Graduate Catalog

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The information in this catalog is current as of May 2008. Please contact individual programs for any additional information or changes.

Libraries

The Libraries of the University of Florida (UF Libraries) form the largest information resource system in the state of Florida. While the collections are extensive, they are not comprehensive and graduate students supplement them with a variety of services and cooperative programs drawing on the resources of many other libraries.

The UF Libraries comprise 9 libraries: 7 are in the system known as the George A. Smathers Libraries of the University of Florida, and 2 (Health Science and Law) are attached to their respective administrative units. All of the libraries serve all the University's faculty and students, but each has a special mission to be the primary support of specific colleges and degree programs. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of research, scholars may find collections built in one library to serve a specific discipline or constituency to be of great importance to their own research in another discipline. Usually, more than one library is needed to discover all the resources that pertain to a particular research interest. The University of Florida Gator 1 card gives students and faculty access to library services. This card is used to circulate books, to borrow reserves, and to establish identity for other library services such as Interlibrary Loan and remote access to databases.

The library home page (http://www.uflib.ufl.edu) offers a wealth of information about the Libraries and links to a vast array of resources. The Libraries are integrating electronic collections and services, and are digitizing materials from our Florida and other unique collections. Indexes, abstracts, and other reference resources (including hundreds of specialized databases) are increasingly available. From the home page it is possible to connect to the full text of articles in more than 20,000 journals and thousands of books, documents, maps, and manuscripts.

The library home page has a link to the library catalog that contains records for all UF collections in all formats (except for some special archival, map, and document collections that must be accessed through catalogs and finding aids at the collection location). It connects to library books currently on course reserve and provides links to a growing number of books, journals, and newspapers that are available in electronic form. The Subject Guides and Specialists page provides guides to subject literature and links to key resources and pertinent websites as well as the name of the library subject specialist. The library home page provides links to the pages of individual campus libraries, lists library training opportunities, and provides a great deal of information on services and policies. It enables students to link to the libraries' Ask a Librarian IM chat reference service, and to electronic forms for making suggestions, renewing materials, initiating interlibrary loan requests, and recalling materials charged to other borrowers.

Workstations in UF libraries provide access to this whole array of electronic resources and services. They may also be accessed readily from other campus workstations, with a University of Florida IP address (campus location or off-campus GatorLink account), or by using the VPN or a proxy and your library card number (please see http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/access.html for details on remote access).

Because of the disciplinary variation in research methods, the policies enforced and the services offered may differ from library to library. Most of the libraries have an advisory board consisting of faculty and students who advise on the policies and services relating to their library. Information on local policies is available at the circulation and reference desks in each library and on the specific library's home page. As is common in research libraries, library materials are housed in a variety of locations depending on discipline.

Library West houses most of the humanities and social science collections, and professional collections in support of business, health and human performance, and journalism are normally housed in this building. Library West includes 84 individual graduate study carrels that are assigned for the academic year. An online application form is available from the library home page. In addition, the sixth floor of Library West is a study area reserved for graduate students. Access is provided after students register at the Circulation Desk. The Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica is also located in Library West.

Smathers Library (also known as Library East) holds the Latin American Collection and the Special Collections: rare books and manuscripts, P. K. Yonge Library of Florida History, and University Archives(custodian of the University's historically significant public records including the administrative files of its past presidents).

Marston Science Library, named for Robert Q. Marston, the seventh president of the University of Florida, houses collections in agriculture, life sciences, engineering, physical sciences, mathematics, and earth sciences. The building is also home to the Map Library and Imagery Library and the Documents Department, which is a regional depository for U.S. federal government publications as well as a collection of Florida international and planning documents.

Architecture/Fine Arts Library (201 Fine Arts Building A) holds visual arts, art history, architecture, landscape architecture, interior design, building construction, and urban planning materials.

