News & Blog

The UCF Libraries does more than just encourage academic passions and support research endeavors; it also sponsors a “Love your Libraries” sticker contest! Continue reading to learn all about the contest, how you can participate, what you can win, and examine some of the past winners’ submissions!

This upcoming spring, UCF Students are invited to submit original designs for the university’s “Love your Libraries” sticker contest!

Entries must be no larger than 4” x 3”, and should be submitted as an image file (TIFF, JPEG, BMP, PNG, or GIF). The library will select one winning design that reflects the library to print and distribute during Finals Week (April 24 – 30, 2024). A winner will be announced through library social media and digital signs in the library. The winner will receive 25 printed stickers and an LED light displaying their design!

The contest closes on March 29th at 5PM.

Here are some rules to keep in mind:
– The contest is for UCF students only.
– One entry per student. If more than one entry is submitted by a student, all the entries by that person will be disqualified.
– Judges reserve the right to not select a winner due to limited submissions, or lack of exceptional submissions.
– Entries with explicit content will not be considered for this contest.
– Images may be subject to approval by UCF Marketing.

Submit your design at https://stars.library.ucf.edu/stickercontest/

Lee Dotson, Digital Initiatives Librarian and manager of STARS (Showcase of Text, Archives, Research & Scholarship), UCF’s institutional digital repository, has been accepted into the prestigious Digital POWRR Peer Assessment Program for the year 2024. POWRR stands for Preserving (digital) Objects with Restricted Resources. This program is sponsored by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). 

The Digital POWRR Peer Assessment Program is an exclusive initiative that is designed to empower individuals to address the challenges of preserving digital assets, especially when faced with limited resources. Lee will engage with a cohort in a year-long comprehensive assessment process, collaborating to evaluate and improve digital preservation strategies and practices. Participants will work closely with peers and mentors, conduct an institutional case study, generate a longer peer assessment report, present findings through a final project showcase, and write a white paper that will be published.  
 

Participants also receive a participation stipend as well as a “Technology Start Up” award that can be provisioned towards helping to jump start digital preservation activities. 

Congratulations to Lee on this significant achievement! Her participation in this Program is an investment in both her personal and our organizational growth. The digital preservation skills acquired, coupled with her strengthened network and gained leadership capabilities, will contribute significantly to advancing the digital preservation efforts of the UCF Libraries and facilitate deeper collaboration with Special Collections and University Archives. 

LibTech will be performing a large inventory processing project during the Winter Break intersession and will need all items returned in order to process. Please note the following loan deadlines:

Certain Items will become available again in January at various points after they have been processed through the inventory project. All items, including Semester Loan Laptops, will become available on the first day of classes, January 8th at 7:30am. Please call us at 407-823-2384 to verify stock status prior to January 8th.

Please note the posted LibTech Operating Hours to ensure we are available to assist when you arrive as there are many early closures in the next two weeks.

Thank you and have a great break!

Open access amplifies the impact of scholarly work and ensures that knowledge is not confined within the walls of academia but is freely accessible to educators, learners, and researchers globally. This democratization of information aligns with UCF’s values and its commitment to fostering a collaborative and inclusive learning environment. 

Faculty at the University of Central Florida (UCF) are invested in teaching and learning with generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) and committed to open access by making scholarly works freely available to the public. The combination of these forces has led to the creation of the book ChatGPT Assignments to Use in Your Classroom Today. Authored by Kevin Yee, Kirby Whittington, Erin Doggette, and Laurie Uttich, this open access book is now freely available in the University’s digital repository, STARS (Showcase of Text, Archives, Research & Scholarship), ushering in a new era for AI education. 

At its core, STARS serves as a centralized hub for storing, archiving, and sharing a diverse array of scholarly outputs. From digitized special collections and datasets to educational resources and publications, STARS breaks down traditional barriers, allowing knowledge to flow freely within and beyond academic circles. ChatGPT Assignments to Use in Your Classroom Today, which has exploded with over 8K downloads since it was added to STARS on October 23, 2023 (and over 1K downloads in the first 24 hours), stands as a testament to the profound impact of open access on scholarship and research on campus.  

The LibTech desk in the Hitt Library offers a wide variety of technological equipment and accessories that can be checked out by anyone in the UCF community, and they provide technology and printing assistance for all hours the library is open. Starting Saturday, October 21, LibTech operating hours for lending equipment will change to the following (changes in bold): 

• Monday – Thursday: 7:30am – 10:00pm 
• Friday: 7:30am – 7:00pm (no change) 
• Saturday: Closed 
• Sunday: Closed (no change) 

This means that Saturday, October 21, will be the first Saturday that LibTech will be closed. Monday, October 23, will be the first weeknight that we will close at 10:00 p.m.