Digital Library Center Blog | UF

Excerpt from UF’s Latin American Collection News, 2/16/10:

DIGITIZATION UPDATE
While much of the digitization work at UF has concentrated on the Federally-funded Digital Library of the Caribbean, this is by no means the only effort here to make documents related to Latin American Studies available online.

The UF Digital Center is developing other projects, such as:

Women in Development:
An interdisciplinary collection enjoying the generous support of individuals who pioneered this field in the Caribbean, Latin America and Africa

Panama and the Canal:
Initial site for a developing partnership between the UF Libraries and the Panama Canal Museum

UF Institutional Repository:
See instructions here for including your thesis, dissertation or other UF research reports

World Studies Collections:
Miscellaneous digitized items, including many related to non-Caribbean South America (Andes, Brazil, etc.)

One of the advantages of digital collection-building is that items are easily “shared” between collections, making them available to interested users no matter where they begin their search.  This means that many items can be found in more than one collection.  Begin at: http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/ to search across collections.

News Release

The University of Florida Center for Latin American Studies will sponsor Library Travel Research Grants for summer 2010. Their purpose is to enable faculty researchers from other U.S. colleges and universities to use the extensive resources of the Latin American Collection in the University of Florida Libraries, thereby enhancing its value as a national resource.  The grants are funded by a Title VI National Resource Center grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

Six or more travel grants of up to $1250 each will be made to cover travel and lodging expenses. Grantees are expected to remain in Gainesville for at least one week and, following their stay, submit a brief (2-3 pp.) report on how their work at UF Libraries enriched their research project and offer suggestions for possible improvements of the Latin American Collection. Researchers’ work at the Latin American Collection may be undertaken at any time during the summer, starting May 15, 2010.  All travel must be completed by August 14, 2010. At least one grant will be made to a scholar from a Florida college or university.  Applicants must be US citizens or permanent residents.

The UF Libraries Latin American Collection

The UF Libraries’ Latin American Collection contains one of the finest collections of Latin American materials in the U.S. It consists of over 500,000 volumes, some 50,000 reels of microfilm (many unique and very scarce), renowned newspaper and government-document holdings, and a growing access to computer-based electronic information resources.

Areas of collection focus include all disciplines, although literature, the humanities and the social sciences are best represented. All regions of Latin America are also well represented, with the Caribbean, Circum-Caribbean and Brazil having the deepest holdings, while the Andean and Southern Cone regions are developing strengths. Particularly noteworthy are the Collection’s holdings on religion in the Americas, including Santeria, Rastafarianism and the Ralph Della Cava Collection on Padre Cícero and Brazilian popular religion. Other units of the UF Libraries also contain important resources and researchers are encouraged to utilize them as well. The UF Map Library houses approximately 500,000 maps and atlases, some 50,000 of which deal with Latin American topics. The Science Library has important book and journal holdings on agriculture, tropical conservation, and development. The Special Collections Department has manuscript holdings such as the Rochambeau, Jeremie and the Braga Brothers Sugar Company papers, and the newly acquired Ramón Figueroa Collection of Mexican and Cuban film posters.

Information on the UF Latin American Collection is available here. You can also e-mail Richard Phillips, Director of the Latin American Collection, for further information.

Application Procedure

All applications must be filed electronically. To apply for a Library Travel Grant, send a letter of intent, brief library research proposal, travel budget, and CV to:

Hannah Covert, Executive Director
Center for Latin American Studies
319 Grinter Hall
telephone: 352-392-0375, Ext. 825
e-mail: hcovert@latam.ufl.edu

Application Deadline: March 2, 2010

Press Release: Eric Williams Centenary Stamp Design Competition

Port of Spain, TRINIDAD and TOBAGO (January 24, 2010) The Eric Williams Memorial Collection (EWMC) at The University of the West Indies and the Trinidad & Tobago Postal Corporation (TT Post) announce the Eric Williams Centenary Stamp Design Competition, co-sponsored by UNESCO (Trinidad and Tobago) and Kelly Services Customs Brokerage, Ltd. The contest runs from January 30 to April 30, 2010.

