News & Blog

The exhibit “Beyond the Barrier: The X-1 Project” details the design and development of the X-1 program and contains numerous pilot reports and photographs. Materials in the collection document the X-1 program from start to finish and were collected and used by Louis C. Rotundo when writing his book “Into the Unknown, The X-1 Story.” 

Louis Charles Rotundo was born on October 28, 1949. After graduating from Florida Technological University (now UCF) in 1975, Rotundo pursued his interest in politics, becoming an aid to the United States Senator Lawton Chiles. From 1980 to 1988, Rotundo worked for UCF, including serving as Special Assistant to the President from 1984 to 1987. After leaving UCF in 1988, Rotundo started Rotundo and Associates, a lobbying and consulting firm based in Central Florida. 

The exhibit was curated by UCF Student Alexander Jerome and runs from August 2021 through December 2021. The exhibit is on the 4th-floor gallery of the John C. Hitt Library. 

The 15^th Annual Student Book Arts Competition Exhibit is now open. The exhibit features all student entries for this year’s competition. The competition promotes the practice of book arts made by undergraduate and graduate students. The judges were David Benjamin, department head of Special Collections & University Archives, and guest judge Mike Taylor, Florida based book artist.

This year’s winning artist book is “The Bacteria That Kept Coming Back” by Claudia Prado of Rollins College. An honorable mention was awarded to “Transparent Tranquility” by Shannon Ganeshram of UCF. Congratulations to both students! Their artist books will be placed in the permanent Book Arts & Typography Collection at UCF Libraries.

The exhibit is on the 4^th floor gallery of the John C. Hitt Library which runs from May 2021 through July 2021. For more information, email speccoll@ucf.edu.

We are thrilled to announce the winners of our 2021 poetry contests.

Haiku Winner
Colors by Madeline S. Anderson

Limerick Winner
My Best Friend by Mariah George

In addition to joining the KnightVerse National Poetry Month collection in the UCF Libraries’ digital repository STARS, the two winners also receive a UCF Libraries’ reusable water bottle and UCF Libraries’ ducky temporary tattoo.

Thank you to everyone who participated. You can read winners and submissions from all years of Libraries’ student writing contests at STARS KnightVerse.

Beginning Wednesday, May 5, the third floor, including its study rooms, will be closed to the public. Study rooms on the fourth and first floor will remain open and can be reserved by visiting library.ucf.edu/studyrooms or stopping by the Circulation Desk in the John C. Hitt Library.

There’s still time to see 45 Years of Collecting: UCF Libraries’ Special Collections and University Archives! This exhibit will be on display in the fourth floor gallery at John C Hitt Library. Please note the gallery IS open every weekday from 9am – 4pm. The lights are out until the door opens to preserve the collection but please do come in and visit!

This broad range of materials highlights the evolution of the library’s collection over the past 45 years.

It includes great UCF items like Daunte Culpepper’s football, Spirit Splash rubber duckie, Knightro squishy toy, Pegasus yearbook, and some Citronaut memorabilia.

Check out gorgeous handmade selections from our bookarts like Penumbra by Ke Francis.

See the oldest item in our collection, a Vulgate Bible from 1546 or local central Florida memorabilia from old tourist pamphlets to Pulse Memorial inspired artworks.

The exhibit runs from February 2021 through April 2021 in the new 4^th floor Special Collections & University Archives’ Gallery in the John C. Hitt Library.

For more information, email speccoll@ucf.edu.