Meet Snell’s New Co-ops
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This donation adds to the existing AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts Records in the Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections.
While processing the new materials I noticed the photo of Captain B. Careful on the Boston Common. It stood out for a few reasons. His sheer ingenuity for costume design. The huge smile on his face even though it was noticeably cold outside.
Captain B. Careful, Condom Campaign. AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts, Inc. (M61, Box 42, Folder 14.)
Less tangibly his image stood out to me because he symbolizes a continuity in Boston’s legacy of advocating for the power of knowledge and striving toward equal rights and opportunity for all.
In 1992, AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts (AAC) introduced New England’s first public service television AIDS prevention campaign directed at gay men.
They also launched the United States’ first statewide transit campaign for AIDS awareness by placing condom posters on 437 buses throughout Massachusetts ultimately leading to a legal battle with the MBTA.
Highlights of the collection include:
After several months of preparation, the library has now successfully transitioned from IRis, our previous repository platform, to the newly redesigned Digital Repository Service (DRS).
IRis was publicly launched in 2006, and attained a milestone of 1 million downloads in 2013. The DRS builds upon the success of IRis by offering expanded functionality and customization specific to community needs. Like IRis, the DRS is a storage and preservation tool designed to allow the Northeastern University community to store materials that are produced at the University or are important to the university’s mission. Faculty are welcome to upload their research materials, publications, datasets, and presentations; staff can store important administrative materials, like departmental photographs and documents. As in IRis, the library deposits all master’s theses and doctoral dissertations completed at the University into the DRS. Exemplary undergraduate student projects and publications are also included in the DRS. DRS features include:Self deposit: Faculty members may deposit their own material.
Simple discovery: The locally developed interface offers user-friendly searching and browsing.
Saving and downloading: Materials can be saved to Sets or downloaded for future use.
Easy account creation: Users may sign in to the DRS with their myNEU username and password.
As of today the DRS has over 70,000 files stored, and more than half of those files are available to the public:
1,677 master’s theses and doctoral dissertations completed at Northeastern University since 2008
1,217 publications authored by Northeastern University faculty and staff
16 archival collections from University Archives and Special Collections, including photographs from the Boys and Girls Club and Freedom House collections
25,000 photographs from Northeastern University’s Office of Marketing and Communications (faculty and staff access only)
And growing…