Celebrate May Day!

Let’s celebrate labor! Yesterday was May Day, internationally celebrated as a day of recognition for labor and the working class. To learn about labor and labor history, you probably know to search NUCat for books and other items in our collection, and use our library home page discovery search box to add journal articles to your search.  In addition, here are some other, perhaps lesser-known, collections and items related to labor that we have to offer in the NU Libraries. You may have heard references in the media to Northeastern’s Center for Labor Market Studies, an applied research unit that focuses on employment and unemployment in New England and nationwide.  Center for Labor Market Studies reports are collected and published in IRis, Northeastern’s digital archive of university scholarship.

Coop student files papers, circa 1940. Courtesy of NU Archives and Special Collections

The Archives and Special Collections help you go back in time to learn about the history of labor and labor relations in Boston. Their unique documents include Gay and Lesbian Labor Activists Network records from 1987-2001, which illustrate that organization’s campaigns against homophobia in the labor movement, and their support for benefits for domestic partners and nondiscrimination. Our Archives and Special Collections also help you learn about labor history and union advocacy in Boston’s immigrant community organizations, such as the Chinese Progressive Association and El Colectivo Puertoriqueño de Boston. The Women’s Institute for Leadership Development (WILD) is another advocacy organization, started in 1986 to promote women leaders in the Massachusetts labor movement; their records, including photographs, negatives and slides, are also available in our Archives and Special Collections. For the most up-to-date information about labor, try our research databases. Factiva (with Wall Street Journal articles) and Lexis-Nexis help you find up-to-date news, while Business Source Complete and EconLit have scholarship and research articles. For a country-by-country view of labor practices, try EIU Country Reports. Don’t forget that the library has videos!  1-800-INDIA: Importing a White-Collar Economy, available streaming, is a great example–a fascinating look at how outsourced white-collar jobs have affected family relations, urban landscapes, women’s lives, labor practices, and economic development in India.

Courtesy Smithsonian Global Sound

Finally, celebrate May 1 by listening to some old-time labor songs. Here’s labor organizer Florence Reese, followed by Pete Seeger and the Almanac Singers, with the heartfelt “Which Side Are You On?” from the album Classic Labor Songs (Smithsonian Folkways).

We asked, and you spoke up. Thanks!

Over the past few weeks we have been administering a survey in order to collect information on what Library users need and want more of in terms of study space. The survey asked users questions about where they like to study and what type of spaces should the Library have more of, allowing the Library to learn what users really want for their library that will enable them to have their ideal study space. Users were able to take the survey online or on paper, which was handed out during different times of the day at the Library and other areas on campus, such as the Curry Student Center. We’ve had a great response, reaching about 1,000 completed surveys, with respondents from all colleges and divisions of the University. A big Thank You to everyone who took the survey, in print or online! With all of your helpful responses, we have generated important information that will help shape the Library’s planning now, as well as its long term development.    

Policy Making Begins at Home

Update: Stephen Flynn, founding co-director of Northeastern’s George J. Costas Research Institute for Homeland Security, testified before Congress on Tuesday this week about cyber security concerns. Policy making isn’t always an “inside the beltway phenomenon” or the exclusive preserve of Washington insiders. Northeastern faculty and staff are frequent visitors to Congressional hearing rooms, providing expert testimony on topics as diverse as hate crimes, tobacco regulation, airline mergers, autism, the economic downturn, and human trafficking. In 2008, President Joseph Aoun welcomed Senator Ted Kennedy, invited witnesses, and members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions to NU for a hearing on access to higher education. Ensuring Access to College in a Turbulent Economy provides a verbatim record of these proceedings. Other recent hearings with a local connection include: Mitchell Report: Illegal Use of Steroids in Major League Baseball – Includes testimony of former Red Sox pitcher Roger Clemens and his colleague, New York Yankees player Andy Pettitte. Digging Up the Facts: Inspecting the Big Dig – More on the project Bostonians love to hate: water leaks, shoddy building materials, and cost overruns. Learning from the States: Individual State Experiences with Healthcare Reform Coverage Initiatives – The Commonwealth’s flagship program for universal healthcare coverage, now much in the spotlight in the 2012 Presidential election. Ten Years after 9/11: Assessing Airport Security and Preventing a Future Terrorist Attack – This hearing was held in Boston since two of the affected flights originated at Logan International Airport. The NU Library provides access to historic and contemporary U.S. Government documents in online and print formats. Key collections include:
  • Proquest Digital Hearings: Congressional hearings from 1824 to present
  • FDsys: The government site for authenticated, permanent access to important document series, including the Congressional Record (1994 to present), Code of Federal Regulations, Federal Register, Compilation of Presidential Documents, federal budget, Statutes at Large, United States Code, etc.
  • HeinOnline: Historical and contemporary government documents, including Foreign Relations of the United States, treaties, Presidential Papers, and the Congressional Record and its predecessors.
  • U.S. Congressional Serial Set and American State Papers: Rich collection of primary source materials from Congress and other government agencies.  The set includes an historical map collection.
Consult the Federal Government Subject Guide for information about additional government publications.

History Through Biography

Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn  The award winning American National Biography Online and Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (for British history) are now available through NU Libraries. Within these resources, you are able to search by person, subject, date, or location. For example, you can find major artists who lived in Massachusetts in the late 1800s. Results include lengthy biographical entries and links to related people and themes. The American National Biography Online includes the Oxford Companion to United States History so that you can quickly link from a noted figure to article on topics related to that figure. For more on the Library’s resources in History, please see the Subject Guide.

Playing in the Sun with ‘Tag, Toss & Run’

Author Paul Tukey

Author Paul Tukey presents his book "Tag, Toss & Run"

We all enjoyed a great afternoon playing lawn games from organic lawn care advocate Paul Tukey’s book, Tag, Toss & Run: 40 Classic Lawn Games. Thank you to everyone who participated in our final Meet the Author Series talk of the semester and Field Day on Tuesday! Starting the afternoon off with his presentation on organic lawn care and Tag, Toss, & Run, Paul enlightened us on the dangers of society’s use of regular lawn care and the much better benefits of using organic lawn care techniques. He reminded us that before people needed their lawns to be perfect, with no weeds and completely green grass, families and their children were playing outside on their lawns without any problems. It wasn’t until a need for the “perfect” lawn that parents began to stop their children from playing outside due to all of the dangerous chemicals from the weed sprays and fertilizers that were being used to grow the “perfect” lawn. Fewer children are now going outside to play, missing out on fun and the exercise that comes with playing outside. Paul challenged and encouraged us to know what is being sprayed on our own lawns, and also to get outside to play more.
Field day lawn games on Centennial Commons

Student groups lead lawn games following Tukey's presentation

Emphasizing this challenge, Paul invited us to join him for an afternoon of play out in Centennial Commons where student groups, including NUHOC, Tri Sigma, BGE and the Vietnamese Student Association, as well as those from NU Sport in Society, were hosting lawn games from Tukey’s book. Enjoying the sun, students were able to play games such as Volley Ball, Ladder Toss, Badminton, Molkky, Sepak Takraw and more. Hitting the ball over the net, scoring points in Molkky and tossing a Frisbee around, students and faculty met Paul’s challenge and for an afternoon, got outside to have a fun game-filled day under the sun.