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| FALL 2008 | Volume 16 Number 2 |
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Maine Yearbooks Online Update |
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| FALL 2008 | Volume 16 Number 2 |
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Maine Yearbooks Online Update |
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| In this issue: |
In the Fall 2007 issue of the The Olive Tree we shared with you the introduction of the University of Maine’s yearbook digitization project. Known as The Prism, all 104 volumes from 1894 to 1997 are available for you to browse online at: http://library.umaine.edu/yearbooks/. To celebrate completion of the project last spring, we held an open house at which we gave an overview of what can be found between the digital covers. Several attendees inquired about full text searching of the yearbooks. As the volumes are primarily graphic in nature we had found it prohibitively labor intensive to offer full text access. Was there some middle ground we could pursue? |
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our staff suggested that a Senior name index might be a compromise
solution. We set to work creating a pilot page for the Class of 1949,
entering all 794 names into a spreadsheet document. We linked it up to
our yearbooks homepage and put a call out for volunteers. We were
delighted when Brian Bouchard of earlyMaine.org came forward. Brian not
only offered to contribute to entering data for the index, he offered
his considerable programming skills to provide a database front end that
eases the way for volunteer participation. As a result of this
successful partnership volunteers have indexed the Seniors for the years
1894 through 1940 in addition to our original 1949 project. Please see: http://www.earlymaine.org/em_php/yearbookIndex/searchIndex.php to search by name, year or class. But there is more work to be done! If you would like to be a part of this great community project, of interest to genealogists as well as friends and alumni, please contact Brian at: brian@earlyMaine.org. Further details about volunteer participation can be found at: http://library.umaine.edu/yearbooks/Volunteer_earlyMaine.htm. |
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