Reading Time: 2 minutes A comprehensive oral history interview can sometimes run up to 3 hours long. If you’ve ever transcribed an oral history, you know it can take at least 4 hours of typing for every hour of audio, if the speaker is easily understood and the audio is of high quality. Once this first phase of transcription is complete, the finer points of editing are tackled: formatting, proper punctuation, and research of key terminology is done, adding significantly to the overall timeline for the completed transcript… (Continue Reading)
Digital Dialogs
Library Exhibits on Environmental Studies
Reading Time: 3 minutes USF Libraries’ program partners, donors, staff, and faculty have created several exhibits that highlight the Tampa campus library’s digital collections that focus on environmental studies. These exhibits work to provide additional context and connect digital resources to tell the full story of events that have shaped the Florida environment.
USF Curiosities: An elephant on the roof?
Reading Time: 2 minutes From the beginning, USF faculty members have proved themselves to be resourceful and imaginative instructors. So, when an elephant passed away at nearby Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, USF’s biology professors saw this as a unique opportunity… (Continue Reading)
The Roseate Spoonbill: A Fight for Survival
Reading Time: 5 minutes As a result of the “feather craze” that decimated Florida’s bird populations, the Florida Audubon Society found that the roseate spoonbill had been the mostly heavily hit. Plume hunters and poachers sought out the roseate spoonbill for its beautiful, bright pink and orange plumage. The Audubon Society “understood that in order to save endangered birds from extinction, [it] would have to bring more resources to bear than wardens and sanctuaries.” Because the population of spoonbills had been so devastated, their “critical situation called for careful study of the living birds in the wild” and Robert Porter Allen was the perfect person for the job… (Continue Reading)
Digital Environmental Interfaces at Florida Universities
Reading Time: 4 minutes Post written by Lesley Brooks, Carla Fotherby, and LeEtta Schmidt
USF Libraries Digital Collections seek to curate unique and impactful collections that provide researchers and scholars with access to new and historical information on environmental studies and natural history. The Florida Environmental Interface has been created to enhance access to environmental resources including digital collections that we have described in a recent four part series, “USF Digital Collections for Environmental and Natural Sciences Research”… (Continue Reading)
USF Curiosities: Sand as far as the eye could see?
Reading Time: 4 minutes The year was 1956… At the time, an old WWII Hillsborough Army Airfield occupied a large expanse of Fowler Avenue. On December 18th, the Florida Cabinet voted to transform that airfield into the location of a new public university. The University of South Florida Tampa campus would eventually be built on what once was the practice bombing range. Two years later, ground breaking ceremonies took place on the Tampa campus, with contracts for the first three university buildings complete… (Continue Reading)
USF Digital Collections for Environmental and Natural Sciences Research: Oral History Collections
Reading Time: 3 minutes Post written by Lesley Brooks, Carla Fotherby, and LeEtta Schmidt This is the fourth and final post in a four part series introducing USF digital collections for environmental and natural sciences. In this post, we will be reviewing our oral history collections …Continue Reading
Online Learning Resources for Students
Reading Time: 2 minutes Post written by LeEtta Schmidt, Carla Fotherby, Barbara Lewis, Jane Duncan, and Lesley Brooks
Supplementing the instruction received in the class with online resources is not new, and it has become even more important now that most, or all, of a student’s educational experience has been pushed online as institutions try to mitigate the deleterious effects of COVID-19 on the lives of students. Libraries and institutions of learning around the world have risen to the challenge of updating and improving their catalogue of online learning resources. The Digital Dialogs team has cobbled together a list of helpful tools and resources… (Continue Reading)
USF Digital Collections for Environmental and Natural Sciences Research: Historical Collections
Reading Time: 3 minutes Post written by Lesley Brooks, Carla Fotherby, and LeEtta Schmidt This is the third post in a four part series introducing USF digital collections for environmental and natural sciences. The USF Libraries Digital Collections have been steadily growing collections on various aspects …Continue Reading
The African American Experience in Florida Collections Initiative and Portal
Reading Time: 4 minutes Guest article by David Shedden, Assistant Librarian, Head of Special Collections & University Archives, USF Libraries, St. Petersburg campus On June 4, 2020, soon after the world learned of the death of George Floyd, USF Libraries Dean Todd Chavez wrote in an …Continue Reading