Preregistration and preprints will continue to be available through the Open Science Framework.
Reach out to us at Library-DPS@northeastern.edu if you have any questions or would like to discuss your scholarly materials or research data workflows.
The project’s first phase was to digitize materials from all four Elma Lewis collections held in the Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections. The digitization work spanned audio, video, photographs, and textual materials across four archival collections:
We’re thrilled to announce that the digitization phase of the project is now complete. Vendor digitization of approximately 120,000 pages of text documents and photographs, 51 videos, and four audio recordings began in October 2025 and finished in March.
What’s Available Now in the Digital Repository
With digitization complete, we are now adding the files to the Digital Repository Service (DRS). All audio and video files, which originate from more delicate formats like film reels and were once in accessible to a reading room visitor, are now accessible. Text documents require additional post-digitization processing before they can be deposited, but they are being uploaded as that work is completed. Photographs have been deposited with minimal metadata and enhancements are forthcoming.
While most photographs and documents are available to everyone, not all of the other file types are publicly accessible. Some documents containing sensitive personal information and audio and video files with copyright restrictions are only accessible to the Northeastern community.
Still from A Story for All Seasons, one of the digitized films from the collection that is available to the public.
Upcoming Work: Cataloging
The next phase of the project, item-level description, has just begun. Four part-time Digital Project Assistants are performing the cataloging work, which will continue through the end of the project. Text documents will be the focus of the cataloging work. Item-level metadata will improve access to the newly digitized materials by making the archival collections searchable in the DRS and beyond.
Upcoming Work: Community Engagement
An important aspect of this grant is engaging with members of the Boston community who knew Elma Lewis, including family, friends, artists, and alumni of the Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts, as well as members of the Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists community. The project team has a lot to learn about the digitized items being catalogued, so gathering community members’ knowledge of people, events, dates, and context will help us create more accurate and meaningful descriptions of the collection. The grant includes funds for these community consultations, which we hope will both give back to the community and enrich the archival record.
Get Involved
This project is ultimately about ensuring that the legacy of Elma Lewis and the communities she built remains accessible for generations to come. Everyone is welcome to contact archives@northeastern.edu to arrange a visit to view the photographs and documents in person.
Also, if you have a connection to Elma Lewis, the Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts, or the National Center of Afro-American Artists — or if you have information, memories, or context that could help us better describe these collections — please reach out. Your knowledge is an invaluable part of telling this story.
Since 1977, Northeastern University has hosted events dedicated to remembering and learning the lessons of the Holocaust. Since 1991, the Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Committee (HGAC) has organized these programs, with this year’s events running the week of March 16.
The records of the HGAC live in the Archives and Special Collections, and the Digital Production Services staff have been creating captions for videos available in the Digital Repository Service. We’re currently focusing on videos of Holocaust lectures and survivors.
Captioning survivor testimonies has been an emotional experience as I’ve heard people’s stories of trauma, often repeatedly as the same survivors have spoken at Northeastern multiple times. However, their stories also offer hope and advice for how to make a difference, no matter the circumstances.
“Because of Oskar and Emilie Schindler, I was given a chance to grow up, to get married, to have children and to have grandchildren. And because I am an eyewitness to some of the most horrific crimes committee against innocent people, I’m also an eyewitness to what morality and humanity and goodness can do, because Oskar Schindler had proven to the world that they did not have to stand by and do nothing, that there is always something that could have been done. Oskar Schindler and Emilie Schindler could not stand by, avert their eyes to the slaughter of innocent people. They acted on their faith, on their beliefs, [regarding] their safety, because they felt that was the only thing they could do, because to be a bystander is a bigger sin than to be a perpetrator.” (2002)
Rena Finder speaking in 2010.
