Join the USF Libraries in our annual celebration of the public domain through digitization! The public domain consists of material for which copyright protection has expired, was forfeit, or does not apply. The vast majority of materials in the public domain are there because copyright has expired. Copyright law in the US has a complex history. Protection for copyrighted works currently lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years, but changes in copyright legislation throughout the twentieth century mean that different types of material published between 1928 and 1977 have different spans of copyright protection.
As of 2023, all works published prior to 1928 are in the public domain. The USF Libraries have selected material from the Libraries’ collections published in 1927 that are newly in the public domain to digitize in celebration. This is the fifth year we have celebrated through digitization! Once you are done perusing this year’s contributions to our Digital Collections, don’t forget to explore our previous celebrations:
Once again, we solicited public input on what titles would be digitized for our 2023 celebration in a vote. 23 individuals cast 306 votes on 58 possible titles in four different collecting areas.
Florida Studies
- Hav-a-Tampa Cigar Company, factory no. 174, Tampa, Florida
- A study of Negro life in Tampa : made at the request of The Tampa Welfare League, The Tampa Urban League and the Tampa Young Men’s Christian Association.
- Property of East Tampa Bay Co., South Tampa Estates, and W.B. Gray.
- Industrial Tampa, Florida’s greatest city : key city to America’s new trade territory.
- Citrus County, Florida far enough south to insure semi-tropical vegetation, far enough north to insure a temperate climate.
- Lessons from Florida winds : land speculation worse than hurricanes : profits without service may be stealing
- Rural home life in Florida.
- Miami by the sea : the land of palms and sunshine.
- Tampa, Florida’s greatest city : official souvenir program United Confederate Veterans Reunion, April 5, 6, 7, 8, 1927.
- From coquina beach to coral strand : a sketch of the progress of the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. in Florida from 1824 to 1927
- Address of Herman A. Dann on the Everglades drainage question in joint debate with Hon. John W. Martin, governor of the state of Florida.
- Individualized outdoor industrialism.
Environmental and Natural History
- Fishes from the sea-bottom : from the “Michael Sars” North Atlantic Deep-Sea Expedition 1910
- The flower behavior of avocados B. Stout.
- Descriptions of new genera and species of plants collected on the Mulford biological exploration of the Amazon Valley, 1921-1922.
- Geology of the oil shales of the eastern United States
Sheet Music
- Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen : Negro spiritual : theme with variations
- You’re calling me, Georgia
- Florida’s the place for me
- When it’s sunset in Miami
Children’s Literature
- The turtle whose snap unfastened.
- Mother Nature’s cheerful children
- Honey Bunch, her first trip on the ocean