Happy Birthday to the UF Digital Collections (UFDC) and SobekCM, which is the system powering UFDC and so much more! UFDC and the beginnings of SobekCM started in March 2006. In February 2008, I wrote about UFDC turning 2. At that time, UFDC had “nearly 1.5 million pages.” Now, UFDC supports more than 300 digital collections and more than 7.6 million pages of open access to unique manuscripts and letters, antique maps, rare children’s literature books, theses and dissertations, newspapers, historic photographs, oral histories, audio and video, and so much more.  UFDC has grown in content, scope, and impact. Alongside UFDC, SobekCM has grown dramatically as well. SobekCM is the system poweringRead More →

The MARC Library (SobekCM) is a C# library that contains classes for working in memory with MARC records: This allows records to be read from MARCXML and MARC21 formats. Once in memory any field or subfield can be edited, added, or deleted. Then the record can be queried or saved again in either a MarcXML or Marc21 file format. Features Ability to read MARC records into memory from a Marc21 or MarcXML file or stream Ability to manipulate the MARC record in memory Ability to save the record to a Marc21 or MarcXML file (UPCOMING) Plan to add Z39.50 ability into this library The MARC Library (SobekCM) evolved out ofRead More →

THATCamp Caribe 2012 is now scheduled and full details, as they’re available, are on the THATCamp Caribe 2012 website. THATCamp Caribe will be hosted by the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus, November 12-14. This is a great opportunity for attendees to the American Studies Association 2012 conference (in San Juan, Nov. 15-18) to also take in a THATCamp. The Haitian Studies Association Conference is Nov. 8-10, so it’s possible to add another trip right after HSA. Brooke Wooldridge, Director of the Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC), will be flying from HSA to THATCamp Caribe, where I’ll be meeting Brooke. We’re both looking forward to THATCamp Caribe, sharing aboutRead More →

In Lee Bessette’s article on the digital humanities, Lee states: I guess the first things that I am trying to build are bridges. Bridges between different humanities disciplines (translation, comparative literature) and bring them into digital humanities, at least in a more visible way. Looking at Mark Sample’s list of DH sessions at MLA 12, I was struck at how those working in a language other than English were off on their own panels, and probably largely attended not by those in DH but those who also worked in that language area. I think, more generally, DH could do more to bridge linguistic divides. AtRead More →

The Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) began in 2006. dLOC is a cooperative digital library for resources from and about the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean. dLOC provides access to digitized versions of Caribbean cultural, historical and research materials currently held in archives, libraries, and private collections. dLOC has now had over 10 million hits! To be exact, dLOC has had 10,447,708 hits with 747,711 in January 2012 alone. Congratulations to dLOC, all who work to support and contribute to dLOC, and to the world for making so many wonderful materials available, recognizing dLOC’s value, and using dLOC!Read More →

The Association of Caribbean University, Research and Institutional Libraries (ACURIL) will be holding the annual conference June 4-8, 2012 in Haiti. The ACURIL 2012 conference website has more information on the conference, including a call for papers, workshops, and posters: http://www.acuril2012-haiti.blogspot.com/ ACURIL 2012 will be another wonderful ACURIL conference and a great chance to meet people involved in the Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC).Read More →

Just once month after announcing the highest ever usage for the UF Digital Collections (UFDC) with 3.2 million hits in October 2011, we saw another dramatic increase with 4 million hits for November 2011! The UF Digital Collections (UFDC)  have seen continuous, steady increases in usage thanks to the abundance of amazing content and ongoing search engine optimization work. November was another milestone with nearly 4.1 million human hits to the UF Digital Collections (UFDC) and associated collections and libraries, as with the Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC). October usage: 3,196,063 views November usage: 4,076,673 views Here’s to upcoming months of increased exposure, usage, and impact for the UFRead More →

The UF Digital Collections have seen continuous, steady usage thanks to loads and loads (and loads) of wonderful content and ongoing search engine optimization work. October was another milestone with nearly 3.2 million human hits to the UF Digital Collections (UFDC) and associated collections and libraries, as with the Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC). October usage: 3,196,063 views. Here’s to the coming months with increased exposure, usage, and impact for the UF Digital Collections and all who work with and support open access to digitized cultural and historical materials as well as to digital scholarship.  Read More →

UNESCO’s Global Open Access Portal (GOAP) lists many important Open Access initiatives and programs. One of those listed is the Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC), for which the University of Florida is the technical partner. There’s more on GOAP below and more on dLOC on the dLOC site (www.dloc.com), which is a cooperative digital library for resources from and about the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean. dLOC provides open access to digitized versions of Caribbean cultural, historical and research materials currently held in archives, libraries, and private collections. Global Open Access Portal The Global Open Access Portal (GOAP), funded by the Governments of Colombia, Denmark, Norway,Read More →

The post below is by Paul Losch, from the UF Latin American Collection newsletter. Football season begins tomorrow and Gator fans may be interested to know that the UF football team visited Havana in December 1912, nearly 99 years ago. They went on a kind of informal athletic excursion that was relatively common before the modern system of post-season bowl games was instituted. Someone on that 1912 trip brought back some Cuban newspapers as souvenirs, and these ended up in the University Archives. The UF Digital Collections recently put them online as a small but valuable addition to the collection of historical newspapers already availableRead More →