Boston University Libraries

08/28/2026

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to write a 2,000-to-3,000-word piece of narrative non-fiction about a key event in a historic figure’s life or a significant event or moment in history. The trick? This must be based on primary sources from a library’s archive. You’ll use personal letters, handwritten diaries, government documents, contemporaneous media reports, and anything else you can find in an archival repository.

Learn more about the fourteen students who tackled this challenge, posed by journalism lecturer Erick Trickey as a part of the College of Communication class JO 543: Rescuing Lost Stories: Writing Nonfiction Narratives from the Archives: http://spr.ly/6187B10Av3

📸 Oriana Fallaci Collection at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University

08/26/2026

The Boston University Libraries Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center and the Nursing Archives Associates are pleased to announce that applications are now open for the 2026-2026 Nursing Archives Associates Archival Research Award!

The award will help offset travel and related expenses to visit the Boston University Libraries to conduct research in the more than 200 collections that comprise the nursing archives at BU. It is open to all students, faculty, and independent researchers and will be awarded based on evidence of preparation and/or productivity in historical research related to nursing and health care. The successful grantee will receive $2,500.

The deadline for proposals is November 1, 2026. Learn more about proposal expectations: http://spr.ly/6184B1ah2Y

08/26/2026

Campus is ready for you, Class of 2030 ❤️📚

📸 Jennifer King, BU Libraries

08/24/2026

Welcome home, Terriers!

The Class of 2030 moves into their dorms this week, joining a long history of pushing carts and carrying suitcases down Comm. Ave. 🧳

Swipe for some throwbacks from move-in from 1971 and 1988.

📸 Boston University Photography

07/24/2026

The Atlantic recently published a remarkable piece on the enduring questions of Rosenberg Case — one of the most contested episodes in American legal and political history — through the lives of the Rosenbergs’ sons, Robert and Michael Meeropol.

The author, Amy Weiss-Meyer, visited the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at the Boston University Libraries while researching this article. BU is home to the letters of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and various other Rosenberg-related papers, including newly donated materials that shed additional light on their story.

We invite students, scholars, and the public to engage with the primary sources directly, and let the letters, documents, and records speak for themselves — check out the digitized collection: http://spr.ly/6181BEsSGd

07/02/2026

06/30/2026

The Pickering Educational Resources Library will be closed from July 1 through July 5.

06/02/2026

Let’s celebrate the poets!

You're invited to the Boston University Creative Writing Program's annual Poetry Graduation Reading!

Wednesday, June 10, 2026

7:30 PM–8:30 PM (Reading) | 8:30 PM–10 PM (Catered Reception)

Mugar Library Riverview Room

FREE and open to the public!

Featuring readings by: Gracie Barnett, Mary Elliot, Larry Flynn, Kevin Hauger, Meredith Olsson, Jordyn Perazzo, Leah Sholin, Sanjana Thakur, and an introduction by Karl Kirchwey

Experience the creative excellence of our graduating poets! Hear their voices, their stories, and their brilliant work. Whether you're a creative writing enthusiast, a friend or family member of our poets, or simply curious about contemporary poetry—this is an event for you. A catered reception will follow the reading, so stick around to celebrate with the poets! We hope to see you there!

Photo ID or BU ID required to enter.

Sponsored by BU Libraries and The Grolier Poetry Book Shop.

05/13/2026

Nearly 90 years ago, famed explorers Bradford Washburn and Robert Bates abandoned a gear cache in the Yukon during their attempt on Mount Lucania. Among the lost items was Washburn’s large-format Fairchild F-8 aerial camera — the very tool that produced his matchless aerial views of Alaska and the Yukon. For decades, the cache was assumed to have been swallowed by a crevasse on the Walsh Glacier.

BU Libraries Archives and Special Collections assisted modern-day explorers in tracing the story.

The result is THE LOST CACHE, a new documentary screening Memorial Day weekend at Mountainfilm Film Festival! We’re proud to have helped bring this story to light and to see Washburn’s legacy reach wider audiences.

Watch the trailer: http://spr.ly/6185BBcPNH

Learn more about the search and BU’s role: http://spr.ly/6187BBcPNJ

Find screening info: http://spr.ly/6188BBcPNK

Explore related materials in the Bradford Washburn Collection at BU Libraries Archives and Special Collections and request items for research at: http://spr.ly/6180BBcPNM

05/08/2026

I can finally touch grass (even though I have allergies), maybe check out a book from Mugar for leisure reading, watch a film on Kanopy, and most importantly, hear the birds chirp (i’m lowkey scared of birds). Cheers to summer and congratulations to our wonderful grads 🎓💋