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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
online access
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n. ~ the consultation of an archival resource by means of a computer or mobile device, especially when access is unmediated
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Notes
As of 2025, this is a near-synonym for, and is often used interchangeably with, digital access. However, the language archivists use regarding access to online archival resources
is particularly unsettled. Due to intellectual property or other constraints, access to online archival resources may not be possible via the open web, but instead subject to mediation. When archivists intend to imply barrier-free access, they may prefer the
term online access, while use of the term digital access does not carry this implication.
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Read It in Context
"Digitising the material and putting it on a web site will give online access to the archive thus providing a resource that is accessible to all potential users.” Johns
2007, 402
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Related Terms
digital access
remote access
virtual access
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Teaching With and Using Primary Sources
Can You Read My Cursive?: Handwritten Historical Documents
During the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic,
New York Times book critic Dwight Garner was “Mourning
the Letters That Will No Longer Be Written, and Remembering the Great Ones That Were” (June 17, 2020). Understandably, in the context of a quarantine and the inevitable pangs of isolation, Garner laments his “longing for a surprise letter...” “I
do trade big, juicy emails with some people in my life, but receiving them isn’t quite the same as slitting open a letter, taking it to a big chair and settling in for the 20 minutes it takes to devour it. He went on to issue forth a catalogue of references
to historical and contemporary literary figures — including Ralph Ellison, Jesmyn Ward, Samantha Power, Jack Kerouac, and Nathaniel Hawthorne — and their take on the, apparently elusive, letter. While poring over Garner’s lamentations, accompanied by a captioned
image of “A collection of letters written by Samuel Beckett (1906-1989)”, this columnist cast her mind to the general practice of cursive writing and shared archival sentiments shared through an apparent paucity of the skill of reading historical handwriting
in relation to studying historical documents when enquiring into the past.
In “Gen Z Never Learned to Read Cursive: How will they interpret the past?”
(The Atlantic, October 2022), history scholar Drew Gilpin Faust reflected on one of her undergraduate seminar students’ experience with a book containing “excellent illustrations, such as photographs
of relevant Civil War manuscripts[...]but those weren’t very helpful to him, because of course he couldn’t read cursive.” Unsure of whether she had heard him correctly, Faust enquired into the class’s ability to read cursive writing and became astonished to
learn that about two-thirds of her class could not read cursive writing and, even more, could not write it.
In his column The Art of Reading Cursive Writing in Historical Documents (State
Historical Society of North Dakota Blog, March 3, 2025), Daniel Sauerwein also notes the importance of reading cursive when working with handwritten historical documents, observing that “While it may seem
that understanding handwriting is not as important in an increasingly digital world, it is more vital than ever to know how to decipher this writing when dealing with historical documents.”
When the Common Core State Standards were adopted in 2010, its lack of any mention of cursive writing instruction led to the mistaken belief that the practice was abolished. Fortunately, a better sense prevailed for legislating a return to the provision by
many states,
including Florida, of cursive writing instruction. Moreover, even neuropsychologists are pointing to the
benefits of handwriting, and not typewriting, on brain development.
Building competency in working with handwritten historical documents is borne out in the Society of American Archivists’ guiding framework for teaching and learning with primary sources:
2018 Guidelines for Primary Source Literacy. While under review, this document sets out tenets essential, still, to reading, understanding and summarizing a primary source requiring “the ability to read a particular script,
font, or language...” Further, the framework states expectations of learners to demonstrate an ability to interpret, analyze and evaluate primary sources for “tone, subjectivity, and biases, and consider how these relate to the original purpose(s) and audience(s)
of the source.”
However, there is still a lot of catching up to be had. So, where does one begin with building competency in reading historical writing, especially cursive writing, to interpret the past? Teaching and learning with handwritten letters are one of the means of
building primary source literacy skills. Complementing formal modes of instruction in historical cursive writing with exhibits featuring letters such as in the example of the permanent one of World War II bombardier Alvin Sherman (Figure 1) for whom the Nova
Southeastern University joint-use library is named, are also useful for sustaining curiosity about the past.
Figure 1. A letter to WWII bombardier pilot Alvin Sherman.
Figure 2. The permanent Alvin Sherman exhibit in the NSU Alvin Sherman Library.
Another way of engaging with historical handwriting is volunteering for transcribing documents to help make archival documents more accessible. The
National Archives’ Citizen Archivist program would be a good starting point for any informal learning in this regard. While the National Archives uses artificial intelligence and optical character recognition to extract
text from historical documents,
these methods have proven to be inaccurate, requiring human intervention.
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Hidden Gems
Highlights from our DPLA Partners
Cattle egrets at Peck's Lake, c. 1963
Aerial view of Peck's Lake inlet. Peck's Lake is adjacent to the Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge and north of Jupiter Island. In 1963, an inlet
was opened into Peck's Lake by storms, then closed as an erosion hazard. Courtesy of Martin County Library System, view their digital collections at https://www.martindigitalhistory.org/.
