News & Blog

The UCF Libraries’ Special Collections & University Archives and Digital Initiatives departments are pleased to announce the completion of a project to digitize the University of Central Florida’s student newspaper. The publication ran from 1968 to 2016.   

The newspaper’s first issue appeared on October 7, 1968, to coincide with the first day of classes at the newly opened Florida Technological University (FTU), now the University of Central Florida (UCF). The first five issues of the publication did not have a name. Instead, the paper referred to itself as F.T.U.???. By the fifth issue, it became known as the FuTUre. Despite the university changing names from FTU to UCF in 1978, the newspaper’s name did not change to the Central Florida Future until 1985.  

In the early 1990s, the newspaper became unaffiliated with the university. Over the next two decades, it was bought and sold to multiple different companies. It eventually became an entity of Gannett, the owner of USA Today and Florida Today. Sadly, Gannett shut down the Central Florida Future in 2016. 

Since 2012, the UCF Libraries has been digitizing 48-years’ worth of this publication. Unfortunately, due to copyright, only the issues from 1968 to 2010 are available publicly online at https://stars.library.ucf.edu/centralfloridafuture/. 

The university’s history covered in the Central Florida Future is an amazing resource. We are so happy to have it available and preserved. 

Dean Case comes to the UCF Libraries from the University of Toledo where he served as Dean since 2017. Previously he held various roles, including Head of Arts & Humanities, at the University of Michigan library. As a Ph.D. candidate in experiential learning (degree anticipated May 2022), one of his key outcomes at Toledo was founding the libraries’ co-curricular program in that field.

Among his accomplishments Dean Case describes completion of major library renovations, collaborative creation of a new research portal, investment in new staff positions, mentoring, and staff development. As Director of the University of Toledo Press, he led a team in the development, production, marketing and sales of scholarly books and journals.

Earlier in his career Dean Case won a United States Information Agency Fellowship to the National Library of the Republic of Moldova, a former Soviet republic. He speaks Romanian, the official language of Moldova, and has taught German, Greek, Latin, and other classics courses.

During the interview process Dean Case revealed much about his vision, strategic plans, and passion for developing the “library as a catalyst for innovation.” The staff of the UCF Libraries looks forward to his energetic leadership and enthusiastically welcomes Dean Case to our family.

Congratulations to Ven Basco!

The UCF Libraries is proud to announce that the 2021 Jean Key Gates Distinguished Alumni Award of the USF School of Information has been awarded to our own Ven Basco! This award is given in honor of USF Professor Emerita of the same name. The award is presented annually to an alumnus whose outstanding professional career achievements serve as a role model for all information science graduates.

Many of our knights have benefitted from Ven’s expertise in his role as the Engineering and Computer Science Librarian at UCF where he has been serving the UCF community for over two decades. Either via a one on one science consultation session with him, attending one of his library instruction sessions, utilizing one of his many online research guides, or just having access to the many books he has helped procure for our collection.  Ven has held may many titles and responsibilities over the years. In addition to being a subject librarian, he also coordinates the library’s research consultation services and Ask a Librarian service, two of the services that the library provides that made a tremendous impact to the type of services that the library offered during the pandemic. His interest and many years of involvement with international aspects of libraries through ALA’s International Relations Committee, and ALA’s International Relations Roundtable committees made him aware of the various opportunities to meet and network with a lot of librarians here and in Asia. He was the past president and Executive Director of the: Asian Pacific American Librarians Association for seven years. He was also the 2019 recipient of the Excellence in Librarianship Award at UCF and the Joint Conference of Librarians of Color (JCLC) Distinguished Service Award.

Take a moment to relax before the stress of finals by playing some games; visit the Downtown Campus Library between November 7-13 for International Games Week!

International Games Week began as International Games Day in 2007 as an attempt to break a world record for the most people playing the same game simultaneously. It has grown into a weeklong event to showcase games and gaming in libraries.

DTC Library is participating this year by offering take-and-play games and featuring the game design titles in our collection. Want something you can play one on one? Come grab a few sheets of Nim, Hedron, or Hex. Got a large group? Get a copy of our social deduction game, Swans and Bakers. If you are interested in collaborative storytelling, take a copy of the one-sheet games Dear Elizabeth… or Hey, this song reminds me of you.