A Look Back at our Co-op Experience

As the last days of our Co-ops come this week in the Library’s Advancement Office, my Co-op partner, Sophie Greenspan, the Graphic Designer, and I, the Marketing and Event Planning Co-op, took a second to think back on our experiences and all that we have learned this past semester. Below are our experiences and advice that we wish to share about our six months working at the Snell Library. Tomorrow we will post reflections from other library co-ops. Sophie: As the spring semester co-op comes to an end, I’m grateful for the experience I’ve gained as the Graphic Design Co-op here in Snell Library. As the sole designer for all library marketing, events, and publications, the responsibilities in my job description fell all over the map. A key part of my time here was spent creating the posters for each Meet the Author event; each time we booked an author to speak in the library, I would research their work and use what I learned to develop a poster to draw an audience to the event. Designing the posters was one of my favorite projects since they allowed for complete creative freedom; the more ridiculous my ideas were, the more eye-catching the posters would be.  Other projects included everything from creating newsletters, brochures, and signage to designing custom bookplates and taking event photography. I’d say that more than anything else, this job has taught me to always push my work in new ways. If you’re not engaged in your own designs, nobody else will be either. Since there is so much room for creativity in the projects here, I used the opportunity to try out ideas I had been playing around with, like hand-lettering, collage, and illustration. My advice for future co-ops would be to use this time to develop your personal style and eye for design. Really challenge yourself to make work that you are proud of, and you’ll wind up with a great portfolio in the process. As I move on to future co-ops and, eventually, ‘real world’ jobs, I’ll keep the skills and lessons learned at Snell in mind. I’m going to miss my awesome team of co-workers who have made this such a great semester, but I will always be close by to visit!   Karly: Every day for the past six months, I have had the pleasure of becoming a resident here at Club Snell, but rather than coming in every day to study, I have been coming in every day to work. As the Marketing and Event Planning Co-op, I was given the opportunity to help with the planning of all the different events that the library had this past spring semester, such as the Meet the Author talks and the Places & Spaces: A Mapping Science exhibit. I was worked with the publishers and authors of the talks, contacting potential co-sponsors, publicizing the event, and doing whatever was needed to make sure that the event ran smoothly. If you ever saw a frantic person running up and down the stairs from Room 90, that person was most likely me, making sure everything was set up.  A part of my job was to also help with communications from within the library to the Northeastern community such as through our Facebook and Twitter accounts. (Yes, our twitter handle really is @ClubSnell!) From this co-op experience, I have learned to take responsibility and ownership for a project, whether it be a Facebook post or an author talk, and learning to not second guess myself with my decisions as I put my own thoughts and ideas into the post or event. I’ve learned that I should ask for help when I need it and to delegate responsibilities, so that I am not overwhelmed and scrambling at the last minute to make sure something is ready. From this co-op I have also now become a “professional e-mailer” since a huge part of this job is being able to communicate by email and through that I have learned patience, since sometimes not everyone will respond back in a timely matter and instead of taking it personally, I’ve learned to ease my frustration and try to come up with other ways to communicate my message, such as personal phone call. For future co-ops, my advice is to be organized, since there is always tons of email and documents to keep track of, take a chance to use your ideas for an event and don’t be afraid to take ownership of something. Be patient, but also know when you should be a bit pushy when waiting for a response, and make sure to ask for help. It has been a wonderful and rich learning experience working on the other side of Club Snell.    

Summer Books and Movies, Round One

summer reading.

summer reading. by Charley {like, the girl way} on flickr

We hope you have a little more time to catch up on fun movies and books over the summer — it’s when us library folks have a little extra time to breathe and read, too.  We’ll be releasing a series of book and movie picks from students and staff all over the library, but here’s a few titles to get us started.  Do you have big summer book or movie plans?  Let us know in the comments, below!

Adapted from a Philip K. Dick story, a re-make with Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel, and Bryan Cranston will be released in August 2012. Be sure to see the 1990 original with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sharon Stone, or read the Philip K. Dick short story “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale“: the re-make promises to be very different than the Verhoeven version.

“Its great magic is in making the worn-out story of Henry and his many wives seem fascinating and suspenseful again… [not] nostalgic, exactly, but it’s astringent and purifying, stripping away the cobwebs and varnish of history, the antique formulations and brocaded sentimentality of costume-­drama novels, so that the English past comes to seem like something vivid, strange and brand new. — New York Times

“It is an extraordinary work, both realist and visionary, a historical-lyrical recreation of early encounters between black and white on the south coast of Western Australia… That Deadman Dance is a novel to read, recite, and reread, to linger over as Scott peels back layer after layer of meaning, as he slides unapologetically across time and between cultures and ways of being, seeing and understanding. — Sydney Morning Herald

“Part of Morrison’s longstanding greatness resides in her ability to animate specific stories about the black experience and simultaneously speak to all experience. It’s precisely by committing unreservedly to the first that she’s able to transcend the circumscribed audience it might imply. This work’s accomplishment lies in its considerable capacity to make us feel that we are each not only resident but co-owner of, and collectively accountable for, this land we call home.” — New York Times

