Hey Citrus Fans,
A couple of weekends ago, I
attended the Florida Conference of Historians with Emily Smith. The Florida Conference of Historians began in
1962 with the concept of an organization covering all historical fields that
would give historians an opportunity to share their scholarship and develop a
sense of collegiality among faculty teaching history in Florida's colleges and
universities. My supervisor at the McKay Archives had asked us if we wanted to
present at the poster session. When she asked back in November, I had something
else scheduled, but my friend Emily Smith volunteered. I am a Citrus Hall of
Fame fellow, but Emily isn’t. She chose a topic with my fellow Hall of Fame
colleague Emma Morton. They looked at how the archives use of social media has
been able to engage people in the topic of Florida citrus. At the last minute
Emma couldn’t attend the meeting, so I volunteered to attend with Emily, and it
was an enriching experience. I was able to enhance my public speaking
abilities, as well as my networking skills. I was able to walk around and view
the other posters that were there, so I was able to learn about new things. I
was also able to meet other people that were interested in the topic that we
presented on, which was digital media and how it engages the public.
Emily and I found that people our
age enjoy our posts about the Orange Bird and the weekly “where is the Orange
Bird now?” posts while the older population enjoys the Florida Citrus Label
posts more. There was a fair amount of interest in our poster and it received
positive regard. We received suggestions on how we can track and expand our
social media presence from the more established historians and introduced the
archives to our fellow undergraduate and graduate history students. This experience
was satisfying because we were able to share what we have been working on and
have our hard work not only recognized, but enjoyed by others.
If you haven’t seen our Instagram
posts, please look for Citrusarchives…. Or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ – Florida
Citrus Hall of Fame – we post every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Written by Meredith Kaffee
Guest Blogger at the Florida Citrus Hall of Fame
In partnership with Florida Southern College’s McKay Archives Center