Since September 25, 2011 marks the 100th birthday of this “Father of the Nation,” Trinidad and Tobago’s Fifth and Sixth Form students are being asked to design a series of commemorative stamps in his honour, an added 50 cents of which will be donated to a Trinidad and Tobago charity. The Centenary stamp, with winner’s and school’s names included, will be sold, subject to availability, from January 1 to December 31, 2011.

Eric Williams was the first Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago and head of government for 25 years until his death in 1981. He was also an internationally-renowned historian whose groundbreaking work, the 65-year-old Capitalism and Slavery, not only re-framed the historiography of the British trans-Atlantic slave trade, but also established the contribution of Caribbean slavery to the development of both Britain and America. Popularly referred to as The Williams Thesis, the book continues to inform today’s ongoing debate and remains “years ahead of its time…this profound critique is still the foundation for studies of imperialism and economic development,” according to the New York Times.

Competition judges are: Adrian Camps Campins, historical artist; Kenwyn Crichlow, artist; Kari Elliot, TT Post; Albert Sydney, philatelist. Each school is expected to host its own in-house competition and enter only two students in the national contest. Rules and regulations are being distributed via colour poster to all eligible schools.

The Eric Williams Memorial Collection constitutes the Research Library, Archives & Museum of Eric Williams. It was inaugurated by former US Secretary of State Colin Powell in 1998, and named to UNESCO’s prestigious Memory of the World Register in 1999.

For more information, please contact Erica Williams Connell, The Eric Williams Memorial Collection P.O. Box 561631, Miami, FL 33256-1631, USA. Fax: (305) 271-4160; Websites: www.ericwilliamsmemorialcollection.org; http://www.dloc.com/?m=hiteew

Videos of presentation:

• “Politics and Resistance in Twentieth Century Haiti” by Dr. Matthew J. Smith, presentation sponsored by the Digital Library of the Caribbean as part of the 12th Annual Haitian Studies Institute of Florida International University.
• Red and Black in Haiti,  presented at book launch by Dr. Matthew J. Smith

From: UF Center for Latin American Studies

The University of Florida Center for Latin American Studies will sponsor Library Travel Research Grants for summer 2010. Their purpose is to enable faculty researchers from other U.S. colleges and universities to use the extensive resources of the Latin American Collection in the University of Florida Libraries, thereby enhancing its value as a national resource.  The grants are funded by a Title VI National Resource Center grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

Six or more travel grants of up to $1250 each will be made to cover travel and lodging expenses. Grantees are expected to remain in Gainesville for at least one week and, following their stay, submit a brief (2-3 pp.) report on how their work at UF Libraries enriched their research project and offer suggestions for possible improvements of the Latin American Collection. Researchers’ work at the Latin American Collection may be undertaken at any time during the summer, starting May 15, 2010.  All travel must be completed by August 14, 2010. At least one grant will be made to a scholar from a Florida college or university.  Applicants must be US citizens or permanent residents.

The UF Libraries Latin American Collection

The UF Libraries’ Latin American Collection contains one of the finest collections of Latin American materials in the U.S. It consists of over 500,000 volumes, some 50,000 reels of microfilm (many unique and very scarce), renowned newspaper and government-document holdings, and a growing access to computer-based electronic information resources.

Areas of collection focus include all disciplines, although literature, the humanities and the social sciences are best represented. All regions of Latin America are also well represented, with the Caribbean, Circum-Caribbean and Brazil having the deepest holdings, while the Andean and Southern Cone regions are developing strengths. Particularly noteworthy are the Collection’s holdings on religion in the Americas, including Santeria, Rastafarianism and the Ralph Della Cava Collection on Padre Cícero and Brazilian popular religion. Other units of the UF Libraries also contain important resources and researchers are encouraged to utilize them as well. The UF Map Library houses approximately 500,000 maps and atlases, some 50,000 of which deal with Latin American topics. The Science Library has important book and journal holdings on agriculture, tropical conservation, and development. The Special Collections Department has manuscript holdings such as the Rochambeau, Jeremie and the Braga Brothers Sugar Company papers, and the newly acquired Ramón Figueroa Collection of Mexican and Cuban film posters.