Business Library (http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/businesslibrary/) is both an Internet portal to online business information databases and a physical collection housed and serviced in Library West. The Virtual Business Library provides instant access to high quality business information--anytime, anywhere in the world. There are more than 100 business, economics, accounting, and tax research databases as well as subject guides, step-by-step tutorials, case studies illustrating business research, and journal collections. The contents of the Business Library include thousands of journal subscriptions, full-text articles from all of the leading business publications, reports on publicly traded corporations around the world, investment research from the leading Wall Street firms, daily country intelligence on all the nations of the world, a fully integrated tax research library, U.S. and international marketing research, multiple sources for company and industry information, access to millions of downloadable data series, market share data, business rankings, economic reports, electronic books, and much more.

Education Library (1500 Norman Hall) supports 20 bachelor's and advanced degree programs in the College of Education, including Counselor Education, Educational Administration and Policy, Educational Psychology, School of Teaching and Learning, and Special Education. In addition to electronic and print research materials, there are other specialized collections such as the Children's Literature Collection, the K-12 Textbook Collection, and the ERIC Documents Microfiche and other multimedia collections.

Music Library (231 Music Building) houses music scores, books, periodicals and other music sources, as well as a non-circulating collection of recordings.

Allen H. Neuharth Journalism and Communications Library (1060 Weimer Hall) contains a collection of books, newsletters, scholarly journals, trade publications, magazines, and newspapers that support the instructional and research needs of the College of Journalism including the Departments of Advertising, Journalism, Public Relations, and Telecommunication.

Health Science Center Libraries serve the academic, research and clinical information needs of the Colleges of Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Public Health and Health Professions, and Veterinary Medicine. The Borland Library (2nd floor, Learning Resource Center) is our Jacksonville branch, and the Veterinary Medicine Reading Room is located in room V1-110 in the College of Veterinary Medicine Building.

Lawton Chiles Legal Information Center holds resources for law and related social sciences with over 595,000 volumes and equivalents. It is named in honor of the former governor and senator and housed in a completely renovated facility that is the largest in the Southeast. The Lawton Chiles Legal Information Center occupies the bottom three floors of Holland Hall with computer support on the top floor. The facility includes 13 student study rooms, a lactation/meditation room, lounge seating, open reserve area, and carrels.

Together the Libraries hold over 4,000,000 cataloged volumes, 7,200,000 microforms, 1,300,000 documents, 766,000 maps and geographic images, and nearly 18,000 computer files. The Libraries have built a number of nationally significant research collections mainly supporting graduate research programs. Among them are the Baldwin Library of Children's Literature, which is among the world's greatest collections of literature for children (Special Collections, Smathers Library); the Map and Imagery Library, which is an extensive repository of maps, atlases, aerial photographs, and remote sensing imagery with particular collection strengths for the southeastern United States, Florida, Latin America, and Africa south of the Sahara (Marston Science Library, Level One); the Isser and Ray Price Library of Judaica, which is the largest collection of its kind in the Southeast (Library West); and the P.K. Yonge Library of Florida History, which is the state's preeminent Floridiana collection and holds the largest North American collection of Spanish colonial documents about the southeastern United States and rich archives of prominent Florida politicians (Special Collections, Smathers Library).

The Libraries also have particularly strong holdings in architectural preservation and 18th-century American architecture (Architecture and Fine Arts), late 19th- and early-20th-century German state documents (Library West), Latin American art and architecture (Architecture and Fine Arts and Smathers Library), national bibliographies (Humanities & Social Science Reference, Library West), U.S. Census information, especially in electronic format, and other U.S. documents (Documents Department, Marston Science Library), the rural sociology of Florida and tropical and subtropical agriculture collections (Marston Science Library), and English and American literature (Library West).

Reference service is provided to library users in each library and is also available via phone, e-mail, and interactive chat. All of the libraries provide special services to help students and faculty with disabilities in their use of the libraries; information is available at all circulation desks. At the start of each term, the Libraries offer orientation programs to explain available services and how to use them. Schedules are posted in each library at the start of each term and in the training session part of the library webpage (http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/jgs/instruct.html). Individual help is available at the reference desk in each library. In addition, instructional librarians will work with faculty and teaching assistants to develop and present course-specific library instruction sessions. Instruction coordinators are available in Humanities and Social Science Reference in Library West, in Marston Science Library, and in the branches.

