Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Ancestry In Ontario Libraries

From the Ontario Ministry of Culture press release:
“We have completed negotiations for a two year license for Micromedia ProQuest’s Ancestry Library Edition. Ancestry is a genealogy research tool with data from census, military records, court, land, probate, vital and church records, passenger lists, etc. It covers Canada, the US, UK, and some European countries. The license covers Authorized Users of public libraries (i.e., library cardholders, walk-in patrons while they are on-site and library staff) through any workstation in any library branch. The product is not licensed for remote access“. 
All public libraries that submitted a participation agreement by an April due date should have been up and running by May 1st. Others will be added on a month to month basis. Its free(even though our taxes pay for it).
I tried it out at my local public library yesterday. Some of the search features a little different than the previous subscription. Other than that it’s the same old same old: however, I haven’t found a suitable alternative to ancestry that doesn’t involve wading through dusty moldy records. It is a two year agreement so use it or lose it people!

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