News

Greenhouse Studios at UConn and NU Library receive Mellon Grant for Sourcery app work

Sourcery logo  

The Northeastern University Library is excited to be involved in a partnership with Greenhouse Studios at the University of Connecticut to create Sourcery, a mobile application for sharing scans of archival materials. Greenhouse was recently awarded a $120,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support the continued development of Sourcery.

From Greenhouse Studios:

Launched in December 2019 by Greenhouse Studios, Sourcery is an open source, community-based mobile application that expands access to non-digitized archival sources. With the Sourcery app installed on a phone or laptop, a researcher seeking a document can simply type in the citation information, and the app will notify Sourcery-registered researchers currently working in and around the repository where the document sits. One of these remote researchers claims the job, calls the document from the archive, takes a picture of it from within the Sourcery application, and sends it directly to the requesting researcher. A custom, enterprise version of Sourcery, for use by archivists – especially during COVID-19-related library closures – will launch in late-summer 2020.

Funding from The Mellon Foundation will allow the Sourcery team to expand the geographical reach of the app, improve its user interface, and work with partners in libraries and archives to support the development of the enterprise version of the software. As a part of this effort, Northeastern University Library will host a virtual workshop series for institutional stakeholders in the fall of 2020, during which the team will solicit feedback and advice from stakeholders in the library and archives community.

Learn more about Sourcery and the grant here.

Introducing Mideastwire

Mideastwire provides daily English-language summaries of key political, cultural, economic, and opinion pieces produced by the media in 22 Arab countries, Iran, and the Arab Diaspora. Although this resource is particularly relevant for faculty and students in Political Science, International Affairs, Journalism, and International Business, it will be of interest to anyone following current developments in the Middle East and Arab world. Automatic delivery of a daily briefing is available through RSS feed or e-mail. To enable e-mail delivery of the daily briefing, send a blank e-mail message to info@mideastwire.com. Please note that there are currently some difficulties with delivery to Gmail accounts; Gmail users, please see the following FAQ: http://0-www.mideastwire.com.ilsprod.lib.neu.edu/faq.php. A link to RSS feeds is available on the home page of Mideastwire. Additional features include:
  • Links from each translated article to the original news piece which offers users the look and feel of the original news source. Additionally, readers fluent in the language of publication may view the original.
  • Five year archive for issue tracking.
  • Basic and advanced searching of the article archive.
  • Access to the Mideastwire blog.
  • Links to related websites.
  • Alumni access.
Mideastwire enhances international news coverage already provided through other library resources, including EIU.com, Press Display, Access World News, and Lexis/Nexis Academic.

Game Design and Interactive Media Lecture Series

Today, January 18, at 1:30pm there will be a lecture in the Raytheon Amphitheater (240 Egan) by Ed Fries. Ed Fries is awesome because he is co-creator of the Xbox, the creator of “Halo 2600” for the Atari 2600, founder of FingerPrints, and is a former Microsoft Vice President of Game Publishing. This event is open to both students and professionals in the area and should be an amazing talk with Mr. Fries. If you are interested in game design, interactive media, animation, or if you have just played on an Xbox before you should attend! Also, this lecture is part of an ongoing event series by the Creative Industries Program and College of Arts called the 2011 Game Design and Interactive Media Lecture Series. Keep an eye out for more terrific events like this in the future! UPDATE, 5:10pm, 1/18/11: Unfortunately, this event was cancelled due to bad weather. Hopefully it will be rescheduled. Check the lecture series’ website for further updates.

Texting in the Classroom: Problem or Not?

Okay, this is a different kind of “scholarly communication” than the kind I usually write about… I’ve been seeing more information recently about students texting while in class, from innocuous chatting with friends all the way to sending information during exams. This morning, Inside Higher Ed posted a “Quick Take” report on a study conducted on in-class texting at Wilkes University in Pennsylvania: ⇒ Wilkes University Professors Examine Use of Text Messaging in the College Classroom A whopping 91% of the students surveyed responded that they have used their cell phones to text during class time! (Only 3% admitted to doing it to send information about an exam while they were taking it, though.) Professors have a wide range of responses to texting in their classrooms, from a Syracuse University professor who walked out on his class after seeing a student texting in the front row: ⇒ If You Text in Class, This Prof Will Leave (Inside Higher Ed) to this professor at Georgia State University who encourages his students to text during class…in order to send questions to him, that is: ⇒ Professor Encourages Texting In Class (NPR) Faculty, students, what do you think? Is texting during class common at Northeastern? Is it a distraction, or is it no big deal? Photo courtesy of Tommy Huynh.

Sept. 29, 2010: On This Day in History

On September 29, 1987, my lovely sister Jacqueline Ratner was born. Happy 23rd sis! In other, more scholarly-related news, on September 29, 2008, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell a record 777.68 points after the House voted against a $700 billion financial recovery plan. It was a very somber day that wrote this 21st-century recession in stone. Two years later we are supposedly rising out of the recession, and a lot of valuable lessons have been learned by experts, businesses, and individuals alike. As students, and for the future of this country, it is important that we learn from mistakes in the past so we can keep making that “cash-money.” The library has always had books on finance, as it is one of the most popular majors at Northeastern, but now you can find newly added post-recession books on how to manage your money. Keep that beer-money coming in all of your life by taking a look at some of the great new additions to the Snell Stacks. The Roller Coaster Economy: Financial Crisis, Great Recession, and the Public Option Too Big to Save? How to Fix the U.S. Financial System Guide to Financial Markets