Category: Latest Dialogs

USF Curiosities: Chickens in the elevator?

January 12, 2021 By Lesley Brooks
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Reading Time: 2 minutesWell, you can’t say that we don’t have fun at the University of South Florida…
As one of the first resident instructors at USF, Phyllis Marshall came to the Tampa campus in the fall of 1960. At the time, Marshall was in charge of 47 women, who lived on the 4th floor of the University Center. She remembers the way the residents developed a set of rules for themselves and created new social organizations. She also remembers how the residents participated in some early antics… (Continue Reading)

Trint Transcription Service

December 22, 2020 By Lesley Brooks
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Reading Time: 2 minutesA 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)

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Library Exhibits on Environmental Studies

December 8, 2020 By LeEtta Schmidt
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Reading Time: 3 minutesUSF 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?

November 17, 2020 By Lesley Brooks
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Reading Time: 2 minutesFrom 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

November 12, 2020 By Lesley Brooks
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Reading Time: 5 minutesAs 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

October 6, 2020 By Lesley Brooks
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Reading Time: 4 minutesPost 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?

September 15, 2020 By Lesley Brooks
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Reading Time: 4 minutesThe 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)

Online Learning Resources for Students

August 18, 2020 By Lesley Brooks
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Reading Time: 2 minutesPost 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)