The hospital admissions sheet simply read: “Name: Buddha; DOB: 1662.” The quote above is from The Washington Post’s  lovely article about the work done by Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art at the University of Florida, which the Libraries also supported through digital imaging and online access and preservation of digital imaging done by others including the Shands@UF Hospital. In addition to the WP article, see more images in the Harn Museum Digital Collection, supported by the Libraries with the UF Digital Collections.Read More →

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 →

The UF Digital Collections include many, many rich collections, including the University Archives Photograph Collection. One of the more exciting recent uses of the collection has been in rephotography like that done by Pam Marlin: While evocative and powerful, rephotography isn’t always easy or fast in  terms of time for setup to get the correct angle for a new photo. Historypin.com has an app that makes this process simpler. There are probably many apps and tools for rephotography, but I’m most familiar with Historypin because images from the University Archives Photograph Collection in the UF Digital Collections have been loaded there. This page shows many ofRead More →

This is a fabulous new position in the University of Florida Libraries. The job will entail primarily web work, but also working on the UF Digital Collections and other digital development. The position entails great colleagues, meaningful work, and technical work where things get implemented and used (so you can really see the benefits and impact of your work). Full Announcement POSITION: Information Technology Expert – (Digital Development unit member, developer) REPORTS TO: Information Technology Senior SALARY: Anticipated salary is $55,442.79 annually Requisition #: 0810081 DEADLINE DATE: January 9, 2012 JOB SUMMARY: The Information Technology department serves as the focal point for planning, managing and coordinatingRead 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 →

This post is a bit late, but UNC-Chapel Hill officially launched their Digital Innovation Lab in October. The Digital Innovation Lab focuses: on the collaborative production of digital public goods:  digital projects, products, tools, and applications that are of special social and cultural value, can be produced for free public use (or at a minimal marginal cost) are scalable, are reusable and repurposable, and/or serve multiple audiences/end-users. The development of these digital public goods might arise from individual faculty research, teaching, or public engagement activities within the humanities and social sciences, or from projects, processes, and technologies developed in other areas of the university’s workRead 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 →

The story below is from the most recent Library News from the UF Libraries for UF Faculty. NewspaperCat is powered and hosted within the UF Digital Collections (powered by SobekCM). This has been a great project for the UF Digital Collections to support because it was an active and valid use case for a record-only collection portal, which is often a wanted option for different research, teaching, and public service needs. There’s more in the story below and check out NewspaperCat to see it in action! Libraries create catalog of digital historical newspapers The Catalog of Digital Historical Newspapers (NewspaperCat) is available at www.newspapercat.org. NewspaperCatRead More →

For August 2011, the UF Digital Collections (UFDC) saw another sharp rise in usage with 2.6 million views for August alone. This is another record high, up by nearly 200,000 views in a single month. More importantly, it’s on track for continued growth! Statistics like this are important for what they show and what they point to. Usage statistics show usage, but they indicate greater significance with impact. Digitizing and curating digital materials must be done for preservation and access. Beyond the necessity, the significance of those materials can be seen with the impact of the materials. Impact can be assessed quantitatively (e.g.; usage statistics,Read More →