Sociedad La Union Marti-Maceo Collection Now in Digital Collections

Reading Time: 4 minutes By Stephanie Mackin, Visiting Assistant Librarian, Special Collections  Since its arrival in 1983, the Sociedad la Union Marti-Maceo collection has been a popular and heavily utilized collection at the University of South Florida Libraries’ Tampa Special Collections. The uniqueness and historical significance …Continue Reading

Reading Challenged Books

Reading Time: 3 minutes Book challenges of the past can seem eerily similar to book challenges today. During the John’s Committee Investigations at the University of South Florida (USF) in the mid-1960s, a number of books and readings, including some written by USF faculty, came under scrutiny for vulgarity, anti-religious sentiment, communist leanings, and pornography.

USF Archives Sought Out For Perspective on Johns Committee

Reading Time: 4 minutes Andy Huse, Librarian and Curator for Florida History in Special Collections, USF Libraries, Tampa Campus shares how he assisted Emma Pettit, Senior Reporter at the Chronicle of Higher Education, in her research into the Johns Committee.

Celebrating Women’s History Month with Snapshots of Women at Work

Reading Time: 8 minutes The twentieth century marked a watershed century for the women’s labor movement, starting with the progressive era and evolving as world wars and the women’s rights movements reshaped how society responded to a gender-integrated workforce. As we continue to celebrate the history and accomplishments of women, this week we’re taking a look at this evolution through documents… (Continue Reading)

‘We Wanted Some Basic Human Rights: The Civil Rights Struggle in Tampa’ exhibit

Reading Time: 3 minutes The USF Libraries host several exhibits that highlight a variety of collections, providing context to material that is often only publicly accessed via a finding aid. The exhibits come from many different sources. Some come from grant funded research, some from library personnel or library partnerships, and some from student work under the guidance of USF faculty. The exhibit: ‘We Wanted Some Basic Human Rights: The Civil Rights Struggle in Tampa’ was created during a Spring seminar on the Civil Rights Movement taught by Dr. K. Stephen Prince of the USF History Department in 2016. Students of the seminar worked with Special Collections personnel and consulted fifteen archival collections housed in USF Tampa Special Collections.

“Banned and Burned: Why Worry? It’s Just Kiddie Lit”

Reading Time: 5 minutes Headlines reporting a movement to pass massive book bans have been making the news across the United States. This is not the first time book banning and book burning have made headlines in recent years. USF professor of Literacy Studies, Dr. Jenifer Schneider’s ‘The Inside, Outside, and Upside Downs of Children’s Literature: From Poets and Pop-ups to Princesses and Porridge’ tackles the history, content, beliefs, and layers of cultural issues that are incorporated in banning books in her chapter “Banned and Burned:  Why Worry? It’s Just Kiddie Lit.” In the chapter Dr. Schneider discusses several books that are held in USF Special Collections.