Bookshop

Computer Suite

Stairway

We have a suite of networked computers with 7 (and 1 reserved for the Research Centre Assistant) in the downstairs Computer Suite.

3 are specifically used for Ancestry Library Edition at a cost of £1 per hour with bookings accepted only if the 3 are already in use. .

The Internet is available for Family History Research whenever the Centre is open using our Broadband connection. If you have 'computing' questions our experts are on hand on Tuesday evenings to answer them. Help with using the computers is also usually available on 2nd Sunday afternoons when the Centre is open.

You can use any of the computers to look at a a wide range of data CDs as well as the the 1881 census and the Vital Records listings for the British Isles, North America, and Western Europe (on hard disk - much faster than CD-ROM).

Other resources on CD include the:

• 1851 census for Norfolk, Warwickshire and Devon, 
• the Vital Records for Australia
• Pigots directory for Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.

We run one-day Workshops on topics relevant to Family Historians. Evening Seminars and Surgeries (in the summer) are run sometimes.

All the computers are PCs which meet the minimum specification to run the software for the LDS CDs, such as the 1881 Census index:

• 486DX2-66 processor or better
• 16 Mbytes of memory
• Microsoft Windows 98 or Windows NT
  

Four of the computers downstairs are Pentiums or better and all have more than 24 Mbytes of memory to speed your research.

The computers are networked so that they can share a laser printer and use the Internet. A large 40Gbyte disk is available on one computer and shared over the network. One computer also has the use of a HP 3200C scanner (parallel port) to scan images and for optical character recognition. 

There is no charge for using the computers or the internet but we do charge for printouts (30 pence/page), and for 3½ inch diskettes (£1 each). Please note that you will not normally be allowed to use your own diskettes on our system.

Donations of equipment are particularly welcome. Items of particular interest are: Pentium computers (whether working or not); memory of 8 Mbytes or more; hard disk drives over 1 Mbyte (though a 40 Gbyte drive or bigger would be nice!); sheet feed or A3 scanners, an A3 printer. Please contact if you can help.