University of Central Florida recently debuted DIVerse Families, a collection of book galleries showcasing the diversity of today’s families, ranging from LGBTQ to foster families.The bibliography project leaders approached Lee Dotson, Digital Initiatives Librarian, when they began looking at ways to make a traditional bibliography more interactive. In addition to showcasing the content, Lee recognizes that the project, with its unique backstory and specific needs, is a great use case for STARS, UCF’s repository: “I can point to this collection to represent the variety of materials that can be hosted and showcased in STARS.”
Project co-leads Kristine Shrauger, head of UCF’s interlibrary loan program, and Yolanda Hood, head of the university’s curriculum materials center, received two Carnegie-Whitney grants totaling $9,000 from The American Library Association to build a sortable and searchable bibliography of books that highlight a range of families. Hosting these books in STARS allows the collection to be fully searchable within the organized book galleries, even boasting thumbnail images and customizable RSS feeds. The open accessibility of hosting DIVerse Families within STARS provides worldwide access to the bibliography. The project has already garnered interest from external organizations: Kristine and Yolanda have recently spoken at the National Foster Care Conference in Daytona Beach, Florida, and have been invited to present at the International Research Society for Children’s Literature in Toronto, Ontario, in July.
This already vast collection, which will eventually boast over 1,000 books, is part of a larger effort by UCF libraries to highlight projects that relate to the UCF community, on and off campus. So far Lee has been able to add over 560 of these titles into 64 book galleries in the span of eight months. She’s done this with the help of the DIVerse Families and Digital Initiatives teams and her bepress Consultant, Brandie Grant, who Lee says has offered stellar support and flexibility to the entire UCF library team.
