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SSDN News
A newsletter of the Sunshine State Digital Network
Welcome to the bi-monthly newsletter of the Sunshine State Digital Network (SSDN). The SSDN connects Florida’s cultural
heritage organizations to build supportive digital collection partnerships. The vision of the Sunshine State Digital Network is to create a collaborative statewide digital collections network of cultural heritage organizations to share the rich human experience
evidenced through Florida digital collections on a worldwide stage.
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Archival Terminology of the Month
memory work
A
new term to the Dictionary of Archives Terminology!
n. ~ the support of memory through the transmission and preservation of historical evidence, including by agents other than archivists, sometimes with the intent of healing, equity, and/or justice.
Notes to the definition from the Society of American Archivists:
As of 2025, the use of this term is unsettled. Usually, it is used in contradistinction to traditional archival practice, with emphases on non-archivist practitioners, the rejection of archival neutrality, and the use and relevance of records in the present.
Frequently, but not always, it carries the further implication of activist archival practice, seeking to use archives to center marginalized voices and advance social justice. At other times this latter use of the term is qualified as liberatory memory work.
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Hidden Gems
Highlights from our DPLA Partners
The holiday season has arrived! The winter solstice, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Year’s Eve—December is filled with holidays and observances that
serve as opportunities for celebration, reflection, and community. This month’s hidden gem is a photograph of
librarians decorating for Christmas at the Southside Branch Library (now the San Marco Branch Library) in Jacksonville in 1960. Librarians and archivists don’t always get to be in the collections, and it’s always nice
to take time to spotlight the people who spend their time ensuring their libraries are places where people can come together to celebrate, reflect, and create a sense of community.
So, here’s to another year of hard work in the books, and happy holidays!
By revisiting our past, we can evaluate the present. Imagine what other hidden stories can be learned from diving deeper. Satisfy your curiosity about Florida and its history by exploring SSDN partner collections in the DPLA. Check out
https://ssdn.dp.la/.
SSDN Newsletter Readers: Submit your Hidden Gem story for the next issue! Email your submission to Keila, kzayasruiz AT fsu.edu
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Training Opportunities
A roundup of digital library related training from Florida and beyond.
Upcoming Live Training
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Webinar: Copyright For Digital Libraries
Thursday, December 11, 2025, 2-3:30pm ET
Copyright in libraries can be confusing, especially when it comes to knowing your rights concerning the digitization of archival and special collections. This 90-minute webinar will address basic copyright considerations and fair use cases that can be made
when assessing the copyright status and access of digitized collections online.
Register Here
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ICYMI: Recorded Webinars
View SSDN's full catalog of recorded training sessions on our
YouTube channel.
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Copyright Corner
Copyright in libraries can be confusing, especially when it comes to knowing your rights concerning the digitization of archival and special collections. Join us before the copyright terms roll
over again in the new year for a 90-minute webinar will address basic copyright considerations and fair use cases that can be made when assessing the copyright status and access of digitized collections online.
Register here: https://fsu.zoom.us/meeting/register/Wh5oiepsQHG8A0sB_tVNBg
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Metadata Minute
The MODS Squad
Here is a lightning-fast introduction to MODS.
Who: The MODS standard is maintained by the
Network Development and MARC Standards Office of the Library of Congress with input from users.
What: The Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS) is an XML-based bibliographic description schema.
When: Introduced in 2002.
Where: Libraries, archives and cultural heritage
institutions use MODS metadata for managing and describing digital collections.
Why: MODS was designed to be simpler and more
end-user oriented than MARC, more compatible with library data than ONIX and richer than Dublin Core.
To learn more about MODS, see
Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS) from the Library of Congress.
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Teachers’ Corner
Featured Primary Source Set of the Month
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
Digital Public Library of America’s Primary
Source Sets facilitate thought-provoking conversations on current events with historical connections. Rich collections of digital artifacts were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.
This month’s featured Primary Source Set on
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, a critically-acclaimed literary exploration of soldiers’ experiences in the Vietnam War, which was one of the longest and most divisive conflicts in American history between 1965
to 1975.
This resource will introduce students to materials that highlight the experiences of U.S. soldiers during this conflict. Letters and transcripts, photographs, and news clips will encourage discussion about the U.S. alliance with South Vietnam to fight communist
takeover by North Vietnam and its allies, the Viet Cong.
This source set offers discussion questions, classroom activities, and primary source analysis tools. Further resources link to other repositories’ related content for a deeper dive. It is intended to spark pedagogical creativity by giving a sample approach
to the material.
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We are currently experiencing significant difficulties with access to our search results and item pages due to an aggressive botnet attack. We are actively working to identify a solution and restore
full functionality. If you encounter errors or have trouble accessing specific pages, please let us know at in...@dp.la. Thank you for your patience.
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Have digital library questions? Want to stay updated? Join our
listserv or subscribe to our
newsletter.
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Getting Started as an SSDN Content Contributor
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Are you interested in sharing your organization's digital collections with the Digital Public Library of America? We have a document that will walk
you through the steps and requirements for becoming an SSDN partner. It is not as intimidating or difficult as you might think!
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