UF Digital Collections Web site debuts

April 21, 2006

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida Libraries has launched a new Web site featuring UF’s Digital Collections.

UF Digital Collections (UFDC) includes resources grouped into sections: Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Florida, World and External Collections. UFDC is free to anyone, anywhere, anytime to use.

A massive collection, when its more than 49,000 bibliographic resources representing more than 200,000 volumes have been fully loaded into its systems, the UFDC is built atop Greenstone freeware.

UFDC contains several record-setting collections. The Children’s Literature Collection, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, is the world’s largest digitized collection of historic children’s literature. The Samuel Proctor Oral History Collections, developed by the UF History Department, are among the largest online resources of their kind outside of the Library of Congress.

The Aerial Photography collection is one of several state-based aerial photograph collections. Florida aerials are unique in that the images are linked to the geographic interface used by most Geographic Information Systems (GIS) specialists. Even though some knowledge of GIS systems is required, it is the most heavily used digital collection. Aerials have a tremendous impact not only for UF researchers but also on the economic and environmental life of Florida. State law requires historic review for most land uses.

Of local interest, the Florida Photograph Collections hold more than 10,000 images of UF history. Additional images illustrating historic Florida are also available, notably from the collections of the Matheson Historical Society and the University of South Florida as well as from UF.

UFDC will soon host Florida newspapers. UF, representing Florida, is one of only six states funded to digitize historic newspapers. UF, again representing Florida, is the only state to receive funding for digitization of currently published newspapers. Florida’s small newspaper publishers have agreed to provide their content for free in exchange for UF archiving and indexing services.

New funding will soon bring advanced Caribbean and Latin American Studies materials into UFDC. The UFDC Web site link is http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/UFDC/.