Archival Innovator Award: State Archives of Florida’s Florida Memory Team

The State Archives of Florida’s Florida Memory Team (Katrina Harkness, Mark Nicolou, Josh Goodman, Adam Watson, Jody Norman, and Derek Long) is the 2015 recipient of the Archival Innovator Award. Established in 2012, the Archival Innovator Award recognizes archivists, repositories, or organizations that show creativity in approaching professional challenges or the ability to think outside the professional norm or that have an extraordinary impact on a community through archives programs or outreach.  

In May 2014, the State Archives’ Florida Memory Team launched Florida Memory Radio (Radio.FloridaMemory.com), a twenty-four-hour streaming Internet radio station. Florida Memory Radio features music from the Florida Folklife Collection, which consists of audio, photographic, and documentary materials relating to the history and culture of Florida. The bulk of the programming on Florida Memory Radio consists of daily “shows” featuring the main genres of music represented in the Florida Folklife Collection, including blues, bluegrass or old time, folk, gospel or sacred, Latin, and world music. Florida Memory Radio provides a listening experience designed to expose patrons to archival recordings and then draw them into the Florida Memory website to learn more. This strategy expands the archives’ appeal to patrons outside the academic and professional music communities who may not find traditional research methods as intuitive or accessible.