Collections

The Vertical File contains a variety of collected materials on University of Central Florida, local history, typography and book arts, and the West Indies, subjects relating to the collections held by the Special Collections. Files are may contain a variety of materials including newsletters, clippings, brochures, pamphlets, documents, photographs, and other items.

The UCF Women's Club papers reflects the history of the University of Central Florida's organization for female faculty, staff, and spouses. It contains officer reports, publications, information on special events, photographs, scrapbooks, memorabilia, and other ephemera documenting club activities. This collection provides insight into the history and activities of the UCF Women's Club. The University of Central Florida Women's Club was founded in 1969 by female faculty, staff and the spouses of faculty and staff "to promote the sociability and the advancement of University interests and ideals". The club is run by elected officers, including a president, secretary, treasurer and historian, who form an executive board. The organization has provided three endowed scholarships named for the University's current and former president's wives, as well as numerous other projects designed to positively influence the University and the Central Florida community.

The University of Central Florida ZORA! Academic Conference records, 1988-2004, pertain to the planning of the Academic Conference of the Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts, sponsored by the University of Central Florida's College of Arts and Humanities. The collection documents UCF's collaboration with the Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community (PEC) in planning humanities programming for the Zora Neale Hurston Festival. It chiefly consists of reports, proposals, notes, newspaper clippings, brochures, memos, letters, emails, meeting agendas, programs, calls for papers, and abstracts. This collection provides insight into the various themes of the Zora Festival from 1991 to 2004 and the academics who presented and participated in these festivals. It also highlights the accomplishments of PEC in preserving the history of Eatonville and Zora Neale Hurston through the festival. The Zora Neale Hurston Festival, also known as the Zora Neal Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities or the ZORA! Festival, is an annual multi-day event that takes place in Eatonville, Florida, and throughout Orange County in late January. Raised in Eatonville, Zora Neale Hurston contributed to the Harlem Renaissance as a writer, storyteller, anthropologist, and ethnographer. She wrote four novels and over fifty short stories, plays, and essays, including her most popular novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. Since 1990, the festival has celebrated and honored the legacy of Hurston and other people of African ancestry who have made significant cultural contributions to the world through public talks, museum exhibitions, theatrical productions, arts education programming, and an outdoor festival. The festival is themed into five-year cycles with each year contributing towards the overarching theme. The Zora Neale Hurston Festival is organized by the Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community (PEC), a historic preservation and arts organization led by N.Y. Nathiri. Since 1990, the University of Central Florida (UCF) has frequently collaborated with PEC to plan and host the Academic Conference of the Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts. Kristin Congdon, a UCF professor, was heavily involved in planning for the festival and the festival's academic conference. As of 2023, the festival continues to operate and maintains its partnership with UCF.

The collection contains printed and photographic materials, and realia documenting the University of North Florida Irish Studies Program and activities from 1986 to 2008. A broad range of subject files shows the development of the Program and includes administrative materials, announcements and flyers, brochures and programs, committee documents, correspondence, invitations, newsletters, photographs and slides, posters, promotional and publicity items, realia, and a CD archive containing the files of the Program's former website. The core of the collection are working files containing correspondence between Program Coordinator Professor Richard Bizot and Irish Studies writers, scholars and entertainers.

The records of the University of South Florida PRIDE Alliance (People Respecting Individual Diversity and Equality), which provides an on-campus support system for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender and allied students.

Student practicum reports submitted to the Department of Biology, University of West Florida, 1993-2002, in fulfillment of degree requirements for Master of Science.  Areas of study included red foxes, floodplain management, environmental landscaping, copper in wetlands, oyster harvesting, bottlenose dolphins, sheepshead minnows, sea turtles, erosion control, estuarine sediments, Florida Crown conch, salt marshes, ultraviolet radiation, fungi, habitat preservation, the Santa Rosa beach mouse, aircraft bird strikes, and recovery of dunes from hurricanes.  Geographic sites studied are in West Florida including Hurlburt Field, Krul Lake, St. Andrew Sound, Choctawhatchee Bay, Bayou Texar, Gulf Islands National Seashore, Pensacola Naval Air Station, Sherman Field Naval Air Station, and Santa Rosa Island.

The University Village (Unisen) Senior Living collection spans nearly four decades; it details the daily operations of the facility, which were largely supported by resident committee efforts. The collection primarily consists of committee meeting minutes, reports, and newsletters that record changes to the facility and its community over the course of its history. The facility changed its name from University Village to Unisen Senior Living in 2016, under new ownership, following its first of two bankruptcies and fraud accusations by the state. It ultimately closed in 2024, resulting in the forced vacancy of all units and the displacement of over 100 residents.