The mission of the John D. O’Bryant African American Institute Special Collections is to preserve and document our institutional record, the Black presence on Northeastern’s campus, and to make accessible evidence of the efforts and achievements of peoples of color, for racial, social, political, and economic parity in the United States.

Print Collection

The print collection consists of about 2000 volumes of unique titles, within the Northeastern University Library System. The collection is subject-specific; all materials encompass information about the African Diaspora, throughout the world. The print collection consists of items from the original Norfolk House collection in Roxbury, first editions, periodicals, newspapers, documents, rare imprints and a signature collection.

• Access: to locate items in the JDOAAI print collection, please search the NU catalog.
• Research Equipment: A scanner and photocopy machine is available for materials in good condition. There is no charge for photocopies, within reasonable limits.
• Please Note: all items are non-circulating and secured within the Special Collections. However, circulation requests can be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, at your research appointment.

Image & A/V Collections

The Image and A/V Collections is a digital database is being constructed to house our 10K+ images and hundreds of A/V archival recordings that document the institutional record of the JDOAAI, from its beginnings in the late 1960s, to current events. We as one JDOAAI community, are preserving our history and creating our own narrative, but we need your insights! Please visit our Flickr page below, to help us identify people and events within our image collection, by tagging any known information to these photographs. Together, we can tell our story of Black excellence at Northeastern University!

• NU DRS: The JDOAAI Digital Collections are accessible & downloadable via the NU Digital Repository Service.
• Flickr: Displays curated digital photos albums for the series, Who’s Who of the ‘Tute which features images spanning our beginnings in the late 1960’s, to present day, featuring current students, alumni and staff.

Microforms

Microforms – involves microfiche and microfilm; the collection is mostly periodicals and newspapers, but also includes 200 reels on Black culture and 11 reels on slave narratives. Note: the Special Collections does not have a microform reader available onsite. To research microfiche or film, arrangements will be made to view the film over at Snell Library. Please allow 5 business days to secure an appointment.