Information on the UF Latin American Collection is available at: http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/lac. You can also e-mail Richard Phillips, Director of the Latin American Collection, for further information.

Application Procedure

All applications must be filed electronically.
To apply for a Library Travel Grant, send a letter of intent, brief library research proposal, travel budget, and CV to:

Hannah Covert, Executive Director
Center for Latin American Studies
319 Grinter Hall
telephone: 352-392-0375, Ext. 825
e-mail: hcovert@latam.ufl.edu

Application Deadline

March 2, 2010

Press Release:

Eleventh Annual FIU Eric Williams Lecture Touts a New Vision for the Caribbean

MIAMI, Fla. (October 27, 2009)— The 11th Annual Eric E. Williams Memorial Lecture at Florida International University will take place on Friday, November 6, 2009 at 6:30 p.m., as part of FIU’s African & African Diaspora Studies Program. As current events demand new prescriptions for emerging countries, this year’s Distinguished Africana Scholars Lecture, “A New Vision for A New World Reality: Prospects for the Anglophone Caribbean,” promises to address critical issues of sustainable development for the region with a vibrant discussion of the implications for contemporary times.

Former Jamaican Prime Minister and current Leader of the Opposition Mrs. Portia Simpson Miller will be the featured speaker at the Wertheim Performing Arts Center, Modesto A. Maidique campus, 11200 Southwest Eighth Street, Miami, Florida. Admission is free and open to the public.

Mrs. Portia Simpson Miller became Jamaica’s first woman Prime Minister on March 30, 2006, having served seventeen years as a senior Cabinet Minister for Labor and Welfare – among her many other portfolios. She was conferred with the “Order of the Nation” on May 29, 2006. Mrs. Simpson Miller is a member of the Council of Women World Leaders, an international network of current and former women Presidents and Prime Ministers whose mission is to mobilize action on critical women’s issues. In March 2007, she was awarded the International Olympic Committee’s World “Women and Sport” Trophy for her outstanding dedication to women in Jamaican sport – both as athletes and administrators. The leading architect of Jamaica’s Master Plan for Sustainable Tourism Development, Mrs. Simpson Miller has been tireless in promoting and strengthening urban renewal and community development, leading to fundamental reforms in local government.

Established in 1999, the Lecture honors the distinguished Caribbean statesman Eric E. Williams, first Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago and head of government for a quarter of a century until his death in 1981. He led the country to Independence from Britain in 1962 and onto Republicanism in 1976. A consummate academic and historian, and author of several books, Dr. Williams is best known for his groundbreaking work, the 65-year-old Capitalism and Slavery, which has been translated into seven languages, including Russian, Chinese, Japanese and soon-to-be, Korean. Urdu and Hindi editions are also planned. Popularly referred to as The Williams Thesis, this landmark text continues to inform today’s ongoing debate and remains “years ahead of its time…this profound critique is still the foundation for studies of imperialism and economic development,” according to the New York Times.

Among prior Eric Williams Memorial Lecture speakers have been: the late John Hope Franklin, one of America’s premier historians of the African-American experience; Kenneth Kaunda, former President of the Republic of Zambia; Hon. Cynthia Pratt, Deputy Prime Minister of the Bahamas; Hon. Mia Mottley, Attorney General of Barbados; Beverly Anderson-Manley, former First Lady of Jamaica; the celebrated civil rights activist Angela Davis; and prize-winning Haitian author Edwige Danticat.

