COMMUNITY ARCHIVAL COLLECTION
Community Archival Collection
WORK has begun on the mammoth task of inputting information on a special database set up to record the events surrounding the Market Street bombing.
From this weekend a sample CD of the 'Omagh Bomb Community Archival Collection' will be available to the public at Omagh Library headquarters.
Those who browse through it will also be encouraged to submit comments, if they wish, on its contents. Those bereaved by the bombing have also been invited to the library for a private preview of the sample CD.
Ultimately, the database will be open for public scrutiny through a computer terminal in the main hall of the library. Information will also be accessible through the Internet, where everything from prose and poetry, to messages of sympathy and video footage of Royal and international visits will be available.
A website is just one of the facets of the archive. Where possible 'hard copy' of information on the computer will be available for 'technophobes', or those with no information technology training.
The database will contain the names of the victims of the bombing and the local as well as worldwide reaction to it, and will be input in such a way that when one area of study is called up on screen all other related material to that subject will also be listed in an easy to access menu.
At the other end of the scale, the library staff are keen to hear from anyone with personal information they would like recorded on the archive, be it a letter from relatives or friends in another country, self written poetry or prose, photographs or snippets and memorabilia with a connection to the atrocity. A member of staff at the library said they were now collecting material, which could either be deposited in the memorial archive for public use, or copied and returned to the owners.
The archive will be of interest to academics, as well as researchers and the ordinary man on the street.
A battery of equipment, costing tens of thousands of pounds, has been set up in Omagh Library headquarters, on which the 'Omagh Bomb Community Archival Collection' will be recorded.
To record the massive store of information, the library, through funding from the Department of Education, has bought three scanners (two for A4 sized material and one for A3, two computer terminals, printers and CD writers, and over the next few months staff will be compiling a bank of compatible CDs.
In some ways the archive will serve as a technological memorial to those who died in the bombing, as well as a testament to those who were injured or closest to the explosion, and will ensure that those who died will not be forgotten.
The BBC and RTE broadcasting companies have agreed to provide help and material for the archive, but library staff are keen that 'unadorned stories' with a human interest angle are also recorded.
To that end, anyone who has personal memories or accounts of the bombing or an associated story, can also have it recorded.
While it may never be possible to record every last message of sympathy or E-mail that was received, the aim of the archive is to provide an easily accessible general overview of the mountain of good wishes and healing messages, as well as the more painful aspects of the bombing.
Anyone who has memorabilia or original material that they would like recorded should contact staff at the library.
WORK has begun on the mammoth task of inputting information on a special database set up to record the events surrounding the Market Street bombing.
From this weekend a sample CD of the 'Omagh Bomb Community Archival Collection' will be available to the public at Omagh Library headquarters.
Those who browse through it will also be encouraged to submit comments, if they wish, on its contents. Those bereaved by the bombing have also been invited to the library for a private preview of the sample CD.
Ultimately, the database will be open for public scrutiny through a computer terminal in the main hall of the library. Information will also be accessible through the Internet, where everything from prose and poetry, to messages of sympathy and video footage of Royal and international visits will be available.
A website is just one of the facets of the archive. Where possible 'hard copy' of information on the computer will be available for 'technophobes', or those with no information technology training.
The database will contain the names of the victims of the bombing and the local as well as worldwide reaction to it, and will be input in such a way that when one area of study is called up on screen all other related material to that subject will also be listed in an easy to access menu.
At the other end of the scale, the library staff are keen to hear from anyone with personal information they would like recorded on the archive, be it a letter from relatives or friends in another country, self written poetry or prose, photographs or snippets and memorabilia with a connection to the atrocity. A member of staff at the library said they were now collecting material, which could either be deposited in the memorial archive for public use, or copied and returned to the owners.
The archive will be of interest to academics, as well as researchers and the ordinary man on the street.
A battery of equipment, costing tens of thousands of pounds, has been set up in Omagh Library headquarters, on which the 'Omagh Bomb Community Archival Collection' will be recorded.
To record the massive store of information, the library, through funding from the Department of Education, has bought three scanners (two for A4 sized material and one for A3, two computer terminals, printers and CD writers, and over the next few months staff will be compiling a bank of compatible CDs.
In some ways the archive will serve as a technological memorial to those who died in the bombing, as well as a testament to those who were injured or closest to the explosion, and will ensure that those who died will not be forgotten.
The BBC and RTE broadcasting companies have agreed to provide help and material for the archive, but library staff are keen that 'unadorned stories' with a human interest angle are also recorded.
To that end, anyone who has personal memories or accounts of the bombing or an associated story, can also have it recorded.
While it may never be possible to record every last message of sympathy or E-mail that was received, the aim of the archive is to provide an easily accessible general overview of the mountain of good wishes and healing messages, as well as the more painful aspects of the bombing.
Anyone who has memorabilia or original material that they would like recorded should contact staff at the library.
Further Information
Publisher: TYRONE CONSTITUTION
Ref: TC/0704
Published Date: 12-Aug-99
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