She discusses the moral impact of small acts from ordinary people:
“And this is a moral for everyone, that each and every one of you has the power to make a difference, because each and every one of you can make a decision. Not to stand by when you see injustice done, but to make changes. You have to participate…There is always something you can do. You don’t have to stand by when you see someone beating up on somebody else. You don’t have to listen when somebody makes an ethnic joke. You have the power to walk away. You have the power to say, ‘I don’t want to hear it. You can’t say that in front of me.’ You have the power to extend a hand to your friend, to your neighbor, regardless of their race or religion.” (2002)
Raymond Fridmann speaking in 1994.
Survivor Raymond Fridmann focuses on how to have a larger influence on the world:
“If there’s one thing you should do and I say that every year here, register to vote because this is the only expression you have to make sure that you got the government of the people you choose. Do not take it for granted that your vote does not count. Your vote counts. Get educated. Get educated, for you to have jobs. Get educated and read history because if we don’t read history, we will go back into the same holes.” (2002)
Finder ends with a call to action:
“It’s really up to you. You have the power to write to the president, to the congress, to the senator. Don’t ever believe that a small group of committed citizens can’t change things, because those are the only ones that can. And you are going to become just that group that will change.” (2002)
I’m excited to make these materials more accessible, and hope these moving testimonies continue to inspire their listeners to take action.
The Digital Repository Service (DRS) is a dynamic place that showcases the variety of projects and scholarly work completed by members of the Northeastern community. Every year, new material is added to the DRS, including theses and dissertations, datasets, presentations, photographs, archival collections, and more. To conclude our series of blog posts celebrating 10 years of the DRS, I thought it would be fun to look back at this past year.
First, some statistics! In 2025…
75,851 new files were added to the DRS. There are 516,254 files total.
1,567 new users signed onto the DRS.
1,557,614 interactions (views, downloads, and streams) occurred.
Next, I wanted to put a spotlight on some work completed this past year. This blog post focuses on projects related to Digital Production Services (DPS), the department I’m a part of.1 DPS is responsible for the day-to-day management and upkeep of the DRS.2 Our work this year involved collaborating with different groups, departments, and people across the university, adding new collections and files to the DRS and completing metadata updates to existing collections, among other things.
Collaboration across the university…
Mills College Art Museum (MCAM): Collection images and exhibition catalogs from the museum were added to the DRS. MCAM, located in Oakland, was founded in 1925 and its collections include over 12,000 objects. Highlights include Californian and Asian ceramics and important works by prominent women artists. To learn more about the museum, visit their website.
Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project (CRRJ): Cataloging work continued this year, and new items were added. This project showcases collaboration between many different people at Northeastern, including the School of Law, Archives and Special Collections, the Digital Scholarship Group, and DPS. To learn more about the work of the CRRJ, visit their website. Read more about this work in blog posts written by Archives Assistants Stephanie Bennett Rahmat and Annie Ross.
Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs): Every year, new theses and dissertations showcasing the breadth and depth of scholarship at Northeastern are added to the DRS. In 2025, 577 were added. To break this down by college:
Work related to the Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections…
An example of a tear sheet from the Larry Katz Collection: a newspaper article written by Katz from the Boston Herald about Mariah Carey. https://hdl.handle.net/2047/D20775370
Urban Confrontation (Office of Education Resources at the Communications Center) and Issue and Inquiry (Division of Instructional Communications): Two radio programs were added to the DRS. Both programs originally aired on Northeastern’s WRBB and highlight public affairs issues and other challenges facing Americans in 1970-71. To read more about this work, check out this blog post by Chelsea McNeil, a former metadata assistant.
Larry Katz Tear Sheets: Tear sheets (documents that provide proof of publication) were added to the Larry Katz Collection. In this case, the Katz tear sheets are the newspaper articles or clippings Katz wrote for The Real Paper and the Boston Herald. Katz’ interviews were previously added to the DRS. With the addition of the tear sheets, new connections can be made between the interviews and articles.
