Laurie N. Taylor, Librarian

Work continues on the UF Digital Collections, Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC), and Florida DIgital Newspaper Library! Work to support these is now in 4 main areas, from Library Technology (in addition to so many other folks working!): Patron interface Ongoing production support (standard tool needs, loads of batch ingests especially newspapers, etc.) Production tools: looking at creating a new spreadsheet importer to create METS files and add to the system Data workflow pipeline: loads of resaves and corrections to existing METS files, looking holistically at data across the full workflow to ensure coherence, sustainability, and maintainability including record ingest/creation, record flows out, digitalRead More →

The Department of Library and Information Studies (DLIS) was established in 1971 and is the premier regional institution for educating information academics and professionals in the English-Speaking Caribbean. The DLIS is the only academic department with this mandate and contributes to the tradition of excellence and prestige that is The University of the West Indies, which is ranked in the top 1.5% of universities in the world by the Times Higher Education ranking. The Department offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in Information Studies, Librarianship, Archives and Records Management and Computers Science in addition to MPhil and PhD programmes in Information Studies. Participants in this symposiumRead More →

Dr. Alma Jordan has passed. Dr. Jordan was one of the founders of the Association of Caribbean University, Research, and Institutional Libraries (ACURIL), as well as a founder for the national library association in Trinidad and Tobago, long-time librarian at the St. Augustine Campus of The University of the West Indies, and library leader all around. ACURIL members created the Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC), so all who have worked with dLOC have benefitted from Dr. Jordan’s work and vision. The library at The UWI, St. Augustine is the Alma Jordan Library, renamed in her honor in 2010. There’s so much here, from hearingRead More →

The Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) interface continues to be refined. Most recently, users can now sort by best match of by date (oldest or newest). And, now the default display is to have thumbnail images with title and date underneath (date is new). This can be seen and is especially useful with newspapers, as with: https://dloc.com/title-sets/UF00094730/results and https://dloc.com/title-sets/AA00079447/results Upcoming work includes improvements to the data workflow pipeline, and lots of data updates, as with all major transitions. We still have many things in process. For the first part of 2022, we are focusing on improvements to site functionality that users see, as wellRead More →

Call for papers – ACURIL 2022, Curaçao The information field in the Caribbean faces significant challenges and new trends that have made the libraries forge into new directions for the future. In order to expand reflection and debate on all changes encountered in the libraries, the Association of Caribbean Universities, Research and Institutional Libraries (ACURIL) is organizing its fifty-first Conference under the theme: Change Management and Resilience; Proactive Actions in Libraries, Museums, and Archives of the Caribbean. In this context, we call for the presentation of papers, workshops, and posters and appeal to all professionals in the information field who wish to participate in the ACURIL 2022 Conference, toRead More →

The Bardin Booger is everywhere! The Bardin Booger is Florida’s Bigfoot (or Sasquatch), and it lives in Bardin, which is near Gainesville, where the University of Florida is located. The Bardin Booger is also one of the test terms we’ve been using to ensure our indexing is working properly. As shown in the image, the Bardin Booger is findable in the index, and is afoot in the system!   Being able to make jokes (even silly ones of photoshopped in Bardin Boogers onto screenshots) is another milestone in a successful launch! Huge thanks for UF Library Technology Services’ Digital Development Team: Cliff, Doug, Julio, Dustin,Read More →

The Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) has another new title: The Tobago Gazette, with issues from 1881-1882 online now.Read More →

New newspapers in the Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) include: The Creole, published in Guyana, for 1856-1862  El Imparcial, published in Puerto Rico, now with issues from 1918-1923Read More →

Monday, November 15, 3:30 pm Smathers Library, University of Florida, Room 100 AND live-streaming RSVP for in-person and live streaming event: rsvp@uflib.ufl.edu Live-streaming link: http://ufl.to/cuetocubastamps Free and open to the public. This event celebrates the publication of Inspired by Cuba, Delivering Cuba Through the Mail: Cuba’s Presence in Non-Cuban Postage Stamps and Envelopes by the LibraryPress@UF. The book is a lushly illustrated volume by renowned author Emilio Cueto telling the story of Cuba as depicted in over 1,000 stamps from countries other than Cuba. On May 1, 1840, the United Kingdom issued the first postage stamps in the world: the Penny Black and Two Pence Blue.Read More →

We still have some pending corrections (handling for private items to not display, and restricted items to display a message on restriction, the collections pages on dLOC and UFDC, etc.). Work is going and those will be fixed soon. With that said: I am super thrilled to share that the alpha versions of the new UF Digital Collections, Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC), and first-ever Florida Digital Newspaper Library stand-alone sites are all now live in alpha! Check them out: dLOC: https://dloc.patron.uflib.ufl.edu/ Florida Newspaper Digital Library: https://fdnl.patron.uflib.ufl.edu UFDC: https://patron.uflib.ufl.edu We’re continuing to work through bugs, and always great to send me anything you see!Read More →