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In: Florida, NEH

News from the Florida Archivist Newsletter: FREE ARCHIVAL WORKSHOPS FOR ARCHIVISTS, LIBRARIANS AND MUSEUM STAFF WORKING IN FLORIDA’S CULTURAL HERITAGE REPOSITORIES Florida will host four FREE Society of American Archivists workshops (SAA) this year thanks to a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Over the past nine years, several Florida repositories and institutions have partnered in an initiative called Opening Archives in Florida, which provides education and training to archivists and others who care for historical records. In December, the Opening Archives team was awarded an NEH Preservation and Access Education and Training Grant to support our statewide education and training program, AdvancingRead More →

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In: Florida, newspapers, UFDC

UFDC is only three, but it’s already made lots of friends including The Waterfront News, which celebrates its 25th birthday this year! The Waterfront News began in March 1984 and grew to become “South Florida’s Nautical Newspaper” and they’re asking for stories from their readers for next month’s memorial edition. The Waterfront News is one of the many local Florida newspapers archived for preservation and access through by the University of Florida Digital Collections’ Florida Digital Newspaper Library.  See their archives, 1984-2007 (with more recent issues being added) online in UFDC here!Read More →

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In: Florida, history, news, newspapers

The Florida Digital Newspaper Library has grown enormously in the past year, adding 384,238 pages since July 1 for a grand total of 504,773 pages! Those many pages capture history in the making, including  New Year’s Day across the years and across Florida. Front-page news covers the then-current events, often including a New Year’s baby. For more news of the day, see the Florida Digital Newspaper Library, supported by the Smathers Libraries, which exists to provide free access to the news and history of Florida. The Florida Digital Newspaper Library ensures long-term digital preservation of Florida’s news, making the news available to everyone over theRead More →

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In: Florida, history, Library, UF

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 currentlyRead More →

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In: Florida, LibraryofCongress, LOC, NEH, news, newspapers

On Dec. 11, the National Digital Newspaper Program added 183,698 historic newspaper pages (including 14 new titles) to the Chronicling America Web site, hosted by the Library of Congress. The site now provides free and open access to 864,509 pages from 108 titles, that were published in 9 states (CA, FL, KY, MN, NE, NY, TX, UT, VA) and the District of Columbia between 1880 and 1910. Six additional states–Arizona, Hawaii, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington–will be contributing content in 2009. Chronicling America is a project of the National Digital Newspaper Program, a partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library ofRead More →

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In: Florida, freeculture, UFDC

The University of Florida’s Florida Free Culture Group has a meeting coming up soon, on Monday, December 8 at 7pm in the Reitz Union (room 288). I know this isn’t that soon, but the Assistant Director for the Digital Library Center Stephanie Haas will be speaking (and maybe with others, maybe me!) and at this point in the semester everything books up quickly so it really is approaching soon for anyone taking or teaching classes. I hope to be there!Read More →

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In: Florida, freeculture, open access

UF’s Florida Free Culture student group will be having it’s first meeting of the semester on Monday, October 13, at 7:00 pm in Reitz Union 288. FFC is an organization that advocates for copyright law reform, the use of open source software, and fights for your rights online. Free food will be provided! For more information about FFC, see their website: http://uf.freeculture.org/. While I can’t make this meeting, I’d recommend it to anyone who can. FFC is a great advocacy group to promote awareness and as a ways for finding the means to do needed work. Copyright law reform is desperately needed, as is aRead More →

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In: digital collections, Florida, microfilm, newspapers

Like the other collections in UFDC, the Florida Digital Newspaper Library is expanding rapidly. The Florida Digital Newspaper has added 158,989 pages, doubling the previous size for a total page count of 279,507. Sometimes I prefer to post statistics like page and item counts because those can speak more effectively to how much mass is there and to its usefulness even if people aren’t sure what they might be looking for or why–just knowing that there’s enough stuff can help indicate critical mass and use value. For the Florida Digital Newspaper Library, the number of pages is useful as are examples of the titles andRead More →

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In: audio, Florida, history, mapping, pastcasts, podcasts

The Florida Humanities Council has funded a project by the University of West Florida (and involving the University of South Florida and the University of Florida according to the The Gainesville Sun article) to create podcasts about historic Florida. The project will create these “Pastcasts” (I love the name!) for historic Florida towns and the programs will be available for download from the Florida Humanities Council website. I’m excited to hear all of the programs, but most excited to hear the Pastcasts for Alachua County, and to hear the rest with an eye on ways to connect them to the photos, maps, and other materialsRead More →