The Lecture, which seeks to provide an intellectual forum for the examination of pertinent issues in Caribbean and African Diaspora history and politics, is co-sponsored by: the Caribbean Consular Corps (Miami); Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs; Delancyhill, P.A.; Diane Galloway’s Herbal Gardens, Inc.; FIU: College of Arts and Sciences, School of International and Public Affairs, AADS Graduate Students’ Association, Caribbean Students’ Association, Council of Student Organizations, Latin American and Caribbean Center, National Society of Black Engineers, Ruth K. and Shepard Broad International Lecture Series, Student Government Association, Women’s Studies, Women’s Studies Graduate Students’ Association; Jaskq Creations; Joy’s Roti Delight; Trinidad & Tobago Diaspora, Inc.

The Lecture is also supported by The Eric Williams Memorial Collection at the University of the West Indies (Trinidad and Tobago campus), which was inaugurated by former U.S. Secretary of State, Colin L. Powell in 1998. It was named to UNESCO’s prestigious Memory of the World Register in 1999.

Books by Eric Williams will be available for purchase and signing at the Lecture.

For more information, please contact 305-348-6860/271-7246 or africana@fiu.edu.

Press Release

Port of Spain, TRINIDAD and TOBAGO (September 10, 2009)

The Eric Williams Memorial Collection (EWMC) at The University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago, announces the biennial “Eric Williams ‘School Bags’ Essay Competition.” Since 2009 marks the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, Caribbean students are being asked to assess its successes and failures and to comment on their relevance to today.

This year, the EWMC is partnering with UNESCO offices in Trinidad and Tobago; Jamaica; Guyana; Grenada and the British Virgin Islands in encouraging eligible schools in those countries to participate.

Throughout his life, Dr Eric Williams, noted scholar/historian and the first Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, gave special emphasis to learning. “To educate is to emancipate,” he famously said, and on August 30, 1962, the eve of his country’s Independence from Britain, he exhorted:

“You, the children, yours is the great responsibility to educate your parents, teach them to live together in harmony…To your tender and loving hands, the future of the Nation is entrusted. In your innocent hearts, the pride of the Nation is enshrined. On your scholastic development, the salvation of the Nation is dependent…you carry the future of Trinidad and Tobago in your school bags.”

The contest is being offered to all final year Sixth Form students (or equivalent) in the former and current British-colonized Caribbean countries: Anguilla, Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and Turks and Caicos. It will be held from September 2009 through January 31, 2010. Winners will be announced on April 30, 2010.

The first prize winner will receive a four-day trip for two to Trinidad and Tobago with airfare, hotel accommodations and two meals daily; a tour of The Eric Williams Memorial Collection and University of the West Indies campus; a US $1000 educational voucher; courtesy calls on the President of Trinidad and Tobago and the Speaker of the House of Representatives; a tour of Parliament; a set of Eric Williams’ books; a framed certificate and a 2010 African American Black History Calendar. In the event of a Trinidad and Tobago winner, a trip to Jamaica will be substituted.

The winning essay will also be published in CARICOM’s Newsletter and the Miami Herald Newspaper’s online edition.

2007 Competition winners were: Dexnell Peters, Trinity College, Trinidad and Tobago (First); Patrina Pink (Second) and Machela Osagboro (Third), both of Wolmer’s School, Jamaica.

Patrons of the Eric Williams Memorial Collection’s ‘School Bags’ Essay Competition are: Caribbean Airlines, Ltd.; CARICOM; Digicel Trinidad & Tobago, Ltd.; Encyclopedia of the Caribbean – Professor John Garrigus; IOKTS Productions; Journal of African American History; LIAT (1974) Ltd.; Miami-Dade County Public Schools System; Miami Herald Newspaper; Trinidad Hilton; UNESCO.

The Eric Williams Memorial Collection constitutes the Research Library, Archives & Museum of Eric Williams. It was inaugurated by former US Secretary of State Colin Powell in 1998, and named to UNESCO’s prestigious Memory of the World Register in 1999.

