One of the first genealogy events that will be held in the new Allen County Public Library will be the Annual Conference of the Indiana Genealogical Society on April 27th and 28th.
Amy Johnson Crow, CG will be the featured speaker. There will be a special induction ceremony for charter members of the Society of Civil War Families of Indiana (SCWFI), and the library will have extended hours for research on Friday, April 27 (6 pm to midnight) for conference attendees. Online registration is available now.
I'm very pleased to say that I will be one of the inductees of the SCWFI with two ancestors having served in the Civil War from Indiana (also have one from Ohio). I'll be posting their biographies soon.
Showing posts with label ACPL Library. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ACPL Library. Show all posts
Sunday, January 28, 2007
More on the Allen County Public Library
Just wanted to add a few things I didn't mention yesterday. The ACPL now has an underground parking garage and two additional parking lots just across the street. Parking is free for those with an ACPL library card and $1.00 an hour with a $7.00 per day maximum for everyone else.
The rare books collection is housed in Lower Level 1, which is the same level as the parking garage. Items will be displayed in glass cases in a room with controlled levels of light, temperature and humidity. The room has its own heating, cooling and ventilation system. Obviously, with over 6,000 items in the collection not everything will be displayed at the same time.
The auditorium, which can seat 250, is located below the rare books collection in Lower Level 2. There are several meeting rooms that can accommodate from 6 to 500 people. A Gallery and television studios used by Access Fort Wayne are on the main level.
Oh, and the library now has free WiFi Wireless access. You can take your laptop, hook into their network and have use of the library resources, including Ancestry and HeritageQuest, without having to use their computers.
I'm sure there are some other things I've left out, but you get the idea. It's going to be an awesome resource. Can you tell I'm excited!
The rare books collection is housed in Lower Level 1, which is the same level as the parking garage. Items will be displayed in glass cases in a room with controlled levels of light, temperature and humidity. The room has its own heating, cooling and ventilation system. Obviously, with over 6,000 items in the collection not everything will be displayed at the same time.
The auditorium, which can seat 250, is located below the rare books collection in Lower Level 2. There are several meeting rooms that can accommodate from 6 to 500 people. A Gallery and television studios used by Access Fort Wayne are on the main level.
Oh, and the library now has free WiFi Wireless access. You can take your laptop, hook into their network and have use of the library resources, including Ancestry and HeritageQuest, without having to use their computers.
I'm sure there are some other things I've left out, but you get the idea. It's going to be an awesome resource. Can you tell I'm excited!
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Allen County Public Library Grand Opening
This afternoon I attended the ceremonies for the grand opening of the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne. It's impressive, to say the least. I spoke very briefly with Curt Witcher, the director of the Genealogy Center, and of course he was quite excited. He said there were a few minor things that still needed to be completed but they were about 99% ready for the opening. Below are some pictures I took this afternoon.
Some lucky folks got a sneak peak at the library last Sunday. You can read about that in an article in the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel; they also have some pictures.
The opening ceremony. A few people were on hand.
These scanners allow you to create a digital image of the microfilm, two of them can also scan microfiche. The image can be edited on site. If you load the film wrong and the image is backwards you don't have to reload, the scanner can be set to reverse the image. It can also rotate the image and switch it from a positive to a negative or vice versa. Way cool. Even more cool, you can print the images or write the images to a CD or save them to your thumbdrive (or any USB drive). The email feature is not yet working. I could see using that if you only had a few images. I forgot to ask if they sell the CDs. At this time there is no cost for scanning or printing but, according to the staff member that was giving the demonstration, that may change in the future.
This was taken shortly after the opening ceremony. It is the largest of the patron work areas. It is in the same room with all of the family history books, a small portion of which can be seen on the far wall. The chairs are very comfortable. Two copy machines are available in this room.
This is a huge space. It is where all of the City Directories and oversized books are located. The shelving units move with the push of a button. If someone is in the row the unit won't move. Of course everyone had to see if they worked properly. There are three aisles of shelving units. Each unit is quite wide, probably 20 feet or so.
One of the computer areas. This was about 15 minutes after the opening.
The east entrance from the south side. A city street used to be where the stairs and the ramp are now. The entire area in front of the library has been turned into a plaza. The entrance and the side to the left of it are new. That's where the cafe and bookstore are located. The inside of the building was completely gutted and remodeled. If you've been there before you won't recognize it as the same building, nothing is where it was.
The east entrance from the north side.
Some lucky folks got a sneak peak at the library last Sunday. You can read about that in an article in the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel; they also have some pictures.
The opening ceremony. A few people were on hand.
These scanners allow you to create a digital image of the microfilm, two of them can also scan microfiche. The image can be edited on site. If you load the film wrong and the image is backwards you don't have to reload, the scanner can be set to reverse the image. It can also rotate the image and switch it from a positive to a negative or vice versa. Way cool. Even more cool, you can print the images or write the images to a CD or save them to your thumbdrive (or any USB drive). The email feature is not yet working. I could see using that if you only had a few images. I forgot to ask if they sell the CDs. At this time there is no cost for scanning or printing but, according to the staff member that was giving the demonstration, that may change in the future. 
This was taken shortly after the opening ceremony. It is the largest of the patron work areas. It is in the same room with all of the family history books, a small portion of which can be seen on the far wall. The chairs are very comfortable. Two copy machines are available in this room.
This is a huge space. It is where all of the City Directories and oversized books are located. The shelving units move with the push of a button. If someone is in the row the unit won't move. Of course everyone had to see if they worked properly. There are three aisles of shelving units. Each unit is quite wide, probably 20 feet or so.
One of the computer areas. This was about 15 minutes after the opening.
The east entrance from the south side. A city street used to be where the stairs and the ramp are now. The entire area in front of the library has been turned into a plaza. The entrance and the side to the left of it are new. That's where the cafe and bookstore are located. The inside of the building was completely gutted and remodeled. If you've been there before you won't recognize it as the same building, nothing is where it was. 
The east entrance from the north side.
Aaargh. I got a little frustrated adding these pictures. They kept disappearing on me! Aside from that, it was a GREAT day!!