General News
6 November, 2023
Records bust museum history database
COMPUTER software at Wedderburn’s historical records museum has been rewritten researchers after broke its 99,999 record capacity. Secretary Alan Mulraney allowed for a five-digit record number when writing the original program in 2016. “A few...
COMPUTER software at Wedderburn’s historical records museum has been rewritten researchers after broke its 99,999 record capacity.
Secretary Alan Mulraney allowed for a five-digit record number when writing the original program in 2016.
“A few weeks ago I had to upgrade the software to allow for a six-digit record number so that president Darryl Arnott and myself could download ‘work from home’ data into the system, which tipped the scales at 100,157 records,” he said.
Darryl and Alan, plus a few helpers along the way, work from home averaging around 300-400 digitised records each week.
The database now houses records for 2500 local families, all known honour boards in the district, rate book entries going back to the 1860s, and a vast collection of newspapers.
The Wedderburn Express newspaper has been digititised from its start in 1888 until publication ceased in 1996. The paper is now being indexed with the names of people in every article on every page.
Darryl started from 1996 and has worked back to 1957 and Alan started from 1888 and has currently reached 1917.
“With the provision of a special editable edition supplied by Chris Earl, relevant articles from the Loddon Herald have been indexed and included in the database from the very first edition - today’s news is tomorrow’s history,” Alan said.
“Darryl is also working on the now defunct Loddon Times.
“And it doesn’t stop there – newspaper sports results are also included for every type of sport along with photographs of every gravestone in every cemetery within the Loddon Shire, class photographs of school children at the various schools in the region going back to the early 1900s, gold prospecting records plus a whole lot more.”
The Wedderburn newsletter is also being catalogued on the museum’s expanded capacity database. “Had I been asked if the system would ever need to be modified to accept seven-digit records, I would have said not in my lifetime - but not now,” Alan said.