Archives and Special Collections

Joan Krizack Receives Champion of Freedom Award

Joan Krizack, University Archivist and Head of Special Collections, received the Freedom House Champions of Freedom Award on April 5, 2011. The award recognized Joan for preserving the historical records of Freedom House in Northeastern University’s archives, including digitizing the Freedom House photographs and making them available online: http://www.lib.neu.edu/freedomhouse/. Freedom House was founded in 1949 by African American social workers Muriel S. and Otto P. Snowden to centralize community activism in the fight for neighborhood improvement, good schools, and harmony among racial, ethnic, and religious groups in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Freedom House Awards are given annually to outstanding individuals, non-profit organizations, and corporations in recognition of their commitment to diversity, educational achievement, and business development. To learn more Joan’s award, read this article from the Jewish Women’s Archive Blog: http://jwablog.jwa.org/Joan-Krizack-wins-Champion-of-Freedom-Award

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/

Welcome Library Co-ops Jessie, Kirsten, Elizabeth, Grace

Where would the Library be without the talent of our co-op students? This spring we welcome four co-ops who will help us with graphic design, events and marketing, digital media support and instruction, and archival processing. Jessie Contour, the new graphic design co-op in the Library Advancement Office, is from San Diego originally (but can’t surf, so she came to Boston instead!). She’s majoring in animation, so she watches a lot of animated movies and draws all the time. Kirsten Kirsten Forsberg is our Marketing and Events co-op. A middler studying graphic design, she is also thinking about trying a double major with business. Feel free to contact Kirsten at x7339 if you have any questions about upcoming events being hosted at Snell. Elizabeth Ochse is our new co-op in the Digital Media Design Studio, where she will be supporting creation of digital media as well as the digital media instruction program. Grace Rosinski is our new Archives and Special Collections co-op. Grace is pursuing a BA in international affairs and history. During her spare time, Grace is an active member of the Northeastern Debate Team. She also enjoys crossword puzzles, movies, and thrift stores. Welcome to all our co-ops! We look forward to working with you!

Senator Ted Kennedy and Student Financial Aid @ Northeastern University

I am sorry to hear about Senator Ted Kennedy’s ill health.  He’s the subject of a new online exhibit by the NU Libraries Archives on Student Financial Aid at Northeastern University.  The exhibit recounts Kennedy’s strong support of federal financial aid for college students, and his relationship with Northeastern.  He spoke at student rallies, heard personal student testimonies, and held a press conference and a senate committee field hearing at Northeastern whenever student financial aid programs were threatened by presidential or congressional proposals.  The exhibit comprises photographs, articles from Northeastern University’s student and faculty/staff newspapers, official statements, and background information.  I wish Senator Kennedy and his family the best.