About
This digital library was built in the Spring 2026 semester by students in LIS 5472 Digital Libraries class at Florida State University. For this project, we selected the topic of the library. We had multiple deliverables throughout the semester, culminating in the build out of this site. The sections below were part of our project proposal.
Mission
Rooted in Florida: A Repository of Medicinal Plants aims to serve users interested in medicinal plants native to Florida and their uses by providing users with an accessible collection of these unique and beneficial plants. The collection seeks to enable users to identify, grow, and use Florida’s medicinal plants.
Goals
To fulfill our mission, Rooted in Florida has set these specific goals:
- To create a high metadata standard, enabling users to search for medicinal plants with collection by name, color, hardiness region, and use.
- To acquire high quality digitalized images of items in the collections to assist users with the identification of Florida’s native medicinal plants.
- To catalogue the collection in a manner that enables users to use and grow native medicinal plants in Florida.
- To curate the collection in a manner that aids users in finding medicinal plants for specific ailments (or meets their needs).
Target User Groups
The Rooted in Florida digital library will be catered to those interested in plants that are both native to Florida and have medicinal properties. Due to the emphasis on the plants’ medicinal properties and location, our target audience is primarily adults with an interest in plants as a hobby or professionally. This digital library will allow users to research medicinal benefits of the plants’ use, as well as other physical properties and identifying information. For example, interested parties may be medical practitioners, nature walkers, or those interested out of personal curiosity. This digital library will be accessible to anyone with simple Web browsing skills.
Team Members
Caitlin Woodington
Project Manager
Caitlin Woodington is in her penultimate semester of FSU’s MSI program and will graduate in July 2026. Caitlin is passionate about the role public libraries play within communities, with a special interest in librarianship in rural areas and youth and children services. Caitlin recently began working as a library assistant in her local public library. Caitlin’s longtime goal is to become a librarian in a public library setting.
Gabriela Ruiz
Collection Developer
Gaby is in her penultimate semester of FSU’s MSI program and will graduate in July 2026 with her MSI and a certificate in Information Architecture. Gaby is highly passionate about academic support and strives to work as an academic librarian for under-resourced communities. She currently works as an academic writting/communications tutor at a public college. In her spare time, she often reads and plays videogames.
Jordan Davis
Metadata Organization
Jordan is a first year MSI student from Land O Lakes, FL. She’s interested in Cataloging and Reference services and will be graduating with a user services certificate. In her spare time she hosts movie nights with friends, plays violin, and reads. She’s currently working as a Public Services Assistant at a University Library.
Rene Meizoso
Usability Analyst & Interface Designer
Rene Meizoso holds a computer science degree and is currently working in medical library at the front services desk. He is focused on helping users access information and solve problems efficiently. He anticipates graduating from FSU in August 2026.
Karen Greene
Usability Analyst & Interface Designer
Karen Greene has been a Legal Reference Librarian since August 2024. She had a JD degree and a Master of Environmental and Land Use Law degree when she started as a Reference Librarian, but needs to obtain her library degree in order to continue in this field. The semester in which she worked on this project was her penultimate semester in the MSI program at FSU. She had prior experience building WordPress websites and was excited to apply that experience to help build the structure of this website. She anticipates graduating from FSU in August 2026.