TECHNOLOGY UPGRADES CONTINUE

Wireless Access Available to Researchers

Third Generation Web Site Includes Sounds from Cecil’s Past

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Since more and more people use portable computers to do research, the Historical Society is pleased to announce that it now offers wireless connectivity to patrons.  Visitors with laptops equipped with a wireless card are able to connect to the Internet to do family and local history research on the World Wide Web or to access e-mail.  Internal databases, such as PastPerfect and the Cecil Whig Index, as well as our subscription services, are only available on the three hard-wired public access stations and the three internal staff computers, but the entire resources of the web are available to patrons, with appropriately equipped portable computers. 

The Society has also rolled out a third-generation web site, which contains samples of our digital collections.  While this initial undertaking is a work in progress, you will now find a variety of Cecil’s sounds online including oral histories, radio broadcasts that faded from the county’s airwaves decades ago, and audio of 1963 emergency communication traffic when a Pan Am airliner crashed in Elkton.  Too, virtual visitors will find a large collection of online photos and bible and death records.  In the months ahead, look for podcasts, audio-visual presentations, video clips, and a local history and genealogy blog. 

The society, one of the early county organizations in Maryland to establish a presence on the Internet , created its first virtual home on the web in 1996.  Building on that early progress, this technology and IT enhancement is another component of the Society’s current plan to enhance the organization by focusing on collections management initiatives and by offering more programming to members and patrons.

Visit the web site (www.cchistory.org) for details or e-mail us with questions (history@cchistory.org)