Unveiling the Mercedes Agulló y Cobo Digital Library, an Open Access Week event at UMass Boston

On Tuesday, October 23 from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., UMass Boston celebrates Open Access Week with the unveiling of the Mercedes Agulló y Cobo Digital Library, an ongoing project of the University Library, University Archives & Special Collections, and the University’s Latin American and Iberian Studies Department.

The event will feature light refreshments, as well as remarks by University Librarian Daniel Ortiz and Professor Reyes Coll-Tellechea, among others.

With the Agulló Digital Library, UMass Boston provides open, online access to published and unpublished Spanish-language research indices, the life’s work of Spanish historian Mercedes Agulló y Cobo, about Spanish and Latin American history, art, literature and politics – indices that, in their creation, were efforts to remove access barriers to historical materials in Spanish archives and libraries. The digital library serves as one example of efforts on the UMass Boston campus to further scholarship, learning, and research in open access environments and across geographic boundaries.

There are currently 13 volumes by Mercedes Agulló y Cobo digitized as part of this online collection and more than 50 volumes are queued for digitization.

Dr. Mercedes Agulló y Cobo has served as director of the Museos Municipales de Madrid and over the course of her illustrious career has produced important scholarly reference works in the historiography of the book, painting, sculpture and theater. The University of Massachusetts Boston was granted permission by the original publishers and copyright holders to make these publications available online.

The event will be held Tuesday, October 23, from 5:00-7:00 p.m., in the Center for Library Instruction (CLI) on the 4th floor of the Joseph P. Healey Library at UMass Boston, 100 Morrissey Blvd., Boston.

Learn more about the Mercedes Agulló y Cobo Digital Library online at http://openarchives.umb.edu.

For more information about this event, call 617-287-5944 or email library.archives@umb.edu.


University Archives & Special Collections in the Joseph P. Healey Library at UMass Boston collects materials related to the university’s history, as well as materials that reflect the institution’s urban mission and strong support of community service, notably in collections of records of urban planning, social welfare, social action, alternative movements, community organizations, and local history related to neighboring communities.

University Archives & Special Collections welcomes inquiries from individuals, organizations, and businesses interested in donating materials of an archival nature that that fit within our collecting policy. These include manuscripts, documents, organizational archives, collections of photographs, unique publications, and audio and video media. For more information about donating to University Archives & Special Collections, click here or email library.archives@umb.edu.

Gaining Political Ground in the Twenty-First Century: Latest issue of the Trotter Review available

President Barack Obama and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick

The most recent issue of the Trotter Review, which focuses on issues of the political representation of African Americans in local, state, and national politics, is now available in ScholarWorks, the institutional repository for scholarship and research at UMass Boston.

The Trotter Review has been published since 1987 by the William Monroe Trotter Institute for the Study of Black Culture at UMass Boston.

The contents of this issue include

To view the full issue, and to explore back issues of this publication (which the ScholarWorks team is in the process of posting to the site), click here.

ScholarWorks is the University of Massachusetts Boston’s online, open access institutional repository for scholarship and research. ScholarWorks serves as a publishing platform, a preservation service, and a showcase for the research and scholarly output of members of the UMass Boston community. ScholarWorks is a service of the Joseph P. Healey Library at UMass Boston.

Roxbury Memory Day at Hibernian Hall on April 28

As part of a day-long series of events celebrating the history and community of Roxbury, on Saturday, April 28, the Madison Park Development Corporation and Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino invite community members to participate in “Roxbury Memory Day” as part of a series of events that day called Our Dudley Square:  Discover, Explore, Celebrate!

Past and present Roxbury residents are asked to bring their old photos and other documents to be scanned and archived by University Archives and Special Collections at UMass Boston as part of the Mass. Memories Road Show.  (Photos will be returned immediately to their owners.)  All are invited to participate in brief video interviews about life in Roxbury.

“Roxbury Memory Day,” will take place from 11 am to 3 pm at Hibernian Hall in Dudley Square.

All of the day’s events are free and open to the public. For more information, call 617-849-6335.

Click here to learn more about the Mass. Memories Road Show.

Library establishes Community Archives Award with event, launches exhibition

From left to right: University Librarian Daniel Ortiz, TIARA presidents and past-presidents Judy Barrett, Janis Duffy, Kathy Roscoe, and Mary Choppa, with University Archivist Joanne Riley

On March 14, 2012, the Joseph P. Healey Library at the University of Massachusetts Boston presented the first annual Joseph P. Healey Library Community Archives Award to The Irish Ancestral Research Association, or TIARA, for their work rescuing and preserving the historic records of the Massachusetts Catholic Order of Foresters. On the significance of these records, Joanne Riley, University Archivist for UMass Boston, notes that “for many genealogists, history buffs, and Irish families, the Foresters records are a treasure trove of ancestral information.”

Several members of TIARA and the Catholic Association of Foresters were in attendance, as were members of the general public and representatives from programs at UMass Boston. The Award was presented at a reception featuring music and storytelling by Nora Dooley and Susan Miron, and a presentation by TIARA member Susan Steele on what the Foresters records reveal about Massachusetts and U.S. history. In one example, Steele discussed the 1919 death of Foresters member James Lennon who, according to his death certificate, died as a result of the “bursting of molasses tank” in the Great Molasses Flood of 1919, an event that resulted in the deaths of 21 people and injured 150.

The evening also featured the opening of an exhibition by Archives & Special Collections at UMass Boston. “Calling the Heart Back Home: Irish-American Stories from the Archives” features images and information about the history of the Massachusetts Catholic Order of Foresters (now called the Catholic Association of Foresters) and the genealogically and historically significant information contained within the Foresters records, as well as a range of Irish-American stories as seen through archival images and documents from Archives & Special Collections at UMass Boston.

In 2011, TIARA donated the records of the Massachusetts Catholic Order of Foresters to Archives & Special Collections at UMass Boston and with the acquisition of these records, the department formally launched their Community Archives initiative, with the intention of, said University Archivist Riley, “creating a space where community-based history and archives groups can engage with, learn from, and preserve materials of historical value to their own organizational missions and objectives.”

Archives & Special Collections at UMass Boston collects materials that reflect the University’s urban mission and strong support of community service, notably in collections of records of urban planning, social action, alternative movements, community organizations, and local history related to neighboring communities, including the Boston Harbor Islands.

This event was sponsored by the Joseph P. Healey Library at UMass Boston, with the financial assistance of the Catholic Association of Foresters.

Milton Mass. Memories Road Show May 12, 2012

The Mass. Memories Road Show is coming to MILTON, Mass.!

Do you live, work, or go to school in Milton? The history of Milton is YOUR STORY. Bring 1 to 3 photos for inclusion in a public digital archive. You keep your photos, we scan them.

Saturday, May 12, 2012
10:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.
Milton Public Library
Keys Community Room