For more information, please contact Erica Williams Connell, The Eric Williams Memorial Collection; P.O. Box 561631; Miami, FL 33256-1631, USA. Fax: (305) 271-4160; Websites: www.ericwilliamsmemorialcollection.org; http://dloc.com/?c=dloc&m=hiteew

The National Library of Jamaica was awarded nearly $3 million through the 2009 Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) to conserve the Enos Nuttall Manuscripts. The Jamaica Gleaner explains that the grant:

will save historically important documents which once belonged to the esteemed Enos Nuttall who served as bishop. His collection consists of 38 boxes of letters written by governors of Jamaica, clergy and laymen identified as a source of important perspectives during the period immediately following the Morant Bay Rebellion of 1865 up to and including the World War I. The manuscripts also provide information on the formation and development of several institutions including schools, mental institutions, prisons and the poor relief services.

Congratulations to the National Library of Jamaica!

The second international Congress of the Haitian Diaspora “Haitian Diaspora Unity Congress” is being organized by The Haitian League with the cooperation of its chapters and affiliates, and numerous other supporting organizations and agencies. This will be the first time that representatives of Haitian Diaspora in a number of countries will convene under one roof to find long-term solutions to the major issues that plague Haitians in and out of Haiti.

Themed “HAITIAN DIASPORA UNITY CONGRESS”, the purpose of the 2009 Congress — “La Grande Reunion de la Famille Haitienne” — is to coalesce and capitalize on the Haitian Diaspora´s resources (intellectual, financial, professional, and charitable, etc.) to develop solution-oriented strategies to aid Haitians at home and abroad.

For Haiti, the emphasis will be on economic independence — boosting tourism, stimulating agricultural production, restoring forests and ecology, managing water supplies, preparing for disasters, achieving literacy, thus creating new jobs in cities and the countryside.

For the millions of Haitians outside Haiti, the emphasis will be on ways to improve the Diaspora´s integration into the fabric of their adopted countries - increasing education and employment opportunities, overcoming declining earnings and relative poverty, and advocating justice and fair immigration and justice.

Conference participants are expected to gain a consensus how to best tackle the daunting challenges of Haiti´s underdevelopment, and how to best leverage our adopted lands´ capital (educational, professional, electoral, etc) to improve ours and our children´s future and how to transplant change to Haiti.

For a specific schedule of the weekend´s events, please see the Haitian Diaspora Unity Congress website.

September 22, 2008

Invitation to Participate in Caribbean Newspaper Digitization Project

The Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) is issuing a call for partners in a new effort to ensure preservation of and increase access to newspapers in the Caribbean. Newspapers offer valuable information to researchers on a broad range of topics. Digitized newspapers with full text searching capabilities are revolutionizing the ability of scholars to discover information. Due to the natural tendency of newspapers to deteriorate more quickly over time than other resources, confounded by the climate in the Caribbean, digitization provides a mechanism to ensure that these valuable resources are available not only to today’s researchers, but to those for generations to come.

dLOC is seeking Caribbean partners with historical newspaper collections that are interested in digitizing these titles and providing them online for free, open access to researchers, students and citizens. In addition, we are seeking partnerships with newspaper publishers to provide archival services of their current issues to ensure future preservation. The holding institution will retain all rights to the newspapers, and will provide the dLOC with permission to distribute the digital images for educational use. Please see the following examples of some of the newspapers dLOC already has online:

• Star. Roseau, Dominica: January 7, 1967 http://www.dloc.com/?b=UF00072476&v=00062
• The Royal gazette, Bermuda commercial and general advertiser and recorder. D.M. Lee. Hamilton, Bermuda: May 1, 1877 http://www.dloc.com/?b=UF00076588&v=00124

We are in the process of preparing the application for funding. If you are interested in more information about how to participate in this important initiative, please contact the dLOC project coordinator, Brooke Wooldridge, at dloc@fiu.edu.

The Digital Library of the Caribbean began with the collaboration of the University of the Virgin Islands, the University of Florida and Florida International University on a U.S. Virgin Islands History and Culture IMLS digitization project. After successfully working together on this project, the group decided to explore the possibility of expanding collaboration on digitization projects in the Caribbean. The initial concept of the joint Digital Library of the Caribbean was presented during the ACURIL XXXVI conference in May, 2004. The five Caribbean and four United States initial partners successfully submitted an application for funding from the US Department of Education’s Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information Access program.

