COGenBlog

The Special Collections Staff at Penrose Library, Colorado Springs celebrated the 500,000th index entry into the Pikes Peak NewsFinder at a reception on Monday, 8 December 2008. Special Collections volunteer, Melba Mayall, had the honor of entering the index record marking the milestone.

Pikes Peak NewsFinder is one of the largest, free to access, newspaper indexes available on the Internet and has half-a-million citations to local news articles and obituaries for newspapers of the Pikes Peak Region, some dating back to the 1870s.

Indexing the Colorado Springs Gazette is an ongoing project of Special Collections in the 1905 Carnegie Library. Dozens of Pikes Peak Library District staff, members of the Pikes Peak Genealogical Society and other dedicated volunteers have contributed to this online resource over the years.

Newspapers indexed in Pikes Peak NewsFinder include the: Colorado City Iris, Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph, Colorado Springs Gazette, Colorado Springs Sun, Fountain Valley News, Free Press, El Paso County Democrat, Out West, and Security Advertiser. Many of the citations link directly to the full-text of the article. Those not currently linked can be ordered, free of charge, directly from the index.

Thanks to Gordon Gray for sending us this item.

Julie Miller’s monthly column is in the 12 October 2008 edition of the Broomfield Enterprise. The title for October is Historical society libraries hold wealth of resources. The column is about the wide variety of sources that can be found in small historical society libraries.

The September 2008 edition of Denver Public Library’s Western History/Genealogy Newsletter is now available at the DPL Web site.

Some highlights from this issue are:

The newsletter also has links to past issues and numerous calendar events.

The folks at the Western History and Genealogy Department of the Denver Public Library (DPL) announced a new electronic newsletter this week. The newsletter, which will be updated monthly, will cover recent acquisitions and new materials, research resources, donation information, and upcoming events.

You can sign up to automatically receive the newsletter in your email, subscribe in your RSS Reader, or simply visit the Newsletter page on the DPL Web site.

I took a look at the first edition of the newsletter this morning and it is very informative. This is exciting news for the Colorado genealogical community.

You can check out the newsletter by going to Western History/Genealogy News.

Meet Wendel Cox. Wendel is the new face in the Western History and Genealogy Department at the Denver Public Library. He starting work at DPL the beginning of March but it wasn’t until May that I had the opportunity to meet Wendel and learn a little about his background.

Wendel came here from the University of Kentucky where he managed a project to digitize Kentucky newspapers, cira 1900-1910. The project is part of the National Digital Newspaper Program, a national initiative guided by the Library of Congress and funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Before that he taught at Arizona State University and University of Minnesoata Morris.

He has a degree in history from the University of Winnipeg, a doctorate in history from the University of Minnesota, and a MLIS from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Obviously, Wendel is well qualified for his position.

You can’t miss Wendel when he’s working at the Western History and Genealgoy Department desk. He always has a big smile and is cheerfully helping library patrons.

Wendel was born and grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada with one brother. He is presently working on his wife’s genealogy. She has Pennsylvania, English and Slovakian roots. He has found one of her ancestors listed in the English census as a “maker of philosophical and mathematical instruments.” Wendel and his wife have three cats: Othello (16), Little Girl (15), and Pekoe (5).

Welcome to Colorado, Wendel!