The (Fort Wayne) Journal Gazette has an interesting article about the local library. Indeed, visitors from all over the country visit the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne to use its excellent genealogy collection. It is believed to be the second-largest genealogy collection in the United States with more than 350,000 printed volumes and 513,000 items of microfilm and microfiche. According to the Journal Gazette, some patrons are using the library without visiting the library.
I am interested in the statistics offered:
I am interested in the statistics offered:
- The Allen County Public Library provides almost 8,000 titles from its genealogy collection for patrons to browse, view and download to their personal computers for free.
- The genealogy texts are the most popular digital books that the local library offers. More than 1 million digital-text versions of genealogy materials have been downloaded since June 2008.
- The Allen County Public Library web site draws about 1 million visitors a month.
- Currently the most popular download is the “Yorkshire Marriage Registers, West Riding, Vol. 2” from 1914. Internet patrons have downloaded the text more than 3,300 times.
- The five most downloaded genealogy books are related to the British Isles. It appears that many of the people downloading those volumes live in the British Isles and use their computers to access digital volumes on a web server nearly 4,000 miles away.
You can read more about the Allen County Public Library at http://www.werelate.org/wiki/Source:Allen_County_Public_Library and visit the library's web site at http://www.acpl.lib.in.us.