“Alison Bechdel is still not the household name she deserves to be… Well, rectify that without delay because her latest volume of ravishingly drawn, brilliantly written autobiography is her biggest crowd-pleaser to date…. [T]his deceptively light book is in fact a serious excursion into the meaning of identity and how our selves are created through early interactions with our mothers.” — The Telegraph

  •  2312 / Kim Stanley Robinson

“His boldest trip into all of the marvelous SF genres—ethnography, future shock, screed against capitalism, road to earth—and all of the ways to thrill and be thrilled. It’s a future history that’s so secure and comprehensive that it reads as an account of the past.” — Slate

 

NU Athletics: If you can play, you can play.

In partnership with the organization You Can Play, Northeastern University Athletics has recently recorded a PSA supporting equality in sports. Northeastern student- athletes, coaches, administrators,and fans came together to express their support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender athletes, promoting their message that sexual orientation has no bearing in sport: if you can play, you can play. In their partnership with You Can Play, NU Athletics is been committed to creating an open, inclusive and supporting culture at Northeastern for LGBT athletes and students.

The cast of Triangle Theater Company’s “A Night Out with the Boys,” 1983. Archives Photo.

Supporting the LGBT community at Northeastern more broadly,the Library’s Archives and Special Collections Department highlights LGBT groups as part of the social justice collection strategy. Community members can view collections from organizations such as: Archives collections include materials such as documents, newspaper clippings, letters, photographs, and articles allow the Northeastern community to learn and gain an understanding of the history of the LGBT community and support for it in Massachusetts. These collections and others and be viewed in the library’s Archives and Special Collections Department located at 92 Snell Library.  

Open Access supporters petition the White House (Updated)

[Update] On June 3rd, the petition supporters reached their goal of 25,000 signatures! This year, the Obama administration has been actively considering the issue of public access to the results of federally funded research. The administration is currently considering which policy actions are priorities that will it will act on before the 2012 presidential election season begins in earnest. Supporters of  open access to research results hope to demonstrate a strong public interest in expanding the NIH Public Access Policy across all U.S. federal science agencies. As a supporter of open access to information, I agree with them. On Monday, a petition calling for public access to federally funded research was posted on the White House’s “We the People” site.  If the petition garners 25,000 signatures within 30 days, it will be reviewed by White House staff, and considered for action. I’ve signed the petition, and so have over 7,000 other people as of today. For more information on open access issues and initiatives in the library, see the library’s information page, the subject guide, or this recent 3Qs with Dean Will Wakeling from news@Northeastern.

Harvard open memo says major journal publishers’ prices are “untenable”

On April 17, 2012, Harvard University’s Faculty Advisory Council on the Library issued an open memo to the Harvard community stating that “major periodical subscriptions cannot be sustained” due to high prices and unreasonable publisher practices. If this topic sounds familiar, it’s because it’s already been in the news recently – in January, mathematician Timothy Gowers-Lee blogged about these issues specifically as they relate to publishing giant Elsevier. In February, a website was created where scholars could sign on to a boycott of Elsevier; as of today over 10,000 signatures have been gathered. The Harvard memo avoids mentioning specific companies, instead  referring to “certain publishers” that receive close to $3.75 million per year from Harvard for its subscriptions to their journals. Harvard’s expenses for online journal content from just two major providers has increased 145% over the past six years. The memo states, “The Faculty Advisory Council to the Library, representing university faculty in all schools and in consultation with the Harvard Library leadership,  reached this conclusion: major periodical subscriptions, especially to electronic journals published by historically key providers, cannot be sustained: continuing these subscriptions on their current footing is financially untenable. Doing so would seriously erode collection efforts in many other areas, already compromised.” Harvard University is certainly not alone in struggling with rising subscription costs – it’s been discussed in the professional literature since the 1990s, when publishers introduced the “big deal” pricing model of requiring libraries to subscribe to less important journals along with their subscriptions to essential titles. Only recently, though, have the mainstream media begun reporting on publishers’ questionable practices. Although it’s too soon to say whether the Harvard memo will have any direct impact on the industry, it’s definitely increasing public awareness of an issue that  not only affects Harvard but is jeopardizing the financial sustainability of academia as a whole. Recommended reading: ⇒ Full text of the Faculty Advisory Council Memorandum on Journal Pricing ⇒ “Harvard Now Spending Nearly $3.75 Million on Academic Journal Bundles,” The Atlantic, April 23, 2012 ⇒ “The wealthiest university on Earth can’t afford its academic journal subscriptions,” io9.com, April 24, 2012 ⇒ “If Harvard Can’t Afford Academic Journal Subscriptions, Maybe It’s Time for an Open Access Model,” Time, April 26, 2012 ⇒ “Harvard panel pushes benefits of free journals,” The Boston Globe, April 28, 2012