We are happy to help you with your research on Florida or with other research that can make use of the resources of the P.K. Yonge Library of Florida History.
To plan a trip to campus to conduct research, refer to our Visitor Information or visit the Special & Area Studies Collections homepage which has lots of useful guidance.
You should also familiarize yourself with opportunities for Fellowships and Grants and with the Chase Family Grant for Visiting Graduate Scholars.
For help with reference questions and research, contact us at:
- James G. Cusick, curator, at jgcusick@ufl.edu
- Bridget Bihm-Manuel, collection coordinator, at bmbm@ufl.edu
Searching for Books
Books about Florida can be found throughout the George A. Smathers Libraries system. Use the basic search in the online catalog to look for books by author, title, subject, keyword, etc. If you want to find out what books are in the P.K. Yonge Library, you can use the advanced search option. Conduct your search in the same way, but choose “Florida history” from the drop down menu in the “location” box. This will restrict your search results to items in the Yonge Library. You may also want to consult our “Call Number Guide to Subjects and Topics” to find book call numbers related to the types of information you want. You can search the catalog by call number.
Searching in the Manuscript Collections
The most effective way to become familiar with our manuscript holdings is to search or browse our Finding Aids. There is also an index online to our small collections of letters, diaries, and the like. You can also go to the digital collections for Florida history to see what is directly available to you online.
Research in Florida’s Colonial Papers
This is one of the most popular areas of research in the collections. Use our Colonial Florida Library Guide for researching in the Spanish and British colonial papers to plan your research.
Searching our Holdings in Florida Maps
The principal repository for maps at the George A. Smathers Libraries is the Map & Imagery Library. However, if you want to see the holdings that we have in historical maps of Florida, there is an index online. Search results will give you some brief information about each map and the call number.