Subject specialists, who work closely with faculty and graduate students to select materials for the collections, also advise graduate students and other researchers who need specialized bibliographic knowledge to define local and global information resources available to support specific research. Consult the subject specialists when starting work on a large research project or developing a working knowledge of another discipline. A list of subject specialists is available at reference desks and via the library home page (http://www.uflib.ufl.edu). Users may schedule a meeting with the appropriate specialist.

The Libraries' memberships in the Research Libraries Group and the Center for Research Libraries give faculty and students access to many major scholarly collections. The Libraries also are linked to major national and international databases. Many materials not held on campus can be quickly located and borrowed through one of the cooperative programs to which the Libraries belong. Consult with a reference librarian to take advantage of these services. Publications describing specialized services are available at reference and circulation desks throughout the Libraries. For information on library hours : http://www.uflib.ufl.edu or call the desired library.

Computer Facilities

Computing and Networking Services (CNS)

Computing and Networking Services, formerly the Northeast Regional Data Center (NERDC), is a unit of the UF Office of Information Technology. CNS's facilities are used for instructional, administrative, and research computing, and are in the Bryant Space Sciences Research Building (SSRB). For more information, visit the CNS home page http://www.ces.ufl.edu.

Office of Academic Technology (AT) at the Hub

Services available to graduate students include electronic thesis and dissertation computing support; phone and walk-in desktop applications and technical consulting; GatorLink mail; web and dialup services; UNIX® and Computing and Networking Services (CNS) computing accounts; software distribution; and the use of computer classrooms, multimedia and video equipment, and laboratories; and programming languages and packages for mathematical and statistical analysis. The AT/CIRCA computer classrooms are available for personal and academic use. They are equipped with IBM-compatible and Macintosh-compatible computers, laser printers, plotters, and scanners. CIRCA computer facilities offer students applications for word processing, spreadsheets, data analysis, graphics, and the Internet.

Instructors may use the site-licensed WebCT Vista course management system to provide online course tools such as syllabus, content and secure grade posting. Instructors whose courses require UNIX® or IBM mainframe computing may also apply for class computing accounts. Applications for these instructional accounts are available at the Help Desk in 132 Hub. Instructors may reserve CIRCA computer classrooms or multimedia lecture classrooms for class sessions. For more information about these and other Academic Technology services, contact the UF Computing Help Desk, 132 Hub, http://helpdesk.ufl.edu, (352) 392-HELP, or see the Academic Technology website at http://at.ufl.edu.

Art Galleries

The 86,800-square-foot Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art in the University of Florida Cultural Plaza is one of the Southeast's largest university art museums and the only art museum in North Central Florida accredited by the American Association of Museums. Admission is free. The Harn's five collection galleries focus on African, Asian, modern, and contemporary art and photography. Diverse temporary exhibitions are also presented. Performances, family programs, lectures and films increase art appreciation. Museum hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday; 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday; select Thursdays 5 to 9 p.m. for Museum Nights. Free docent-led tours Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m.

The University Gallery, established in 1965, is an essential component of the teaching, research, and service missions of the School of Art and Art History. The Gallery's primary purpose is to present high-quality visual-arts exhibitions that reach a diverse cross section of the University's many academic disciplines and core research areas and to provide rich first-hand interaction with cutting-edge artwork for art students and faculty to foster learning in art.

Focus Gallery (in the lobby of the School of Art and Art History offices in the Fine Arts Complex) was established in 1963. Public exhibition space is used by students and faculty sponsors in the School of Art and Art History to experiment with artwork and experience the production of art exhibitions.

Grinter Galleries (in the lobby of Grinter Hall) was established in 1972. This venue is reserved for exhibitions of international art and artifacts that teach about world culture. Many of the University's international centers are located in Grinter Hall, and their programs provide content for the galleries' exhibitions.