Freedom House: New items were added to the Desegregation and Education sub-series of the collection. If you’re interested in learning more about community activism, busing, and desegregation in Boston Public Schools and efforts to provide all children with equal access to educational opportunities, this sub-series is a great starting place.
Boston Gay Men’s Chorus (BGMC): New audio and video recordings (mainly of performances) by the BGMC were added. A portion of the college is holiday concerts, and though we’re past the holiday season, I can’t help but recommend listening to some holiday music (or put this on your to-do list for later this year!). Here’s a link to “Home for the Holidays,” the 2001 holiday concert. To learn more about the BGMC, visit their website.
The Cauldron: New editions of Northeastern’s yearbook were added. The Cauldron was first published in 1917 and is also available to browse through the Internet Archive.
Reference scans: Archives and Special Collections (NUASC) scanned over 46,000 pages of material for researchers this past year. These scans are now being incrementally added to collections with minimal metadata to make NUASC’s records more accessible. To learn more about this work, read Grace Millet’s blog post. So far, 8,584 pages have been added to NUASC’s DRS collections for:
I wanted to wrap up this post by previewing the collections, projects, and collaborations for the DRS in 2026.
Work has started on the digitization and description of collections related to Elma Lewis, founder of the Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts (1950), the National Center of Afro-American Artists (1968), and the Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists (1969). Through these institutions, she shaped and influenced Black art, artists, and performers in Boston and beyond. This work is made possible by a Community Preservation Art grant from the City of Boston. To learn more about this work, read the blog post written by Giordana Mecagni, Head of NUASC, and Molly Brown, Reference and Outreach Librarian.
Metadata updates are currently in progress for the WFNX Collection, which mainly consists of clips and episodes from The Sandbox, a beloved morning radio program that aired on WFNX, a radio station broadcasting in the Greater Boston area from 1982-2012. These updates are expected to be completed early this year.
Planning has begun for DRS v2. There are many improvements planned for behind the scenes and changes that will impact how users interact with the DRS. We’re excited to get the ball rolling and sharing more about this work in the future.
It’s an amazing accomplishment to reach 10 years, and a testament to the passion and dedication of the Northeastern community. We look forward to the next 10 years, which will bring new challenges, collections, opportunities, and collaborations.3
If you’re interested in depositing your materials to the DRS, or working or collaborating with DPS, please email library-DPS@northeastern.edu — we’d love to hear from you! To read more about DPS services, visit our departmental directory.
Footnotes:
There are so many different communities, groups, and people that work on and contribute to the DRS. This blog post is only able to capture a snapshot of all that goes on.↩︎
Many library staff members work alongside DPS to support the DRS. To learn more about the people behind the DRS and the DRS itself, read What is the DRS and who is it for? by Sarah Sweeney, Head of Digital Production Services.↩︎
A big thank you to my colleagues in DPS (Sarah Sweeney, Drew Facklam, and Kim Kennedy) and NUASC (Molly Brown) for their help and feedback, which contributed greatly to this post.↩︎
This etching on paper by Italian draughtsman and printmaker Stefano della Bella is likely to have been one of the works that brought the DRS to its 500,000th upload.
This milestone comes as the library celebrates a decade of supporting the DRS as a service for the university community. In those 10 years, a few files have emerged as the most popular, seeing consistent traffic year after year, including:
This “Ancient Aliens” meme from the One Marathon collection is the most viewed file in the DRS.
Internet Meme: “Ancient Aliens” meme — The most viewed file in the DRS is a variation of the Ancient Aliens meme from the Our Marathon collection, which contains crowdsourced images, documents, and audio-visual content related to the 2013 bombing of the Boston Marathon. The file has been viewed 51,598 times since 2018, averaging more than 7,000 views a year.
Profile of Nonverbal Sensitivity (PONS): Full Test — The most streamed audio or video file in the DRS is a test instrument that is widely used in the field of psychology. The full test video has been streamed 21,979 since 2015, averaging more than 2,000 streams a year.
