Digital Library Center Blog | UF

News Release: Samuel Proctor Oral History Program
January 25, 2009

“UF in the Mississippi Delta: Student Reflections on Recording the Civil Rights Movement”

WEDNESDAY, February 17, 6 to 8 p.m.

LOCATION: Civic Media Center, 433 South Main Street, Gainesville, Florida

Co-sponsors and volunteers needed for this event. Please help us spread the word.

UF in the Mississippi Delta: Student Reflections on Recording the Civil Rights Movement will take place on Wednesday, February 17 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Civic Media Center. Sponsored by the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program and the Civic Media Center. The program will feature a lively multi-media presentation by UF students who have traveled to the Mississippi Delta the past two summers to interview pioneers of the Civil Rights Movement. This program will bring the remarkable visual, musical, and political culture of the Delta to Florida.

The program will also discuss the Oral History Program’s new African American History in Alachua Research project. Find out how to get involved!

Moderated by Dr. Paul Ortiz, director of the Oral History Program.

This event is co-sponsored by the Civic Media Center, and the UF Oral History Club. For more information, please call the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program at 352-392-7168 or email portiz@ufl.edu

Hear History Come Alive!

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)

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

From: UF Libraries’ News, Events, and Updates

Students (graduate or undergraduate) making books in book arts and/or fine arts programs across the United States are invited to participate in ARTBOUND by submitting work to a juried artists’ book exhibition and permanent collection at The University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries!

Entrants are to submit handmade, artists’ books printed in edition. Books printed with letterpress, intaglio, inkjet, and/or screenprint techniques will be considered. We will also consider one-of-a-kind handmade books created in other mediums. We are looking for high quality, original work.

Click HERE to download PDF entry form for ARTBOUND.

From: UF Libraries’ News, Events, and Updates

A $2.38 million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to Indiana University (IU) will be used to develop software created specifically for the management of print and electronic collections for academic and research libraries around the world. The University of Florida is the lead partner for the Florida Consortium (Florida International University, Florida State University, New College of Florida, Rollins College, University of Central Florida, University of Miami, University of South Florida and the Florida Center for Library Automation), which is a founding member of a national coalition of libraries which will shape and implement the software.

IU will lead the Kuali OLE (Open Library Environment) project, a partnership of research libraries dedicated to managing increasingly digital resources and collections. Together, these libraries will develop “community source” software that will be made available to libraries worldwide. Kuali OLE (pronounced Oh-LAY) partners include Indiana University; Florida Consortium; Lehigh University; Triangle Research Libraries Network, represented by Duke University and North Carolina State University; University of Chicago; University of Maryland; University of Michigan; and the University of Pennsylvania.

“Students and faculty served by academic libraries increasingly seek 24-7 access to digital content to support their studies and research,” said Judith Russell, Dean of Libraries at the University of Florida. “Developing new and improved management tools and access to these electronic resources is essential to delivery of high quality library services. We are delighted to join our colleagues here in Florida and around the country in developing open access software to support our shared mission.”

“Large academic research libraries such as these manage and provide access to millions of items, using software to track interrelated transactions that range from ordering and paying for items to loaning materials to library patrons. As the nature of library collections expands to include more digital materials — including leased electronic journals and digitized photograph collections — libraries are increasingly interested in developing management software for these resources,” said Interim Ruth Lilly Dean of IU University Libraries Carolyn Walters.

“Libraries now create, lease and share digital materials, but the systems in place for cataloging and tracking these items are based on print collections,” said Walters. “With this project, we benefit from working together with a community of academic libraries that want to change the way that information is managed in the scholarly environment.”

“Research libraries are in dire need of systems that can support the management of research collections for the next-generation scholar,” said Robert H. McDonald, executive director for the project and IU’s associate dean for library technologies. “This approach demonstrates the best of open-source software development, directed partnership resource needs and a market of commercial support providers to truly align with the needs of research libraries within the higher education environment.”

More than 200 libraries, educational institutions, professional organizations and businesses laid the groundwork for the Kuali OLE project by participating in the original OLE project, a design phase that was supported by an earlier grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and led by Duke University. Kuali OLE project researchers will now work to create a next-generation library system that breaks away from print-based workflows and reflects the changing nature of library materials and new approaches to scholarly work.

OLE became an official project of the Kuali Foundation in November. (Kuali is a community of universities, colleges, businesses and other organizations that have partnered to build and sustain community-source software for higher education.) This affiliation gives Kuali OLE tremendous expertise in developing and sustaining community-based software.

“The Mellon Foundation has a distinguished history of supporting transformative projects for education and cultural preservation,” said Brad Wheeler, Kuali Foundation board chair and vice president for Information Technology at IU. “We are grateful for their support of this open, extensible and deeply collaborative work among the OLE investing libraries. The libraries’ choice to anchor the project in the Kuali Foundation will ensure its quality, openness and sustainability for years to come.”

“The Kuali OLE collaboration comes at the perfect time,” said Deborah Jakubs, Rita DiGiallonardo Holloway University Librarian & Vice Provost for Library Affairs at Duke University. “If libraries are to provide excellent support for scholarship and teaching well into the future, we must develop a new model that reflects the true needs of our organizations and facilitates our work in a constantly changing environment. This partnership capitalizes on the experience, the commitment, and the energy of a key group of institutions to build that model for the future of research library operations. We are grateful to The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for recognizing the promise of the OLE project, and to Kuali for offering us this opportunity to align our goals with theirs.”

