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THE innovations at Clare County Library _ services continue apace with the ad- vent of their new digitized maps service.

The 1842 Ordnance Sur- vey six-inch Maps of Clare were uploaded onto the li- braries website on Novem- ber 4. Since then the web- site has received more than 1,500 hits with researchers and historians keen to access MODEM. GO RoIOOLo) AAD DONT OLO METI MB Kor search tool.

The maps are the latest addition to the Library’s in- ternationally renowned Ge- nealogy and Local History Service and offer users the chance to take virtual tour of Clare in 1842.

They also provide a focal point for people to access a massive database of the

counties boundary markings and topographical features including over 7,000 pages including town lands, par- ishes, baronies, 7,OOO monu- ments and historical build- ings and 4,000 photographic images.

It provides a fascinating glimpse at the social and demographic makeup of the county in the pre-urbaniza- tion era and links census records with documents concerning land ownership and images from the librar- ies extensive photographic collection.

Clare County Library owns two original copies of the 1842 maps, but due to their fragile condition, the maps are only available for viewing at the Library’s Lo- cal Studies Centre in Ennis so public access to them is limited. In order to get the

maps onto the website’s In- ternet Geographical Infor- mation System (GIS), the library enlisted the services of Rainer Kosbi, a software developer and historical re- searcher whose *“Tracemaps SG” project provided the technical capacity for the maps to be uploaded and cross-referenced across the GIS.

An off-line solution for people who don’t have ac- cess to broadband has also been developed.

Anyone interested in ac- cessing the historical maps can send a blank CD to Clare Library Services who will upload the maps and return the CD with instructions on how to use the semi-offline application.

According to the head of Clare County Library Serv- ices, Noel Crowley the maps

were vital in collating the vast volume of information that has been accruing on the library’s busy website.

‘The whole idea was to get all the information and link it all together and the maps allow us to that.

“It can be mind boggling at times to try and get a com- plete picture of the entire project, it has been a huge undertaking and is an ongo- ing process.”

Such has been the popular- ity of the website that is now the County’s busiest branch. It attracts almost twice as many visitors as the de Valera Library in Ennis and in total has over 1.5 million visitors in total.

The praise for the service, which is the first of its kind in Ireland, has flowed in to the website’s message board from Washington to New

South Wales.

“This is a wonderful thing you are doing. It will be such a help to me as my early relatives and ancestors came from the Kilrush area in County Clare,’ writes Yvonne Murphy from Aus- tralia, while Pat Wood from Washington says: “outstand- ing website. Just discovered it today. Thanks so much for putting it together.”

Meanwhile, the library has also launched a new service allowing users to access the website using their voice.

By scrolling your mouse over the text that you want to read, the ‘Browsealoud’ system will read and speak what you require and help users to navigate the website more easily.

The easy-to-use service 1s free to download from the libraries website.