More Than 200,000 Digitized Pages of Historic Florida Newspapers Added to the Freely Available Florida Digital Newspaper Library (FDN)

The George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida, has added 200,000 digitized pages of historic Florida newspapers to the freely available in the Florida Digital Newspaper Library (FDNL). The project, “Making Florida Newspaper Collections Accessible,” was completed with $53,040 in Library Services and Technology Act funding from the State Library and Archives of Florida as part of the 2020-21 funding cycle. Utilizing newspapers microfilmed by the University of Florida, the project team migrated the newspapers to a more accessible and preservable digital format.

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We are so pleased to be able to offer Floridian’s greater access to the history of the families, farms and land of our state with the addition of these newspapers,” said Chelsea Dinsmore, chair of Digital Support Services with the Libraries and Principal Investigator on the grant award.

The shrinking number of working microfilm readers around the state, especially in public libraries, contributes to reduced access to primary historical resources. Even when microfilm readers are functional, the content on the reels of film is static and not easily searchable. Digitizing these important community documents allows for universal access to the content. Additionally, this project worked to target titles in communities with limited content already in FDNL to expand regional access and meet the growing needs of the citizens of Florida.

Learn More, Read the Complete Announcement

Resources

Direct to Florida Digital Newspaper Library (FDNL)

Training Materials: Old News, New Readers: Making Florida Newspaper Collections Accessible Training (English) ||| in Espanol

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