“Special Collections as Laboratories,” a recent posting on the Chronicle of Higher Education’s The Wired Campus blog, revived the myth of special collections as dusty and often forgotten repositories.

This poster session illustrates how Special & Digital Collections (SDC) at the University of South Florida Tampa Library transformed its web presence in order to dispel such notions. SDC created a series of collection guides using Springshare’s LibGuides platform to make its web presence more user-friendly, engaging, interactive, and holistic. The guides also add value to the researcher by contextualizing each collection and highlighting connections/partnerships with other Library units, related academic departments, and the Tampa community.

This poster showcases three guides: the Science Fiction and Fantasy Collection; the Farid Karam, M.D. Lebanon Antiquities Collection; and the Oral History Program. The guides provide a platform to reach out to diverse user communities and illustrate ongoing research projects and partnerships that SDC materials routinely inspire. The result is a more robust web presence that reflects the vigorous use patterns and vitality of special collections at USF.