News & Blog

The exhibit “Thomas E. Azzari, The Art of Theme Parks: Stage Design and Production” features items from the “Thomas E. Azzari Theme Parks and Attractions Collection, 1973-2018” highlighting Azzari’s work as a designer of theme park productions. Included in the exhibit are drawings, illustrations, project paperwork, and photographs related to SeaWorld, Weeki Wachee Springs, and Silver Springs.

Thomas E. Azzari studied industrial design at the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut and attended the ArtCenter College of Design in California. Azzari worked over forty years in the media and entertainment industry as a production designer, set designer, and art director.

The exhibit, curated by Sarah Ryschkewitsch, Intern, and Burak Ogreten, Senior Archivist for Special Collections, runs May to August 2019. The exhibit is in the Special Collections & University Archives’ exhibit space located on the 5th floor of the John C. Hitt Library.

May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month!

Asian Pacific American as a topic covers vast oceans of identity and information. By definition, an Asian Pacific American is an American (whether born, naturalized, or other) who was born on or has heritage from anywhere on the Asian continent and the Pacific islands of Melanesia (New Guinea, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji and the Solomon Islands), Micronesia (Marianas, Guam, Wake Island, Palau, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru and the Federated States of Micronesia) and Polynesia (New Zealand, Hawaiian Islands, Rotuma, Midway Islands, Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Cook Islands, French Polynesia and Easter Island). These areas cover a wide array of languages, cultures, religions, and ethnicities that have brought countless skills, hopes and dreams to the United States.

UCF Libraries faculty and staff have (very enthusiastically) suggested 24 books and movies within the library’s collection by or about Asian Pacific Americans. Click the link below to see the full list, descriptions, and catalog links. These, and additional titles, are also on the Featured Bookshelf display on the second (main) floor next to the bank of two elevators.

Featured Bookshelf: Asian Pacific American Heritage

Congratulations to our 2019 Poetry Contest winners!

They each received a #UCFLibrary waterbottle and their work as been added to the KnightVerse, the student writing contest section of UCF Libraries’ digital repository, STARS.

Haiku winner:
“Fountain Finals” by Tim Walker

Sonnet winner:
“Together Apart” by Abel Birchfield

The University of Central Florida Libraries is proud to announce that Stefani Hammond is the 2019 recipient of the June S. Stillman Memorial Endowed Scholarship.

Hammond is a junior majoring in Anthropology. She plans to obtain a PhD, specializing in Biological Anthropology, and to become a professor at an established research university. A first-generation student, she began working as a student assistant in Circulation Services in the John C. Hitt Library in August 2017.

Hammond’s research career includes the McNair Scholars Program, the Research and Mentorship Program (RAMP), and presentations at UCF Undergraduate Research conferences. She has also participated in research fellowships, written manuscripts for publication in academic research journals, and worked with faculty mentor Dr. John Starbuck in UCF’s Morphometric Research Lab.

Hammond has served as a mentor for UCF’s Resident Leadership Conference and is the current Secretary of the Lambda Alpha Anthropology Honors Society. She has also been a Resident Assistant and a Conference Assistant with the UCF Department of Housing & Residence Life, a role with which she credits with teaching her empathy and compassion in leadership.

This is the 21^st awarding of the Stillman scholarship, which is given to a student or staff member of the UCF Libraries. June S. Stillman was one of the first two librarians hired when UCF (then Florida Technological University) opened in 1968. Her impact on students can be seen from a 25^th anniversary survey of the first graduating class, a majority of whom listed her as a key figure from their student days. Stillman received her second master’s degree in English Literature from UCF while working as the Head of Reference Services at the Library. She retired in 1996 and tragically passed away in 1998. Her friends and family established the June S. Stillman Memorial Endowed Scholarship in her honor. She is remembered as a consummate professional, the epitome of gentility and compassion, and a proponent of lifelong learning.         

World Intellectual Property Day is an annual event held every April 26th to celebrate intellectual property (IP) rights and to encourage innovation and creativity. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) chooses a theme each year to help explore these topics; this year’s theme is Reach for Gold: IP and Sports and explores how inventions and artistic works, along with IP rights, such as patents, trademark, and copyright, impact the sports industry.