Cataloging and microfilming of a collection of rare Cuban Exile Community Newspapers on loan from the University of Miami was recently completed through an NEH (National Endowment for the Humanities) funded grant administered by the George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida. The 204 Cuban titles were cataloged, with 122 titles filmed onto 124,505 exposures during 1997-1999 and are now available to researchers and anyone with interest in the Cuban exile experience.

 
Microfilming was a combination of in-house and contracted filming which met national preservation standards. The camera and print master negatives for all reels are stored in two separate environmentally stable and fire suppressed vaults in Pennsylvania. Positive copies of the microfilm will be available for use in the University of Florida's Latin American Collection and at the University of Miami.

 
The original newspapers, published by members of the Cuban exile community in Florida, have been collected by the Otto G. Richter Library at the University of Miami in Coral Gables since the 1960's and are currently housed in their Cuban Heritage Collection. Many of the titles are not held anywhere else in the world.

 
The newspapers are invaluable in preserving and continuing a sense of identity and community among the exiled population. The collection serves to preserve and communicate to future generations the history of Cuba and the exile experience. As the years progress and new generations (whose ties to the homeland are simply a family memory) increase, the historical value of exiled newspapers becomes increasingly significant.

 
Susan Constantineau, Smathers Libraries cataloger for Florida newspapers, initially spent four weeks in Coral Gables working closely with Esperanza de Varona, Coordinator of the Cuban Heritage Collection, to create or modify bibliographic records in the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) database for all of the titles. When it was time to transfer the newspapers to Gainesville, Constantineau and Cathy Mook, Head of Smathers' Libraries Preservation Department, traveled twice to Miami to retrieve the documents. Once in Gainesville, these titles were collated and checked in by staff and students of the Preservation Department and prepared for filming. Extensive documentation was produced to track the exact whereabouts of each title throughout the filming process.

 
Now that the project has reached its conclusion, the newspapers and the microfilm will be returned to the University of Miami for a commemorative celebration on Wednesday, February 16.

 
This collaborative cataloging and microfilming project between the University of Florida and the University of Miami is part of the United States Newspaper Program (USNP), a cooperative national effort among the states and the federal government to locate, catalog, and preserve on microfilm newspapers published in the United States from the eighteenth century to the present. This NEH funded initiative has existed in various phases for almost a decade in all 50 states, with thousands of titles cataloged and millions of images microfilmed as a result.

 
In 1993 the state of Florida, with coordination provided by the University of Florida libraries, joined the USNP.

Initial efforts in 1993-94 centered on compiling a database of all extant newspaper titles held in the state and a survey was conducted of 1,000 likely newspapers repositories.

Since 1995, over 3,000 Florida newspaper titles have been cataloged, and made accessible in the University of Florida's public catalog, as well as in OCLC, a national cataloging database. In addition, a total of 171 newspaper titles (736 reels) have been microfilmed for preservation.