Jakubs and Wheeler were recently elected co-chairs of the Kuali OLE Board of Directors at its initial board meeting in Washington, D.C., on December 16, 2009.

An accomplished team of librarians select, manage and grow the University of Florida’s research collections, which include more than 4.5 million books, 1 million documents, 550,000 maps and images, and 20,000 computer data sets. The materials support every academic discipline on campus. The libraries have built a number of nationally significant research collections.

Judith C. Russell
Dean of University Libraries
University of Florida
jcrussell@ufl.edu
352-273-2505

I was reading the latest issue of UF Today, and it had the wonderful photograph above of one man shaving another with an axe. The story next to it explains that the photo is from a Department of Forestry Field Day from 1937. It’s such a great photo, I wanted to be sure to ask Carl Van Ness (the Head of Manuscripts in Special Collections and the University Archivist) when I noticed the caption that states the photo is in the UF Digital Collections. Finding the photo was already findable was a nice surprise, and a nice reminder of the importance of the work being done by the UF Libraries and the UF Digital Collections.
Browse the University Archive Photographs Digital Collection here. The Digital Collection represents only a small portion of the University Archives’ massive collection, but more are added on a regularly.

The Rose Hill Manor Park & Children’s Museum in Frederick, Maryland will soon be printing new copies of historic children’s books from the Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature Digital Collection. The children’s books will be used for their story hour program where they read stories to children and let them act out part of the story and do a craft; their Playtime Monday programs that encourage children and parents to explore their facilities and spend time reading and playing together; tours; and history camp programs where they teach kids about school days for children in the past.

It’s always exciting to share old materials from the University of Florida Libraries in new ways, whether digitally or in print once again!

President Obama’s Presidential Inauguration can be viewed live on Tuesday on large screens–in addition to the many computer screens it will fill–at three of the UF Libraries:

• Library West in the InfoCommons (3rd floor)
• Education Library (limited seating)
• Large screen just outside the Journalism & Communications Library

Go Gators! Congratulations!

Someday we’ll be archiving photos of tonight’s game in the University Archives Digital Collection, but tonight is for rejoicing by Gators everywhere!

These two news items from the Florida History Collections at the University of Florida Libraries:

Cecilia L. Johnson Library Grant for Visiting Graduate Scholars

The Cecilia L. Johnson grant provides funds for out-of-state researchers who wish to come to the University of Florida to work in the UF Libraries’ Florida history collections. Application is open to all graduate students at higher institutions of learning. Awards are for $1000. Researchers are required to spend at least one week (five working days) on the University of Florida campus making use of materials in the George A. Smathers Libraries. Preference will be given to students who are currently working on an article, thesis, or book dealing with some aspect of Florida history, or in which Florida is a major component of research. All applications will be reviewed by a judging panel composed of archivists and historians at the University of Florida. Similar awards are available for faculty through the Julian Pleasants Visiting Scholar Grant offered through the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program.

For information on how to apply see the Application Instructions or contact James Cusick at jgcusick@ufl.edu. Application deadline is January 15, 2009.

Upcoming Events for Stewards of Florida History

Stewards is hosting a Sunday talk series with the Florida Museum of Natural History for Spring Semester 2009. Please see the Events PDF for full details. All events are free and open to the public.

• Sunday, February 15, 2009.Leslie Poole (Adjunct Professor in Environmental Studies, Rollins College) will speak on the origins of the Florida Audubon Society and the plume trade in the Everglades. 2:30 p.m., Classroom, Florida Museum of Natural History.
• Sunday, March 22, 2009. Frederick Rowe Davis (Associate Professor, Florida State University) will speak on his book The Man who Saved Sea Turtles: Archie Carr and the Origins of Conservation Biology. 2:30 p.m., Classroom, Florida Museum of Natural History.
• Sunday, April 19, 2009. Jackson Walker (Artist in Residence, Museum of Florida Art, DeLand) will discuss how he chooses and recreates scenes from Florida’s past in his award-winning Legenary Florida series. 2:30 p.m., Classroom, Florida Museum of Natural History.

The National Archives have announced the most recent National Historical Publications and Records Commission’s grants, and the University of Florida Libraries is one of the award winners for a project to digitize historical Everglades records. The project, entitled “America’s Swamp: The Historical Everglades” will digitize material from six collections relating to the exploration, development and conservation of the Everglades from 1878-1929. “America’s Swamp” will feed into the Everglades Digital Library (EDL), from the Florida International University Libraries and many other partners.

We’ll keep you posted as the collection starts to go online, and there will be a great deal to share since this project will digitize approximately 99,690 pages in six archival collections. The collections selected for this project document early plans for draining the Everglades in the 1880s and 1890s, the dredging of canals and subsequent development of the destroyed wetlands at the start of the 20th century, as well as early attempts by conservationists to preserve the natural resources of the Everglades.  The six collections featured in this project are part of the P.K. Yonge Library of Florida History and the Archives & Manuscripts Unit of the Department of Special & Area Studies Collections at the University of Florida Libraries.  The collections to be digitized date from 1854 to 1963, but the bulk of the materials included in this project will date from 1877 to 1929. The year 1929 was selected as an end date because it marks the end of the South Florida land boom and the onset of the Great Depression.  Of the 99,690 pages, approximately 9,040 pages are letterbook pages and 250 are photographic prints.