Performing Arts

University of Florida Performing Arts brings a diverse range of events to its venues each season, including theatre, chamber, classical, dance, family, jazz, opera, pops, film, and world music/dance. The 1,700-seat Curtis M. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts features computerized lighting and sound systems. Its Black Box Theatre is used for experimental or small musical productions, recitals, and receptions. The historic University Auditorium seats 867 and provides a classic setting for chamber and solo concerts, lectures, and more. The Baughman Center, a breathtaking pavilion on the shores of Lake Alice, is an inspirational setting for both contemplation and celebration.

For information about UFPA:
Administrative offices,
Phone (352) 392-1900.

For event information or tickets:
Phillips Center Box Office,
Phone (352) 392-ARTS ext.2787,
Website http://www.performingarts.ufl.edu.

Florida Museum of Natural History

The Florida Museum of Natural History was created by the Legislature in 1917 as a department of the University of Florida. Through its affiliation with the University, it carries dual responsibility as the official State Museum of Florida and as the University museum. The public education and exhibits division of the Museum is in Powell Hall, on Hull Road at the western edge of campus, situated between the Harn Museum of Art and the Center for the Performing Arts. Powell Hall is devoted exclusively to permanent and traveling exhibits, educational and public programs, special events, and includes the Butterfly Rainforest. It is staffed by specialists in interpreting natural history through exhibits and educational programs. Consult the website for hours and admission fees (http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu). The Museum also operates as a center of research in anthropology and natural science. The research and collections division is in Dickinson Hall, at the corner of Museum Road and Newell Drive. This building is not open to the public. The Department of Natural History houses the state's natural history collections and is staffed by scientists and support personnel concerned with the study of modern and fossil plants and animals, and historic and prehistoric people and their cultures; scientific and educational faculty (curators) hold appointments in appropriate UF academic units. Through these appointments, they participate in both undergraduate and graduate teaching programs. The Museum's newest addition is the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity. This world-class facility features a 46,000-square-foot Lepidoptera center devoted to housing one of the world's largest and most comprehensive Lepidoptera collections, and state-of-the-art research facilities for their study. It also contains dynamic public exhibitions and a live Butterfly Rainforest with a walking trail, educational exhibits, and hundreds of living butterflies.

The Randell Research Center at the Pineland archeological site near Fort Myers, Florida, is dedicated to learning and teaching the archeology, history, and ecology of Southwest Florida.

The Herbarium at UF is also a division of the Museum. It contains over 255,000 specimens of vascular plants and 170,000 specimens of nonvascular plants. The research collections are in the care of curators who encourage scientific study of the Museum's holdings. Materials are constantly being added to the collections both through gifts from friends and as a result of research activities of the Museum staff. The archaeological and ethnographic collections are noteworthy, particularly in the aboriginal and Spanish colonial material remains from the southeastern United States and the Caribbean. There are extensive study collections of birds, mammals, mollusks, reptiles, amphibians, fish, invertebrate and vertebrate fossils, and plant fossils, and a bioacoustic archive consisting of original recordings of animal sounds. Opportunities are provided for students, staff, and visiting scientists to use the collections. Research and field work are presently sponsored in the archaeological, paleontological, and zoological fields.

Students interested in these specialties should apply to the appropriate academic units. Graduate assistantships are available in the Museum in areas emphasized in its research programs.

Agricultural Experiment Station

The Florida Agricultural Experiment Station conducts statewide research programs in food, agriculture, natural resources, and the environment. Research deals with agricultural production, processing, marketing, human nutrition, veterinary medicine, renewable natural resources, and environmental issues. This research program includes activities by departments on the Gainesville campus and on the campuses of Research and Education Centers throughout the state. Close cooperation with numerous Florida agricultural and natural resource related agencies and organizations is maintained to provide research support for 280 agricultural commodities and Florida's rich natural resources.

The land-grant philosophy of research, extension, and teaching is strongly supported and administered by the Vice President for Agriculture and Natural Resources. The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, under his leadership, comprises the Florida Agricultural Experiment Station, the Florida Cooperative Extension Service, the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, and elements of the College of Veterinary Medicine, each functioning under a dean. Most IFAS faculty have joint appointments involving teaching, research, and/or extension. Funds for graduate assistants are made available to encourage graduate education and professional scientific improvement.

