Welcome to Florida Memory

What We Select

Florida Memory selects its content from the collections of the State Library and Archives of Florida. We use several criteria to choose the documents we digitize, including patron feedback, collection usage statistics and recommendations from the Archives staff. We also evaluate each collection in terms of its educational, intrinsic and research value for patrons. Finally, we take care to ensure that our projects do not duplicate resources available from other institutions or repositories.

A few technical considerations also govern our decisions about what to digitize. The State Archives must possess a deed of gift assigning copyright and ownership of the materials to the Archives before they can be eligible for digitization. Furthermore, the items must be free of restrictions imposed by law or by stipulation of the donor. Upon entering the custody of the State Archives, materials become accessible for use within the public domain. The physical condition of the items must be good enough that the digitization process will not damage them.

We receive many inquiries from patrons interested in donating photographs, documents and other archival materials to Florida Memory. Donors should understand that Florida Memory is not an archive, but rather an outreach program for the State Archives. Donations, therefore, must be made to the State Archives rather than to Florida Memory directly. Guidelines for donating archival material can be found on the Donate page. We cannot guarantee that any particular donated collection will be added to Florida Memory. Donors should keep in mind, however, that the State Archives maintains a fully-staffed research facility where researchers can access our non digital resources. Although Florida Memory is steadily adding new items online, in-person research is still the method by which the public uses the vast majority of our collections.

For more detailed information about this and related topics, see our digitization guidelines.