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Florida Statewide Digital Initiative

Interested in digitizing your cultural heritage institution’s materials? 

Here are some resources to guide you. 

About

The Florida Statewide Digital Initiative is a collaborative effort to provide infrastructure for digitizing and promoting the use of cultural heritage materials held by Florida libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural heritage organizations.

Interested in digitizing your cultural heritage institution’s materials? 

Find resources to guide you below. 

If you are interested in the history of the Florida Statewide Digital Initiative itself, you can see reports on our progress.

Plan and manage your project 

  • Create a project plan.
  • Prepare records, staff and facilities.
  • Document activities, costs and lessons learned.

Check out these Guidelines for Creating Good Digital Content (PDF) for: 

  • Ideas on collaboration, partnerships and outsourcing. 
  • Specifications for text, photos, graphics, artwork, maps and more. 

Review technical guidelines

These 2023 guidelines (PDF) from the Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative include:

  • Digitization parameters
  • Book and document imaging
  • Microfilm and more

Consider copyright

This information on copyright issues can help you find a good balance between your users and the copyright owners of the content in your digital archive.

Provide a rights statement

We recommend you indicate how human users and search engines can use the digital work in your online archive with a standardized rights statement.

Host on the Florida Statewide Digital Repository

The Florida Statewide Digital Initiative created the Florida Statewide Digital Repository, where Florida libraries, archives, museums and other cultural heritage organizations will have the opportunity to host their digital cultural heritage materials.

Stay tuned for an opportunity to host content on the FSDR.

FSDR currently hosts the Reports Required by Florida Statute for the State Library of Florida.

Choose your platform

If you wish to host on your own digital platform or repository, you can choose an existing platform from one of many available commercially. 

Watch a 2020 webinar of the Digital Library Platforms Panel Discussion (1:22:16).

Take online classes

  • If you are a staff member of a public, academic, special or school library in Florida, you can watch self-paced courses and curated webinar archives related to digital initiatives available through WebJunction and Niche Academy.
  • Florida’s five Multitype Library Cooperatives offer free trainings and staff development for Florida library staff related to digital initiatives.

Find inspiration in other projects

Explore Florida digitization projects, including:

Discover more projects in Florida public libraries through the 2023 DLIS Discussion Digitization Projects in Libraries (57:18).

Fund your project

Review Federal Grant Opportunities related to digital initiatives through the Northeast Document Conservation Center.

The Florida Division of Historical Resources funds historic preservation projects through their Small Matching Grants which can include preservation of historical records through digitization related to the history of Florida and/or its historical and archaeological resources.

Florida Humanities provides a Public Humanities Program Grant. Florida Humanities has previously funded oral history or story collection projects that share community histories through public programming or digital archives.

The National Endowment for the Humanities provides a variety of grants related to digital initiatives.

Apply for a Library Services and Technology Act grant to fund your digital initiative project. Successful LSTA-funded digital initiative grant projects include:

  • Walton County Public Library System’s Project Digitization for Access (2022-23)
  • Jacksonville Public Library’s Project: Main Library Digitization Preservation and Virtual Learning Center (2021-22)
  • Miami-Dade Public Library System’s Project MDPLS Digital Collections 3D Scanning Project (2021-22)
  • Northwest Regional Library System’s Project Digital Media Co-Lab Space (2021-22)
  • University of Florida - George A. Smathers Libraries’ Project Digitizing FL Newspapers for Public Use (2021-22)
  • Lake County Library System’s Project Lake County Cultural Resources Digitization (2020-21)

Contact us with questions

Email [email protected] for more information.

Digital

During FY2024-25, the percentage of total costs for the Florida Statewide Digital Initiative Program financed with federal money is 67%; the federal dollar amount to be spent on the program is $737,448. This program does not receive any non-governmental funding.

imls180.for.panel.jpgMany of these resources and programs are funded under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Florida's LSTA program is administered by the Department of State's Division of Library and Information Services.

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