Research and graduate programs are conducted in 16 departments and two schools: Agricultural and Biological Engineering; Agricultural Education and Communication; Agronomy; Animal Sciences; Entomology and Nematology; Environmental Horticulture; Food and Resource Economics; Food Science and Human Nutrition; Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences; Family, Youth and Community Sciences; Horticultural Sciences; Microbiology and Cell Science; Plant Pathology; Soil and Water Science; Statistics; Veterinary Medicine; Wildlife Ecology and Conservation; the School of Forest Resources and Conservation; and the School of Natural Resources and Environment. Additional support units vital to research programs include Educational Media and Services, Facilities Planning and Operations, Planning and Business Affairs, Sponsored Programs, IFAS International Programs, Personnel, and Governmental Relations.

Outside of Gainesville, IFAS faculty and graduate students are located at 13 Research and Education Centers throughout Florida, from Homestead in the extreme south, to Jay in the extreme west. Extension personnel are located in all of Florida's 67 counties.

The Florida Agricultural Experiment Station cooperates with the Brooksville Subtropical Research Station, Brooksville (a USDA field laboratory) in its beef cattle and pasture production and management programs; and with the National Weather Service, Ruskin, in the agricultural weather service for Florida.

Additional research is conducted through the Center for Natural Resources Programs; the Center for Environmental Toxicology; the Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants; the Ordway-Swisher Biological Station; the Center for Tropical Agriculture, portions of the College of Veterinary Medicine; the Florida Sea Grant Program; and the International Program for Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources. A Center for Cooperative Agricultural Programs (CCAP) in Tallahassee is jointly supported with Florida A & M University.

Ordway-Swisher Biological Station. The Ordway-Swisher Biological Station (http://www.ordway.ufl.edu) is a year-round biological field station established for the long-term study and conservation of unique ecosystems through research, teaching, and management. It is managed for the University of Florida by the UF/IFAS Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation. The 9300-acre property is located in Putnam County, Florida (roughly 26 miles from Gainesville) and is not open to the general public. The property is a mosaic of wetlands and uplands that include sandhills, xeric hammock, upland mixed forest, swamps, marshes, clastic upland lakes, sandhill upland lakes, and marsh lakes. A variety of fauna inhabit the preserve, including a number of state and federally listed species. Wildfires and prescribed burning have had a strong influence on the landscape. The Preserve is a member of the Organization of Biological Field Stations (OBFS).

Engineering and Industrial Experiment Station

The internationally recognized Engineering and Industrial Experiment Station (EIES) is the research arm of the College of Engineering. It was officially established in 1941 by the Florida Legislature. Its primary purpose is to perform research that benefits the state's industries, health, welfare, and public services. The EIES also works to enhance our nation's global competitive posture by developing new materials, devices, and processes. The EIES provides significant opportunities for undergraduate and graduate engineering students to participate in hands-on, cutting-edge research.

The EIES addresses a wide variety of state and national research issues through the college's academic departments and engineering research centers. It takes an interdisciplinary approach to research by involving talents from diverse areas of the College and the University. Particle science and technology, nanoscience and technology, materials, intelligent machines, transportation, biomedical engineering, computer technologies and systems, communications, information systems, energy systems, robotics, construction and manufacturing technologies, computer-aided design, process systems, a broad spectrum of research related to the "public sector" (agricultural, civil, coastal, and environmental) represent some of the EIES broad-based research programs.

UF Electronic Delivery of Graduate Engineering
(UF EDGE)

UF EDGE offers online graduate engineering master's degrees, courses and certificates from the College of Engineering. The UF EDGE program allows engineers to obtain their master's degrees from any location without the need to travel to the UF campus. All course lectures and materials are delivered online and distance students submit homework via e-mail and have exams proctored at their places of work to be faxed in for grading. A master's degree is comprised of 10 courses totaling 30 credit hours. Students can take as many courses per semester as their work and life schedules permit, thus setting their own pace toward their degrees. Employers may provide financial support for these graduate courses. Students wishing to participate in the UF EDGE program should contact the UF EDGE office at (352) 392-9670 or visit the website at www.ufedge.ufl.edu for more detailed information. UF EDGE and the UF College of Engineering are also part of the statewide delivery system known as The Florida Engineering Education Delivery System (FEEDS). Students pursuing a degree through UF EDGE and the College of Engineering are governed by the College's requirements, the academic unit to which they have been admitted, and the Graduate School.

