college located at the heart of the park. Most people, including most Northeastern students, probably do not realize how frequently they use the Southwest Corridor. But with this new acquisition of Stull and Lee’s archives, perhaps the beauty of this part of the city can be acknowledged once again.