News: Grant Award to Support the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica Online resource will expand access to ethnic Florida newspapers

The news story below is from the UF George A. Smathers Libraries news blog on one of the new grants received for a digitization and digital humanities (digital scholarship) project.


The Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica at the George A. Smathers Libraries, in partnership with the Jewish Museum of Florida and three Florida county public libraries’ systems, (Miami-Dade County, Broward County and Palm Beach County), will broaden access to the Florida Digital Newspaper Library (FDNL) through an award of $21,753 from the State Archives of Florida. The FDNL is a key resource for research, comprising 730 Florida newspaper titles and over one million pages of information which attract more than one million online views each month.
Primarily, project funds will support the conversion of 127 reels of The Jewish Floridian from microfilm to digital format and these will become accessible through the FDNL hosted by the University of Florida Digital Collections. The Jewish Floridian is Florida’s first ethnic newspaper of note and is of great interest to a broad range of researchers, historians and writers who want to learn more about the cultural, social, historical and political life of Florida’s Jewish population throughout the 20th century in order to build a more comprehensive picture of Florida history. To date, no comprehensive history of the Jewish community of Florida has been written; yet this comparatively small section of the general population has made a significant impact on the state. Revealing the content of The Jewish Floridian (1924 – 1990) will contribute significantly to the effort of uncovering its hidden historical impact.
Led by the Price Library head, Rebecca Jefferson, the project will use The Jewish Floridian online collection to establish a training program targeted for the partner institutions and their communities and for the citizens of Florida in general. The Jewish Floridian online will serve as a teaching tool, providing instruction for those seeking to search the FDNL for genealogical, historical research or special interests.
The project was one of seven state ‘Library Projects’ awarded, with the distinction of being the only technology project awarded this year. In support of the grant, members of the funding council described the project as a good idea which ‘targets everybody.’ They praised the Price Library’s ‘wonderful collection’ as well as its commitment to pursue the project and make its materials accessible to all.
The Price Library of Judaica: http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/judaica/
The Florida Digital Newspaper Library: http://ufdc.ufl.edu/newspapers