Florida Engineering Education Delivery System (FEEDS)

The Florida Engineering Education Delivery System (FEEDS) is a cooperative effort to deliver graduate engineering courses, and degree and certificate programs via an array of distance learning technologies to engineers throughout Florida. Along with the University of Florida, participating universities include the colleges of engineering at Florida State University, Florida A & M University, Florida Atlantic University, Florida International University, the University of Central Florida, and the University of South Florida. Our FEEDS educational partners at Florida Gulf Coast University, the University of North Florida, and the University of West Florida help facilitate course delivery and program marketing. Graduate students associated with any of these universities have access to the graduate engineering courses offered via FEEDS throughout the state during the school term. Students wishing to participate in FEEDS and intending to register for classes at the University of Florida should do so by contacting the FEEDS Coordinator, E117 CSE (352) 392-9670 or feeds@eng.ufl.edu). For detailed information, visit http://oeep.eng.ufl.edu. Students pursuing a degree through the College of Engineering are governed by its requirements, the academic unit to which they have been admitted, and the Graduate School.

Office of Research

The Office of Research includes the Division of Sponsored Research, the Office of Technology Licensing, and the University of Florida Research Foundation. The Office of Research is administered by the Vice President for Research. The primary missions of the Office of Research are to administer and stimulate the growth of research and graduate education throughout the University; to help create significant relationships among government, industry, other research sponsors and the University; and to promote economic development in Alachua County, the State of Florida, and the nation through technology transfer opportunities.

The Division of Sponsored Research (DSR) has two general goals: to promote and administer the sponsored research program and to help faculty, staff, and students to develop research activities.

Research, grant-in-aid, training, or educational service agreement proposals are processed and approved by DSR. Negotiations of sponsored awards are also the responsibility of the Division. DSR helps researchers identify possible sponsors for their projects, coordinates cross-disciplinary research activities, and disseminates information and University policies and procedures for the conduct of research.

The University of Florida Research Foundation (UFRF) is the steward for the technology transfer process and, through the Office of Technology Licensing, handles all intellectual property at the University.

The Office of Technology Licensing (OTL) handles patenting, marketing, and licensing of intellectual property. The OTL works closely with UF inventors in identifying and protecting new inventions. All patents, copyrights, and trademarks are processed and managed by OTL. The OTL helps researchers develop confidentiality, mutual secrecy, and material transfer agreements.

For more information, contact:
The Office of Research,
P.O. Box 115500,
Website http://research.ufl.edu,
Phone (352) 392-1582.

University Press of Florida

The University Press of Florida is the official scholarly publishing agency of the State University System of Florida. The Press (just off campus, at 15 NW 15th Street) reports to the President of the University, who supervises the Press on behalf of the 11 state universities. The statewide Council of Presidents is the governing board for the Press.

An advisory board, consisting of representatives from each of the 11 state universities, determines whether manuscripts submitted to it reflect appropriate academic, scholarly, and programmatic standards of the Press.

The Press publishes scholarly works of intellectual distinction and significance, books that contribute to improving the quality of higher education in Florida, and books of general and regional interest and usefulness to the people of Florida, reflecting their rich historical, cultural, and intellectual heritage and resources. The Press publishes works in the following fields: the Caribbean and Latin America; the Middle East; North American archaeology, American history, and culture; Native Americans; literary theory; medieval studies; architecture; ethnicity; natural history; conservation biology; the fine arts; and Floridiana.

Submit manuscripts to:
The Editor-in-Chief,
University Press of Florida,
15 NW 15th Street,
Gainesville, FL 32611.

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