The Department of Special Collections is pleased to announce that its new research room is fast approaching the last milestone in a much anticipated renovation and improvement project.  Researchers entering the  room, located on the second floor of Smathers Library, will be struck by a seemingly incredible transformation that has taken place in what many UF faculty and more veteran students may remember as the "Grand Reading Room of Library East."
Perhaps of most practical importance is the extension of hours to use the collections.  New hours are 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Thursday and 9 a.m. through 4:30 p.m. Friday.  Visitors will be able to make use of their personal laptops via connections to power and the campus network at each of the room's 24 tables.  There is also a reader printer for roll microfilm.
The walls of the research room are hung with large format photographs, approximately 4 by 6 feet which are images from materials throughout the collections. The University Archives is represented by a portrait of the class of 1901 and a program cover from a UF-Georgia football game. Raggedy Ann and Andy and Old Mother Hubbard represent the Baldwin historical children's literature collection, while two of the photographs depict a 17^th-century map of St. Augustine harbor and a 1920s-era illustration of a hunting expedition in rural Florida, the latter an item from the Florida ephemera collection.  Other images include the first page typescript of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings The Yearling; a 17^th-century Venice imprint from the Judaica collection; program covers featuring African American dancer and choreographer Katherine Dunham and an 1890s Italian opera program; a page from a printed 1498 French prayer book made to resemble an illuminated manuscript; and lastly, but certainly not the least image is a portrait of the great Latin American hero Jose Marti from a centennial booklet. More information about the Special Collections Department can be viewed at http://web.uflib.ufl.edu/spec.