Digital Library Center Blog | UF

Press Release from FIU: Digital Library of the Caribbean seeks donations to support damaged libraries and archives in Haiti

February 8th, 2010

MIAMI – The Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC), an international collaboration of educational, research, governmental and non-governmental institutions that provides access to electronic collections about the Caribbean, is seeking donations and technical assistance for the recovery and protection of Haiti’s libraries and their valuable historical, governmental and cultural resources.

The Digital Library of the Caribbean has initiated the Protecting Haitian Patrimony Initiative, the goal of which is to help the country’s three largest heritage libraries and the National Archives, all of which were damaged in the Jan. 12 earthquake. While the main structures remain standing, one library must be evacuated and most likely demolished and the others suffered significant damage, leaving their collections extremely vulnerable. As a result, significant resources will be needed to protect the already brittle, rare, books and documents, now left in piles and covered with debris.

Bibliothèque haïtienne des Pères du Saint-Esprit (also known as San Martial).
Courtesy of Dominique Franck Simon, director of the Alumni Association for San Martial College.

The damaged institutions have indicated they need gloves, masks, archival boxes and temporary staff to assist in the clean-up. Later, they will need to replace broken shelving, repair or replace damaged electronic equipment and provide more advanced restoration for many of the rarest books and documents.

Laura Probst, dean of FIU Libraries and a dLOC executive committee member, said protecting the historical documents is crucial in the earthquake’s aftermath.

“The collections in these archives represent the collective memory of the Haitian people, their culture, and Haiti’s role in the history of the western hemisphere and the world,” Probst said. “With this initiative we seek to preserve these invaluable resources for Haiti’s future, and for our own.”

FIU has a longstanding partnership with Haiti’s libraries and the National Archives through the Digital Library of the Caribbean and is one of the founding partners and administrators of dLOC, along with the University of Florida and the University of the Virgin Islands.

The Digital Library of the Caribbean’s operations are run out of FIU. Brooke Wooldridge, coordinator of dLOC at FIU, will be traveling to Haiti this week to assist the libraries and archives in documenting their needs and planning for the next phases of their recovery.

The Protecting Haitian Patrimony Initiative at first will channel resources to four institutions in Port-au-Prince:

• Archives Nationales d’Haïti houses both civil and state records, including births, marriage and death certificates, documentation of social works, civil governance and records of the Office of the President and most government ministries.
• Bibliothèque haïtienne des Pères du Saint-Esprit was founded in 1873 by the Fathers of the Holy Spirit. The library holds resources documenting the history of Haiti, French colonization, slavery and emancipation, and 20^th Century records, as well as newspapers and periodicals.
• Bibliothèque haïtienne des Frères de l’Instruction Chrétienne was founded in 1912 by the Christian Brothers.  It served as depository-library for Haitian imprints and holds titles not even available in the National Library.  It also holds one of the most significant collections of Haitian newspapers.
• Bibliothèque National d’Haïti was established in 1940 and also serves as a public library providing resources, study space and research support.  It has a small but significant collection of rare books, manuscripts and newspapers.

For more information or to contribute to the Protecting Haitian Patrimony Initiative, please visit http://www.dloc.com or call dLOC at 305-348-3008.

Media Contact: Madeline Baró at 305-348-2234.

-FIU-

About the Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC):
The Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) is an international collaboration of educational, research, governmental and non-governmental institutions that provides access to electronic collections about the Caribbean. It includes the Archives Nationales d’Haïti, Biblioteca Nacional Aruba, Bibliothèque haïtienne des Pères du Saint-Esprit, Bibliothèque Nationale d’Haïti, Belize National Library Service and Information System, Caribbean Community, Caribbean Studies Association, The College of The Bahamas, the Fundaciòn Global Desarollo y Democracia, the National Library of Jamaica, Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra, the Universidad de Oriente in Venezuela, the Wider Caribbean Sea Turtle Conservation Network, Florida International University, the University of the Virgin Islands, the University of Central Florida, the University of South Florida and the University of Florida.

About FIU:
Florida International University was founded in 1965 and is Miami’s only public research university. With a student body of more than 38,000, its 17 colleges and schools offer more than 200 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, international relations and law. More than 100,000 FIU alumni live and work in South Florida. FIU has been classified by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as a “High Research Activity University”. In August 2009, FIU welcomed the inaugural class of the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu

Mark Sullivan (our wonderful UFDC Programmer) just added RSS feeds by institution to UFDC!

For each institution (other than ones we suppressed, such as UF), we have a complete RSS feed with every item, and a feed with just the last 20 items added. This is a feed for all items tagged to this institution from all of their collections within UFDC.

Check out these great RSS feeds for:

• National Archives of Haiti
• CARICOM
• The College of The Bahamas
• Caribbean Studies Association
• FUNGLODE
• National Library of Jamaica
• Belize National Library Service and Information System
• Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra
• Universidad de Oriente
• University of the Virgin Islands
• University of Central Florida
• Florida International University
• University of South Florida

The University of Florida’s historic biscuit dates back to 1913 when a hungry student mailed it to his parents as evidence of UF’s food quality. The George A. Smathers Libraries now preserves the historic biscuit. Our biscuit can be viewed online along with millions of other images through the University of Florida Digital Collections.

Every institution archives objects illustrative of its own history. Join us here to let us know about yours.

We’ve got the Biscuit. You bring gravy.

More >>

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.

The University of Florida Digital Collections have a number of collaborative partnerships with the Digital Library of the Caribbean, the Florida Digital Newspaper Library, and other projects. One of our local partners is the Matheson Museum. The picture above comes from one of their photograph collections, the E. H. Bone Collection, and many other photos are in the Matheson Museum and in the University Archives, so this is a great partnership to help preserve the history of the Gainesville, Florida area and to preserve the early history of the University of Florida while also showing how the town and school developed together. This particular picture seems like a great image for a Friday Gainesville’s quirky side.

In the next few months, folks from the Digital Library Center will be traveling to meet with some of our partners, and to meet new friends. Our upcoming travel includes:

• May 8: Erich Kesse (director), Mark Sullivan (programmer), and Brooke Wooldridge (dLOC Coordinator, from Florida International University) are going to Washington, DC to meet with the World Digital Library based at the Library of Congress about the Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC)
• May 11-14: Erich, Brooke, and Mark are off to meet with the US Embassy in Haiti and the National Archives in Haiti about the Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) and establishing a digitization center in Haiti
• May 14-18: Mark joins Brooke to travel to Guyana to meet with CARICOM
• May 24-31: Jane Pen (Metadata & Quality Control) is visiting Taiwan and will be meeting with the library at Tamkang University (淡江大學).
• June 26-July 2: Laurie Taylor (Digital Projects Librarian) will be going to the American Library Association Conference in Anaheim, California where she’s hoping to see the Disney Archives and to find a partner for the comics collection and the Barks’ materials

We’ll probably have other meetings and explorations in the near future, so let us know if you’ll be in the same area and would like to meet for coffee and great conversation about digital projects.