The Florida Collection

Florida State Flag

The Florida Collection is a reference collection of materials on Florida with an emphasis on Northeast Florida and Jacksonville. It is one of the largest collections of its type in a public library in Florida. The collection consists of roughly 20,000 cataloged books and pamphlets, and also includes manuscripts, photographs, postcards, periodicals, microfilm and documents. Some items in the collection are from as early as the 1600s. Subject areas collected in depth include history, flora and fauna, biographies, travel, economics and government. It is designed to support the research needs of historians, academic researchers, students, environmentalists, genealogists, and the media.

Here at Jacksonville Public Library we are in the middle of an groundbreaking epoch. We are in the process of scanning the Florida Collection and Bible Records. In this digital age, we are making giant efforts to increase accessibility for our patrons and to help preserve rare items for generations to come.

We scan the item into an archival image. JPL is dedicated to preserving this digital archive permanently. We have plans to migrate the archival image to newer storage media and computer formats as technology progresses. This dedication to migration insures that JPL's digital archive will not be lost because of electronic seepage, decay, or software & storage technological advances. From the archival image we produce a high quality-working image to be placed upon the Web. With these images viewable through the web, our patrons will now have access to previously restricted materials, all in the comfort of their own homes.

We are scanning the postcard collection, photography collection, rare book collection, manuscript collection, and Bible records. Patrons will be able to view on-line each Jacksonville and Florida postcard owned by JPL. They will be able to view the front of the postcards. Then with a click of the mouse, they will be able to turn the postcard over to view its back. Additionally, they can have a transcript of any writing the original owner might have written. With the photography collection the patrons will be able to view high quality images of the City of Jacksonville, Jacksonville Public Library, and Northeast Florida. JPL will be offering PDF of our rarest books on-line. While sitting at a workstation in JPL's new Main Library, one of JPL's branch libraries, an internet café, or even their own home the patrons will be able to down load books from the 1700s, 1600s and even the 1500s. The customer will be able to take the book with them in their laptops, electronic tablets, or even change to MS document and place the books in their electronic book readers. With such increase in access the citizens of Jacksonville and other patrons through out the world will have unlimited access to books that were previously restricted because of their value and fragile nature. With the Bible records project we are making the family records of older Bible accessible upon the web. This will aid in genealogical research here in northeast Florida.