Privacy and Access in the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children Records

Archival collections that include records about victims and survivors of child abuse present unique challenges regarding privacy, access, and representation. With a long tenure of collecting on the history of social welfare, University Archives and Special Collections (UASC) in the Joseph P. Healey Library at the University of Massachusetts Boston had to address these challenges before processing and making available the historic inactive records of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (MSPCC). UASC and the MSPCC took steps to ensure that the MSPCC collection would be accessible to the survivors represented in the records and to their descendants, while also providing appropriate access to the collection for the wider public. To protect the privacy of any former MSPCC clients who may still be living, the MSPCC and UASC collaborated to establish a set of policies that can be adapted by archives working with similar collections

University Archives & Community Organizations: Ensuring Access through Collaboration

In 2011, to further our community-engaged mission, UASC began to focus on working with, promoting, and assisting community archives in the greater Boston area through facilitating cross-organization collaboration and access to informational, educational, and practical resources relevant to archival procedures and best practices. The guiding tenets behind this continuing commitment emerged, in part, from UASC’s multifaceted collaboration with The Irish Ancestral Research Association (TIARA), a local nonprofit organization established to develop and promote the growth, study, and exchange of ideas among people and organizations interested in Irish genealogical and historical research and education. Our collaboration with TIARA formally began in 2011, driven by a unique collection, the records of the Massachusetts Catholic Order of Foresters (MCOF)

Processing Manual for Archival and Manuscript Collections

University Archives and Special Collections collects and preserves materials related to the history of UMass Boston, providing academic research support for the university community. University Archives and Special Collections recognizes a formal commitment to working with, promoting, and assisting community archives in the Greater Boston area through facilitating cross-organization collaboration and access to informational, educational, and practical resources relevant to archival procedures and best practices. This manual is intended to be used as a training guide for graduate-level interns, volunteers, and professional archivists new to working in University Archives and Special Collections (UASC). It is also intended to bring consistent practices to UASC and to serve as a reference source for staff

University Archives and Community Organizations: Ensuring Access through Collaboration

How can a university archives establish a successful ongoing relationship with a community organization? What are the benefits and challenges of such a collaboration? University of Massachusetts Boston’s Archives and Special Collections (UASC) explored these questions while working with The Irish Ancestral Research Association (TIARA) to preserve and provide access to 79,000 mortuary records from the Massachusetts Catholic Order of Foresters. Elements of the collaboration included shifting stewardship of the records from the Foresters to TIARA to UMass Boston, integrating TIARA’s efforts in processing and indexing the records into the Archives’ workflow, providing in-person and electronic access to the records, and hosting public events that celebrate the partnership and educate the public about the records. This poster illustrates the lessons learned during the records’ journey from an active business to a community organization to a university’s Archives and Special Collections

A Toolkit to Support Nurse-Patient Communication through Nurse-Expressed Empathy

Empathy is the ability of a person to understand what another is experiencing from the receiver\u27s perspective and the ability to communicate that understanding to the receiver. In nursing, empathy is believed to be a necessary component to the nurse-patient relationship. Evidence shows a decline in empathy specifically noted over time in nursing students who are preparing to graduate and enter the workforce. The practice focused question for this project asked whether an experiential learning toolkit for development of nursing empathy can improve sophomore nursing student empathy as measured via the Jefferson Scale of Empathy. This project was guided by evidence that demonstrated a continued need to measure the effect of activities aimed at fostering empathy in nursing students. The design for this project was a one group pre and post evaluation of a current healthcare program experiential learning toolkit. The project utilized a toolkit learning activity including case study and discussion in an undergraduate academic setting to assess whether empathy can be fostered in nursing students. Empathy levels were measured pre and post intervention utilizing the Jefferson Scale of Empathy. Analysis demonstrated a 3% increase in overall Jefferson score post intervention indicating an increase in empathic tendency. Of the 20 items on the scale, most scores increased pre to post survey. The findings are suggestive that experiential learning may be a viable strategy to increase empathy in nursing students. This project holds significant value for social change with the potential to identify effective methods to develop student nurses\u27 expression of empathy

“Save Our History!” Collaborating to Preserve the Past at UMass Boston

Sparked by the 50th anniversary of the founding of the University of Massachusetts Boston in June 1964, University Archives and Special Collections (UASC) staff in the Joseph P. Healey Library collaborated with departments across campus to carry out a wide range of initiatives, all focused on locating, accessioning, preserving, and sharing the physical evidence of the university’s history. This poster outlines the various collecting activities, outreach methods, digitization projects, and dogged detective work that resulted in the addition of more than 2,500 linear feet of unique historic materials to the University Archives, as well as a number of well-received public events and exhibitions

cAMP Response Element-Binding Protein Deficiency Allows for Increased Neurogenesis and a Rapid Onset of Antidepressant Response

cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB) has been implicated in the molecular and cellular mechanisms of chronic antidepressant (AD) treatment, although its role in the behavioral response is unclear. CREB-deficient (CREBαΔ mutant) mice demonstrate an antidepressant phenotype in the tail suspension test (TST) and forced-swim test. Here, we show that, at baseline, CREBαΔ mutant mice exhibited increased hippocampal cell proliferation and neurogenesis compared with wild-type (WT) controls, effects similar to those observed in WT mice after chronic desipramine (DMI) administration. Neurogenesis was not further augmented by chronic DMI treatment in CREBαΔ mutant mice. Serotonin depletion decreased neurogenesis in CREBαΔ mutant mice toWTlevels, which correlated with a reversal of the antidepressant phenotype in the TST. This effect was specific for the reversal of the antidepressant phenotype in these mice, because serotonin depletion did not alter a baseline anxiety-like behavior in CREB mutant mice. The response to chronic AD treatment in the novelty-induced hypophagia (NIH) test may rely on neurogenesis. Therefore, we used this paradigm to evaluate chronic AD treatment in CREB mutant mice to determine whether the increased neurogenesis in these mice alters their response in the NIH paradigm. Whereas both WT and CREBαΔ mutant mice responded to chronic AD treatment in the NIH paradigm, only CREBαΔ mutant mice responded to acute AD treatment. However, in the elevated zero maze, DMI did not reverse anxiety behavior in mutant mice. Together, these data show that increased hippocampal neurogenesis allows for an antidepressant phenotype as well as a rapid onset of behavioral responses to AD treatment

Inventory methods for sea asparagus in the Salish Sea: working with indigenous communities to integrate UAV technology and aquatic plant management

On the west coast of British Columbia, licences for the harvesting of sea asparagus are issued annually, requiring information on the baseline distribution and available biomass of the resource. While previous research has documented the biomass of sea asparagus in saltwater marshes of Boundary Bay and Cowichan Bay, this inventory is limited in geographic scope. Traditional ground transect survey methods are expensive and not feasible for expansion of inventory work across the Strait of Georgia. The use of small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) has gained recognition as a highly effective and accessible approach for mapping coastal vegetation. In this study, we developed and piloted a cost-effective methodology using UAV technology for the inventory of sea asparagus within a high priority area on the east coast of Vancouver Island. We combined field sampling methods with UAV surveys to provide ground-verified image coverage of saltwater marsh habitat. Photo-orthomosaics were used to produce a digital elevation model, from which area-based calculations for sea asparagus were developed. Area estimates were then converted to biomass based on ground-verification data. A key component of our approach was the involvement and participation of K’ómoks First Nation Guardian Watchmen. As stewards of their lands and waters, First Nation communities have a central interest in the management of commercial resources within their traditional territory. Indigenous-led UAV research provides the potential for new technology to benefit both ecosystems and communities