University of Florida Digital Collections

The University of Florida Digital Collections (UFDC) are part of the George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida. The University of Florida Digital Collections (UFDC) comprise a constantly growing collection of digital resources from the University of Florida’s library collections as well as partner institutions.

Preservation and Access

All materials are freely and openly accessible (Open Access) and full text searchable. In UFDC, all items can be text searched simultaneously or certain collections can be selected for a faceted search. Because UFDC grew out of the efforts of the [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/digital/about.htm University of Florida Libraries' Preservation Department] , all items are scanned at preservation quality and all are digitally preserved through the [http://www.fcla.edu/digitalArchive/ Florida Digital Archive] . The page images are particularly important for the preservation of artifactually significant materials such as maps, artifacts, illustrated children's literature from the Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature, and other materials.

Interface and Usability

Because of the highly visual nature of so many items, the pages are displayed as zoomable images (through a JPG2000 server) and all can be browsed as thumbnails at the item and the collection level. [Viewing and browsing are explained on the Help pages: [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/UFDC/?s=ufdchelp&m=hbtbasics http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/UFDC/?s=ufdchelp&m=hbtbasics] .] Artifacts with multiple photos from multiple angles can be seen in motion, rotating in an Adobe Flash video view, [ [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?s=artaf&m=hdFL&i=74649 "Female Twin Figure (ere ibeji) Yoruba people" from the African Arts Collection] ] and items can be searched by their geographic information (city, county, state, latitude and longitude) or viewed on a map through UFDC's use of the Google Maps API. [ [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=dloc&m=hdGM&i=18014 "Citadelle HENRI christophe"] from the Digital Library of the Caribbean]

tatistics

UFDC includes books, articles, newspapers, photos, videos, audio, and more. As of July 9, 2008, the collections had over 2 million pages, and that count had increased by over 300,000 pages by September 2, 2008, continuing the overall average growth of over 100,000 pages per month. As of October 9, 2008, UFDC had over 2.5 million pages. UFDC's statistics page maintains a running tally of loaded items broken down by collection: [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/UFDC/?m=hti http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/UFDC/?m=hti] .

Findability

Along with loading new items regularly, UFDC was optimized for search engine findability using static pages and adding RSS feeds in 2008. This process included creating static pages on the mirror site UFDC2 ( [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc2 www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc2] instead of [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc] ) for all items, creating RSS feeds automatically for new items loaded and for all items, and optimizing all code for faster loading. These changes were necessary because of the deep web structure of UFDC which, like so many digital library collections, has many directory levels and dynamic URLs that cause difficulty for search engines even with properly implemented sitemaps. [UF Digital Library Center blog, "Search Engine Optimization" [http://library.gameology.org/2008/06/17/search-engine-optimization/ http://library.gameology.org/2008/06/17/search-engine-optimization/] and "RSS feeds" [http://library.gameology.org/2008/06/24/rss-feeds-for-the-university-of-floridas-digital-collections/ http://library.gameology.org/2008/06/24/rss-feeds-for-the-university-of-floridas-digital-collections/] .]

External Links

* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc The University of Florida Digital Collections (UFDC)]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ George A. Smathers Libraries]
* [http://www.ufl.edu/libraries Link to all of UF's libraries]
* [http://www.fcla.edu/digitalArchive/ Florida Digital Archive]

List of Collections

*Digital Library of the Caribbean and [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=dloc Digital Library of the Caribbean]
*University of Florida Baldwin Library and the [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=juv Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature Digital Collection]
*Florida Digital Newspaper Library and [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=fdnl1 Florida Digital Newspaper Library]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=flap Florida Aerials]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=flaac African American Collections]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=africa1 Africana Digital Collections]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=fald Florida Architecture & Landscape Design Digital Collection]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=asia1 Asian Digital Collections]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=punch Comics Digital Collection]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=howe1 Parkman Dexter Howe Library Digital Collection]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=edmod1 Education Module Digital Collection]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=flcity Florida Cities Digital Collection]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?g=oral Oral History Digital Collections]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=fhpc Florida History and Heritage Digital Collections]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=flaw1 Florida Law Digital Collection]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=foto1 Florida Photographs Digital Collections]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=oh2 Oral Histories Digital Collection]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=fao1 Food and Agricultural Sciences Digital Collection]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=euro1 European Digital Collections]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=gart1 Graphic Art Digital Collection]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=jaqi Jaqi Languages Digital Collection]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=jud1 Judaica Digital Collections]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=nat Natural Sciences Digital Collection]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=ospre Open Stacks Project]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=part1 Performing Arts Digital Collection]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=psa1 Psychological Study of the Arts Digital Collection]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?s=rwg Radical Women in Gainesville Digital Collection]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=ros1 Rossica Digital Collection]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=sanborn Sanborn Maps Digital Collection]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=fast1 Sciences and Technologies Digital Collection]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=dlosa1 South American Digital Collections]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=esbnd Spanish Borderlands Digital Collections]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=swfln Southwest Florida Library Network (SWFLN) Digital Collections]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=gfl The Floridians Digital Collection]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=theo1 Theology Digital Collection]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=hsca Health Science Archives Photographs Collection]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=ufherb Herbarium Specimens Digital Collection]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=ufir University of Florida Institutional Repository]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=wet1 Wetlands Digital Collection]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=wid Women in Development Digital Collection]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?c=map1 World Maps Digital Collection]

References