, Researching an easy way of accessing history

“We had a problem.”

The problem at the Tenterfield Library Services was the copies of the local Tenterfield Star newspapers. At the end of every year, they would have the newspapers bound into a very large book that was difficult to handle, dusty to touch, and slowly deteriorating.

This made things problematic for family history buffs and local history researchers using the newspapers to explore the region’s history.

Then in 2000, the solution seemed to arrive in a grant to have the newspapers digitised.

After much work and years of sending off the newspaper books to be scanned, they were finally available digitally. Stored on a local server, only four people could access the record database at one time. That was until the software became obsolete.

100 years of historical information was at risk of being lost and the Tenterfield Library Service was searching for a new answer.

“We spoke to our LMS providers who recommended UNO. UNO covered the security we were looking for and the ease of access that we considered important and is an excellent fit with our Library Management System, LIBERO,” said Tenterfield Shire Council’s Manager Library Services Jenny Stoker.

Solution found.

Library members and researchers everywhere can access the database anywhere anytime – “the ultimate ease of access solution” says Jenny.

Using UNO, the Tenterfield Star records database is now available on the Tenterfield Public Library website providing anyone in the world easy access to Tenterfield Star Newspaper’s records.

Plus, it operates like “Google”. Simply enter any keyword into the search box and explore the information sorted for you by relevance. The scanned documents are fully text searchable as soon as they are saved.

Two years on Tenterfield Library Services are still benefiting from the database access. Library statistics show that the newspaper database has an average of 200 hits per month, but some months can have up to up to 500 hits.

“Family History researchers love it,” says Jenny. “They say it is so much easier than using the microfilm or trawling through the hard copies.”

The Library has even had two workshops to show interested people how to use the database effectively. The workshop participants were amazed by what they could find out about their family’s history in the Tenterfield area.

Uno Discovery will enhance the User Experience and deliver content your way. Read more about UNO here.

This article was originally published in the NSW Public Libraries Association May 2019 newsletter.

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