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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Wikipedia Edit-a-thons: Minimum Lift for Maximum Reward
November 13, 2025, at 1:00 pm EST
https://dpla.zoom.us/meeting/register/hcvrG8y5TPafScPfEBdQuQ#/registration
While Wikipedia edit-a-thons may sound like a daunting event opportunity, sharing experiences, guides, and best practices, can make editing an easy engagement opportunity for institutions contributing to Wikimedia Commons through DPLA. Jamie Flood has been
organizing and supporting Wikipedia editing events for almost a decade, and has worked the process of organizing an event into an accessible, if not easy, opportunity to engage community members with cultural heritage collections. During the presentation,
we will look at different event types/styles, how to handle a work list and tracking, and best practices for outreach to ensure you meet interested community members – and even experienced Wikipedians.
Workshop: Accidental Archivist, Fort Lauderdale
Thursday, November 13, 2025, 9am-4:30pm
Join us for a free, day-long, interactive workshop to understand the basics of physical and digital archives. This workshop will cover best practices relating to collection development, processing, description, access, and preservation of both physical and
digital collections. Presenters will provide different approaches that will take into account varying resources and organization sizes. Come learn the basics of archives management with the Sunshine State Digital Network.
Lunch will be provided. Space is limited!
Presenters: Krystal Thomas, Florida State University and David Benjamin, University of Central Florida
When: Thursday, November 13, 2025, 9am-4:30pm
Where: African American Research Library & Cultural Center, 2650 Sistrunk Boulevard, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33311
Register Here
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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Section 108: Copyright Exceptions for Libraries and Archives
Title 17, section
108 of the U.S.
Code permits libraries and archives to use copyrighted material in specific ways without permission from the copyright holder. This does
not replace fair use, which is codified in section 107. Librarians, archivists,
and library users can rely on fair use just like everyone else. In fact, in many cases fair use may apply when section 108 does not. Section 108 permits libraries and archives to:
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Make one copy of an item held by a library for interlibrary loan;
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Make up to three copies of a damaged, deteriorated, lost, or stolen work for the purpose of replacement. This only applies if a replacement
copy is not available at a fair price;
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Make up to three copies of an unpublished work held by the library for the purpose of preservation.
If the copy is digital, it cannot be circulated outside the library;
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Reproduce, distribute, display, or perform a published work that is in its last
20 years of copyright for the purposes of preservation, research, or scholarship if the work is not available
at a fair price or subject to commercial exploitation;
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Make one copy of an entire work for a user or library who requests it if the
work isn't available at a fair price.
The following restrictions must be observed when appealing to this exception:
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It applies only to libraries and archives open to the public, or to unaffiliated researchers in a specialized field (OSU Libraries meets this exception);
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Copies cannot be made for commercial purposes;
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The copying cannot be systematic (e.g., to replace subscriptions);
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All copies made under this exception must include a notice stating that the materials may be protected under copyright.
The current version of section 108 was
updated with the passage of the Digital Millennial Copyright Act in 1998
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Metadata Minute
This week the SAA Oral History Section hosted a community chat on Metadata Crosswalks.
Presenters Steven Sielaff and Lauren Kata, of the Oral History Association (OHA), shared that there is a
Metadata Assessment and Planning Tool available.
Most standard metadata schemas are lacking to cover the variety of oral history projects, OHA’s interactive
Elements Picker Tool offers help us to crosswalk from a localized metadata list to a standard metadata list, allowing for increased interoperability across other collections and platforms.
The Elements Picker list is comprised of 140 non-prescriptive elements that factor in administrative and non-public facing description, as well as metadata elements for improved public facing discoverability.
When cataloging oral history records, if the metadata answer isn’t obvious, this elements list may offer an assessment and crosswalk to the most appropriate metadata field for your oral history record. For example, schemas like MARC can be limiting for oral
history project description, so this tool looks across the other four schemas (MARC, Dublin Core, EAD, MODS).
The goal of this tool is to help create a metadata list specific to your oral history project and then map it so it plugs it into an existing schema regardless of the DAM platform used.
Another aim is to help us to consider the lifecycle of an oral history record and the roles for all that touch the project from start to finish – catalogers, system administrators, stakeholders to the user experience -- in a collaborative nature.
It takes about 45 minutes to through the Elements List and then you can export your selections and create a spreadsheet that can be used for your project. A bonus for some is that jargon is omitted for non-GLAM institutions.
Check out the Elements Pickers Tool!
https://metadatatool.oralhistory.org/
Also, OHA is calling for oral history metadata experts to create an all-inclusive metadata elements list for oral history materials. Access their survey and participate! tiny.cc/ohamwg2025
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Teachers’ Corner
Featured Primary Source Set of the Month
The Equal Rights
Amendment
Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)
Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop critical thinking skills by exploring topics in history, literature, and culture through primary sources. Drawing on materials from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States,
the sets use letters, photographs, posters, oral histories, and video clips. Each set includes a topic overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's
Education Advisory Committee.
This month’s primary source set is The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), highlighting a
proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution designed to guarantee legal equality, regardless of sex. The U.S. Senate passed the ERA on March 22, 1972, and sent it to the states for ratification, but it fell short of the 38-state (or three-fourths) minimum
for ratification by the end of Congress’ deadline of 1982. To this day, equal rights organizations push for the ERA’s ratification.
This DPLA primary source set features 13 items, including photos, video, political cartoons, and other documents related to this monumental attempt at constitutional reform.
Want more primary sources, but this time with a Florida focus? Florida Memory has you
covered! The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in Florida Primary Source Set includes 23
items that take a closer look at the ERA from the perspective of the Sunshine State.
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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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