2026 LEEF Conference Wakulla Wild

This presentation will discuss the use of digital technologies at the University of South Florida Libraries to transform archives from the Florida Environment and Natural History (FLENH) collections into openly accessible resources for educational purposes. The presentation will highlight an approach to digital curation that centers educators and researchers as the key audience. Rooted in strategic archival acquisitions and explored through educator-led partnerships, the team has developed an online repository with more than 74,000 records. This presentation will describe our workflow and openly accessible resource, as well as three key outputs that might be immediately useful to Florida educators. First, the Tampa Through Time Portal is a place-based interactive mapping portal that provides new ways to explore digitized FLENH materials. The ekphrastic Creekshed project, hosted by USF Libraries, uses FLENH archives to inspire local authors and students to write creative works grounded in the local watershed. Finally, the Botanical Gardens 360 Tours and USF Greenways map illustrate new approaches to capturing environmental spaces and pairing them with historic documents to produce immersive contemporary tours.