During the first three years of the project we have built a collaborative digital library management system, provided basic digitization equipment for each of the original project partners, developed and implemented tri-lingual training materials, conducted multiple on-site training programs, and initiated an educational outreach program. Our content and usage has consistently increased, and we now have nearly 500,000 pages of content online. In addition, seven new partners with existing capacity and/or desire for digitization have joined the project.

Una Invitación para Participar en un Proyecto para la Digitalización de Periódicos Caribeños
La Biblioteca Digital del Caribe (dLOC por sus letras en inglés) está buscando nuevos socios en un trabajo conjunto para asegurar la preservación de los periódicos en el Caribe y el aumento en el acceso a dichas publicaciones. Los periódicos brindan información importante a investigadores acerca de diversos temas y la capacidad de buscar por palabra, a través de periódicos digitalizados, está revolucionando la manera de descubrir información. Debido a la tendencia de periódicos a deteriorarse más rápido que otros documentos y en combinación con el clima del Caribe, la digitalización provee un mecanismo para asegurar que estos documentos estén disponibles no solamente a los investigadores de hoy sino a las generaciones que siguen.En estos momentos nos encontramos en un proceso de estructuración y dLOC busca socios en el Caribe con colecciones de periódicos históricos, los cuales estén dispuestos a digitalizarlos y ponerlos en el Internet con distribución abierta y gratis para investigadores, estudiantes y ciudadanos. También buscamos acuerdos con editores de periódicos para archivar sus recientes publicaciones y a su vez asegurar su futura preservación. Las instituciones que participen en éste proyecto permanecen con todos los derechos sobre los periódicos digitalizados y sólo otorga a dLOC los derechos no exclusivos para distribuir las imágenes digitales con fines educativos.Los invitamos a consultar los siguientes ejemplos de algunos periódicos dLOC ya existen en línea:

• Star. Roseau, Dominica: January 7, 1967 http://www.dloc.com/?b=UF00072476&v=00062
• The Royal gazette, Bermuda commercial and general advertiser and recorder. D.M. Lee. Hamilton, Bermuda: May 1, 1877 http://www.dloc.com/?b=UF00076588&v=00124

Si desea obtener mayor información de cómo participar en ésta importante iniciativa, por favor comunicarse con la coordinadora de proyectos, Brooke Wooldridge, a su correo electrónico dloc@fiu.edu.

Historia del Proyecto: La Biblioteca Digital del Caribe empezó con un trabajo conjunto de la Universidad de las Islas Vírgenes, la Universidad de la Florida y la Universidad Internacional de la Florida con un proyecto digital llamado La Historia y Cultura de las Islas Vírgenes. Debido al gran éxito de esta colaboración, las tres instituciones decidieron buscar otra oportunidad para expander la colaboración en la elaboración de proyectos digitales en el Caribe. El concepto fundamental de la Biblioteca Digital del Caribe fue presentado durante la conferencia ACURIL XXXVI en mayo de 2004. Las cinco instituciones caribeñas y cuatro estadounidenses entregaron una propuesta exitosa para el subsidio por parte del Departamento de Educación de los Estados Unidos, en su programa de Innovación Tecnológica y Cooperación para Acceso a Información en el Extranjero.

Durante los primeros tres años del proyecto hemos construido un sistema de biblioteca digital, brindado a los socios originales equipos básicos para la digitalización. A su vez, hemos desarrollado e implementado un programa de entrenamiento trilingüe, presentando múltiples talleres de digitalización en las instalaciones de nuestros socios e iniciando un programa educativo. Nuestro contenido y el número de visitas han aumentado constantemente y ahora contamos con casi 500,000 páginas en línea. Además, siete nuevos socios con capacidad y/o deseo para la digitalización se han involucrado en el proyecto.